Female Weight Training
The Transition from High School to College
In the past few years I have worked with several high level female High School Athletes that have moved on to play in college in a number of sports including lacrosse, soccer, tennis, and basketball. There has been a re-occurring theme throughout and that has been that the strength and condition programs at some of these schools provide a wide variety of high complex exercises in their weight training program not only the older athletes but to the incoming freshman. These exercises include the power clean, hang clean, the clean n’ jerk, barbell deadlifts…etc. These are just some of the exercises that I have seen personally that were given to me by my clients. These programs were given to them by their College coach as incoming freshman. These are exercises that require tremendous technique and years of coaching.
My observation the last few years is that these programs are getting designed and being executed with over 30 athletes in the weight room with 2 to 3 coaches. There seems not to be enough hands on and one on one coaching going on to help with technique. It is very hard to track the athlete’s progression this way and these types of situations are setting the athlete up for a high risk of injury. For example I knew a female athlete who got a full scholarship at a Division 1 College for soccer and during her freshman year injured her back trying to barbell deadlift weight that was too heavy for her to handle. This happened because of the lack of supervision and poor program designing. This eventually led to surgery and the end of her College Career. I understand injuries happen but this type of planning is no way to ensure the safety of your athletes.
As coaches we need to understand that if an athlete plays at a high level on the court or on the field, does not mean that they’re going to be great lifters with great technique. These are 2 completely different disciplines. You may be asking yourself “Well what can I do about it?” If you are a strength coach at a private facility and you have athletes that are moving on to the next level, you can ask them to give you a copy of their college weight program. When you get the program take a look at it to see if there is anything in the program that your athlete may have to learn before leaving for school. This will give you an opportunity as a coach to take some time with that athlete to teach the lift, so that when they leave for school they have an understanding of how to execute that lift. This is very important so it does not come as shock to them when they get to school. Also having a freshman that can work the weight room and perform exercises with good technique really looks good and may get them noticed even more.
-Coach Mike
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