Question: What are some of the more recent trends in strength training or conditioning that have filtered down to the high school level? Answer: This topic happens to be one of my passions beside athletic training. I have been fortunate to be a certified strength and conditioning coach as well as an athletic trainer, so I have enjoyed designing sport-specific strength and conditioning programs for athletes for more than 20 years. When designing programs for athletic teams, it has always been extremely beneficial to look at what college teams are doing strength and conditioning wise. At the college level, athletic programs often can afford to hire full-time strength coaches for their weight rooms, and in larger Division I schools, strength coaches for each team! Most of these coaches are NSCA, NASM, or ACSM certified, full-time, and on top of the leading strength and conditioning techniques relevant to each sport. The issue when trying to elevate your high school strength programs is, as usual, staff, time and resources. High schools, at least here in South Jersey generally don’t have full or even part time strength coaches or state-of-the-art facilities. Most of the time it is the specific team or coaches that run the weight room. They do a great job with the resources they have and this is usually over and above all the time they dedicate in coaching their specific sport. A lot of equipment is donated to public schools from gyms and other companies as used equipment. With that being said, many high schools, especially parochial schools, have great weight-training facilities for the high school level. Since the early 1990s I have always asked my athletes who have gone on to play their respective sports at the collegiate level to bring me a copy of their preseason and in-season strength programs. I keep large files on programs for every sport before designing a team’s program. Thankfully, I can get most of what I need at my fingertips now, as almost every college has some access to their sports training programs through the internet. A coach setting up strength and conditioning program can then look at what collegiate athletes in their sports are doing and “scale it back” to fit the goals, time restraints and resources they have at their own high school. This works great most of the time. However, the trend of looking to outside sources for sport specific training has becoming increasingly popular for athletes and teams that can afford it. Teams often raise money or get a discounted price from a gym or training facility that has the qualified staff to deliver sport-specific training in the offseason. The advantages athletes training at these facilities have are they can get much more comprehensive preseason training, have access to advanced equipment, get more one-on-one attention in their training and performance gains, as well as the benefits of training in a new environment. Possible pitfalls may include the possibility of an outside facility having unqualified trainers trying to implement programs they are not qualified to do, programs not meshing with the school’s program goals, and no communication with the coach of the athletes they are training. In a perfect world, athletes can get this more comprehensive training in a great facility with a highly qualified staff and have great communication and collaboration between the high school coaches and the outside facility’s trainers. Of course, this is not always the case. I can say, however, that there are a few clubs in our area that offer this type of training that include but not limited to: Power and Olympic lifts, plyometics, core training, functional training, dynamic flexibility, team training, speed and agility training, cross fit, kettlebell and TRX to name a few. Having developed and run a speed and agility camp for youth age, high school, and collegiate athletes at Mainland in the summers for about five years, I can attest to the tremendous gains in both power and performance an athlete can get from this type of personalized or small group settings before and after their high school seasons. Including these training techniques in your sport specific training programs is no longer considered state-of-the-art training but really is more the “norm” for most sports nowadays. Whether it is at the high school or an outside facility, all of the facets should be included in your programs if you are to keep up with the other teams! Have a question for “Ask the Trainer”? Email Glory Days Magazine publisher Dave O’Sullivan at sully@acglorydays.com. Pat Dioguardo is the athletic trainer at Mainland Regional High School. He has a bachelor’s degree in athletic training from West Chester University and a Master’s degree from Temple University and has been the trainer for the Mustangs since 1989.