Resources
Strength & Conditioning
Coach: Jim Huxel
The mission of La Salle High School’s Strength and Conditioning Program is two-fold: 1) enhancement of athletic performance, and 2) reduction of injuries. This will be accomplished through a comprehensive program design and implementation with special attention to developing a balanced athlete that will include linear speed, agility, range of movement, absolute and functional strength, and sport-specific power. Through this, our athletes will reach their highest potential. The year-round strength and conditioning program is based upon 11 performance enhancement principles:
Three-Dimensional Movements
Athletes in sport will move in all three planes of motion. Therefore, they must be trained in all three planes of motion in order to stabilize and produce force. Athletes will train frontal (side to side), sagittal (front to back), and transverse (rotational) in the strength and conditioning program.
Ground-Based Movements
Sports require balance, stabilization, strength, and power. We will train and enhance these qualities by the utilization of ground-based movements, which are simply any movement where the athlete is in contact with the ground. These will increase the preparedness of each athlete in their respective sport.
Rate of Force Development
The ability to produce force is that which sets one athlete apart from the next. This is an essential quality to an individuals' performance in sport. We will emphasize the rate of force development, or explosive training, in all movements, especially through triple extension (ankle, knee, and hip) based movements.
Multi-Joint Exercises
Utilizing multi-joint exercises will provide the greatest training effect for the athlete. These compound movements, such as the squat, power clean, and deadlift will be staples of the program design. Such exercises will utilize the greatest amount of muscle mass and therefore be the foundation of the program.
Posterior Chain Development
The posterior chain consists of the muscles on the backside of the body, namely the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings. These muscles are an essential link to performance enhancement and the reduction of injuries. A strong and powerful posterior chain will increase the ability to generate power and strength in an athlete.
Core Development
Thorough and comprehensive programming of the core will be our goal. The focus will be on training movements and not individual muscles in this area. The core makes up the entire area between the chest and knees. A weak or underdeveloped core will be an ineffective one. A properly trained core will help display strength and power in an athlete.
Injury Reduction
Through constant evaluation by our coaching staff, we will determine areas of concern for each athlete. The evaluation will expose any potential issues in strength, balance, mobility, and flexibility. From here, each athlete may be prescribed individual work to help to reduce the chance of injury.
Speed and Agility
An essential link between the weight room and the playing field is speed and agility training. It is taking what the athlete has developed through training in the weight room and links it to the sport. Speed and agility are crucial components to the training program that will be emphasized.
Energy System Development
Being the best at what you do means not only possessing great strength, power, and speed, but also requires that you have the energy system development (ESD) to sustain a workload during competition and practice. Each athlete will go through comprehensive energy system conditioning specific to the sport.
Nutrition
Another essential element to the strength and conditioning program and cannot be ignored is nutrition. Each athlete should learn what, when, and how to consume food based on training, competition, and on a day-to-day basis.
Student-Athlete Relationships
The strength coach and coaching staff will create positive and success-oriented relationships with the student-athletes. This will be accomplished through various motivational strategies conducive to performance enhancement
