Coaching Cues from the Summer Weight Room Part 1 — Human Performance Blog · Volt Athletics

As teams gear up for another year of competition, Volt wanted to take a glimpse at summer training insights from coaches across the country. In the first part of this mini-series, Coaching Cues from the Summer Weight Room, we sat down with Coach Mike DeRoehn of Two Rivers High School, WI. After a successful career as the Health and Fitness Coordinator at Two Rivers, DeRoehn is turning the page and will be starting a new position as the Director of Strength and Conditioning at Lakeland University, also in Wisconsin. Before making the transition, Coach DeRoehn shared some final takeaways from his time training athletes at the high school level.

Q: What has strength and conditioning looked like for your sports teams this summer?

MD: We’ve had a great summer with strong participation by a variety of athletes in their respective sports. We offered training four times per week for most athletes. Each session is planned for about one hour. Most of our sessions involve a variety of athletes from different sports training together at the same time. We conduct a unified program (not to be confused with a uniform program where everyone is doing the same thing) because we have mostly multi-sport athletes in a smaller school like ours. Therefore I try to program “athlete-specific” training instead of rigidly “sport specific”. Obviously, I adjust for the nuance of certain sports where appropriate and for individuals as needed. This is a huge benefit of Volt’s movement replacement feature, allowing me to individualize on the fly for athletes who need adjustments. 

I’ve found that using three to four-week blocks are very beneficial for high school athletes. While we obviously have consistency in our main lifts, the programs always have some tweaks in there from block to block. So I’ve found it helps them build confidence and competence in what they’re doing from week to week. In the first week they’re kind of “learning the program”, the second week they’re “practicing the program.” By weeks three and four they’re “training.” As we do this throughout the year, and they learn all the variances of different exercises, tempo, emphasis of the block, and repeating previous cycles, they develop a true understanding of what they’re doing. When I see them helping their fellow students with peer coaching going on, making correct suggestions to clean up the form, and challenging each other, I know we’re making real progress because, ultimately, I want them to take ownership of their training in the long run.

With all of our programs, I primarily select exercises within the fundamental athletic movement patterns (hinge, squat, push/row, or press/pull) in vertical and horizontal vectors while incorporating transverse movements as well. Having large groups at the same time also provides an opportunity to incorporate some contrast training, which obviously benefits the athletes from a power production standpoint, but also helps manage space issues and the flow of the workouts within the room.