Yesterday, I told a story of Mike Piazza. As a high schooler he woke up his Uncle and LA Dodger Manager Tommy Lasorda pre-dawn. Tommy walked bleery eyed down into the basement to see young Piazza taking swings at a heavy bag. Tommy asked the lad what on earth are you doing this for!? Everyone is sleeping.

I told the boys they need to do 25 slow pushups and 25 slow squats daily on their own at home. 5 seconds up 5 seconds down. Plus 1 minute planks sucking their gut into their spine. 5 to 6 x per week.

This is minimum.

When they want to go beyond this, they should do hit positions for 1 minute and wall squats (sit against a wall) for 1 minute. Or until they wish to cry. It burns like hell but is the fastest way to get them to be in proper position. Proper football position is butt down, z in the knees, chest pointed to the sky over their quads. Chin up.

This is not an overly zealous Coach seeking to over achieve. It is a safety issue. When kids stand up which is anyone’s normal untrained behavior. They will typically attempt to “fake” lowness by lowering their upper body. The give away is their butt rises, and thus their head lowers. Increasing the chance of injury significantly.

If being in a squatting position is unnatural to your boy then he will wish to “fake” his lowness. We have a saying “low man wins, high man gets hurt.”. By doing these exercises they can make themselves incrementally improve.

There are a number of other exercises that I can recommend that they can do while watching SpongeBob if they want.(I hate that show!;-)

I did a video and have links to NFL Combine/SPARQ running and foot work. As well as my own video that I did for the team. Its at http://www.elsegundofootball.com/0808 The premise is that the boy learn to self Coach as their biggest battle in football will always be the one between their ears.

We teach not just daily improvement, but micro improvement. That is how much can you improve from drill to drill and play to play even during a play.

Great athletes share similar belief systems and processes to push themselves. In management there is a phrase if you cannot measure it, then you cannot manage it. A great athlete has a number of measurements that they either write down or keep mentally.

For that athlete who cannot win over his opponent. Competing against his opponent is a continual exercise in futility and frustration.

The battle against ones own markers helps break down individually set limitations. Small incremental improvements adds to confidence and therefore better mental states to compete for a better performance.