Drills for improving Athleticism

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Permalink Reply by LeCharles Bentley on March 22, 2010 at 12:12am

There are a lot of drills that can enhance performance but the biggest factor in performance enhancement is body composition. What's your weight? Body fat? height?

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Permalink Reply by Troy Thompson on March 22, 2010 at 9:17am

I am 6'1" about 280-285lbs depending on the day. I am not sure about my body composition, although I am pretty strong, my max squat has been 535lbs (March of my senior year in hs), the most I have done lately is 4 reps of 495lbs on my last set, my max bench is 325lbs. I do remember having my body fat checked my junior year in hs and it was 20% at the time, but a lot has changed since then.

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Permalink Reply by Matthew Graham on March 22, 2010 at 3:53pm

Over the last month or so, I've actually been training with a couple of the receivers from my team, doing suicides, cone runs, general jogging or anything along those lines. Granted, they are considerably quicker then me on anything we do but thats just driving me to go harder (also good to have real tough competition). It also means when pre season starts up you should be performing on a level above the rest of your lineman (once again, this is my plan to start at center)

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Permalink Reply by Casey Guild on March 22, 2010 at 4:38pm

Hi Troy,
I'm gonna guess that you are at about 30% body fat right now. That is not a knock, I am just speaking from experince. The most important thing for you to do now is concentrate on you fitness. You need to nip the weight gain in the bud. Very few guys can carry that kind of weight on a 6'1" frame and still be athletic (Warren Sapp, Jerry Ball etc) you notice both those guys were pro bowlers. I am also 6'1" and had a pretty good small college career (NAIA all american 2 years). I found my best playing weight was between 255 and 260, I had ballooned to 290 my sophmore year and it really effected my play. At the D-III level you dont need to be massive to be a great player. I was able to loose weight and really impove my agility by just playing basketball every day in the off season. If your school was anything like mine I'm sure you will be able to find a game. Obviously continue your weight room work and your position specific drills but basketball is fun and great exersise. Play full court games and concentrate on your defense. The footwork needed to play good D in basketball is very similar to your pass-blocking tech. Running staidum steps is good for fitness and explosion (run blocking). Instead of driving try riding a bike. You would be suprised at what riding a bike can do for your leg strength. Don't be obsessed with body weight. Talk to your coach, team trainer or doctor about the ideal weight for you to play at. You will have these resources around you might as well use them and they should be able to help. I hope you are able to pull something from this that helps. Best of luck next season.

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Permalink Reply by Troy Thompson on March 22, 2010 at 5:13pm

Hey don't worry I don't take it as a knock, I can take constructive criticism. But thanks for the help my goal is to get down to around 260 because then I could play all 5 spots on the line, or at least have a better chance to play all of them.

Casey Guild said:

Hi Troy,
I'm gonna guess that you are at about 30% body fat right now. That is not a knock, I am just speaking from experince. The most important thing for you to do now is concentrate on you fitness. You need to nip the weight gain in the bud. Very few guys can carry that kind of weight on a 6'1" frame and still be athletic (Warren Sapp, Jerry Ball etc) you notice both those guys were pro bowlers. I am also 6'1" and had a pretty good small college career (NAIA all american 2 years). I found my best playing weight was between 255 and 260, I had ballooned to 290 my sophmore year and it really effected my play. At the D-III level you dont need to be massive to be a great player. I was able to loose weight and really impove my agility by just playing basketball every day in the off season. If your school was anything like mine I'm sure you will be able to find a game. Obviously continue your weight room work and your position specific drills but basketball is fun and great exersise. Play full court games and concentrate on your defense. The footwork needed to play good D in basketball is very similar to your pass-blocking tech. Running staidum steps is good for fitness and explosion (run blocking). Instead of driving try riding a bike. You would be suprised at what riding a bike can do for your leg strength. Don't be obsessed with body weight. Talk to your coach, team trainer or doctor about the ideal weight for you to play at. You will have these resources around you might as well use them and they should be able to help. I hope you are able to pull something from this that helps. Best of luck next season.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Rodeno on March 23, 2010 at 3:24pm

Troy,

Also remember man that to hit that weight you need to eat right as well (I'm sure you know this but it seems as if many big men forget about this these days). The summer before my senior year of college I was 330 lbs (at 6'4"). We had a ball busting summer workout, but the year before I thought I could just east what I wanted. Well with a good diet that senior summer I dropped down to 290 (before I was injured) and was so much more explosive than I had been before my summer year of high school (also injured before the season haha). I'm sure a lot of guys here know how difficult it is to drop weight and maintain. One thing that helped me was eating five meals a day each around 500 calories. I found that at my starting weight I need 3800 calories a day to maintain and I was probably eating around 400-4200. I cut my diet down to 2500. I introduce more veggies, fruits and whole grains (stuff I normally refused to eat). If you would like to view a general diet plan of what I did, and I am now doing (gained some weight back!) please feel free to shoot me a message.

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Permalink Reply by Caleb on April 13, 2010 at 4:31pm

Peter,
I am 6'2 and was 320 and have dropped to 271 since January. I am playing center and guard at a college in Kansas, and would like to know your diet plan if at all possible. Thanks any help will be greatly appreciated.

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