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I wanted to inform everyone that I will be presenting at the 1st Annual VinkoFest Seminar in Montreal on October 20th and 21st. (The seminar will take place in the Olympic Stadium Tower - located in the Olympic Park.) This is a bilingual seminar that will feature speakers from all over North America. I will be presenting on the topic of “Strength Training to Enhance Sprinting Speed” on October 20th during the English-speaking portion of the seminar. (You didn’t think I was going to give my seminar in French did ya??) Charles Poliquin, Christian Thibaudeau, Mike Robertson & Eric Cressey will also be presenting on the 20th. If you are interested in learning more about this seminar, CLICK HERE.
Don’t miss out on this great event! I hope to see all of you there!
Joe D.
Did you know that DeFrancosTraining.com has a YouTube page with over 60 video clips on it? And we are constantly adding new training videos every week! If you subscribe to our YouTube page, you will be informed whenever we add new videos! CLICK HERE to go to our page; you will see the word “subscribe” written in an orange box to the right of the video…click on the “subscribe” box. It literally takes one second and it’s totally free! Now you will be able to stay up to date on what we’re doing with our athletes on a daily basis! It’s the next best thing to actually being at our gym!
Q: Mr. DeFranco, I had a question regarding your WS4SB program. I want to add a fourth day to the program but I'm not sure what to do. I have read where you suggest a second lower body day but I've also seen you recommend strongman training. I have been doing your three day program for six weeks now with great results but I want to add a fourth day. Please help me decide what to do.
Ryan
A: Ryan,
I have good news…
I’m currently working on “Westside for Skinny Bastards III - The Final Chapter”. (This is the reason why I haven’t updated my website in 2 weeks; I have been putting in some long hours in order to complete the final chapter of the skinny bastard trilogy!) WS4SB3 will reveal some of the changes that we have made to our program during the past 2 years and it will give suggestions for off-season, pre-season & in-season training…there will even be a Washed-up Meathead template! I think you will find the article very informative; ironically, the new template is a 4-day template, as opposed to the original 3-day template. I think you will be pleased with the information presented in the article.
Q: Hey coach, I have a quick question for you – do you work with a lot of basketball players and if so, do you have them squat? I’m asking because I recently started working with a local high school basketball team and I’m having one hell of a time getting them to squat properly. Most of the kids are very tall & lanky and their bodies just don’t seem like they are made for squatting. Do you ever think that squatting just isn’t worth it? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Matt, CSCS
A:Matt,
Unfortunately, we don’t get as many basketball players as we should get. Basketball is one of those sports that can be played all year long so many basketball players don’t leave themselves any time to incorporate a “training season” into their yearly plan. In my opinion, this is a HUGE mistake; but that is a completely different topic.
Anyway…let’s move onto your question regarding squatting. Box-squatting is the foundation of our lower body strength program so almost every single athlete that walks through our doors learns how to box squat properly. With that being said, I must admit that it is a pain in the ass to get a tall, skinny basketball player to squat properly. BUT…this is what we get paid to do so we gotta do it! Getting a tall, skinny, weak basketball player to squat properly takes a tremendous amount of coaching & patience. You must coach, then coach some more; and then coach some more. Here’s a couple of tips for you…
Have your basketball players box squat instead of free squat. It is much easier to get a basketball player to squat (somewhat) properly onto a box, compared to a free squat.
DON’T start them on a parallel box; there is no shame in having them squat above parallel. I would rather have them squat properly above parallel, as opposed to compromising their form just so they can achieve parallel. As they get better, you can gradually lower the box to parallel.
Keep your coaching cues basic! Squatting is difficult enough for these guys; if you’re telling them a million things to remember while squatting, you are going to screw them up. Here are the 5 main things that I stress when teaching the box squat to taller athletes…
#1 – Head up!
Have the athlete look at a spot on the wall or on the squat rack that is slightly above their eye level. Most basketball players have a habit of always looking down; this is because they are taller than everyone they talk to so they are looking down all day! They must get out of this habit when the bar is on their back!
#2 – Squeeze the bar!
Most people forget about their hands when squatting. If you tell your athletes to squeeze the bar when they squat, it will help their entire body stay tight during the lift.
#3 – Get Wide!
Have your basketball players place their feet wider than shoulder width apart and point their toes slightly outward when squatting. This will shorter their range of motion and open up their hips which will make it easier for them to squat.
#4 – Sit BACK!
Make sure you engrave it in their brain to initiate the movement by pushing their hips back before their knees bend. This will take most of the stress off of their knees and place the load onto the often overlooked hamstrings. The cue I give my athletes is to sit back as if they were going to sit into a chair that was placed a foot behind them.
#5 – Knees out!
Once the athlete pushes his/her hips back as far as possible, he/she must then bend their knees to continue their descent into the squat. But, I never use the term “bend your knees” when box squatting; I use the term “stretch your groin” or “push your knees out”. This cue is extremely important to keep stress off of the athlete’s knees and strengthen their hips. This is also the cue that you will probably have to yell out the most when your basketball players are squatting. This is because taller athletes have a very difficult time preventing their knees from collapsing inward while squatting. Don’t be afraid to scream, “KNEES OUT, KNEES OUT” while you’re athlete is squatting. The more they hear it, the more likely they will become accustomed to doing it!
*Finally, make sure they ease into the box (don’t crash), pause for a second, and then stand up.
Below you will see a video of a young athlete that I am extremely proud of; the athlete that I’m referring to is Shaquille Thomas of Paterson Catholic high school. “Shaq” is the nephew of L.A. Clippers forward, Tim Thomas. Shaq is 15-years-old, but he’s already 6’06” yet he only weighs 160 lbs. When I first met Shaq, he literally couldn’t box squat with his own bodyweight onto a 22” box. (His upper & lower back was rounded, his knees were collapsing inward, his heels were coming off of the ground and he was unable to sit onto the box without crashing onto it.) Needless to say, he needed a lot of work. After only 3 weeks in our program, Shaq box-squatted 135 lbs. for 5 easy reps off of an 18 ½” box. Check it out…
As you can see, his form is getting pretty damn good for a young kid with his body structure. Hopefully this shows you that there is hope for young, skinny, very tall basketball players! The key is to never stop coaching them while they are lifting. You must constantly be in their ear reinforcing the basic coaching cues that I mentioned above; and hopefully they are as coachable as Shaq! (Shaq is very focused on his goal of playing in the NBA and it shows when he’s at the gym; this positive attitude is one of the key reasons that he’s achieved such great results so quickly.)
Get your athletes to master the basics and stay positive!
Joe D.
Q: Joe, could you outline the most popular combine tests for high school
athletes to be tested on for college programs? And please explain the "pro-shuttle" test so i can set it up and practice it…my coaches don't know what it is and they don't use any combine tests in our training ever! Thank you…i learn more from you and your articles than any place. Maxx
Darien, Illinois.
A: Maxx,
I HIGHLY recommend that you get my Combine DVD. It has everything that you need to know regarding the Combine tests. It would be a great investment for both you and your coaches. You can order it by clicking HERE!
Q: Joe D – Keep the youtube videos coming!! They are great!! In one of your newer videos you have a girl sitting onto a soft looking bench and then performing a box jump. Is this harder or easier than a regular box jump?? Either way a 36 inch box jump for a female is quite impressive. Thanks for all the knowledge coach. Ed
A: Ed,
I’m glad you’re enjoying our videos. We enjoy sharing our knowledge and experiences with coaches and athletes throughout the world; the addition of videos on this website, as well as our YouTube page, has definitely helped to expand the scope of this Q&A.
The video that you’re referring to is one of our female college basketball players performing a box jump from a seated position. Jumping from a seated position is harder than performing a regular box jump from a standing position. The reason is because sitting down breaks up the “eccentric-concentric” chain. You see, when you lower your body, it contributes to the raising of your body due to the energy that is stored in your muscles. The faster your muscles stretch (during the lowering), the faster they will contract (during the raising/jumping). When you sit down and pause in between the lowering and raising, it breaks up the “chain” and makes jumping more difficult. The exercise that you’re referring to takes things even a step further. First, let’s check out the video clip…
You will notice that the athlete sits onto a soft hassock before she jumps onto the box. It is much harder to explode off of a soft surface, as opposed to a hard surface. Think about the difference between getting out of a hard chair compared to a soft, comfortable couch; it’s harder to get up from the soft couch, isn’t it? Simply put, that is the theory behind this variation of the box jump. It is a great way to build starting strength & power because of the difficulty of trying to jump while you’re sitting statically on a soft surface!
Hopefully my explanation clears things up as to why we would do this exercise. And yes, 36” for a female athlete is a very impressive jump; she just happens to make it look a lot easier than it is! And in case you’re wondering, we performed this exercise as the main exercise on her dynamic-effort lower body day. We performed 8 jumps with 1 minute rest between jumps and we raised the box by 1” each set.
Just being strong isn’t good enough; our athletes can display their strength quickly!
Joe D.
