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Strength and Conditioning for Incoming College Freshman Student Athletes

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    Strength and Conditioning for Incoming College Freshman Student Athletes

    Strength and Conditioning for Incoming College Freshman Student Athletes

    http://diycollegerankings.com/streng...hletes-2/8402/

    By: Michelle Kretzschmar

    If you read any books on college athletic recruiting, you’ll come across a section that discusses the biggest surprises to new college athletes coming from high school. I can’t think of a single one that doesn’t mention the dramatically harder strength and conditioning programs. In fact, I’m willing to bet it would come in first by a wide margin over any other freshman surprises.

    “Student-athletes we interviewed overwhelmingly reported that one of the hardest adjustments they had to make was in the level of physical endurance and fitness they were expected to meet to perform at the college level.” From Win a Sports Scholarship

    How can student-athletes better prepare for the transition from high school to college? They should contact coaches (sport and strength) and understand the demands that are going to be placed on them when they arrive on campus. In addition, following the summer training program closely and preparing for the team’s fitness test will allow the athlete to be ready for training. From The Student Athletes Guide to Getting Recruited

    What common physical problems do you tend to see in freshman student-athletes? Most entering freshmen do not understand the increase in training load from high school to college. From The Student Athletes Guide to Getting Recruited

    Athletically, the biggest challenge for incoming freshmen are adjusting to the speed and physicality of play and maintaining a consistent high level of performance. From Put Me In, Coach: A Parent’s Guide to Winning the Game of College Recruiting

    And it’s not just the increased training load. In college, strength and conditioning programs are usually done on the athlete’s own time so it doesn’t count towards allowed practice hours. Theoretically, players are not required to do it. You could be cynical and say the coaches know who does the work outs and who doesn’t and decides playing time accordingly. Or you could say the coach sees who is in shape at the start of the season and makes the same decision.

    In any case, since you’ll be expected to do the workouts on your own once you’re in college, between attending classes and going to practices, why wouldn’t you start preparing by doing workouts in the summer on your own? You might think, “hey, this is my last chance to relax and enjoy myself.” So you would rather develop a workout habit at the same time you’re adjusting to college academics and starting over on the team totem pole?

    Ambitious, dumb, or lazy-you decide. Or rather, your coach will.

    If your college coach didn’t give you a summer workout schedule, ask for one. If they don’t have one, find one on the internet. It’s not hard. The University of Nebraska has a 22 page baseball summer workout guide that illustrates the exercises. The Softball sample workout includes links to videos. Principia College has their 22 week Softball strength and conditioning workout program with trainers’ comments for downloading. The Baseball team has a specific summer workout with videos on the website for all three phases.

    The following links are to forums and posts on what freshman student athletes face, including strength and conditioning programs, as they start off the school year.

    ◾ High School Baseball Web College Baseball Workouts
    ◾ College Confidential Athletic Recruits First Weeks for Freshman Scholar-Athletes
    ◾ Discuss Fast Pitch Softball Adjusting to College Life
    ◾ What NCSA Commits are Saying About College Life
    ◾ The “Off-Season” is Anything But

    #2
    First Weeks for Freshman Scholar-Athletes - http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/...t=conditioning

    The “Off-Season” is Anything But… - http://www.ncsasports.org/blog/2009/...-anything-but/

    Comment


      #3
      BTDT, thank you for providing all of this helpful and of course very sobering information. You are always excellent in the sobering department.

      Nothing new here. Parents of college players at all levels have sent out the warning about how fit you need to be when you appear for preseason for years here. But hey, a few thousand refresher courses never hurts, and it is comforting to know we can always count on you.

      Comment


        #4
        Perspective's identity is finally revealed! His name is Dan Barker.

        http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kristin...E35pQ.facebook

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
          BTDT, thank you for providing all of this helpful and of course very sobering information. You are always excellent in the sobering department.

          Nothing new here. Parents of college players at all levels have sent out the warning about how fit you need to be when you appear for preseason for years here. But hey, a few thousand refresher courses never hurts, and it is comforting to know we can always count on you.
          Guess I don't see the point of this post. Does everyone actually know this stuff so there is never a need to learn or discuss any topic here?

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
            Guess I don't see the point of this post. Does everyone actually know this stuff so there is never a need to learn or discuss any topic here?
            There's no point to any of Perspective's posts, other than to vent his irrational poisonous rage.

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
              Guess I don't see the point of this post. Does everyone actually know this stuff so there is never a need to learn or discuss any topic here?
              Everyone does not know - or maybe just everyone who reads these posts knows. My kid was one of maybe a third of the freshman who were well prepared for the level of fitness expected - took the others a few weeks to catch up and many did not see the field the whole season. They all received detailed work out regimen from trainer.

              Comment


                #8
                I know 2 players, both entering their sophomore years, one male, one female that worked out all summer with a trainer and went into the season unable to pass the fitness tests partly because the trainer focused on the wrong things. In the case of the male, he looked like an Adonis at the end of the summer, but his aerobic fitness stunk. Interesting enough, the trainer had a soccer background. Maybe that explains why his soccer career didn't go far. Way too much time spent on anaerobic fitness.

                Comment


                  #9
                  My son's D3 coach was very specific about what my son needed to work on entering college. He worked a trainer some of the time to target those specific issues but it was plenty of time on his own doing those exercises as well as general fitness, running, etc. He said two freshmen came in very unprepared - one was able to ramp it up fast enough and recover. The other, who maybe was on the fringe anyway, never saw any PT and has subsequently dropped off the team for next year.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                    Guess I don't see the point of this post. Does everyone actually know this stuff so there is never a need to learn or discuss any topic here?
                    The point is that you post continuously about the same stuff. And you are just trying to add to your theses about how hard it all is, how much true dedication it takes that no one can fathom but you, how truly, incredibly special a real athlete is and we all can assume we don't have that, and so we should save our money and go to a mediocre school to save even more money, and just come to terms with how pedestrian we all are, etc, etc. Does that about cover it?

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                      The point is that you post continuously about the same stuff. And you are just trying to add to your theses about how hard it all is, how much true dedication it takes that no one can fathom but you, how truly, incredibly special a real athlete is and we all can assume we don't have that, and so we should save our money and go to a mediocre school to save even more money, and just come to terms with how pedestrian we all are, etc, etc. Does that about cover it?
                      I am neither Perspective or BTDT but you my friend are a complete idiot who is about to take a thread that could be helpful to some down the tubes with your rants about some **** that has nothing to do with the original post. Maybe you should go away! Please!!!!

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                        I am neither Perspective or BTDT but you my friend are a complete idiot who is about to take a thread that could be helpful to some down the tubes with your rants about some **** that has nothing to do with the original post. Maybe you should go away! Please!!!!
                        Sure. Carry on. Can't wait to see how the thread develops.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                          My son's D3 coach was very specific about what my son needed to work on entering college. He worked a trainer some of the time to target those specific issues but it was plenty of time on his own doing those exercises as well as general fitness, running, etc. He said two freshmen came in very unprepared - one was able to ramp it up fast enough and recover. The other, who maybe was on the fringe anyway, never saw any PT and has subsequently dropped off the team for next year.
                          Thinking back to his U17/18 years, do you remember many of his teammates actually preparing adequately to meet the challenges they were stepping into at the college level? My observation over a couple of children is most of their teammates were hardly ever in what you might call "good" shape or working on their game hard enough to be ready to play in college.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                            Thinking back to his U17/18 years, do you remember many of his teammates actually preparing adequately to meet the challenges they were stepping into at the college level? My observation over a couple of children is most of their teammates were hardly ever in what you might call "good" shape or working on their game hard enough to be ready to play in college.
                            And then what was the fate of those teammates?

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                              Thinking back to his U17/18 years, do you remember many of his teammates actually preparing adequately to meet the challenges they were stepping into at the college level? My observation over a couple of children is most of their teammates were hardly ever in what you might call "good" shape or working on their game hard enough to be ready to play in college.
                              And just look at who appears out of the blue to keep the "discussion" moving along.

                              Comment

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