Jesse Radil: Training the Non-Football Athlete

Training the Non-Football Athlete

A little background about me, I played college football, I have worked with college football players in the strength and conditioning realms. I have been around football athletes most of my adult life and here a few things I have learned working with the Olympic sports.

              First and foremost, in my programming, there isn’t football workouts, or basketball workouts, or softball workouts. We train movements, that aid in the athletic development of the athlete of that sport. My athletes will still squat, push, pull, hinge, and do all the corrective and mobility drills that will make our athletes strong, faster, and keep them healthy.

              The differences I have seen between football and Olympic sport athletes. Olympic sport athletes are normally smaller groups and not nearly as chaotic, so the athletes tend to ask more questions and see why they are doing certain movements. Most of the football athletes I have had the privilege to work with don’t necessarily care about the why, they just think that if they work hard anything will work. So, both athletes will buy in. Just in different ways.

              Working with Olympic sports also means working with female athletes and that leads to them thinking that hard training will make them look like bodybuilders. I have been training consistently for the last 10 years, if that were the case I would have capped delts and lats that prevent me from waling through doors. You will need to show that training will not make them manly, but will make them better athletes.

              Lastly, people think because they aren’t working with football players that they can’t push their athletes. WRONG! Athletes want to be pushed, and the need to be challenged. The best way to grow is to make someone uncomfortable. If you let your athletes come in and just sleepwalk through a training session you are wasting your time and theirs. Bring energy, demand the best they can give you. Football is not the only sport that can have great weight room culture!

--Jesse Radil, CSCS