By Jon McGovern
http://www.jonmcgovern.com
I remember the key transformation in my wrestling came when I began to wrestle in the Hawkeye Wrestling Club through the years of 1992-1996 with guys like Tom & Terry Brands. Among the many things I learned was the importance of a year round strength training program. The wrestlers who had a solid year round strength training program seemed to have the least likelihood of injury during the season and were the most successful as well. At this point I realized that losing weight wasn’t as beneficial to a wrestler as being lean and sometimes that could include adding muscle. Unfortunately, when I was in high school and college I placed to much emphasis on weight cutting instead of strength training. My best years of wrestling and most enjoyable years where on the international circuit when I was training with the Hawkeye Wrestling Club and at the US Olympic Training Center. It wasn’t because my opponents were any easier, but that I had the ability to enjoy the sport more with a year-round strength training program that allowed me to stay injury free, become much stronger, and still have plenty of energy to train and compete.
Deciding which competition you are peaking for is the key to designing your strength training program. Depending on your age level and skill level, most high school wrestlers are training for the state high school tournament. Your training schedule should work with that date in mind. There are many strength training cycles in the high school wrestling season (hypertrophy, strength, power, and competition, etc) Your weight lifting program should change according to the time of season, age of athlete, strength training needs, location of any existing injury, and knowledge of strength training lifts. While training for high reptitions and/or time may be critical for building muscular endurance it is not the right approach for off-season program.
The off season is a great time of year for building power and strength for the upcoming season. In general your strength training cycle should last about 2-5 weeks, include sets in the 2-5 range, reps in the 5-8 range, intensity at about 85-90% of your maximum output and include rest periods in the 90-160 minutes range. Your power cylce should be around 3-4 weeks, incude sets in the 2-5 range, reps in the 1-5 range at 90-95% of maximum output with rest periods in the 120-240 minutes range. There is no better time to add explosiveness to your wrestling than during the off-season. With that in mind let me describe a few basic principles to help you generate more power in your wrestling performance.
Although any exercise can be performed explosively, the degree of explosiveness depends on the degree of resistance used or that result in high velocity movements. For this reason you should focus on high weight with low sets such as 2-4, and low repetitions such as 1 to 8 in your workout so you can concentrate on heavier weight resistance for around 3-4 weeks during the off-season.
The types of explosive exercises that help improve power output in wrestling include:
Snatch (Squat and power), deadlight, clean (Squat and power), pulls (clean and snatch), jump squats, speed squats, and jerks (push and split). You may involve creativity in you lifts especially if you have an injury to work around, such lifts may include: weighted squat jumps, 1 legged snatches, or 1 arm power cleans. It is essential to perfect form and technique in these lifts to reduce chance of injury. Make sure to have a qualified instructor on hand when performing these techniques.
Ploymetric exercises can also add speed to your wrestling. These exercises should focus on lower repetitions to help promote maximal speed and explosive development. Although the intensity of plyometric exercises is not clearly defined in literature.
Plyometrics should be incorporated into your year round training plan as they simulate acceleration throughout a movement which is often necessary when performing scoring holds in wrestling. Remember that you should not perform to fatigue, but allow for adequate recovery time (this will vary for each individual – generally speaking recovery should be between 60-120 seconds.) Plyometric training should be as sport specific as possible and could include: jump rope, squat jumps, tuck jumps, box jumps, step ups, etc. While a 2000 resident at the US Olympic Training Center US Olympic Coach Bruce Burnett would often have us do a variation of plyometrics footwork drills every day that would help to increase our foot speed during a match. The in-season plyometric exercises can be altered to include higher repetitions to help build power endurance.
Another off-season training option includes resistance bands which are also available as higher resistance and can be incorporated into drilling. I like to incorporate them with a partner rather than a wall so the wrestler learns to shoot through his double leg attacks etc. The stretch bands also offer some of the most sport specific training available because they can be incorporated right into your actual drilling. The use of medicine balls should also be included in your off-season training program as they aid in the development of explosive power as well as core strength power. All medicine ball exercises work the core area either directly or indirectly through incorporating the hips, shoulders, and abdominals. They are great way to start a workout and can be added to your warm-up as you progress your body through fuller range of motions similar to wrestling. Since you may not have training partners available in the summer the more specific your lifting is to your sport the better. If you don’t have anyone to wrestle find a medicine ball and realize that rarely in wrestling are you limited to a bicep curl in your scoring attack. Since the sport involves full range of motion in your attack – the off-season training program can simulate this. Sets and reps for medicine balls should range in 3-4 sets with 6-10 repetitions and allow adequate rest in between each.
While I was an Olympic Training Center Resident Athlete living at the Olympic Training Center in 2000, I noticed the power lifters would keep their lifts within the 20-60 minutes range. When I asked the US Olympic lifters the reason behind this they said the copied the system from the Bulgarian Olympic lifters who were at that time was dominating the sport of power lifting. They stated that the shorter lifts would increase the most growth hormone release and allowed for a greater chance of power building muscle. They would train for short 20-30 minute intervals and stay in an anabolic (muscle building) state during the lift and then eat and recover. Longer lifts did not seem to help them build the power they needed. This type of lifting is ideal cross training during the off-season for the wrestler who needs to add explosiveness and power to his scoring holds. Many people continue to increase both volume and intensity during their lifts as they progress, the proper strenth training program should follow this sound training advice – as the intensity of volume goes up, exercise volume should go down and vice versa.. Please note the development of proper lifting technique and following progressions are essential during the learning and performance of explosive exercises.
As with all strength training programs be sure to consult with a certified strength training professional before embarking on your power building journey. You should avoid trying to build power and speed lifts i.e. (power lifts, plyometrics, medicine ball, etc) at the end of your workout for reasons of fatigue. While few wrestlers have access to every weight training piece of equipment in a gym – knowing what types of lifts will help build you power will give you insight into how to build explosiveness in the off-season. As incredibly logic as it sounds; each individual may utilize different strength training components and make gains. With that in mind make sure to not try to reinvent the wheel, utilize what has worked for successful athletes and incorporate these ideas into your own strength training program. Many athletes go through what Coach Dan Gable used to call a “civilian workout”. They were the ones who just wanted a to-do list for the weight room to check off their list of to-do’s. Have a purpose when you go into the weight room, think of yourself winning a state title or beating a big rival, that will keep you focused and intense in the weight room. Remember to live in the moment and grow in the strength and power this summer!
