Getting Prom Ready
Coaching is a skill as well as an art. There is no doubt that some coaches are better than others. Part of being a great coach is not only teaching, but listening. John Madden said, “Coaches have to watch for what they don’t want to see and listen to what they don’t want to hear.”
Doug Scott is the Head Strength Coach at the Pingry School in New Jersey. Doug makes it a point to watch and listen to his athletes. Doug explains how he learned to get what he wanted by giving his athletes what they wanted.
Prom Queen Workout
As a coach one of the goals is for the athletes to integrate training into their lives. Sometimes that means thinking of strength training outside of the athletic realm of “in season” and “off season” workouts.
About five years ago, during the month of April, I noticed that a majority of the junior and senior female athletes were not visiting the weight room as often as they were a month earlier. Opting instead to visit the local health club for various exercise classes or hitting the trails for extended running workouts. Curious, I asked one of the girls why nobody was working out? Her replay, was “Coach, its prom season… we don’t need strength.” Knowing that a month layoff from productive strength training would lead to a loss of strength we developed the “Prom Queen Workout” for the female athletes.
Getting a Pendulum Grip on things at the Pingry School
This change of pace workout takes place during the month leading up to the prom. All we do is take our standard strength exercises and add some cardiovascular intervals (running, biking, rope climbing, punching bag, or jump rope) between strength sets. This year the girls asked to do more upper back exercises since many of their dresses revealed this area.
Prom Queen Workout
Neck Extension x 15 reps
Seated Shrugs x 15 reps
2 min cardio interval
Seated Row x 15 reps
Chest press x 15 reps
2 min cardio interval
Biceps Curl x 15 reps
Gripper x 15 reps
Leg press 50 reps
2 min cardio interval
Abdominals of choice
After their “big night” we returned to our more traditional strength workout, but this change of pace workout kept them focused and training hard during this social time of year. The bottom line is that coaches sometimes need to listen to their athletes and adapt their programs and Get their athletes Strong for any situation, even the Senior Prom.
Pendulum 5 Way Neck Machines at the Pingry School