Athletic directors have the precarious job of guiding a school’s athletic program through managing schedules, hiring staff, overseeing budgets, and maintaining facilities. Even with all of those spinning plates, AD’s have a duty to maintain a productive, helpful environment for their athletes.
The weight room is a great example of an athletic facility where athletes are encouraged to improve their skills, bond as a team, and build a foundation for success. Here are three questions about the weight room that every athletic director should be able to answer.
1. Does your weight room have enough focus on skill players and speed?
An important skill set often overlooked in the weight room is speed and agility. And we are not talking about just focusing on more sprints. Start incorporating lower body strength exercises like a controlled sled push, power lunges, and various squat jumps into your weekly routines.
For the weight room specifically, a high-speed treadmill is a piece of equipment designed to improve fast-twitch skills of your athletes and curb bad mechanical habits like overstriding and heel striking.
2. How are you tracking and measuring strength success?
Tracking and acknowledging the weight room and training success of your athletes will have endless benefits for your program. It motivates athletes to improve upon their best, compete against teammates to be the best, and easily highlight who are some of the most improved athletes at your school. One common way to track this success is through custom strength record boards.
Weight room record boards can be customized to include any type of lift, exercise, or strength test. Your board can even be made to include speed and agility tests for your skill and impact players. There is also an opportunity to have boards for the various sports that use the weight room.
3. Have you considered outside support to improve your weight room?
While your school may not have the budget to revamp the entire weight room, there are a wide variety of weight training seminars, clinics, and classes that your athletes and coaching staff could truly benefit from. Even on a tight budget, there are incremental additions that could improve performance on the field or court.
Some of those specific activities include bringing in strength / conditioning professionals for limited-run training sessions and plan building, sending coaches to sport-specific clinics, or even finding online classes that could bolster training efficiencies.
At Team Fitz, we have a number of custom products available for the weight room including strength record boards, motivational signs, and even team banners. Interested in a receiving a free custom quote for your facility? Reach out to a Team Fitz representative today!