Advice for a Football Player

Hey all

 

I'm new here and also to gymnastics (apart from middle school sports, where I sucked at them). I found this place through the T-Nation Interview with Coach Sommer while searching for ways to enhance my training

 

I'm 22 years old and started with weight training roughly 1,5 years ago. At 6'2" and weighing 215lbs my personal records in the weight room are:

400lbs Squat

450lbs Deadlift

265lbs Bench Press

205lbs Power Clean

155lbs Military Press

 

I also started playing Football half a year ago (non-professional) and I really love it. We train 3 days a week, I also have 3 seasons per week in the weight room.

 

My goal is to become as good at the Middle Linebacker position as possible. And while my results in the weight room are fine, my speed and agility isn't. My 40yd time is 5,5, so pretty bad. However my Vertical and Broad Jump are as good as those of some of my teammates with a 4,8 time. So I can't just be "naturally slow".

 

I think my lack of speed comes from 2 areas. One is lack of flexibility. Literally every single of my lower body muscles lacks flexibility. The other problem is core strength (or rather the lack of it). My theory is that my lack of core strength causes a breakdown of running form, while the lack of flexibility slows me down (because every muscle has to produce extra force to stretch it's antagonist)

 

Which is were I think gymnastic training would fit quite well and help improve those aspects. I have a really huge work capacity so i think I could fit in 2-3 additional workouts a week.

 

I guess the general consensus would be to start with F1, right? Right now Football practice is Monday/Wednesday/Friday and Weight training Monday/Tuesday/Thursday, with Monday being the heaviest season, any help with programming the workouts around this schedule would be appreciated.

 

Also what parts of F1 should I focus on? What parts will give me the most bang for the buck (or rather time) with my specific needs in mind?

 

Thank you for any advice

 Add a 100# to those lifts and they will pretty good for your size.

 Your vert and broad jump sound promising and would make me want to believe that you just haven't had enough time with the irons and gains are coming.

 If you can squat 400# and DL 450#, your core strength isn't horrible by any means. Now it might suck such as things like Hollow and Arch hold and L-sits but a lot of this is due to your size (long levers) and the fact you haven't trained them for 2-3 years.

 Some really fast sprinters and football players aren't really all that flexible. OTOH, it does leave you vulnerable to things like hamstring tears.

 As I posted in the other thread with a guy about WLing, see about doing the gymnastics split during the day before the Football and weight room or before the barbell stuff in the weight room.

 Oh to be 22 again and not need a rest day.

The front lever and side lever progressions in particular will be very good for your core strength. The single-leg squat progressions will be very good for making your legs more limber. The manna and planche mobility will also be good for your legs and hips. 

Thanks guys

 

I'll start with the Front and Side lever progressions then and do the leg mobility stuff and then gradually work the rest into my schedule