Listed as the assistant AD and head strength and conditioning coach for LSU football, Tommy Moffitt is a leader in the world of S&C.
His practices and methods are studied and copied over by many.
We will have Moffitt on the livestream soon, but until then, we wanted to get his thoughts on some pertinent issues.
So, starting today, we wanted to publish some q&a.
Enjoy…
AK: With a lot of heart issues in the forefront after Damar Hamlin’s collapse, how dangerous are energy drinks and protein shakes to heart health? And if you could pick one drink that is good for heart health (in relation to fb training)?
TM: To the best of my knowledge, there is no danger in regards to protein drinks and/or protein powders. I am currently unaware of any protein product that considered unhealthy or considered bad for the heart.
As far as energy drinks are concerned, they fall into a category of products that are as benign as a cup of coffee, to some that could possibly contain products, that when consumed and or abused, can raise your blood pressure, heart rate and even cause tachycardia.
99% of the drinks that a person purchases over the counter at the local convenient store or market are safe for a healthy individual. There are however, black label products sold on the street and on the internet that can cause serious issues for someone compromised or not in good health.
AK: Very interested in this: when it comes to high school players and their workouts for football, are they position specific or do you want them all doing the same thing? Also, how important is it for a team to lift together vs using personal trainers?
TM: Young HS players need to develop technique and basic strength first. That’s at least a 2 year process if they are previously untrained going into their freshman year. If a player has a good background as a freshman, you can be a little more aggressive. Having said that, young athletes are not smaller versions of mature adults, they need a developmental phase of training that focuses on fundamentals.
If you have an advanced class of seniors, or a couple of 4-5 star players, you could begin some position specific training during their last year in the program.
The size of the workout group is dependent on the number of coaches that you have and the size of your facility. Especially, when talking about you get players needing technique work and coaching, you need as small of an athlete to coach ratio as you can get. With experienced colligate strength coaches and athletes, the ratio should be over 1:6-8 per group, if you really want to get some good work done. I will finish with this, energy is good for the program, and there is something to be said about having some big groups to get the juices flowing. If you have 5 really good coaches, you can have 35-40 people at once and have a great atmosphere. During bowl prep, when the guys were out of school and only practicing, we would train in really larger groups, 50-60 guys and it was fun. This was easy to do because it was at the end of the season, we were tapering for one game and the emphasis was on peaking the guys so the energy was great and the works really short.
Personal trainers are good when you don’t have a good strength coach or your child is t getting coaches at all.