Most football teams train to be bigger and stronger. For this, they use heavy weights in weight training exercises for relatively few repetitions. According to the strength and conditioning coaches, the very heavy weights are needed to stimulate the white fast twitch or explosive fibers in the muscles. This is accurate, but what is overlooked is that only one of the three white fibers in the muscles is involved. More importantly, because of the relatively slow movement when doing exercise with extremely heavy weights, the white fibers begin to act as red (slow twitch) or endurance type fibers. In addition, the other two white fast-twitch fibers are not involved.
For this it is necessary to use relatively light weights with very fast explosive movements and to do plyometrics and speed-strength training. If such training is not done and only heavy weights are used, you will learn slowness together with great strength but not speed and quickness.
There are quite a few examples of very heavy weight training on football teams throughout the country, not only the high school and collegiate levels, but also in the pros. For example, for years Nebraska typically had some of the biggest and strongest players. They were capable of dominating most teams that were either smaller or had less strength. However, when it came to the bowl games, they typically lost because they did not have the speed needed to compete with equally strong but faster teams.
The key element here is that it is possible to be bigger and stronger but still possess great speed or even to increase speed. In esence, you must take the strength that has been developed and literally convert it to greater speed and explosiveness.
When an athlete gets stronger, faster and more explosive, he does not gain much in size, which is more important for linemen but not for backfield players and ends. For example, when I worked with Todd Marinovich on his throwing technique and speed-strength training, he weighed about 215 pounds on a 6’4″ frame. Although he was relatively light, he had more strength and explosive power than most players who weighed 250 pounds.
Even linemen, as big as they sometimes are, can be trained to be strong but very fast and explosive. For example, Phil Murphy, who played for the Rams in the early 1980’s, weighed approximately 350 pounds and was extremely strong. My job was to make him faster and more explosive so that he could become a first-stringer.
After a few months of speed-strength training, Phil was down to 325 pounds with seven inches off the waist. More importantly, he was equal to or superior to all the other linemen in the 10 and 20 yard springs as well as in the agility tests. Even with this weight he was capable of leaping up to a table from a push-up position.
In the preseason games, even double teaming him did not stop him. Sadly, Coach Malavasi was old fashioned and believed that anyone over 280 pounds could not be fast and as a result Murphy did not get playing time.
Because of the results that can be achieved from speed-strength training, it is surprising to still see so many coaches training the players to get bigger and stronger. Most often, such training is a detriment to the players rather than a benefit. In addition, it leads to players taking steroids in an effort to become bigger and stronger.
Steroids, however, lead to a greater number of injuries because the muscle gets so strong it overbalances the strength of the tendons and ligaments. As a result, in tendon and ligament tears are common. Even more important is that use of steroids actually makes the muscles lose some of their elasticity so that you actually become slower and less explosive in your movements.