AAU Coaching Wrestling Series: Strength Training for Developing Wrestlers

with Tom Koch, Strength and Conditioning Coach for Lehigh Valley Athletic Club, former Lehigh University Assistant Coach, EIWA Champion ('96) at Lehigh

When coaching the developing wrestler, strength & conditioning is vital to their success. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to see the strength and conditioning philosophy of one of the most storied wrestling programs in the entire country.

Lehigh has always been known for their exceptional strength and conditioning and in this video, Tom Koch walks through the fundamentals of athletic training and demonstrates a myriad of exercises to help enhance your athlete's speed, power and conditioning.

Coach Koch begins with an informative overview of the principals of athletic training and how it translates to training the developing wrestler. Koch then talks about the importance of the following concepts:

• Speed - Changing direction and quickness
• Power - Maximizing force quickly
• Conditioning - Small short bursts, starting and stopping quickly

Agility Ladder Training
According to Coach Koch, the perfect tool for agility training in wrestling is the agility ladder. You'll see more than 15 different drills including variations for each, for linear movement, lateral movement, plyometrics and upper body workouts. These drills help develop foot speed, coordination and "fast twitch" muscle fibers, as well as condition your athletes. You'll also see how to adapt those same agility ladder drills to develop hand speed. Your team will be able to work the entire body using the same movements to develop footwork.

Plyometric Training
Koch demonstrates several plyometric exercises designed to increase your wrestlers' functional power. He discusses common misconceptions with plyometrics that can hinder an athlete's performance improvement. There are more than 20 exercises demonstrated by Coach Koch in this section of the video, including different types of pushups, box exercises, plyometric jumps and core strength with the medicine ball.

These drills incorporate conditioning into their in strength building. This carries over perfectly to wrestling since many matches require both strength/power and strength endurance in order to be successful.

Coach Koch demonstrates, with young athletes, how these workout drills can be extremely challenging and fun at the same time. Often times athletes don't even know that they are being trained due to the change of pace and fun in completing these exercises. These are exercises that can be done by any age athlete that will push their sports development to new heights.

The use of non-traditional items within your gym will lend greatly to improving strength and body control. This video is a great tool for coaches, parents, and athletes who want to improve their strength and general body control!

This series of videos was produced by Championship Productions in association with AAU (The Amateur Athletic Union).

75 minutes. 2013.