4 Practical Ways to Train Large Groups with Limited Equipment

Finally—you did it. You got the budget approved and now your program is getting that crucial piece of equipment that’s been on your wish list forever. Just one problem, however: the total number of athletes who need to be trained relative to that lone piece of equipment.

We’ve all been there—you have 5 groups of 10 athletes all organized, in line, moving in sync. The intensity is real, the atmosphere is electric. Then…it stops. Now the athletes are losing focus, slouching through the line because they can only go one at a time on the equipment.

The vibe has completely changed.

There has to be a better way—the quality of training cannot (and should not) be sacrificed just because technology or new equipment is being featured in the workout. Navigating this daily challenge can be made simple, but doing so requires some creativity.

Let’s dive right into strategies for making every training session as effective and efficient as possible while factoring for variables including number of coaches, number of athletes, amount of equipment, and the group’s comfort-level with thinking outside the box.

Starting the Creative Process

This video here highlights the creativity of the Homewood-Flossmoor High School track and field program to spark and inspire your creative process—they share a number of thought-provoking strategies about how they navigate training for 100+ athletes between a pair of sports programs, all with only one 1080 Sprint 2 speed training system.

And those strategies are the same ones they use to collaborate between all other facets of the track program (jumps and throws), as well as sharing one fieldhouse with the rest of the sports programs at Homewood-Flossmoor. Although hopefully including a few lightbulb moments, much of this comes down to simple planning and communication—which are the staples of running any high-level sports program.

A couple of the key takeaways include:

-Acquiring Equipment: For some programs, creatively using equipment is not the issue, the problem is not having specialized speed training equipment in the first place. No one ever says their budget is too big, so this type of collaboration is one agile way for programs to acquire more equipment.

-Joint Purchasing: Similar to Homewood-Flossmoor’s approach, getting even just one other program involved in buying equipment cuts the price in half. An effort like this can bring multiple programs together, promote collaboration, and simply get the equipment in the door to hopefully inspire purchasing more available units in the future.
Once you have acquired the equipment for your facility, now it’s time to make the most out of it on a daily basis.

Creative Uses

For context, all the ideas shared below should be understood as a tradeoff. Some of these scenarios are not ideal, but that’s the give-and-take. To extract more output from training equipment, more often than not, it will require at least slightly more input.

The core issue, and the variable that isn’t going to change, is the ratio of athletes to the amount of equipment. Accordingly, these four solutions are premised as simple ways to reduce the number of athletes trying to use that equipment at one given time.

1. Design Effective Circuits and Stations

Just because the equipment is part of the training session, that doesn’t mean it has to be the only element in use at that time.

Creating a two-, three-, or even four-exercise circuit instantly cuts the ratio of athletes to equipment by up to a factor of four. We know how to accomplish this in the weight room, as most lifting sessions are organized in supersets or tri-sets. Why would this not apply everywhere else? For example:

Circuit #1: Resisted Sprint Training
-Exercise #1: A-Series drill on the wall for sprint mechanics
-Exercise #2: 15yd resisted sprint on the 1080 Sprint 2
-Exercise #3: 15yd partner race from a push-up position
-Rotate from one to the next, with each athlete performing 3 total rounds

Circuit #2: Strength Training for Speed
-Exercise #1: 3 squats at 120% eccentric overload on the 1080 Cable strength training system
-Exercise #2: Standing medball rotational scoop throw
-Exercise #3: Ankle mobility drill on a bench working on dorsiflexion
-Rotate from one to the next, with each athlete performing 3 total rounds

2. Stagger Your Start Times

Not all athletes and not all training sessions need to start at the same time.
Instead of dividing the athletes into groups within one session itself (as with stations), divide the athletes into groups based on start time. Each group can start every 15 minutes for organized team speed training session, which could look like this:

	9:00AM	9:15AM	9:30AM	9:45AM	10:00AM
Group 1	Warm-Up	Mechanics Station	1080 Sprint 2	Competitive Finisher	Lift
Group 2		Warm-Up	Mechanics Station	1080 Sprint 2	Competitive Finisher
Group 3			Warm-Up	Mechanics Station	1080 Sprint 2

 

This is an example of the type of solution that would require more on the input side of the value equation. Two important considerations would be:
1. the training day would be 30 minutes longer for the coaches
2. Each group or station would require a coach

3. Organize Athletes by Tiers

We understand that athletes have different levels of ability and can each benefit from different types of training, and equipment should be used to complement that.

As shown in the Homewood-Flossmoor video, the coaches in their program bucket their athletes in tiers and structure this mainly according to timed sprint testing results or track and field meet times. This, however, can be applied in a variety of ways.

A simple question to ask would be “when has an athlete earned the use of this equipment?” It could be when they become a sophomore, when they make the Varsity team, or when they achieve a certain threshold like a benchmark sprint time.

	Resisted Sprints	Assisted Sprints	Testing
Freshman	None	None	None
Junior Varsity	General	None	Quarterly Force-Velocity Profiling
Varsity	Individualized	Pre-Season	Monthly Force-Velocity Profiling

 

If athletes have lower training ages or lower outputs (like sprint times), they can improve necessary athletic qualities from more general and consistent training. As their training age increases, however, so does their level of output—which will then require more specific training methods for continued development.

A solution like “tiers” is great way to give every athlete what they need while still implementing equipment at a high level.

4. Timeshare the Equipment

The use of equipment can ebb and flow with the rhythm of the sport and training calendar.

Every sport rotates between off-season, pre-season, and in-season. Accordingly, so shifts the priority and importance to on- and off-field training. Depending on the point in the season, certain equipment will naturally phase-in or phase-out of the programming.

Velocity decrements (Vdec) for resisted sprint training is an easy way to individualize training while keeping training efficiency high.

	Fall (Football In-Season)			Spring (Track In-Season)
	Monday	Wednesday	Friday	Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Football	Light 10% Vdec Micro-Dose	X	X	X	Heavy 50% Vdec Sprints	Resisted Change of Direction
Track and Field	X	Assisted Sprints	Heavy 50% Vdec Sprints	Light 10% Vdec Micro-Dose	X	X

An equipment timeshare could be a split between a fall and a spring team, first half of the summer vs. the second half, or even within one week itself if organized by a productive conversation between coaches.

Turning the Creative Process Into Creating Value

When trying to create the most value for a program, there are very real challenges—both intangible and material. And on the tangible side, one of the most objective challenges coaches must address is the ratio of athletes to equipment.

In order to best support their athletes and continue increasing the value of the program, coaches need to be creative and find feasible ways to maximize equipment in their training. Between organizing the training into stations, staggering the start time of training groups, creating “tiers” for when athletes have earned training with the equipment, or simply sharing with another team, there are plenty of options for coaches to make their equipment as valuable as possible.

Full video of Homewood Flossmoor Track and Field training here.