Joe Kenn | Vice President of Performance Education
Establishing a budget for a high school weight room can be a pain staking task. Asking the school’s administration for funds, the schools booster club or a former athlete who is now a professional for a donation is a formidable task.
You decided to go a more formidable path. As an educator, you did your due diligence, filled out the specific paperwork, detailed the reasoning’s behind the ask, and you were awarded a grant from the school district! Congratulations. I would guess, you had to be specific in the equipment you were hoping to purchase and why it would be important to the school and more importantly to the students that are in your care. The question that I ask is, what were your main asks?
If I were allotted grant money for my program, my first emphasis would be on the equipment choices that can allow the most amount of people to participate in a large group setting. For me, that means products that relate specifically to my Block Zero Program and for the general population physical education students. I would focus on the number of bands, medicine balls, kettlebells, mini hurdle, jump ropes etc. to build out my large group training medleys as my students progress from bodyweight movements to adding external resistance and progressing through movement drills. This equipment is also a key component to the training of our advanced athletes and it allows for more training diversity in the weight room and on the field.
If this type of equipment is already in abundance, you could look at highly advanced options such as GPS or Velocity Based Units if you are technologically sound. You may have your eye on a specialty piece of equipment to helps protect the athlete such as a head and neck isolator, an inverse curl, or a reverse hyperextension. And if you are truly starting a room from scratch, your best option would be a rack and bench combination as well as barbells, plates, and dumbbells.
The biggest take away I could recommend is, if there is a available grant money, do your homework. Create a true needs analysis of your present equipment, speak to your staff, the athletic trainers, the sport coaches, and athletic director to put together your best presentation.
Wishing all Fall sport coaches the best this upcoming season.
Best Success and #wordswin
Coach Kenn