We recently had an athlete sign up that came in with an all too familiar story: Back pain incurred during his team workouts
He had been told that the team workout for the day was “go heavy” and he had loaded up the bar with a weight he guessed to be “heavy”
Little to no warmup, the coach busy with other athletes, and a teammate unsure how to properly spot him
He squatted down with it, and then ended up dumping the bar over his neck on the way up
The back pain was so intense he wasn’t able to practice or play for months
And he still deals with lingering pain
It’s a sad story we’ve heard all too often over the years
Unfortunately, there’s not a simple solution. Because as long as team workouts are mandated, this will continue to occur
The reason is that there’s simply no way to account for the necessary progressions/regressions/individual differences/individual needs/individual injury histories in a packed room of 35-40 kids all following the exact same workout
I’ve been there as a coach, and it’s an impossible situation
The goal immediately becomes simply just to not get anyone hurt
But as we’ve learned from numerous athletes back stories over the years, unfortunately many do
-Fenske