The XC-Football Connection?
The Track Football Consortium has changed the way coaches think. When coaches attend TFC, they are exposed to rebel talent and are drawn into worlds they never knew existed.
I love the definition of consortium: an alliance, partnership, or coalition of people pooling resources for a common goal.
That’s it! That’s what our consortium is all about.
Our common goal is high performance. More specifically, our common goal is improving speed and explosive athleticism as it pertains to track and football. Might soccer, cross country, lacrosse, baseball, basketball, and volleyball benefit from the same discussion? Hell yes!
In a recent article, Divergent Thinking: Inside John O’Malley, John talked about a visit to Butler University to visit Brad Stevens (now the coach of the Boston Celtics). What? A cross-country coach learning from a basketball coach? Now that’s rebel talent! O’Malley’s three hours spent with Brad Stevens was described as “phenomenal”. BTW, if John wasn’t already booked to speak at the Missouri Clinic, he would be speaking at TFC-Chicago. What? A cross-country coach talking to football coaches and sprint coaches? Yep, that’s the way we roll.
Rebel talent may be found in a professional power lifter (J.L. Holdsworth, speaking at TFC-8) or a Olympic bronze medalist in synchronized swimming (Catherine Garceau spoke at TFC-3). Nothing is out-of-bounds when you are on a mission to be the best you can be.
Which brings me to Chris Mosely. Chris is head track coach at Moulton Middle School in Shelbyville, IL. He’s also the right hand man of Hall-of-Famer, Kevin Kramer (track and cross coach at Shelbyville H.S.). Chris Mosely has attended all seven TFCs. Chris is one of us.
The rest of this article is a article in and of itself, written by Chris Mosely.
“What can an XC coach learn from a football coach? A lot!”
This was the first football practice I’ve ever attended in my life. I met Coach Brad Dixon via Twitter late last spring and was immediately impressed with what I saw. Brad is in his 8th season at Camp Point, and is Reflexive Performance Reset level 1 and 2 certified. Brad posts his personal workouts regularly before 5 am, and his favorite hashtag is #upearlytotrain. After talking to Brad about how he trains his kids and how he implements RPR, I decided to make the two and half hour trip across the state to watch a Camp Point practice. I invited Jared Schmidt of Liberty High School along, and we learned quite a bit. Both of us were impressed by Brad’s practice and his philosophy of training.
Brad walks the walk on prioritizing speed at his practice. At one point we observed no less than five coaches using stopwatches during practice. One of our favorite moments was Brad yelling, “We might need to get the Freelap out!” as his kids sprinted during a drill. Almost everything we observed was done at full speed with LOTS of rest in between reps.
“Sometimes that’s the hardest part for me, letting them walk back instead of running.” – Brad Dixon
In addition Brad keeps a tight schedule on practice, handing out a hard copy to his assistant coaches. Everything is in five minute segments and every twenty minutes there’s a water break.
“We have an older crew now and they understand that short practice doesn’t mean easy practice. We want them to get out by 5:00 or earlier every day, but they have to stay focused.” – Brad Dixon
I can tell you first hand there was no wasted time at the practice. Everything had a purpose.
REST is a big deal at Camp Point. Their team slogan is “Relentless, Rest, Repeat”. How many football programs put the word REST in their slogan?
“We don’t have Saturday practices now, so it’s great when I see the guys after a win on Friday and they know they don’t have to see me for almost 48 hours.” – Brad Dixon
Coach Dixon believes fresh players win games. He explained how they work to limit the number of two-way players. This is amazing because Camp Point has 55 players, total, at all levels combined. Camp Point Central’s IHSA enrollment is 245.
As the playoffs begin next week with Saturday games, Brad Dixon is considering using the extra day to give his team Mondays off.
Brad has also fully integrated RPR into his program. Practice starts with kids laying down to do their belly breathing and wake-up drills. Camp Point players reset themselves daily at the beginning of practice and do more RPR work during practice as needed. Buy-in is high. On game days, players go through RPR and sprint drills before ever taking the field.
Brad Dixon told a great story about the first game this year.
“We had the kids doing RPR in the gym and I’m not super involved in the warm up. I’ve got things I need to do before the game. I love giving the kids ownership. They did their RPR and then met us before we took the field. I’m usually a pessimist before games, but when I saw the guys, you could just feel the energy.” Camp Point won 42-0.
Talking to Brad after practice it became very clear he doesn’t see the world the way others do. Time and time again he brought up the way they used to do things and shook his head. The reason for doing things was usually, “because we always did it that way”. In regards to the weight room, Brad said “At some point you’re strong enough, and too much strength can cause a problem. You’ve gotta ask yourself, am I hurting this athlete more than I’m helping him?”
In regards to the grueling conditioning of old-school football programs, Coach Dixon believes, “it doesn’t make you mentally tough, it just breaks you down”.
“The big thing is nobody wants to lose because you’re soft.” – Brad Dixon
Brad Dixon is scheduled to speak at the Track Football Consortium on December 7th and 8th. If I coached football, I would see him speak because he’s 72-17 and has never missed the playoffs (8-1 this year). If I was a strength and conditioning coach, I would see him speak because of his innovative drills and attention to detail in specific strength development. As a track coach I’m going to see Brad speak because he promotes speed and rest. Brad Dixon’s players are faster at the end of a long football season then they are the beginning.
Brad Dixon is a rebel talent.
Chris Mosely
@ShelbyvilleILTF
