Farmer Burns Catch Wrestling and Bodyweight Strength Training Video Course
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Football Without Weights? .... You Decide
Dear Friend,
"Well, what about Combat Conditioning exercises and football?
Don't I need to be able to bench, squat and deadlift like MAD to
be good?"
That's a question I've received many times over the years.
Well, today I have an answer for you from the coach of a
state championship football team. His answer may totally
surprise you. Read the letter that appears below:
Dear Mr. Furey:
I just wanted to thank you for the great ideas you've presented
in your various courses and books. I recently purchased Combat Conditioning and Kick Ass and Take Names
and I couldn't be more thrilled with your no-nonsense approach to
training and conditioning.
To give you some background, I have been a high school/collegiate
and beyond athlete (football, wrestling, running, crew, and several
martial arts), as well as a former infantry Marine and ocean lifeguard.
Unfortunately, in my young and stupid days, I also competed in powerlifting
and bodybuilding, which injured at one time or another my back, shoulders,
wrists and knees.
Anyway, had I known then what I know now, I am sure I would have been
more injury-free.
Some time ago, I came to the revelation that I had never seen, heard of, or
injured myself doing bodyweight exercises, yet as we all know, hospital
emergency rooms are full of weightroom injuries.
And it hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks - *Why do the so-called experts
continue to advocate using exercises that are hard to teach, inherently dangerous
(esp. for adolescents), and have no transfer to the field or mat ... when there
are a
multiitude of effective, safe and wonderful bodyweight training regimens?*
I hold a CSCS (certified strength conditioning specialist) credential, yet I
wondered
while studying for this degree, why the NSCA advocated the Olympic lifts and
barbell
squats as the ‘only worthwhile' foundation for training for sports?)
To paraphrase you, "Ever see a monkey on a latpulldown machine? Ever see a
gazelle doing power cleans? Ever see an African wild dog doing barbell rows or
a wolverine doing trap bar deadlifts?)
Fast-foreward a bit-presently, I am the head football coach and strength coach
at the public high school where I work.
Last summer, I decided to adopt a radically different approach to training my
athletes for the upcoming season.
I scrapped the usual weightroom nonsense, and instead settled on the
methodologies
from the ancient warriors.
The results - nothing short of astounding!
No injuries from training, and my school's first ever state championship!
We were better-conditioned than the competition, and had that extra burst
late in the game. In short, thank you for providing excellent, effective, and
fun training ideas. Rest assured, I will continue to teach athletes about the
benefits of exercises, such as bearcrawls, tablemakers, and of course, pull-ups,
Hindu squats, etc.
Paul Cohen, PhD, CSCS
Head Football/Strength Coach
Bow High School
Bow, NH
M.F.: Thank you Paul ... and congratulations on a job well done. Hats off to you
and your team. Keep up the fine work and you may make it 2 in a row.
Kick ass - take names!
Matt Furey
P.S. Quick message to all you accountants - I love ya man! Almost without
exception, you guys wrote in to tell me you disagreed with my "tongue in
cheek" remarks - then you went on to remark that my program has gotten
you into fantastic shape. This is awesome and I applaud you. The other cool
thing is how so many of you admitted that you spend a lot of time hanging out
at Furey Central and I, for one, can't
argue with that!
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