Conjugate Method for High School Athletes | Dylan Heath

Do What Others Won't Collection: https://www.westside-barbell.com/collections/do-what-others-wont-limited-winter-release Become a Certified Conjugate Coach: https://www.westside-barbell.com/pages/conjugate-coach-certification Here’s how the conjugate method for high school athletes works in a real school weight room, with 120+ kids a day and 30 to 60 minutes per class. Coach Dylan Heath, head strength coach at Wichita Collegiate in Kansas, joins Mac McFarland to break down his system. Dylan explains how he runs max effort and dynamic effort days with athletes whose training ages range from all-state seniors to freshmen who’ve never lifted. He covers the regressions he builds in, how he uses velocity trackers and 90% cluster sets to teach kids to grind through a max effort lift, and why dynamic effort work has to hit 0.8 m/s. He also shows how to apply the conjugate method for high school athletes with limited equipment. He rotates a straight bar, a safety squat bar and a trap bar, adds or removes the box, uses boards on bench, and runs accessories in three-week waves. His combo dynamic effort day uses 18 racks set up before class, and athletes finish squat, bench and deadlift in under 10 minutes. The conversation also covers training multisport athletes through season transitions, lifting on game day, the athlete feedback loop, working with private sector trainers, and what Dylan learned completing all three levels of the Westside Barbell certification pathway. FOLLOW WESTSIDE BARBELL Website: https://www.westside-barbell.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/westsidebarbellofficial/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/westsidebarbell/ 00:00 Introduction: Dylan Heath on Training High School Athletes 01:30 Challenges of High School Strength Coaching: Time and Logistics 03:12 Managing Training for Different Experience Levels 05:31 Building Culture Through a Feeder System 08:13 Auto-Regulation and the Athlete Feedback Loop 09:42 Completing the Conjugate Pathway: What Changed 13:13 Building Relationships and Earning Athlete Trust 14:40 Adapting Conjugate for High School: Max Effort with Speed Parameters 17:30 Using Velocity Trackers to Teach Effort and Technique 20:41 Exercise Variation with Limited Equipment 22:55 Training Density and Accessory Work in Short Sessions 29:19 Managing Multi-Sport Athletes and In-Season Training 32:00 Navigating Private Sector Training and Communication 35:51 Biggest Mistakes: Pushing Athletes Too Fast 38:14 Combo Dynamic Effort Day: Setup and Execution 43:15 Teaching Dynamic Effort: Education and Visual Learning 46:44 Advice for Coaches Implementing Conjugate Tomorrow 48:43 Final Advice: Be a Sponge and Stay Open-Minded