middle school football

Question
My son is 11 (7/17), is 5'6" 140 and plays tight end/fullback (Hback) for his middle school team (6th grade). As you can see he is young and the only 6th grader to make fball team. He currently runs the 40 in 6.4. Too slow in my eyes. Gets plenty of practice time but not game action yet.What speed should he shoot for going into 7th grade? Also, I need a good year long workout regiment. He wants to start day after season ends and continue thru start of new season and wants to commit 15 hours a week. Also, I need some benchmarks for him to strive for. thanks

Answer
Hello Michael,

Congratulations to your son. That is an honor. I worked the All Army combine this past season. They have the youth combine which consist of 7th and 8th graders. I can tell you that at the tight end and full back spot, the slowest time clocked was 5.2/40. The average time for the 7th graders was a 4.8/40. Now don't let that discourage him or you. A lot of those kids have been training for a while with trainers. I know because some of them are kids I have trained. Ok, my opinion is that 12 and under is too young to lift weights. At that age I really believe push ups, sit ups and air squats are enough.

Now, here are few things that will definitely help: Find a hill in your area where he can run sprints up the hill, this will build leg strength and speed, invest in a workout parachute, they normally come with cones and ground rings and a workout video...it is worth the investment, it will definitely help with his quickness and speed, purchases some of the small cones, place theses the cones in a square or rectangle, five or ten yards apart, sprint up one side, slide across, back pedal down the other side and slide back across. That is to help work on agility, make sure you stay low and in control.

Those drills over the off season should produce a lot of improvement.

Thank you for allowing AllExperts to answer your sports questions.

Coach Anderson