5 min read
How to program plyo balls and bands with your own loads
Add your own loads, like plyo ball colors or band sizes, pick one for each set, and athletes see it right on their phone.
Not every load is a weight on a bar. A plyo ball drill is about which ball. A band exercise is about which band. Writing that in a note works, until an athlete grabs the wrong one.
Coach Reps lets you add loads of your own, with your own choices, and pick one for each set. Here’s how to set them up.
The loads you start with
Every facility starts with two loads. % of Max works out each athlete’s weight from their own max. Custom (lbs) is a set number of pounds. Everything else is yours to add.
You can add two kinds of load:
- Number: a value with a unit you name, typed in for each exercise.
- Dropdown: a list of choices you set once, like ball colors or band sizes.
For plyo balls and bands, a dropdown is the one you want.
Add a dropdown load
Open Settings
Click Settings in the sidebar, then Programming. Only head coaches see this section.
Open the load list
Click Load Options. Your loads are listed there, with the two built-in ones marked Built-in.
Add a new load
Click Add Load Option, give it a name, like Plyo Balls, and pick Dropdown.
Add the choices
Type each one and press Enter: Blue, Red, Yellow, Gray, or whatever your balls are.
Save it
Click Save, and the new load is ready for every coach on your staff.
Name the choices the way athletes say them
The choice is what shows on the athlete’s phone, so use the words your athletes use. If your balls go by color, use colors. If they go by weight, use the weights printed on them.
Keep each list short, and put the choices in order from lightest to heaviest. The list shows them in the order you typed them, so an ordered list is quick to pick from when you write a program.
Use it on an exercise
Open the exercise
Click the block, then click the exercise’s name in the panel to expand it.
Pick the load
Under Load, pick Plyo Balls.
Pick a choice
One choice covers every set.
Or go set by set
Click Per-set, and each set gets its own choice. Copy first to all fills every set with the first one.
Sets and reps work as they always do. A drill with 3 sets of 8 gets 3 rows, each with its own ball. For a drill with no rep count, leave Reps blank, and each set shows only its ball.
A quick way to write it: pick the ball most sets use, then click Per-set. Every row starts on that ball, so you change only the sets that differ.
What your athletes see
In the iPhone app, each set shows its choice, like Set 1: Red x 8 reps. The web shows the choice on each set too. Athletes check it off like any other set. They can change the reps they got, but not the choice.
A dropdown load never turns into pounds. It doesn’t touch an athlete’s max, and it never sets off a PR.
You see it in the review too. Each set shows the choice you prescribed, next to what the athlete logged.
Bands work the same way
Add a second dropdown load called Bands, with the bands you own as its choices, like Light, Medium and Heavy. Then a band exercise can change set by set, the same way a plyo drill does. For example, band pull-aparts could go Light on the first set and Medium on the next two.
The same idea works for anything picked from a set list, like med ball weights or box heights. Give each load its own name, so the Load list stays easy to read.
Change a load later
Loads you add can change. In Load Options, you can rename one, or add and take out its choices. Click Save Changes when you’re done. The two built-in loads stay as they are: they can’t be renamed or deleted.
Pounds, when pounds are right
For a load everyone does at the same weight, like a sled push, pick Custom (lbs) and type the pounds. Click Per-set to give each set its own weight.
For a lift where each athlete’s weight should come from their own max, use % of Max instead.
The short version
- % of Max and Custom (lbs) are built in. Add your own in Settings, under Programming.
- A dropdown load is a list of choices you set once, like ball colors.
- Pick one choice for every set, or click Per-set and pick one for each.
- Athletes see the choice on every set, in the iPhone app and on the web.
- A dropdown load never changes a max or sets off a PR.
Keep reading
How to name your blocks for your sport
Rename Prep, Drills, Lifting and Other to fit your sport, pick their colors, and give a stretch of blocks a phase name.
5 min read
How to get athletes to log their sets
What athletes see on their phone, how they check off a set with one tap, and how you see what they really lifted.
5 min read
See it with your own program
Book a demo and we’ll walk you through it with your sport and your roster.