How to teach my team to train

Hey y'all. Most of my training logs have been going to my rugby team's new facebook group where people post their workouts. So far, it's obvious that few know what they are doing, and even the ones that do don't really have a plan, program, or goals. This also translates to coaching sometimes, where practices or drills aren't exactly designed with specific athletic objectives, other than 'fitness'. One example: sprints are never done with anything approaching full rest, so we never train speed, but 'sprint endurance'.

Anyway, I want to find some good articles to post about having goals for training, programming, workout structure, etc, to get the discussion going. Normally I cite Practical Programming or similar but no one will read that. Any favorite blog posts or articles the group would recommend?

Texas Method + ?

I'm planning on switching to Texas Method but I am interested in trying a more volume-intensive bench program, like the program(s) Sheng posted here. Is there any hope of trying to combine these (doing a TM split for squat/deadlift but following Sheng's thing for upper body)? I know the bench thing seems to be geared toward much more advanced benchers, but I also feel like investing a month or two to try something different can't be the worst thing in the world.

Here is what I would do (ish) if I were just doing TM:

Monday [High Volume/Moderate Intensity]
Squat 5X5
Bench Press 5X5
Power Clean 5X3
Dips 3x8
(Chins 3x10)

Wednesday [Low Volume/Low Intensity]
Front Squat 3X3
Overhead Press 3X3
Chins 3x10

Friday [Low Volume/High Intensity]
Squat 1X5
Bench Press 1X5
Deadlift 1X5


However, sheng's program seems to call for doing a bunch of sets of bench on Monday and Friday (10x5, or maybe 4-6 sets on higher reps on the second program) and doing assistance work (overhead press, incline bench) on Wednesday. So that doesn't seem terribly conflicted with texas method, but it definitely is more stuff when you add in the assistance and the large number of sets.

Here's my port of the second bench program to a google doc:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AqHAxoRuoKd-dDJPRkJieXJQbGw1ZFBNbFFIRWxOU1E&hl=en&authkey=CLqFoboM

This is my attempt at what combining them might look like:


Monday [High Volume/Moderate Intensity Legs, become-awesome-like-Sheng bench day 1]
Squat 5X5
Bench Press (varies; see spreadsheet)
Power Clean 5X3
Close-grip bench 4x5
Dips 3x8*

Wednesday [Low Volume/Low Intensity, assistance bench]
Overhead Press 3X3
Front Squat 3X3
Incline Press 4x5
Chins 3x10

Friday [Low Volume/High Intensity, become-awesome-like-Sheng bench day 2]
Squat 1X5
Bench Press (varies; see spreadsheet)
Deadlift 1X5
Butterfly 4x5
Dips 3x8*
*extra reps to failure

Comments, feedback? Am I totally off base here? One thing I was thinking was that this might just be too many exercises at once, in which case I would be down for a four (or even five)-day split. Then I would probably shift the second bench day to not coincide with heavy DL/SQ.



Also, Frank--re: caloric deficit: I know....... not really expecting to make gains right now. This is for after maybe two more weeks of dieting, which I am doing for me (not for Eunice), because I want to be sure that I can cut fat when I decide it's time. I'm actually not on a caloric deficit, but a carbohydrate deficit. (Carbs before/after workout, otherwise basically none.) I know that's probably just as energy-sapping as a caloric deficit, but it might have some different dynamics.

Life is an experiment in progress I guess...