Take a look on the wall of a lot of weight rooms and you'll often notice a board complete with the strongest people on the team for that year, or in the history of the program.
Now, a lot of weight rooms have these boards, but as coaches change, the next guy often fails to update it when a record is broken, and the board loses its appeal. In order for The Board to serve as motivation, it has to be updated, and more importantly, celebrated when a new record goes up.
Penn State strength coach Dwight Galt talks about starting his version of The Board in 1992 as a motivational tactic because his guys flat out didn't enjoy lifting weights.
"Well I want to try and build interest and build an importance in the lifting, so I did the record board, and did the top 3. At first it was slow going, about 3, 4, 5 years and then eventually everyone kind of got into it."
"It got to the point at some previous places, that you got those magnets up there and a guy would break a record and he'd jump up on the rack and tear the old guy's name down. I remember it was a very, very symbolic deal, and its just grown from there."
"But being on 'The Board,' especially at a place like Penn State, where all of our old player here have worked so hard, to come back and see their name, that's a real big thing for our guys. They know who's on there, who's ahead of them, they know what they have to do to get one there, they don't talk about it a whole lot, but you always see them looking up there on test day."
"It's a pretty neat challenge, and it's very motivational, and it makes it fun."
Whether you split it up by position, age, lift, or any other combination, having a board can be a great edge in your weight room, and note that Galt says it didn't work immediately year one or two, but has payed big dividends over the years.
Check out more from coach Galt, as well as tight end Mike Gesicki's opinion on The Board.
https://youtu.be/yHAs3f3JUuk