Yeah, absolute freak genetics. He must be known to some degree. Did he not go on to play professionally? How did he progress beyond those first 6 months? What's this guy's name, if you don't mind? What kind of protocol did you use?
Not trying to interrogate you here.
Since you asked for a lot of information, than my answer will be fairly long, so if anyone viewing this thread doesn't want to read about maximizing athletic performance than don't bother reading this post.
He made the progress this spring. He plans to play division 1 or division 2 football next year depending upon his scholarship options and other factors. If he were a typical recruit out of high-school with good grades he would be all set, but he is not. I do not want to go into further detail due to privacy issues.
There are multiple things that must be considered when trying to optimize athleticism through weight training. The body must be balanced in order to optimize speed and explosiveness through multiple planes of movement and the player must have a strong neuromuscular connection in order to generate a high rate of force development. Squating 1000 lbs is great, but if you can't move sub maximum weights fast, than you won't be able to run fast or jump high.
Part 1 of a plan is to balance the body by bringing up weak body parts.
When I first started working with him his quads were stronger than his hamstrings and glutes. We improved the strength of those by doing a lot of barbell hip thrusts, glute-ham raises off a pulldown cable system, zercher squats, and moderate stance dead lifts with the hands inside the feet, but not wide enough to be considered sumo. The squats were either started from the bottom position with the bar resting on the guards or off a box. These were all done with moderate or wide stance. Examples of accessory exercises to complement these would be extensions for the mid back on a swiss ball, reverse hyper extensions, and heavily weighted barbell rollouts. Other exercises were included, but these were the focus for lower body. Compound movement rep ranges were typically 1-5 reps and accessory were typically much higher. However, you must remember that it is not just about performing these exercises using any form, but performing them in a way that is tailored to the person depending upon biomechanics, previous injuries, and what on field movements they are trying to improve. There is a system to assessment of an athlete and programming for him/her, but optimizing things for an athlete is WAY more complicated than most people think and that is what is limiting many athletes from reaching their potential. Many people who are supposed to be experts simply are not experts or are not giving every athlete the individual attention that they need.
Part 2 is mental.
part A of this is convincing the person that their is no limit to their success and that they are capable of what normal people consider impossible or unbelievable. Instilling this in a person is very hard, but once done it gives them a huge edge over a "normal" person. It is not about getting a person to be outwardly cocky. These people are often times very insecure inside. What you want is the inner confidence that anything is possible and there are no limits to success.
part B is a mix of mental and physical. It involves training a persons neuromuscular system through the principles of European weight lifting. This is much more advanced than the talk about exercises and is very hard to explain in a simple way. You can read about it yourself if you are interested. It is not about gaining muscle, but how to train to recruit more muscle at the same time and to do it quickly. It is about very carefully planning out a mix of box jumps, broad jumps, short sprints, throws etc. that train the body to recruit muscle fast. If you prefer video explanations to written than search for louie simmons or joe defranco on youtube and you will find examples and to some degree explanations. The best college coaches include this into their programs. Unfortunately it is not easy to do because of NCAA limitations on practice time. Luckily I am not limited by NCAA rules.
If you want additional information, than private message me and we can talk more.
