I saw something today that, for an “Old Dog”, will be a “new trick!” My whole way of thinking about “running” players for Conditioning was changed in one 20-minute period!!!
The HC whom I’m “consulting” for started his conditioning program today!!! Yep! He runs a very uptempo practice where the players are “on the move” for 2 1/2 hours but… there had been no time specifically set aside for “conditioning”— until today! The kids have 3 weeks to “peak.” He is confident (and I believe him… cuz he researches and talks about football to more experts than any coach I know!) that the players will be in tip top shape by September 1st.
The other interesting aspect of the “conditioning” periods was: No sprints! No gassers! No distance running!!! He calls it “county fair.” There are 8 stations set up around the perimeter of the practice field. He breaks up the team into 8 equal groups and sends 1 group to each station. On the whistle, they begin to run… and cut… and spin… and turn… and accelerate and decelerate and… sprint 10 yards. After 2 1/2 minutes he blows the whistle and the groups rotate to the next station. In a roughly 20 minute segment, each player ran about 75 20-40 yard sprints… and they didn’t even realize that they were “conditioning!!!”
It was pretty amazing!
