Football weight training

by Mensgym on Feb 10, 2008 7:21 PM PST Comment 10 comments

Let's see if I can meet the word standards of the dairy. Since today was such a bummer for the basketball team, I wanted to share a story told to me about the football team weight training environment of late.

I spent today with several Bruin student-athletes in another sport other than football. They know at least one of the football players socially. In addition, this group does weight training at the same time as the football players and have for at least three years.

Somehow the topic of football came up and these student-athletes exclaimed, "You should see what the weight training room is like now compared to the past several years. Doc Kreis was a nice guy but when he wasn't around the players never did much and didn't come around to train. In addition, between sets, the players used to rest.

Since the new trainer showed up, he is right in the face of the football players continually and working them to 'death'. In fact, they told me as a group, he is so intense with the players, the observers see the players look as if they will collapse at any time." In addition, when they complete a set of weights, he has them immediately do a set of reps for another part of the body. There is no rest at all. The trainer, according the my sources, "is physically imposing and right on the players. We all see this as a positive development, as in the past, the players were not as diligent about weight training".

I believe, assuming the facts are right, that the new leadership is making the jobs available surrounding the football program, such as assistants and trainers, etc. more than a paycheck. Leadership and proactive involvement does that. In fact, there is another revenue generating sport at UCLA where the reputation of the head coach is that he is intense, involved, and driving the program.... let's see that might be the basketball program....
Bill

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

0 recs | Comment 10 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

That's definately good news

Thanks for the update Bill.

by OutOThsWrld on Feb 10, 2008 8:51 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

CrossFit?

I wonder if the new Strength & Conditioning Coach is using the CrossFit workout?

by mark the bruin on Feb 10, 2008 9:25 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I'm not surprised at all

Every year we were hearing how "focused" the team was, ready to take the "next step", blah, blah, blah, blah.... If we want to compete on the gridiron, it starts in the weight room and in the offseason program. This is good news and if the players don't want to pay the price, then they need to move onto somewhere else where excellence is not demanded.

by BlueReign on Feb 10, 2008 10:50 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

If I may play devil's advocate...

I worry about overtraining, especially given the fact that UCLA fired this guy a while ago. There is working out hard and there is working out smart. Hopefully he is just shocking the players muscles as a foundation for some really heavy lifting later. I think a wise man once said: Never mistake activity for achievement.
Still, I must say that upon seeing the last strength training coach in person during a tour, I really was not that impressed. To me it appeared that he advocated a come-in-when-you-want-to approach to strength training.

by bruin8uclap on Feb 10, 2008 11:22 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

WOW

"You should see what the weight training room is like now compared to the past several years. Doc Kreis was a nice guy but when he wasn't around the players never did much and didn't come around to train. In addition, between sets, the players used to rest.

I think this statement is the most damning indictment of the Karl Dorrell era I have ever heard. And, I've heard plenty.

This is good news to me, I have heard of and applied this technique in weight lifting. The principle is simple, if you are focusing on upper body, and doing some heavy lifting bench presses, you then do some moderate work on your legs in between sets. It keeps the heart rate at an elevated level without fatiguing the pectoral muscles.

Another thumbs up to CRN's wholesale program revamp.

A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment. John Wooden

by MexiBruin on Feb 11, 2008 8:21 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Added comment

Two of the UCLA student athletes who brought this up were talking about the football players facial expressions and "red beet" looks with puffed out cheeks, deers in the headlights looks while the coach is right there with them, etc. Whether this is activity and/or achievement, time will tell. But my impression is that early on, before spring football, the message is being sent out to the troops that there is a new and very demanding sheriff in town....

BTW, I reiterate that the people telling me this story were strongly of the opinion that it was a positive thing, especially compared to the past.
Bill

BillSouthBay

by Mensgym on Feb 11, 2008 8:54 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Finally

It has been exceedingly frustrating to observe Bruin football's weight lifting for the past couple years. First off, the only gains we had been seeing were from players with no prior lifting experience, anyone can get gains from those guys. 2nd, some players were racing through the workouts just to get out of there rather than pushing to the limit. 3rd, competition between players was discouraged, the place was like a friggin morgue. As a lifter and coach myself it was astonishing to see the lack of shock applied and the acceptance of plateus. Players became complacent because the coach was complacent. Difficult to criticize a hall of famer but Doc had to go.
The concern of over training is way over done. It takes many months of intense training to approach that point. Football players almost never reach that point because of time constraints and injuries. Thank God for the change! Let's see what happens to the O line and stud backers before we can really evaluate the new regimen.

by kauwildman on Feb 11, 2008 9:47 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Brandon Breazell

Kid spent 4 years in the program and it seems like he gained about 10 pounds the whole time.

by Ajax on Feb 11, 2008 9:59 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Not enough to go on

A kid gaining 10 pounds may or may not be sufficient. That would vary from player to player. I'd be more interested to know how much his forty improved, his vertical, his power clean, bench, etc. For a real measure of the program you would look across the board to look for average increases in measurables. Then for stricter evaluation you would want to look at specific players that already had experience in weights. I'd choose a couple kids like Keane or Rush, who've been here long enough to measure improvement but came in with proven prior experience. Those are the tougher one's because the easy gains are no longer available. We haven't seen much change with those guys and that's quite telling. Let's see what happens now.

by kauwildman on Feb 11, 2008 11:05 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs