Alex Willcox has the Bobcats in great condition early in camp
CAMP REPORT #3: Ramped Up Conditioning Boosts Bobcats Early
8/7/2014 7:49:00 AM | Football
Alex Willcox melds old concept with new ideas to get Cats to camp in good shape
The philosophy is as simple and efficient as it is effective.
"We condition for football by practicing football," eighth-year Bobcat coach Rob Ash says of his philosophy, which has evolved and endured over a four-decade career. But when the rubber met the road this summer, and MSU Strength and Conditioning Coach Alex Willcox was looking for a way to improve his team's performance through enhanced conditioning, he took Ash's ages-old notion and ran with it.
Or rather, ran faster with it.
"Looking at our spring ball practices, I noticed that the plays are typically six-to-eight seconds, where the rest interval is only 25 (seconds)," Willcox said of the evolution of his summer conditioning workout that Ash and his staff have lauded. "They go extremely, extremely hard during that period of time, and then they have about three or four minutes until they're up again during practice. That is what I tried to simulate over the course of the summer, and continually added more volume."
That workout regimen, which speedy running back Shawn Johnson called both "really hard" and "excellent," also has Ash issuing superlatives. "This team is in the best shape it's been in since we've been here," Ash said.
The 2014 team's physical condition, Ash says, is not an accident. "We emphasized conditioning much more this summer. We used to condition two days a week and work out four days a week, and this year we conditioned all four days that they trained. Every day they trained they conditioned, and Fridays, the fourth workout of every week, was a really big conditioning workout, and that built up during the course of the summer. It was a huge emphasis. The guys knew it, and fought their way through it. Early on here I think it's been tremendous."
While the genesis of revamping the summer workout plan came during spring drills, it matured during talks with respected colleagues later in the spring. "Basically what happened is through talks with my mentors and people I talk to in the strength and conditioning business, this is the direction conditioning has gone to," he said. "We're (taking what we see during games and) trying our best to mimic it in (conditioning)."
Altering the program's physical conditioning regimen is not without its risks, and Ash has paid attention to that element. "The key is we need to stay in tune with their bodies and how they're doing so we're doing enough to keep them in good shape without over-working them to break them down," he said. "They peaked with their hardest conditioning workout 10 days before (camp) then gave them a big break. Now we have to make sure we continue to push them hard so that base doesn't go away that they spent so much time to build. That's going to be the trick here."
Willcox noticed consistent improvement throughout the summer. "I started off the summer we did nine plays, half a quarter, and they thought that was hard. We eventually got up to 50, and 36 plays seemed a breeze. They responded really, really well."
He cited the ability to move from one play to the next quickly as a noticeable benefit. "The main thing I noticed is during rest intervals – we worked them hard when they were out there – their recovery rate got extremely short," Willcox said. "I could take them through a 10 or 12 play drive and they could be back to a talking voice in under a minute. That was the biggest thing I noticed, their recovery rate."
And that could impact the tempo the team is able to function at in 2014. "We'd love to play at a very fast tempo," Ash said. "We want to play at the tempo that allows us to operate at our best, but being able to play fast is an intriguing option that's available to us partly because of our physical condition."
According to Willcox, it all flows back to a core idea. "We don't want to have a mediocre practice and then run afterward to get our conditioning in," he said. "To have a mediocre practice then have a conditioning session at the end because we didn't get enough work done, that's not Coach Ash's philosophy and it's nobody's philosophy here. We're going to get our conditioning in during practice, and it's going to be a good practice."
"We condition for football by practicing football," eighth-year Bobcat coach Rob Ash says of his philosophy, which has evolved and endured over a four-decade career. But when the rubber met the road this summer, and MSU Strength and Conditioning Coach Alex Willcox was looking for a way to improve his team's performance through enhanced conditioning, he took Ash's ages-old notion and ran with it.
Or rather, ran faster with it.
"Looking at our spring ball practices, I noticed that the plays are typically six-to-eight seconds, where the rest interval is only 25 (seconds)," Willcox said of the evolution of his summer conditioning workout that Ash and his staff have lauded. "They go extremely, extremely hard during that period of time, and then they have about three or four minutes until they're up again during practice. That is what I tried to simulate over the course of the summer, and continually added more volume."
That workout regimen, which speedy running back Shawn Johnson called both "really hard" and "excellent," also has Ash issuing superlatives. "This team is in the best shape it's been in since we've been here," Ash said.
The 2014 team's physical condition, Ash says, is not an accident. "We emphasized conditioning much more this summer. We used to condition two days a week and work out four days a week, and this year we conditioned all four days that they trained. Every day they trained they conditioned, and Fridays, the fourth workout of every week, was a really big conditioning workout, and that built up during the course of the summer. It was a huge emphasis. The guys knew it, and fought their way through it. Early on here I think it's been tremendous."
While the genesis of revamping the summer workout plan came during spring drills, it matured during talks with respected colleagues later in the spring. "Basically what happened is through talks with my mentors and people I talk to in the strength and conditioning business, this is the direction conditioning has gone to," he said. "We're (taking what we see during games and) trying our best to mimic it in (conditioning)."
Altering the program's physical conditioning regimen is not without its risks, and Ash has paid attention to that element. "The key is we need to stay in tune with their bodies and how they're doing so we're doing enough to keep them in good shape without over-working them to break them down," he said. "They peaked with their hardest conditioning workout 10 days before (camp) then gave them a big break. Now we have to make sure we continue to push them hard so that base doesn't go away that they spent so much time to build. That's going to be the trick here."
Willcox noticed consistent improvement throughout the summer. "I started off the summer we did nine plays, half a quarter, and they thought that was hard. We eventually got up to 50, and 36 plays seemed a breeze. They responded really, really well."
He cited the ability to move from one play to the next quickly as a noticeable benefit. "The main thing I noticed is during rest intervals – we worked them hard when they were out there – their recovery rate got extremely short," Willcox said. "I could take them through a 10 or 12 play drive and they could be back to a talking voice in under a minute. That was the biggest thing I noticed, their recovery rate."
And that could impact the tempo the team is able to function at in 2014. "We'd love to play at a very fast tempo," Ash said. "We want to play at the tempo that allows us to operate at our best, but being able to play fast is an intriguing option that's available to us partly because of our physical condition."
According to Willcox, it all flows back to a core idea. "We don't want to have a mediocre practice and then run afterward to get our conditioning in," he said. "To have a mediocre practice then have a conditioning session at the end because we didn't get enough work done, that's not Coach Ash's philosophy and it's nobody's philosophy here. We're going to get our conditioning in during practice, and it's going to be a good practice."
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