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Conditioning drills need reevaluating
In the spring of 1998, I got a closeup look at what are known in college football circles as "offseason conditioning drills." I was in the process of reporting a Sports Illustrated story on strength and conditioning coaches. One strength coach allowed me to watch as he led a large group of players through a workout in early June, in preparation for the two-a-day practices that would begin in early August. In crisp, early-morning air, the coach jogged with the players from their training facility to the school's stadium and then calmly instructed them to begin running the 72 stadium steps, two at a time, from the bottom to the top. Idle conversation went silent, replaced by labored breathing and then by groans. Three players had to stop and vomit. The coach didn't tell the players how long the drill would last. "If I tell them how many they're doing, they'll pace themselves," he said. "How long will a play last? How long will a drive last? I train them for the unknown." The coach told them when there was one sprint left, and then the players shuffled back to the practice facility, spent. This is just one example. Every major-college program conducts brutal conditioning drills before spring practice and before two-a-days. Another strength coach I met has players carry sand bags and walk laps toting 100-pound dumbbells. Plus, they aren't allowed to yawn or sit in his weight room. Florida State has mat drills, agility and conditioning exercises performed partly on wrestling mats. People in the Seminoles program have long lauded the mat drills as essential to building the conditioning and character that has formed the foundation of the best program in the country. As any college football fan now knows, promising freshman linebacker Devaughn Darling was doing mat drills when he collapsed and died Monday morning in Tallahassee. I cannot stress strongly enough that I am not blaming mat drills for Darling's death. An initial autopsy report was inconclusive, and further results could be weeks away. Until then, nobody knows to what extent the workouts affected Darling. Here is what I know: Offseason conditioning is both the prehistoric soul of college football and a dirty little secret that few in the public understand. Long gone are the days when a college football coach could abuse his players day after day on the practice field and get away with it. (It used to happen: See Jim Dent's Junction Boys, about Bear Bryant's infamous first Texas A&M training camp.) But offseason conditioning somehow has been exempt from evolution. In the weeks following bowl games and before spring practice and in those between the end of classes and the start of two-a-days, players are subjected to brutal regimens that often include pre-dawn puke sessions and multiple weight sessions each week. Any player will tell you these workouts are tougher than regular practices. The workouts are designed to get players in shape, but coaches also believe that offseason conditioning programs "build character," that catch-all phrase for grinding the individuality out of athletes. It puts fear in the players. In the wake of Devaughn Darling's death, some Florida State players publicly questioned whether they were being pushed too hard, and then ultimately dismissed that notion. But in reality, every program with a potent conditioning program should be asking the same question. Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden covers college football for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a comment.
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