Colorado University Athletics
Buffs Begin Summer Strength And Conditioning Sessions
May 31, 2016 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — “Bigger, stronger and faster” is a mantra repeated by just about every strength and conditioning program for every college football team in the nation.
Colorado football strength and conditioning director Drew Wilson, however, has an additional priority, made even more important this year by the Buffaloes' desire to increase the tempo of their offense.
“No doubt we want them bigger, stronger and faster,” Wilson said. “But along with that, conditioning is of very high importance. If you are in great shape, it allows you to be repeatedly strong and repeatedly fast. That's one of the things we want to accomplish.”
Tuesday was the first day of eight weeks of summer strength and conditioning drills for Mike MacIntyre's Buffs. NCAA rules allow football programs to conduct eight-week sessions in the summer that can include up to eight hours per week of required weight training and conditioning, with up to two of those eight hours consisting of film study.
Those summer session have become increasingly important to college programs, and Colorado is no different. As the Buffs continue the process of tweaking their offensive playbook and becoming increasingly familiar with defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt's scheme, the weight room work, conditioning drills and study sessions will be a big key in how prepared the Buffs will be when they hit the field for the beginning of fall camp and two-a-days in early August.
“It's going to be especially important because of the way our offense plays and what we want to do on the field,” Wilson said. “We also want to get after them on defense, so we have to have a great conditioning base.”
The Buffs opened their first day in group sessions that began in the morning and continued with different groups rotating in throughout the day. The first workouts consisted of sessions in the weight room, some work on the field and stretching at periodic intervals throughout the workouts.
“Sometimes coaches in our field try to get too fancy,” Wilson said. “Simple is better. These guys aren't professional weightlifters, bodybuilders or powerlifters. But everything we do, I try to get them to understand that it's building off something else. How we stretched today was based on the fact that we did a lot of Olympic lifting and I know their lower backs are going to be tight. So some of the stretches we did was to alleviate some stress from the lower back. I tailor to what the program dictates, but I'm old-school mentality: simple is effective.”
The program is also geared to help prevent injuries when fall camp arrives.
“You can never prevent all injuries, but you can help limit minor, soft-tissue injuries that you see a lot of times at the start of camp,” Wilson said. “That's a big goal, to keep them healthy as long as possible. If they're healthy, they're playing a lot. If they're not playing, they can't help us win games.”
Along with the mandatory strength and conditioning workouts, which can be monitored by coaches, players will also hold “player-run practices,” voluntary workouts that can include some conditioning as well as 7-on-7 drills and position drills. While the organized workouts can't include a football, the player-run voluntary workouts have no such limitation (although coaches are not allowed to be present).
One thing Wilson and his staff will do throughout the summer is closely monitor each player's progress. They'll keep track of improvements and share them with players.
“We track everything they do from a weight room perspective,” Wilson said. “We'll also track some things from the field. Honestly, that's a way to motivate guys. They see a number, they get good at it and they say, 'I want to beat that number.'
“It's self-motivation. It makes a guy want to come in and work harder every day.”
Tuesday morning, players wore shirts emblazoned with “W.T.T.F.” on the front: “Welcome To The Fight.” The atmosphere was lively, players moved quickly from drill to drill as Wilson's strength and conditioning staff provided guidance and encouragement, and the pace was steady.
But Wilson said the key will be maintaining that pace throughout the summer.
“They're ready to get after it,” Wilson said. “But I don't worry about Week One, Day One. Everybody's ready to go now. It's Week Three when the grind starts happening and your body's beat down a little bit and I ask you to come in and do a little bit more. That's when we'll see what they all have.”
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
