Two-a-days are brutal, but bearable

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/06/2009 (6185 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This time of the year you can always count on an ageless thirtysomething veteran of professional football to burst everyone’s bubble and make his opinions known as to how he feels about buckling down and setting up shop for the necessary evil that is training camp.

Less than a week away from the opening of two-a-day practices for veterans, Ben Cahoon of the Alouettes (36), Gene Makowsky of the Roughriders (36), and Davis Sanchez of the Alouettes (34), all griped to the press (in a story publicized on TSN.ca) about regardless of how things have evolved over the years in terms of player preparations in the off-season, training camp remains an archaic monster that has been rearing its ugly head in the same fashion for as long as any of us have been playing.

Advocates of the old school will tell you the weathered principles of training camp remain a necessary part of the football experience because the game is about so much more than just having your athletes report to camp in shape and plugging the right players into the right places.

In a game where so much is governed by instinct, the repetitions that come in camp are really the only way to foster these ingrained behaviours.

Furthermore, camp is a tool that coaches use to evaluate their roster and determine where their players can be utilized most effectively, especially when a new regime takes over.

But while all these are valid points to consider, Cahoon and friends have an argument or two about how only one side of the equation is seemingly evolving.

While, back in the day, players will attest that camp was the place to get into shape and begin your season of physical readiness in between smoke breaks and six packs of beer, anybody who has been on the playing side of this business for more than a season these days knows that conditioning for the sport has truly evolved into a year-round business, and if you plan on playing this game well into your 30s the time off in between seasons is virtually nonexistent.

Players haven’t gotten bigger, stronger and faster over the last decade simply due to evolutionary processes and improved nutrition.

Even over the course of the 10-plus years I have been playing pro ball, fitness regimens have changed and evolved dramatically in terms of the theories behind maximizing player performance and durability.

At the start of my career in the NFL, it was all heavy lifts, high numbers of sets and low reps, putting maximum stress on the muscles and joints in hopes of becoming bigger, stronger, and faster. If it wasn’t an anaerobic process, we weren’t about to attempt it.

These days, training down at Elite Performance Centres under the tutelage of my nemesis Jeff Fisher, the workouts are so much more dynamic and comprehensive than the late ’90s when this all began for me, that if you took the two training philosophies and stood them side by side, you wouldn’t even be able to tell I was preparing for the same sport.

Of course the NFL and CFL naturally place different demands on their athletes simply due to the differences in the games — like the fact that CFL athletes have to be in better condition because our rest times in between plays is half that of the NFL — but the things we are doing down at the hallowed sweat shop on Ness Avenue these days go so much further you can’t help but wonder “if I knew then what I know now…”

So while the debate rages as to whether the fundamental process of the antiquated training camp should evolve to keep pace with the physical realities of today’s fine-tuned athletes, one thing is for sure and requires no debate: Crashing into each other hundreds of times through a stretch of two-a-days in the sweltering sun sure beats most of the alternatives.

Doug Brown, always a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press.