Jun 29, 2017Competitive Edge
When members of the University of Iowa football team show up for summer workouts, they know they are in for more than their regular training schedule. That’s because Strength and Conditioning Coach Chris Doyle has added a level of competition to prepare his athletes for the rivalry of game day.
According to an article from The Gazette, the summer conditioning program at Iowa consists of five workouts a week for seven weeks. The competition heats up in week three, when Doyle implements one-on-one drills. These take place at the beginning of practice, before speed work and conditioning or other 7-on-7 and blocking drills.
“We try to compete every single day,” Doyle said. “One day it might be a change of direction drill, one day it might be a linear drill. One day it might be a combo of those two. One day it might be a resistance drill, but we try to compete every single day.”
Sometimes, the chosen competition is the “Shirt Game,” where players are broken into three groups — O-line and D-line, semiskilled (linebackers, fullbacks, and tight ends), and skilled. Once they are divided, they tuck their t-shirts into their shorts and find a space within a 20-yard circle on the practice field. The athletes then work to grab their opponents’ t-shirts with the aim of being the last one in the circle who has not had their t-shirt stolen or stepped outside the boundary. Of course, the competition can get the guys pretty heated up.
“You’re in an environment with a lot of super-competitive guys,” said O-lineman Sean Welsh. “It’s hard not to have that happen. Guys get bucked out. There’s a perimeter. If you step out, you’re out. You can either push a guy out or yank their shirt off. Some of the not-fast guys like me have to rely on throwing guys out sometimes.”
On another day, Doyle might have the athletes participating in a game of “Tug O’ War.” Players are joined together using a harness and they attempt to pull their opponent past a specified point. Doyle pairs up athletes using speed and strength measurements, forcing them to think creatively about different ways to move their opponent.
“For me, being a lighter guy (257 pounds), I don’t want it to turn into a straight strength game,” said junior defensive end Parker Hesse, who was once paired against former Iowa defensive tackle Jaleel Johnson, a fourth-round pick NFL draft pick for the Minnesota Vikings. “I want to get them moving side to side. It’s good for you. Even going against someone as athletic and powerful as (Johnson), you have to try to stand up and compete with them. That’s great for us.”
Other competitive drills include sled sprints and timed prowler pushes. They are all a part of the Hawkeye Challenge, where players are awarded for their successes.
“We have the Hawkeye Championship thing set up with points and the guys take a lot of pride in that,” Hesse said. “Coach Doyle and (head) Coach (Kirk) Ferentz always say we have our best teams when guys take pride in the Hawkeye Championship and the out-of-season. If you’re blowing that off, then football in general probably doesn’t mean a whole lot to you.”
But how do these competitions prepare the players for game day? For Doyle, it’s all about helping the athletes develop their skills and grow in the face of adversity.
“Guys want to win,” Doyle said. “They want to show improvement. In a program like Iowa that has had so much success with unheralded recruits kind of rising to the top, when we create a competitive environment in offseason strength and conditioning, you develop a platform that allows the Boone Myers and Cole Crostons and Bo Bowers of the world to step in and climb their way to the top.
“If we didn’t have that, if we just had incumbents and passed out positions based on recruiting, we wouldn’t have that. We can’t do that here. We have to create competition to be who we are,” he continued.
