The coronavirus pandemic caused schools to cancel spring football practices.
COVID-19 has also forced student-athletes to shelter at home over the last two months causing concerns throughout the coaching profession. Concerns center around student-athletes and when they return to campus that a lack of proper strength and conditioning over the last few months will cause players not be ready for fall training camp.
Stanford head coach David Shaw joined the show “Tennessee Two-A-Days” to discuss his thoughts on a time-frame that is ideal for when student-athletes return to campus and begin preparing for the 2020 season.
“You look at football on the college level being played extremely well,” Shaw said. “It is fast, it is physical, it is exciting and it makes you say wow. In order to have that, you have to be great in the weight room. You have to be able to train and it has been difficult not being able to have our strength coaches with our players in our weight room, but even more difficult that you have guys, not just us, all of us in college football have our student-athletes spread out in different places around the country.
“Some guys have weights in their house, some guys don’t. Some guys have access to a weight coach locally and some people don’t. I think that is the hardest part in how long does it take to get ready. I have heard a lot of coaches talk about four weeks. I understand four weeks if my guys, wherever they are across the country, if they have access to strength and conditioning apparatus. If they don’t, I think it is going to take longer than four weeks. You have a team that can’t truly train until you get them back to campus, and for me it is a minimum of six weeks. I would love for it to be even longer because the first two weeks we have to develop a true base for strength, speed and explosion to be able to last and stay healthy during a season – let alone be good and be as good as you can be. That strength and conditioning aspect is a huge part of this, preparing for the entire season.”
The entire podcast with Shaw can be listened to here or below. Shaw further discusses the coronavirus pandemic, how freshman and early enrollees can be impacted on depth charts, playing for Dennis Green and Bill Walsh, and former Stanford and Tennessee quarterback Keller Chryst.
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