(12-09-2017 11:54 AM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(12-09-2017 10:43 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(12-09-2017 10:20 AM)Pan95 Wrote:  

(12-09-2017 09:31 AM)Ricefootballnet Wrote:  

(12-08-2017 08:43 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  A bunch while I still worked in Houston. Not many since.

But I've made it pretty clear that my comments about practices were based upon observations of others passed along to me, and have accompanied such comments with a request for anyone who did attend regularly and had a different take to speak up. You've noticed there have been no takers on that.

And you can tell how a team practices by watching how it plays. We play like a team that doesn't practice hard.

My old high school coach was full of aphorisms, and one of his favorite was, “you practice how you play; you play the way you practice.” A bit redundant, but oh so true. And don’t we know it...

A word of caution about going all in on physical practices: Junction Boys.
I like the approach of Rice being a physical team, but given our injury history and historical lack of depth, I hope that the new S&C (not really new as Coach K employed a similar philosophy) approach allows us to practice with increased “physicality”.

One phrase I have heard over and over during the Bailiff tenure was “take care of each other.” That was in reference to being responsible in tackling and hitting.

And while we are at, perhaps it is time to install grass at HRS?

Physical practices don’t mean that people get hurt. Most injuries, particularly practice injuries, happen when bodies get piled up. By working in smaller groups you can minimize that damage. I have noticed in videos of Bloomgren at practice that he did a lot of work in small groups. Small groups with lots of reps and nobody standing around get a lot of work done in a hurry without the injury risk. 11 on 12 with 70 watching is the other end of the scale.

The other thing that happens is that if you have physical practices, your bodies get accustomed to it and I believe you are less likely to get injured in games.

I liked the way Bryant did it (surprise, surprise)—hard, physical practices in the spring (when people have time to recover before fall), then running your butts off to develop fitness in two-a-days, then taper off with mostly game planning and recognition stuff once you are into the season (the hay is pretty much in the bath at that point).

Why would you put the hay in the bath?

Sorry. Couldn't resist.