In-Season Conditioning with TCU Football
My biggest thing is making sure that our guys aren’t tired during practice, so they can think and learn, which is why we do most of our conditioning during the off-season. I want them to be in tip-top shape when camp rolls around. At TCU, we don’t condition from two-a-days until midway through the season, because the players need to use their practice time to learn. Also, our practices move at such a fast pace that the athletes are at full speed all the time, so extra conditioning drills aren’t needed.
Midway through the season, we begin conditioning again, because practices are shorter, so the players’ conditioning levels begin to fall. We’ll condition the day after a game to work out the soreness, and also on Tuesday or Wednesday. To make our conditioning position-specific, our defense performs a pursuit drill, the offensive line performs 20 to 30 15-yard sprints and the skill guys run 10 to 15 fly patterns during special teams. We use a 3:1 work-to-rest ratio on all conditioning drills.
I always tell our guys: “You never know if you’re going to play five or six quarters, so you have to be as fresh on play 120 as you are on play one.”
10s, 20s, 30s, 40s Ladder
After each sprint through the yard line, jog to next starting point and immediately perform the next sprint.
- Start on goal line; sprint through 10-yard line
- Start on 10-yard line; sprint through 30-yard line
- Start on 30-yard line; sprint through opposite 40-yard line
- Start on 40-yard line; sprint through goal line
- Start on goal line; sprint through 40-yard line
- Start on 40-yard line; sprint through opposite 30-yard line
- Start on 30-yard line; sprint through 10-yard line
- Start on 10-yard line; sprint through goal line
- Use 3:1 work-to-rest ratio
- Perform 6 reps
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In-Season Conditioning with TCU Football
My biggest thing is making sure that our guys aren’t tired during practice, so they can think and learn, which is why we do most of our conditioning during the off-season. I want them to be in tip-top shape when camp rolls around. At TCU, we don’t condition from two-a-days until midway through the season, because the players need to use their practice time to learn. Also, our practices move at such a fast pace that the athletes are at full speed all the time, so extra conditioning drills aren’t needed.
Midway through the season, we begin conditioning again, because practices are shorter, so the players’ conditioning levels begin to fall. We’ll condition the day after a game to work out the soreness, and also on Tuesday or Wednesday. To make our conditioning position-specific, our defense performs a pursuit drill, the offensive line performs 20 to 30 15-yard sprints and the skill guys run 10 to 15 fly patterns during special teams. We use a 3:1 work-to-rest ratio on all conditioning drills.
I always tell our guys: “You never know if you’re going to play five or six quarters, so you have to be as fresh on play 120 as you are on play one.”
10s, 20s, 30s, 40s Ladder
After each sprint through the yard line, jog to next starting point and immediately perform the next sprint.
- Start on goal line; sprint through 10-yard line
- Start on 10-yard line; sprint through 30-yard line
- Start on 30-yard line; sprint through opposite 40-yard line
- Start on 40-yard line; sprint through goal line
- Start on goal line; sprint through 40-yard line
- Start on 40-yard line; sprint through opposite 30-yard line
- Start on 30-yard line; sprint through 10-yard line
- Start on 10-yard line; sprint through goal line
- Use 3:1 work-to-rest ratio
- Perform 6 reps