Post by Oneback on Feb 18, 2007 18:20:11 GMT
Good Article:
Mat drills, odd exercises, discipline shape new strength program
Posted 2/18/2005 | Filed under Urban Meyer, Features | Permalink
The Gainesville Sun takes a look at Urban Meyer and new strength coach Mickey Marotti’s new conditioning programming, including the famed “mat drills.” Some of the program’s strength exercises conjure memories of the odd events of the “World’s Strongest Man” contests.
> Marotti on mat drills: “They are high-intensity quickness and agility activities done on mats. We have six different stations. We have seat rolling, up-and-downs, bear crawls and things like that. We have one where two players sort of wrestle, with one trying to keep the other from the line.”
> Meyer: “There are six stations and there is a finishing point in each one. There’s a very clean and succinct format and if the players don’t follow them exactly they start over. We have a combative drill where it is man vs. man and the toughest guy wins, but I don’t want to give away too much. You finish with high intensity, where the whole team is involved.
> Marotti on the legend of coaches locking doors and putting out puke buckets for exhausted players: “I don’t know about puke buckets. There was an uneasiness among the players when we first did the mat drills because they didn’t know what to expect. Each time we’ve done them, they’ve been better.”
> Meyer: “We’re putting them in situations now where they have to learn whether to give in or not. It’s a lot of mind over body. We have a saying: ‘Pain is weakness leaving the body.’ Can you toughen your mind to the point where you can fight through the hard times? Football, more than any other sport, teaches that. The toughest teams usually win.”
> LB Todd McCullough: “These drills enforce camaraderie and teamwork. It’s something where you see teammates working together and pulling for each other. It brings the whole team together. We’re all here for one purpose - to get better.”
> McCullough: “Everything is real competitive. One of the things Coach Meyer has emphasized is winning. The losers (in mat drills) have to do extra stuff, so there’s an emphasis on winning. We’re getting that competitive atmosphere back here where we’re expecting to win every time we step on the mat or on the field.”
> McCullough: “One thing I’m really excited about is instead of players saying, ‘Gosh, we have to go through this (a coaching change) again,’ it’s been, ‘Man, I really can’t wait until we start playing.’ The camaraderie has already been remarkable.”
> McCullough: “We all heard how (Meyer) was a disciplinarian. He’s tough. He’s demanding. At the same time, there’s a purpose behind everything he does. We starting to see that now.”
****************************************************************************************
Bowden's offseason workouts are physically demanding.
Conditioning has always been one of Bowden's trademarks.
"Even though Coach (Bowden) has this great heart and loves the kids, he knows what it takes to win," FSU strength and conditioning coach Dave Van Halanger said. "He works them until they can't work any more, so that when it's the fourth quarter and you're playing Virginia Tech for the national championship, those kids have something they can count on because they've been through everything we can put them through."
Especially the mat drills Van Halanger runs during a 10-day period in the spring.
"The only thing he (Bowden) tells me how to do is the mat drills," Van Halanger said. "He wants it to be 10 days of hell.
"We get them up at 5:45 (a.m.) and we work them and work them. It's agility and conditioning drills on a wrestling mat for about an hour. It stresses them to the limit."
****************************************************************************************
by Steve Ellis, Condensed from the Tallahassee Democrat
Dan Kendra first entertained the idea of becoming a Navy SEAL when he was in grade school.
Classmates dreamed of playing football. Kendra wanted to be a member of an elite special-forces unit.
After an injuryplagued football career at Florida State, Kendra was on the verge of making the Indianapolis Colts as a fullback when he walked out of preseason camp.
"He said to us, 'you know what? I think this world needs more special-forces guys than NFL guys,' " said his mother, Diane. "It has always been his dream to pursue this. Football picked him; he didn't pick it. But this, he wanted to do.
"After 9/11, that really pushed him over the edge. It was, 'I'm doing this.'"
Kendra, training to be a Navy SEAL, is one of at least seven former Semi-noles players actively serving in the Armed Forces.
Kirk Coker, a part-time starting quarterback in the mid-1980s after walking on, and John Merna, who walked on as a tailback, are Marines stationed in Quantico, Va. Coker, a major, is an aide to a three-star general.
Former fullback Ren-dell Long is stationed in Korea. Ex-linebacker David Stallworth, a Navy helicopter pilot who also oversees helicopter maintenance, calls Coastal Systems Station in Pan-ama City home. Former defensive lineman Stan-ley Scott, who played in the mid-'80s, is an instructor at West Point. He is captain after a long stint at Fort Hood in Texas. Former graduate assistant Franklin Hagenbeck (1977 -78) is a major general and the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan. (See story about Hagenbeck in the August Florida State Times.)
Only Kendra and Greg Tony joined the military after Sept. 11. Tony passed on a chance to start at fullback this season to enter the Marines Officer Candi-date School. Kendra, at a a joint military base outside Fort Worth, is waiting on word when he'll begin Basic Underwater Demo-lition School, or BUDS, in Coronado, Calif.
For the veterans, the terrorist attacks only strengthened their conviction that they had selected a career that makes a difference. Stallworth was involved with the peacekeeping operations in Kosovo. From his ship, Marines were deployed and humanitarian aid was sent to Albania.
"What happened on 9-11, it makes you realize what you are doing is very important," Stallworth said. "After 9-11, if you are out in the community in uniform, you have strangers coming up to you and shaking your hand and thanking you for the job you're already doing. It makes you real proud and makes you believe the (career) choices you made were the right choices."
Coker has served in Southeast Asia, Somalia and the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. He had been to the Pentagon days prior to Sept. 11.
"Quite frankly, we in the military have been talking about the potential for something like this to happen for years," Coker said.
Football and the military service are perfect partners, according to these former Seminoles. Defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews, who is also Stallworth's father-in-law, and off-season conditioning prepared the linebacker for Aviation Officer Candi-date School in Pensacola.
"The drill instructor had that same kind of tone you were already used to," said Stallworth, who works alongside a former Arizona State football player. "Everything I went through in football pretty much trained me for that training-the way they run the mat drills and defense.
"It's kind of easy to go from football to the military, especially when on the teamwork side. I went through two years of flight school beginning in 1995, and it was a lot like being part of a team at Florida State. Instead of working for an ACC championship or a national championship, you were working together for your wings of gold."
Coker credits FSU Head Coach Bobby Bowden for helping him develop qualities that benefited his military career. Coker is up for a promotion to lieutenant colonel next year. He said the regimented lifestyle he experienced in football also prepared him for the Marines.
"Playing for Coach had a lot to do with shaping my leadership skills that I needed up here," he said.
Merna told Bowden what his football experience meant to his military career. Although mat drills came under scrutiny after De-vaughn Darling's death last year, Merna applauds them.
"I've absolutely learned many attributes from those hard, hard days at Florida State," said Merna, who was in Saudi Arabia for four months during the Gulf War. "There were many days you wanted to hang it up, but you couldn't. And there were similar days in the Marine Corps. There's nothing that I've done in the Marine Corps that was harder than mat drills.
"I've told Coach Bowden much of what he did on the practice fields and training is very similar to the structure of the military training. Coach Bowden was a great leader. He oversaw what was going on, he held people accountable, and he and his staff taught lessons much more important for off the field. He is a great role model for young men and hopefully future Marine Corps leaders."
Merna's father and two uncles fought in Korea. Merna, now a major and instructor, graduated in 1989.
Stallworth spent his childhood not far from the Pensacola Naval Air Station, home of the Blue Angels. The lure of flying drew him to the military after graduating from FSU in the early 1990s.
Coker had no interest in the military until, one day during his last semester at FSU, he walked by a Marine Corps recruiting booth. On a whim, he talked to the recruiting officer and was hooked on the idea.
Kendra is well known for having a pet alligator and wanting to be a Navy SEAL. Once on campus, players said the military was what Kendra mostly talked about.
Kendra has been to Coronado, Calif., for testing before entering BUDS, a notoriously demanding phase of training for SEALS. He'll be part of an eight-man team that will be challenged physically and mentally. If he gets through that he will go to jump school in Fort Benning, Ga., and scuba school in Panama City.
"This is where he belongs," his mother said. "He was so fascinated by the challenge. The body is good, and everything is great. Things are really falling in place.
"With football he loved the camaraderie, working as a team to pull it off. That's what (the military) is all about. It's all team-oriented."
****************************************************************************************
Article published Feb 15, 2007
Amato revels in pushing 'Noles
By Steve Ellis
DEMOCRAT SENIOR WRITER
The hoarse voice can mean only one thing: Mat drills have started - and Chuck Amato's back.
Yes, Amato is back in the familiar position of pushing Florida State football players in the early-morning hours.
Those workouts, in the opinion of the former North Carolina State head coach, are what helped shape the FSU teams that won two national championships during his tenure as assistant head coach with the Seminoles.
Amato, who is in charge of one of the mat stations, is by all accounts demanding. And not just in those early-morning workouts. His Wednesday morning interview with a reporter was immediately followed by an inspection of FSU's locker room.
"That's always been my fun time of the year as an assistant or a head coach for seven years," Amato said of mat drills. "That's where I've lost my voice all these years. Today was a little better than the first day (Monday)."
Former players also have talked about how the foundation and tone of the dynasty years were set with the expectations and toughness of mat drills.
"Absolutely. There's no question," said Amato, also FSU's executive head coach and linebackers coach. "Coach (Bobby) Bowden actually addressed the team the Tuesday before the national signing day. I know he didn't do that while I was here (for 18 years), and maybe he did it his first year.
"We convinced him you have a new staff and this is like his first year and a new beginning. He hit them as only Bobby could. He set the tone. The kids want to do that stuff."
Another area where Amato has excelled throughout his coaching career is recruiting. He came late into the process but likes what FSU is bringing in at linebacker.
The most highly rated of the group is four-star Kendall Smith, who earned PrepStar All-America honors and was rated by Rivals.com as the second-best at his outside linebacker position nationally. In 14 games he made 156 total tackles. He had committed to FSU before Amato came on board in January.
"I was really impressed with the highlight tape his high school had made for each of their seniors," Amato said. "He can run and he'll hit you and it looks like he's got good instincts. He plays hard and I'm really impressed with him."
Amato was already familiar with Homestead linebacker Maurice Harris, who was recruited by North Carolina State while Amato was still there. Harris rated as the 24th prospect at his position by Scout.com after making 112 tackles and 12 sacks as a senior. Because of his participation in wrestling, Harris' weight is down, but Amato isn't concerned about that.
"I saw him in person play in a jamboree in the spring and I was just ecstatic about him," Amato said. "He's 6-1 and probably 200 pounds. Michael Barrow was his coach and Michael was 205 when he was a senior in high school. Marvin Jones was 200 pounds when he got here.
"He ran real fast. He ran a 4.51. I was surprised more people weren't in (on him)."
Many of the schools who recruited Harris were those who had coaches with ties in South Florida.
Aaron Gresham is a linebacker from Mayo Lafayette who Amato said he didn't know much about but immediately liked. Gresham made 120 tackles as a senior.
"I watched tape on him," Amato said. "He's just a hard-nosed, hit-him-in-the-mouth player. Som
Mat drills, odd exercises, discipline shape new strength program
Posted 2/18/2005 | Filed under Urban Meyer, Features | Permalink
The Gainesville Sun takes a look at Urban Meyer and new strength coach Mickey Marotti’s new conditioning programming, including the famed “mat drills.” Some of the program’s strength exercises conjure memories of the odd events of the “World’s Strongest Man” contests.
> Marotti on mat drills: “They are high-intensity quickness and agility activities done on mats. We have six different stations. We have seat rolling, up-and-downs, bear crawls and things like that. We have one where two players sort of wrestle, with one trying to keep the other from the line.”
> Meyer: “There are six stations and there is a finishing point in each one. There’s a very clean and succinct format and if the players don’t follow them exactly they start over. We have a combative drill where it is man vs. man and the toughest guy wins, but I don’t want to give away too much. You finish with high intensity, where the whole team is involved.
> Marotti on the legend of coaches locking doors and putting out puke buckets for exhausted players: “I don’t know about puke buckets. There was an uneasiness among the players when we first did the mat drills because they didn’t know what to expect. Each time we’ve done them, they’ve been better.”
> Meyer: “We’re putting them in situations now where they have to learn whether to give in or not. It’s a lot of mind over body. We have a saying: ‘Pain is weakness leaving the body.’ Can you toughen your mind to the point where you can fight through the hard times? Football, more than any other sport, teaches that. The toughest teams usually win.”
> LB Todd McCullough: “These drills enforce camaraderie and teamwork. It’s something where you see teammates working together and pulling for each other. It brings the whole team together. We’re all here for one purpose - to get better.”
> McCullough: “Everything is real competitive. One of the things Coach Meyer has emphasized is winning. The losers (in mat drills) have to do extra stuff, so there’s an emphasis on winning. We’re getting that competitive atmosphere back here where we’re expecting to win every time we step on the mat or on the field.”
> McCullough: “One thing I’m really excited about is instead of players saying, ‘Gosh, we have to go through this (a coaching change) again,’ it’s been, ‘Man, I really can’t wait until we start playing.’ The camaraderie has already been remarkable.”
> McCullough: “We all heard how (Meyer) was a disciplinarian. He’s tough. He’s demanding. At the same time, there’s a purpose behind everything he does. We starting to see that now.”
****************************************************************************************
Bowden's offseason workouts are physically demanding.
Conditioning has always been one of Bowden's trademarks.
"Even though Coach (Bowden) has this great heart and loves the kids, he knows what it takes to win," FSU strength and conditioning coach Dave Van Halanger said. "He works them until they can't work any more, so that when it's the fourth quarter and you're playing Virginia Tech for the national championship, those kids have something they can count on because they've been through everything we can put them through."
Especially the mat drills Van Halanger runs during a 10-day period in the spring.
"The only thing he (Bowden) tells me how to do is the mat drills," Van Halanger said. "He wants it to be 10 days of hell.
"We get them up at 5:45 (a.m.) and we work them and work them. It's agility and conditioning drills on a wrestling mat for about an hour. It stresses them to the limit."
****************************************************************************************
by Steve Ellis, Condensed from the Tallahassee Democrat
Dan Kendra first entertained the idea of becoming a Navy SEAL when he was in grade school.
Classmates dreamed of playing football. Kendra wanted to be a member of an elite special-forces unit.
After an injuryplagued football career at Florida State, Kendra was on the verge of making the Indianapolis Colts as a fullback when he walked out of preseason camp.
"He said to us, 'you know what? I think this world needs more special-forces guys than NFL guys,' " said his mother, Diane. "It has always been his dream to pursue this. Football picked him; he didn't pick it. But this, he wanted to do.
"After 9/11, that really pushed him over the edge. It was, 'I'm doing this.'"
Kendra, training to be a Navy SEAL, is one of at least seven former Semi-noles players actively serving in the Armed Forces.
Kirk Coker, a part-time starting quarterback in the mid-1980s after walking on, and John Merna, who walked on as a tailback, are Marines stationed in Quantico, Va. Coker, a major, is an aide to a three-star general.
Former fullback Ren-dell Long is stationed in Korea. Ex-linebacker David Stallworth, a Navy helicopter pilot who also oversees helicopter maintenance, calls Coastal Systems Station in Pan-ama City home. Former defensive lineman Stan-ley Scott, who played in the mid-'80s, is an instructor at West Point. He is captain after a long stint at Fort Hood in Texas. Former graduate assistant Franklin Hagenbeck (1977 -78) is a major general and the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan. (See story about Hagenbeck in the August Florida State Times.)
Only Kendra and Greg Tony joined the military after Sept. 11. Tony passed on a chance to start at fullback this season to enter the Marines Officer Candi-date School. Kendra, at a a joint military base outside Fort Worth, is waiting on word when he'll begin Basic Underwater Demo-lition School, or BUDS, in Coronado, Calif.
For the veterans, the terrorist attacks only strengthened their conviction that they had selected a career that makes a difference. Stallworth was involved with the peacekeeping operations in Kosovo. From his ship, Marines were deployed and humanitarian aid was sent to Albania.
"What happened on 9-11, it makes you realize what you are doing is very important," Stallworth said. "After 9-11, if you are out in the community in uniform, you have strangers coming up to you and shaking your hand and thanking you for the job you're already doing. It makes you real proud and makes you believe the (career) choices you made were the right choices."
Coker has served in Southeast Asia, Somalia and the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. He had been to the Pentagon days prior to Sept. 11.
"Quite frankly, we in the military have been talking about the potential for something like this to happen for years," Coker said.
Football and the military service are perfect partners, according to these former Seminoles. Defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews, who is also Stallworth's father-in-law, and off-season conditioning prepared the linebacker for Aviation Officer Candi-date School in Pensacola.
"The drill instructor had that same kind of tone you were already used to," said Stallworth, who works alongside a former Arizona State football player. "Everything I went through in football pretty much trained me for that training-the way they run the mat drills and defense.
"It's kind of easy to go from football to the military, especially when on the teamwork side. I went through two years of flight school beginning in 1995, and it was a lot like being part of a team at Florida State. Instead of working for an ACC championship or a national championship, you were working together for your wings of gold."
Coker credits FSU Head Coach Bobby Bowden for helping him develop qualities that benefited his military career. Coker is up for a promotion to lieutenant colonel next year. He said the regimented lifestyle he experienced in football also prepared him for the Marines.
"Playing for Coach had a lot to do with shaping my leadership skills that I needed up here," he said.
Merna told Bowden what his football experience meant to his military career. Although mat drills came under scrutiny after De-vaughn Darling's death last year, Merna applauds them.
"I've absolutely learned many attributes from those hard, hard days at Florida State," said Merna, who was in Saudi Arabia for four months during the Gulf War. "There were many days you wanted to hang it up, but you couldn't. And there were similar days in the Marine Corps. There's nothing that I've done in the Marine Corps that was harder than mat drills.
"I've told Coach Bowden much of what he did on the practice fields and training is very similar to the structure of the military training. Coach Bowden was a great leader. He oversaw what was going on, he held people accountable, and he and his staff taught lessons much more important for off the field. He is a great role model for young men and hopefully future Marine Corps leaders."
Merna's father and two uncles fought in Korea. Merna, now a major and instructor, graduated in 1989.
Stallworth spent his childhood not far from the Pensacola Naval Air Station, home of the Blue Angels. The lure of flying drew him to the military after graduating from FSU in the early 1990s.
Coker had no interest in the military until, one day during his last semester at FSU, he walked by a Marine Corps recruiting booth. On a whim, he talked to the recruiting officer and was hooked on the idea.
Kendra is well known for having a pet alligator and wanting to be a Navy SEAL. Once on campus, players said the military was what Kendra mostly talked about.
Kendra has been to Coronado, Calif., for testing before entering BUDS, a notoriously demanding phase of training for SEALS. He'll be part of an eight-man team that will be challenged physically and mentally. If he gets through that he will go to jump school in Fort Benning, Ga., and scuba school in Panama City.
"This is where he belongs," his mother said. "He was so fascinated by the challenge. The body is good, and everything is great. Things are really falling in place.
"With football he loved the camaraderie, working as a team to pull it off. That's what (the military) is all about. It's all team-oriented."
****************************************************************************************
Article published Feb 15, 2007
Amato revels in pushing 'Noles
By Steve Ellis
DEMOCRAT SENIOR WRITER
The hoarse voice can mean only one thing: Mat drills have started - and Chuck Amato's back.
Yes, Amato is back in the familiar position of pushing Florida State football players in the early-morning hours.
Those workouts, in the opinion of the former North Carolina State head coach, are what helped shape the FSU teams that won two national championships during his tenure as assistant head coach with the Seminoles.
Amato, who is in charge of one of the mat stations, is by all accounts demanding. And not just in those early-morning workouts. His Wednesday morning interview with a reporter was immediately followed by an inspection of FSU's locker room.
"That's always been my fun time of the year as an assistant or a head coach for seven years," Amato said of mat drills. "That's where I've lost my voice all these years. Today was a little better than the first day (Monday)."
Former players also have talked about how the foundation and tone of the dynasty years were set with the expectations and toughness of mat drills.
"Absolutely. There's no question," said Amato, also FSU's executive head coach and linebackers coach. "Coach (Bobby) Bowden actually addressed the team the Tuesday before the national signing day. I know he didn't do that while I was here (for 18 years), and maybe he did it his first year.
"We convinced him you have a new staff and this is like his first year and a new beginning. He hit them as only Bobby could. He set the tone. The kids want to do that stuff."
Another area where Amato has excelled throughout his coaching career is recruiting. He came late into the process but likes what FSU is bringing in at linebacker.
The most highly rated of the group is four-star Kendall Smith, who earned PrepStar All-America honors and was rated by Rivals.com as the second-best at his outside linebacker position nationally. In 14 games he made 156 total tackles. He had committed to FSU before Amato came on board in January.
"I was really impressed with the highlight tape his high school had made for each of their seniors," Amato said. "He can run and he'll hit you and it looks like he's got good instincts. He plays hard and I'm really impressed with him."
Amato was already familiar with Homestead linebacker Maurice Harris, who was recruited by North Carolina State while Amato was still there. Harris rated as the 24th prospect at his position by Scout.com after making 112 tackles and 12 sacks as a senior. Because of his participation in wrestling, Harris' weight is down, but Amato isn't concerned about that.
"I saw him in person play in a jamboree in the spring and I was just ecstatic about him," Amato said. "He's 6-1 and probably 200 pounds. Michael Barrow was his coach and Michael was 205 when he was a senior in high school. Marvin Jones was 200 pounds when he got here.
"He ran real fast. He ran a 4.51. I was surprised more people weren't in (on him)."
Many of the schools who recruited Harris were those who had coaches with ties in South Florida.
Aaron Gresham is a linebacker from Mayo Lafayette who Amato said he didn't know much about but immediately liked. Gresham made 120 tackles as a senior.
"I watched tape on him," Amato said. "He's just a hard-nosed, hit-him-in-the-mouth player. Som