Summer: a time for rest-and work

Summer Break?

Summer vacation is here for NFL players — sort of.

In the next week or so, every NFL team will break from its offseason program and send players home for a month or so before the horn blows on a hot, humid, muggy morning this summer in training camp. And the official 2009 season will begin.

APFormer Bucs wide receiver Keenan McCardell giving me the business.

So what do the players do -- well, the players who want to produce and play in the fall?

Most of us think of summer vacation as a period to relax, fish, golf, drink beer or — if you were a kid — to get away from school and textbooks. Our parents extended our curfews, and we could sleep in every morning.

Sure, pro football players still do a lot of the above. They still throw clubs on the golf course after they slice a drive two fairways over, they still sit on a quiet lake and fish for walleye, and they still use the time to get in some extra rest before football takes over their lives as soon as they put on the pads in camp.

However, this is also one of the most crucial times of the offseason for the men who will be playing on Sundays — because it’s a personal time to work on your craft and perfect your game and your body.

Let’s examine it.

The Game Plan

I wrote Thursday how Raiders rookie WR Darrius Heyward-Bey would miss out on a crucial time to develop his game for the upcoming season after he went down with yet another hamstring injury in an OTA practice -- and the same can be said for any player with health issues right now.

APDHB will have a lot of catching up to do once he gets healthy.

You sit during this next month and it will affect your game.

I used to follow a program given to me by Chris Doyle, my strength coach at the University of Iowa and the best in the business when it comes to preparing players for the season.

Monday: linear speed drills and position drills. Tuesday: lateral speed and conditioning. Wednesday: defensive back drills plus change-of-direction conditioning. Thursday: linear speed and conditioning. Friday: position drills and conditioning. Saturday: bike and jog. Sunday: off.

For seven summers I followed this regime in Lake Geneva, Wis., where I spent — and still spend — my summer months. When I played for Gregg Williams in Washington, I started every morning with 40 up-downs or sprints before my workouts to simulate what we would do before practice in August.
The key to this break is to keep your body in top shape. Sure, I drank beer (sort of a requirement during summer in Wisconsin), but I always regimented my diet and waited until I was done with the day’s work before I started to fire down Bud Heavies and fish for large-mouth bass using a jig or plastic worm.

Because if you lose your conditioning, or you show up to camp overweight and out of shape, well, you don’t play — and when you don’t play, you lose your job.

Many players will head south to multi-million-dollar facilities and work with trainers to keep their bodies in shape. Some head back to their college campuses and work with their college strength coaches. Some even retreat to their old high school weight rooms — where it all started — and amaze people with the amount of weight they can throw around.

The destination isn’t the issue; the commitment and work is.

When you get up in the morning to condition, to work on coming out of your breaks or build your overall body strength, it’s a day’s work. Sure, it’s not a cubicle in some office, but it’s work nonetheless.

You’re paid to keep your body and your technique at a professional level — and that means as high as it can go.

Summer break for NFL players is a time to rest — after the work is done.

Follow me on Twitter: MattBowen41

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