The Junction Boy Days Are Over
I'm sure all of you have heard of the "Junction Boys" in one form or another. The term Junction Boys was given to those who survived Bear Bryant's summer football camp at Texas A&M University. The camp was famous for its tough conditioning drills, grueling hot temperatures and extreme field conditions. Bear Bryant created the camp because when he took the coaching job at Texas A&M he thought the players were soft and needed a summer camp to "toughen" them up. He decided to host a summer camp in Junction, TX that focused on intense, long workouts with minimal water breaks and recovery time. The camp was intended to weed out the weak ones and build mental toughness. And it did just that as several players ultimately quit or transfered to another school after the camp.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junction_Boys
Camps and practices like this are a dated strategy and have no place in today's world of sports. I'm okay with the idea of building mental toughness but overworking your players and depriving them of necessary things such as water breaks and rest time, is only going to A) Decrease performance and/or B) Injure them. Plus, mental toughness will only get you so far, just ask Tebow. I think that coaches are slowly steering away from these old-school strategies and realizing that proper practice management and nutritional strategies are far more effective than running someone until they puke. Nothing was more frustrating as an athlete when a coach would justify a technique or drill by saying "This is how we've been doing it for 20 years and this is how we're going to keep doing it." Just because you've been doing a drill for 20 years doesn't mean it's effective or the right way to do it. I get it, this drill used to work for you back in the day but you also thought not wearing a helmet during hockey and pitching complete games on consecutive days were good ideas too. Just as science evolves with new theories and concepts being learned everyday, sport strategies and practices need to evolve as well.
I'd say my biggest pet peeve is when coaches deprive their players of water during practice. Not only will the players continue to get worse without fluids some of them could become severely dehydrated. Players will perform much better if they are well hydrated which will allow them to execute and finish drills at a higher level. Another flawed strategy is not providing players adequate rest and recovery time. I don't know how many times we would play terrible in a game and coach would punish us by having practice early the next morning. Not only were we tired, sore and not able to practice hard but we weren't allowing our bodies to properly recover and prepare ourselves for the next practice or game.
I'd say my biggest pet peeve is when coaches deprive their players of water during practice. Not only will the players continue to get worse without fluids some of them could become severely dehydrated. Players will perform much better if they are well hydrated which will allow them to execute and finish drills at a higher level. Another flawed strategy is not providing players adequate rest and recovery time. I don't know how many times we would play terrible in a game and coach would punish us by having practice early the next morning. Not only were we tired, sore and not able to practice hard but we weren't allowing our bodies to properly recover and prepare ourselves for the next practice or game.
Two-A-Days, Hell Weeks, Killers...Whatever you want to call them, they are strategies that are outdated, unsafe, and counterproductive and coaches need to realize that. I agree that in order to improve you must push yourself harder that you did the day before and constantly strive to do better but there is a fine line between working hard and overdoing it. I also agree that mental toughness is a necessity in sports and often times separates the winners from the losers but it can be achieved through hard work and determination rather than extreme measures.
In summary, if you know of a coach who is stuck in an old-school mindset and refuses to adapt to the evolving world of sports, explain to them they are doing more harm than good and not allowing their players to reach their full potential.
