How Important Is Training Camp?

[KCrockaholic]

Another fine write up over at arrowheadpride. These guys are great.
http://www.arrowheadpride.com/2010/8...p-to#storyjump

How Important Is Training Camp To A Football Team's Success?


From the FanPosts -Joel

Are the Chiefs having a good camp? From the reports I have read, I would say yes. I haven't heard anything at all like some of last years comments, particularly the ones about out of shape, over weight players. In fact, Joel just posted about how much healthier the players are this year than last.

Few players have spent time in the dreaded rehab zone, and so far at least, no one has been chased off the practice field as was the case in the Devard Darling debacle last year. It would seem that focus remains on football and that is how it should be.

I think that the circumstances surrounding our training camp this year should give us encouragement that the team will perform well on Sunday's this fall. Here are a few comments on camp from some people you may have heard of.



It is in training camp, Bill Belichick says, that championship teams are made.

"Players understand that they need to prepare. I think they know that. No matter how many times you go out and run round the track, and no matter how many sit-ups you do, and chin-ups, and all of that, you can't replicate being on the field with 21 other guys and playing football.

"It's a necessary part of preparing for the season. If you want to play well, and have a good team and a good season, that's all part of it. I certainly can't remember a good season I have ever been a part of that wasn't also part of a productive training camp and preseason. I think those things go hand-in-hand."

Tom Coughlin (a former Parcells assistant) sees camp as where leaders are established and confirmed:

"The challenge is out there. And there are many guys who are capable," Coughlin said. "And I think it’s going to take the hard work of training camp and the grind guys go through – how we perform, act and speak when we’re tired and when the dog days of camp come in – that’s going to prove the emergence of guys who have the best interests of our team at heart and can, from that respect, be leaders."

I don't know about you but that sounds an awful lot like something that Haley has said about camp. Particularly about how camp is a grind and how the players perform during those "dog days":

"I’ve been involved in a lot of different training camps in a lot of different atmospheric conditions and I personally, the players probably hate me, but I grew up on the Steelers training camp in Latrobe (PA) in the middle of the summer, it’s hot, it’s sticky and Bob (Gretz) will tell you, it’s miserable, a lot of the time. I like that. It means training camp. It means everybody’s a little ornery, mad, a little nasty. Those are all good things."

I would have to say that the Chiefs did react this way early on in Camp. There were a few scuffles between players and between offense and defense. Pride is fashionable once again in Chiefs nation.

I think that Kevin Mawae made a quote that a few Chiefs would agree with. Guys like Casey Weigman, Mike Vrabel, Tomas Jones and Brian Waters can hear this one in their soul:

"For me and Pete Kendall and some others, we have to win pretty quick, ... (Bill) Parcells used to say, 'There's no light at the end of the tunnel in training camp.' For us, the light is starting to shine and we want to get to the Super Bowl before the light gets all the way to us."

Yep. The light is starting to shine for our guys now too.

A good training camp is essential to a teams success in the regular season. The Chiefs have embraced the program, stayed healthy and begun brewing a concoction called whoop ass. It could even be said that this concoction is flavored with the essence of Vince Lombardi. Here's what he told his players going into his first training camp.

" I’m going to ask you to work harder than you’ve ever worked before in your life, because the History of the National Football League proves that most games are won in the last two minutes of the first half, or the second half. And it’s usually the team which is best conditioned which usually wins the game. I’m going to expect 100% effort at all times, anything less than that is not good enough."

Did he mean what he said? Let's get it straight from the horse's mouth.



Tight end Gary Knafelc of the Packers had the best one-liner regarding the level of work and commitment that was required for a Lombardi training camp.

"Lombardi works you so hard," Knafelc once said, "that when he tells you to go to hell, you look forward to the trip."

Training camp is how you start. So far, the Chiefs are getting off to a good one. All of these quotes would indicate we have a lot to look forward to. Soak it in believers. We won't get a second chance to enjoy the baby steps of the new and improved Kansas City Chiefs. It's gonna be a GREAT season!

[Deberg_1990]

To established vets.......it means almost nothing. waste of time

To the rookies and guys fighting for jobs, it means something.....

Whatever the case, on most NFL teams about 90% of the positions are already set before camp.

Way too much time, ink, radio chatter and 1 and 0's is wasted on training camp and preseason.

[onwardthruthefog]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

To established vets.......it means almost nothing. waste of time

To the rookies and guys fighting for jobs, it means something.....

Whatever the case, on most NFL teams about 90% of the positions are already set before camp.

Way too much time, ink, radio chatter and 1 and 0's is wasted on training camp and preseason.

so SB winning coaches think training camp is very very very important, and deberg thinks its not. who should i follow on this one?

[FlaChief58]

Welcome to CP. This place is full of "experts" who think they know more than coaches GM's owners and players, eventhough most are donut swilling tubs who would die of a heart attack if they were to touch a football.

Originally Posted by onwardthruthefog

so SB winning coaches think training camp is very very very important, and deberg thinks its not. who should i follow on this one?

[KCrockaholic]

Training camp/practice is very important. It's a fact. Anybody who has ever coached football at any level knows this.

Not just coached, but even played at any level.