Schedule to assist execution
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema has adjusted the team’s weekly practice workload heading into Saturday’s season opener against Louisiana Tech in an effort to have players ready for peak performances on game days.
Bielema said strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert delivered a talk to the team about the changes, which mostly affect Thursdays and Fridays, and that he borrowed ideas from NFL teams and college programs at Oregon and Iowa in considering the plan.
The new regiment began last week, with what Bielema described as good results.
“A lot of teams have gone to deloading the amount of activity on Thursday and increasing the amount of workload on Friday,” Bielema said. “So when we get done with practice on Wednesday, they really won’t have any type of high- level of intensity movements, other than Thursday in the weight room and with soft- tissue recovery, until Friday afternoon.
“Then we’ll engage in about a 45- minute to an hour kind of an up- tempo — not a walk- through, but not a practice either.”
Bielema said the Friday work would be full- speed routes, full- speed coverage in helmets and “spider” pads, which are lighter than full gear.
“I know Coach B has done a lot of research and spent a lot of time with Coach Herbert and talked in terms of what is going to get us at our peak condition on Saturday,” defensive coordinator Robb Smith said. “It’s a little bit more like sprinter workouts and programs. Coach does a great job reading the pulse of our team. I think our players like what we did last week with that format. Their legs felt good for Saturday.”
Bielema said Herbert believes the Friday activity will help the players build toward game day “instead of sitting all the way from Thursday until Saturday.”
“A lot of teams have had success with it, both at the college and pro level,” Bielema said. “We’ve been dabbling in it and this year we’ve implemented it. The first week’s results were really good.”