Parkers Chapel adjusting to outdoors
As football teams across the state return to their offseason regimens, Parkers Chapel is taking a different approach with the social distancing guidelines in place.
“It’s hard to get in the weight room with all of the guidelines they’ve put on us, so we’re doing everything outside,” said Parkers Chapel coach Elliot Jacobs. “We’re trying to get as many push-ups, sit-ups, body weight exercises and stuff as we can get while adhering to the guidelines of keeping kids so many feet apart, making sure they don’t touch this and that. It’s tough, but everybody’s got to do it.”
The Trojans started their workouts on Monday, and Jacobs said this week would be about adjusting to working outdoors.
“We’re going to take it easy,” Jacobs said, adding that his team will workout through Thursday before taking Friday off. “They’re limiting how many hours we can go anyways, so we’re getting the kids acclimated to being outside in the heat since they haven’t done anything over the course of this.”
The Trojans’ new workout routine is a stark contrast to what they would be usually doing.
“It’s 180 degrees different,” Jacobs said. “Normally, we would be in the weight room, bonding as a team, gathering around people and cheering them on when they’re going for a max or just yelling in kids’ faces, getting intense, lot of sweat. You can’t do that anymore. I posted something that it’s hard for a football team to social distance. You want to be around your guys and cheer them on. Everybody is having to learn the new way of doing things.”
Monday marked the first time Jacobs saw his team in person since mid-March.
“It felt really good,” Jacobs said. “Some of them have gotten jobs and had to work, so we’re going to maybe change some times so we can get more kids up there. The kids that were up there, it was really good to see them.”
Jacobs said he was pleased with how his team was physically even though they have been away for close to three months.
“We had a few kids that showed us videos of them lifting, and they hit some of their personal maxes and crushing some goals,” Jacobs said. “It was good to see that. Even though they might’ve been working out, kids are growing, so they’re getting bigger. When you don’t see somebody for three months, they’re going to change, and we noticed it. Everybody looked good.”
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For now, Jacobs said he isn’t concerned with conditioning. He wants his players to focus on regaining what strength they may have lost since March.
“We’re not really concerned too much of running,” Jacobs said. “Conditioning is one of those things that’s easy to get back. The big thing that we want to eliminate is their strength loss that they’ve had if they haven’t been working out. We’re trying to do body weight exercises, squat lunges, push-ups. We’ll run a little bit, but I’m not concerned about conditioning at this point in time.”