Monday, June 29, 2009

Checked in with Doug Elisaia, Utah's strength and conditioning coach to see how things are going now that the Utes are a few weeks into their summer workouts.

 Overall, he is pleased with the group of 102 players he has in the program. (No James Aiono isn't here yet, he's expected to arrive in August).

 "We're doing the same thing we've done the last three or four years," he said. "We're doing a lot of things based on speed. We've recruited a lot of speed and that's evident with the guys coming in, there is a lot of speed that came in with the freshmen class. Our young guys are impressive. They get faster and faster every year."

The Utes are following a schedule of running twice a week in the mornings and lifting in the afternoons. Wednesdays are recovery days while Thursdays emphasize change of direction and speed acceleration in the runs and plyometrics in the afternoon to build the players' explosiveness and power.

 Other challenging drills are used as well to not only push the players' bodies but to get them accustomed mentally to challenges.

"We do a lot of mental toughness drills in the weight room and running through different obstacle courses," he said. "It challenges the team camaraderie and we push them to where their body wants to quit, but the mind overcomes so when they get to that point on the field they can push through."

 Developing that team camaraderie is often an under-estimated aspect of summer workouts, Elisaia said.

"People don't realize how huge it is," he said. "There are so many different characters and personalities and really in the summer you want to work all that out of the way and get everyone on a common goal. That way when you get everyone in here for 2-a-days, they understand what they are doing and they know why they are here and they can hit the ground running."

Developing those goals and chemistry is even more important this season, Elisaia said, because the Utes lost many of the players who served as leaders on the 2008 team and the effect that the Sugar Bowl victory still has on the team. "We're working on it a lot more this year than last year," he said. "We're trying to develop some new leadership and get their minds off the Sugar Bowl and moving on. These kids are reminded every day about the Sugar Bowl when they're in public and we're trying to wash it out of their brains."

Elisaia hesitated to single any players out for their hard work, characterizing the whole group as working hard so far.

"I'm impressed with the whole class in general," he said.

Elisaia said he didn't develop his training program around any one specific, but tailored it to the needs he sees in the Utes. "Certain guys need more speed work and position work, some guys needed more strength," he said. "It's specific to what our needs are every year."

 The Utes will get about a week off for the Fourth of July holiday, then return and work out until the end of July when they'll get another break before two-a-days start the first week of August.