Helping athletes improve performance and teaching them how to play their best more often is the worlds greatest profession! As I ended my summer workouts, our local paper was kind enough to run the following article today. I hope you enjoy it!
If you want to see the rest of the picture gallery click here...there are 10 pictures.
PANTHERS GET JUMP ON PRESEASON AT ARDREY KELL
by David Scott
dscott@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Thursday, Jul. 30, 2009
There's a reason a group of Carolina Panthers players spent Thursday morning sweating in the July heat on Ardrey Kell High's football field - rather than relaxing as the beginning of the team's training camp looms.
"If you want a job in the fall," says safety Chris Harris, "you can't relax in the summer."
Harris, sweating in a long-sleeve T-shirt after the workout ends, is a vocal part of the group that worked out with Charlotte athletic trainer Jeremy Boone most weekday mornings since early June.
Boone puts the players through the kind of grueling conditioning and agility drills – wind sprints, running around cones, pushing blocking sleds - they'll face when training camp opens Monday in Spartanburg.
But he also keeps it light.
Thursday's workout, which concludes with a spirited game of Ultimate Frisbee, also includes a "rock-paper-scissors" contest in which the loser chases down the winner and tags him.
As the summer wore on, the Panthers group included at various times: Harris, defensive end Tyler Brayton, fullback Brad Hoover, running back DeAngelo Williams, quarterback Matt Moore, receiver Ryne Robinson, linebackers Thomas Davis and James Anderson and defensive tackle Damione Lewis. Appalachian State tight end Ben Jorden (who played at Charlotte Latin) also trained with the pros.
"The two weeks before training camp is the most important time of the season," says Williams, who finished third in the NFL in rushing last season with 1,515 yards. "It lets you know where you are. I'm finding out what I can do and what I can't do.
"Hopefully I have more can-do's than can't-do's."
The training session doesn't reveal much about the players' conditioning, except that they all come through it with ease. And Robinson looks lithe and agile after recovering from the knee injury that doomed his 2008 season.
The 75-minute workout concludes. Spartanburg beckons.
Brayton gets in one final stretch.
"Summer's over," he says.