Now that another NFL season is in the books, it’s time for players to begin their offseason workouts.
Evan Smith, a member of the 2011 Super Bowl-winning Green Bay Packers team, explained on the latest episode of his On the Line Podcast that the work for the next season begins almost immediately.
“You don’t want to just stop, even if you just got done with the season, you are banged up,” he explained. “Those guys are going to want to just go to the gym or go somewhere and just move. You don’t have to go get under 500 pounds. Pick up some med-balls, get some core stuff in.”
For many of these players, they are doing that at what Smith referred to as their “home base.”
“Your home base is basically if you weren’t on a team, where would you be training?” Smith revealed. “With the way the league is, you gotta have somewhere, if you get cut…where you know you can stay in shape.”
While the Super Bowl is always the goal, teams that don’t make it there, or to the playoffs for that matter, their offseason begins well before the Lombardi Trophy is handed out.
“If you didn’t go to the playoffs, you have been out for almost a month and a half now,” he said. “You should be under the bar quite a bit by now. You should be starting to build your base back up, and then you are going to start working towards getting faster and stronger as an athlete.”
This ideology transfers all the way down to those who play at the high school level as well.
Smith, since being named the new Head Football Coach at Manitowoc Lincoln, has implemented some new training courses for all athletes at the school, including a speed and agility course that he runs at 6:00 a.m. and 3:45 p.m. four days a week.
There is also a course for middle school athletes, which begins at 5:45 p.m., also in the JFK Fieldhouse.
You can learn more about offseason preparations by listening to the full podcast, which can be found in the Sports section of SeehaferNews.com.
New episodes are posted at noon each Tuesday.