Some impressive improvements are made every summer when players are left to the strength staff for eight weeks at a time. It's a pivotal time in the growth and development of your roster, and Bret Bielema is such a big believer in that, that he and his staff created a second "summer" session for players to develop.
Bielema joined Paul Finebaum yesterday and explained his two summer development plan.
“One of the biggest development times in a college student-athlete’s career is during the summer, because they have eight uninterrupted weeks of just training and getting their bodies right. During my freshman year, I went from 190 to 225 and went from 235 to 265 my junior year. That’s when you put on great weight gains in strength - if you do it the right way."
“What’s better than one summer? Two summers. One of the things we do in our program is two eight-week programs. One in the summer like everybody else, but also one in January, February, March, before we even think about playing football."
"I just want our guys know you’re going to get 8 weeks of work in before you even think about putting on a uniform, because we need to get your body right.”
So what you call your winter workouts and conditioning, Bielema and his staff are calling their second summer session. Why?
“When I make my schedule, I don’t look at anyone else’s or pay attention to what they’re doing. I believe in development. We’re never going to have a sexy roster of five-stars or four-stars. We’ve got a bunch of guys that like to go to work every day and want to develop.”