Alabama Hires David Ballou as New Strength and Conditioning Coach

[Bamabuzzard]

Like any other position—We won’t know definitively if these were good hires for a couple of years. But Saban has forgotten more about S/C needs than I will ever know.

I'm not sure if you read the above article. If not I recommend it. As you've stated, whether these were good hires are still yet to be determined. But they've built some outstanding credibility in the circles of S&C. When NFL and FBS programs are coming to you at a high school program to learn about your methods. That speaks volumes of their qualifications.

 

[DrollTide]

I was fully bought into the Cochran mystique, and was a bit surprised to see him go.

But I think we might have just gotten an upgrade. I approve this hire.

 

[27rings]

Joe Rogan had a podcast with a former power lifter who discussed the negative risk of Olympic lifts and made the comment that if you look at any NFL weight room those guys are not doing Olympic style lifts because the risk of injury versus the reward of the gain is not worth it. Take that for what it's worth. And I only mention because it seemed like every time SC posted a video it was players doing Olympic style lifts (lift clean & jerk, max out squats, etc). I've also noticed Derek Henry's workout videos he post on IG and they are completely different than anything he was doing in college, and we all know Henry is a BEAST. All that to say, I think Saban knew what direction he wanted to go with our strength and conditioning & injury prevention, and Cochran and Feld were not the direction he wanted. If I was a betting man I would bet this departure was a mutual departing and this new hire could potentially prove that Saban is yet again ahead of the curve.

I just hate that UGA fans are going to run their mouths that Cochran took a paycut to leave Bama and come to Athens. .

 

[bamaslammer]

So this is off subject but hits a point about strength training. I'm old, like mid 50's. When I was young I was fairly strong for my size, bench pressing in the 300's at a weight of only around 185. But of course those days had passed a long time ago. A few years back I joined a crossfit gym. When it started most things were body weight exercises, they included quite a bit of pushups. I actually joined to rehab after rotator surgery. So months went by and one day they did a max bench and I was shocked to get 315 up. I hadn't lifted much more than 200 lbs in a decade or so. I was shocked that doing pushups ended up making me strong enough to lift that kind of weight. So point number one is that you don't have to lift heavy weight to be ABLE to lift heavy weight.

Point number two is this, after that the gym I went to changed their focus more and more to olympic lifting (because they finally had enough weights to go around). That led to me injuring the OTHER shoulder and having to have surgery. I no longer do crossfit

point two, too much heavy lifting can lead to injury. I realize that these are young men and frankly better human specimens than I ever was but I think the points are the same, There is more than one way to get strong.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Joe Rogan had a podcast with a former power lifter who discussed the negative risk of Olympic lifts and made the comment that if you look at any NFL weight room those guys are not doing Olympic style lifts because the risk of injury versus the reward of the gain is not worth it. Take that for what it's worth. And I only mention because it seemed like every time SC posted a video it was players doing Olympic style lifts (lift clean & jerk, max out squats, etc). I've also noticed Derek Henry's workout videos he post on IG and they are completely different than anything he was doing in college, and we all know Henry is a BEAST. All that to say, I think Saban knew what direction he wanted to go with our strength and conditioning & injury prevention, and Cochran and Feld were not the direction he wanted. If I was a betting man I would bet this departure was a mutual departing and this new hire could potentially prove that Saban is yet again ahead of the curve.

I just hate that UGA fans are going to run their mouths that Cochran took a paycut to leave Bama and come to Athens. .

The more information that comes out the more it just points to Saban was ready to move on from Cochran's methods. We've had seasons completely altered due to injuries. The Crimson colored glasses in me says we've missed at least one maybe two NC's due to them.

 

[TIDE24]

Don't discount that this has Jeff Allen written all over it. This is a team effort between the training staff and S&C. Jeff is one of the best in the business and no doubt these were the guys he wanted to work with. No inside knowledge just appears that way. Not to mention I always trust Saban.

 

[imauafan]

I've been off the Cochran bandwagon for a few years now. We recruit so many talented players that the shortcomings aren't as obvious when we play Ole Miss, South Carolina, etc but when we play teams that are as talented as we are it has been obvious for a few years that something was wrong in the S&C program. I could look at our guys compared to the other top teams (Clemson, LSU, etc) and it was obvious that we were not doing something in our S&C program that they were doing, especially on both the OL and DL.

 

[Evil Crimson Dragon]

Joe Rogan had a podcast with a former power lifter who discussed the negative risk of Olympic lifts and made the comment that if you look at any NFL weight room those guys are not doing Olympic style lifts because the risk of injury versus the reward of the gain is not worth it. Take that for what it's worth. And I only mention because it seemed like every time SC posted a video it was players doing Olympic style lifts (lift clean & jerk, max out squats, etc). I've also noticed Derek Henry's workout videos he post on IG and they are completely different than anything he was doing in college, and we all know Henry is a BEAST. All that to say, I think Saban knew what direction he wanted to go with our strength and conditioning & injury prevention, and Cochran and Feld were not the direction he wanted. If I was a betting man I would bet this departure was a mutual departing and this new hire could potentially prove that Saban is yet again ahead of the curve.

I just hate that UGA fans are going to run their mouths that Cochran took a paycut to leave Bama and come to Athens. .

Let them talk........ it’s what they do

 

[bama_wayne1]

I guess if you already have a few rings you can afford to go to Georgia...Where you will never earn another.

 

[Tug Tide]

We have used the Catapult system to track data on players speed output and fatigue for several years now. I wonder if SC just wasn’t able to adapt to the tech side s&c. In the article below all quotes are from Jell Allen and team doctor Norman Waldrop. They seem to be all in on the tech side of injury prevention. I wonder if Ballou/Rhea have any experience with this particular system.

Inside the technology giving Alabama a competitive edge

The Catapult system Alabama began using three years ago has helped the Crimson Tide structure practices, expedite the rehabilitation of injured players and manage extended 15-game seasons since the advent of the College Football Playoff.

www.al.com

 

[Ole Man Dan]

I've been off the Cochran bandwagon for a few years now. We recruit so many talented players that the shortcomings aren't as obvious when we play Ole Miss, South Carolina, etc but when we play teams that are as talented as we are it has been obvious for a few years that something was wrong in the S&C program. I could look at our guys compared to the other top teams (Clemson, LSU, etc) and it was obvious that we were not doing something in our S&C program that they were doing, especially on both the OL and DL.

I agree. At first I thought it was just bad luck, but now I agree that too much pain and strain makes the muscles stronger than the connective tissue. Back when everybody had behemoths on the lines that may have been so, but today's game favors speed, more and more.
We have entered an era of need for more Fast Twitch Muscles, than brute strength.
Now it seems how fast a guy is in the 40s may not be as important as how fast he is in the first 10-15 yards. If different training can save our muscles, tendons and cartilage, our sidelines might not looks like patients at a Mash Unit.

 

[theshow4jsu_13]

Joe Rogan had a podcast with a former power lifter who discussed the negative risk of Olympic lifts and made the comment that if you look at any NFL weight room those guys are not doing Olympic style lifts because the risk of injury versus the reward of the gain is not worth it. Take that for what it's worth. And I only mention because it seemed like every time SC posted a video it was players doing Olympic style lifts (lift clean & jerk, max out squats, etc). I've also noticed Derek Henry's workout videos he post on IG and they are completely different than anything he was doing in college, and we all know Henry is a BEAST. All that to say, I think Saban knew what direction he wanted to go with our strength and conditioning & injury prevention, and Cochran and Feld were not the direction he wanted. If I was a betting man I would bet this departure was a mutual departing and this new hire could potentially prove that Saban is yet again ahead of the curve.

I just hate that UGA fans are going to run their mouths that Cochran took a paycut to leave Bama and come to Athens. .

I think what he actually said was that they don't do deadlifts because of the risk of injury, and to only deadlift if you want to get better at deadlifting. Which is completely moronic.And if you look into Robert Oberst, he even admits that he doesn't train properly. He's a World Strongest Man competitor and a freakish outlier, his training goals are completely different than that of a D1 football player. . Deadlifts assist in strengthening the lower back, which in turn helps a person get faster because of the increased force production out of the lower back. And the reason most of our guys were doing, and probably will continue to do Olympic lifts is because they help train for power, and power is strength displayed quickly. Which is needed on a football field.

I think this is an outstanding hire and can't wait to see it translate to a few more natty's.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

I think what he actually said was that they don't do deadlifts because of the risk of injury, and to only deadlift if you want to get better at deadlifting. Which is completely moronic.And if you look into Robert Oberst, he even admits that he doesn't train properly. He's a World Strongest Man competitor and a freakish outlier, his training goals are completely different than that of a D1 football player. . Deadlifts assist in strengthening the lower back, which in turn helps a person get faster because of the increased force production out of the lower back. And the reason most of our guys were doing, and probably will continue to do Olympic lifts is because they help train for power, and power is strength displayed quickly. Which is needed on a football field.

I think this is an outstanding hire and can't wait to see it translate to a few more natty's.

Back in my hometown there's a HS whose football program historically was never that good. They'd always been considered more of a "baseball school". Until 2005 they'd only won two district championships in school history. They hired a coach who implemented Olympic style weightlifting. Since then they've been district champs 2005, 2009, 2015, 2016, 2018 and almost got another one in 2019.

 

[theshow4jsu_13]

So this is off subject but hits a point about strength training. I'm old, like mid 50's. When I was young I was fairly strong for my size, bench pressing in the 300's at a weight of only around 185. But of course those days had passed a long time ago. A few years back I joined a crossfit gym. When it started most things were body weight exercises, they included quite a bit of pushups. I actually joined to rehab after rotator surgery. So months went by and one day they did a max bench and I was shocked to get 315 up. I hadn't lifted much more than 200 lbs in a decade or so. I was shocked that doing pushups ended up making me strong enough to lift that kind of weight. So point number one is that you don't have to lift heavy weight to be ABLE to lift heavy weight.

Point number two is this, after that the gym I went to changed their focus more and more to olympic lifting (because they finally had enough weights to go around). That led to me injuring the OTHER shoulder and having to have surgery. I no longer do crossfit

point two, too much heavy lifting can lead to injury. I realize that these are young men and frankly better human specimens than I ever was but I think the points are the same, There is more than one way to get strong.

Strength is determined by the neruromuscular system. Think of it as a breaker box in your home. Going through everyday life, you don't need all the electricity (strength) available to you to open the car door. Because using all the power you had for daily tasks would exhaust you pretty quickly, so we only use what power we need for the task. The general population can only use about 65% of our muscles maximum strength, athletes and competitive weightlifters can usually coax about 80% of their maximum strength. So its more than likely that your neuromusclar system "remembered" what it took to move that kind of weight. But it does take moving heavy weights more often to train the NM system to move increasingly heavy weights.

Not knowing your history, but I think this was a big issue with a lot of people in Crossfit. It's not the Olympic lifts that are dangerous, it's the AMRAP mentality, doing as many as you can, form be darned attitude that caused a lot of injuries. Olympic lifts are lifts that need absolute perfect form, and doing these lifts until exhaustion and loss of form is what usually causes the injury. Not heavy weights. There are thousands of people out there squatting over 600 pounds routinely and they have no injuries.

The way we get strong is through a stress, recovery, adaptation cycle. You stress the body, i.e.- squat 400 pounds, your body needs to recover (usually around 24 hours for the general population, but these are genetically gifted individuals) - through rest (sleep) and nutrition, and it adapts and is able to lift more or perform better the next time around. I am not in the know of how CSC was running the program, but it may have been an issue where our guys may not have been able to effectively recover before the next stressor (workout) was applied, thus causing overuse injuries and stresses to connective tissues. JMO.

 

[mlh]

I had a friend in high school who was kind of a super jock. She ran track and was a swimmer and went on to do both in college. After college she became one of the top female tri-athletes in the world. She eventually dropped out of the top 5 due to injuries. She kept getting nagging injuries that prevented her from performing at full strength.

She eventually got a new trainer who told her she was over-training. She said the "new workouts" were ridiculously easy and she felt like she wasn't working at all. But she stuck with it and eventually it paid off. The nagging injuries went away and she moved back into the top rankings again for several years, even though she was 8-10 years older than many of her competitors.

Of course, the "new workouts" did get tougher over time, but gradually and only when her body was ready for more strenuous work.

 

[MOAN]

Haven't read all the replies and stuff but I always thought of Scott Cochran as more a motivator than some strength and conditioning guru. I mean he didn't invent the wheel did he? Now when it comes to sports medicine we all know the leaps and bounds science takes seemingly from one year to the next!

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

We have used the Catapult system to track data on players speed output and fatigue for several years now. I wonder if SC just wasn’t able to adapt to the tech side s&c. In the article below all quotes are from Jell Allen and team doctor Norman Waldrop. They seem to be all in on the tech side of injury prevention. I wonder if Ballou/Rhea have any experience with this particular system.

Inside the technology giving Alabama a competitive edge

The Catapult system Alabama began using three years ago has helped the Crimson Tide structure practices, expedite the rehabilitation of injured players and manage extended 15-game seasons since the advent of the College Football Playoff.

www.al.com

I am excited about what our new S&C Staff can do with this system...

 

[Evil Crimson Dragon]

Haven't read all the replies and stuff but I always thought of Scott Cochran as more a motivator than some strength and conditioning guru. I mean he didn't invent the wheel did he? Now when it comes to sports medicine we all know the leaps and bounds science takes seemingly from one year to the next!

After the revelations as to why and how he left in the Cochran thread, I think Bama will come out ahead

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I thought the same thing!

Still one of the funniest movies of all time. Lee Marvin singing Happy Birthday, and another scene where he missed the broad side of a barn.

I know one other person with that last name. Not my favorite person...

 

[BamaBoySince89]

Now that I think of it, and maybe this has been said in this thread somewhere but is there a huge list of former players that burned out when they got to the NFL due to injury? About 2 years ago there were articles floating around criticizing Saban of sending players to the NFL injury-prone. One in particular that comes to mind is Dee Milliner. Dude got injured playing for the Jets and we never heard from him again.