Its that time of year again. College football camp time!
College football camps start all across the nation in the upcoming weeks. After complaining about the rigors of camp to others, I usually get asked what football camp is like. I always respond by telling them you eat, sleep, and practice football every day for nearly three weeks. I’ve gotten asked the question so many times that I don’t even have to ponder a response, my answer is more of a reflex at this point. And after three camps, I am in a unique position to go into detail about what exactly goes on during a football camp.
I start a regular camp day by waking up around 6:30 am, then I quickly brush my teeth and make my way to the cafeteria for a mandatory team breakfast at 7 o’clock.
At 8 o’clock there is a 15 minute meeting in the field house where all football activities occur. This short meeting includes all the defensive players and coaches. Our defensive coordinator goes over the highlights and low lights of the previous day’s practice.
Around 8:20 am we break up into positional meetings where we watch the film from the previous days practice and we install some new plays that we get to run later in the day during practice.
At 9 am the defensive side goes to lift weights. The weight lifting during camp is not meant to be grueling, but there is an emphasis on maintaining the strength and conditioning that was created throughout the summer workouts.
From 10 till 11:30 there’s some down time followed by lunch.
12:15 pm brings more meetings.
From 1-3:45 pm, we have a brisk practice with two ten minute water breaks throughout because it tends to get quite hot in Macon, GA during the summer. Whatever the official temperature is, feel free to add an extra five degrees due to the heat from the AstroTurf field we practice on.
We eat dinner at 5 pm followed by another hour of free time.
At 7 o’clock there are more meetings.
This is followed by an hour long walk-thru in which we go over plays in t-shirts and shorts inside a gym.
At 9 pm football activities are officially over, and we get a cheeseburger on the way back to our dorm.
One day of this schedule is fine. Two and a half weeks, including days with two practices, begins to wear on the body. At the end of camp no one except the kickers and the quarterbacks are without bruises. Everyone is walking a little funny because at some point in those two and a half weeks they have rolled an ankle or sprained a knee.
Even the coaches are worn out from the long hours they have to put in. The coaching staff spends 14-15 hours at the football facilities, which gives them little time to spend with their wife and kids.
In short, if you know anyone who is involved in these grueling football camps, try and be nice to them over the next couple of weeks as they will need any support they can get to get through these camps.
