Saban Details Strength and Conditioning Changes
Alabama head coach Nick Saban is commonly referred to as the GOAT; the greatest of all time when it comes to college football. And there are several reasons for that, though the primary one is the winning he's done.
There is only one head football coach to win seven national titles in the college football poll era. That's Saban. He's one of one.
One of the things contributing to his success goes beyond recruiting and goes beyond the X's and O's and schematics. It has to do with his ability to adjust and adapt to the times.
That means when strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran heads to the University of Georgia to take over as the special-teams coordinator, some things have to be changed inside the building.
So, what did Saban do? He brought in not one, but two strength and conditioning gurus. David Ballou and Dr. Matt Rhea have changed quite a bit around the Alabama program in their first full year and it's brought tremendous results for the Crimson Tide.
According to Saban, during the 2020 season — one that experienced a condensed offseason and a drastic increase in soft-tissue injuries across college football — Alabama experienced a 50% decrease in those issues.
While the sport saw an uptick, Alabama saw a downtick.
Some of the changes include a more analytical and scientific approach to the way they train their players. No longer is it about moving heavy weight, but moving weight fast. They track the speed of the weight, not the amount of weight.
Additionally, Saban noted that they no longer do testing measurables. There no longer are conditioning tests such as 16 110's — a long-time conditioning test in the world of football. Saban noted that with GPS tracking ability and data tracking they have on hand, they no longer need to test the athletes.
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