Practice tempo, fundamentals stressed during Richmond camp
For Richmond varsity football coach Nick Persell and his staff, a focal point for this week’s team camp at the high school is to teach, or reteach, their Spartans how to do something they’ll do regularly starting the second week of August: practice.
A way to get players back into the rhythm of practicing is by simulating the tempo of regular-season practices during summertime camps, according to Persell. He and his staff are simulating that tempo in part by breaking their drills into coaching stations and getting the Spartans to hustle from station to station.
Soon-to-be senior Hunter Bowman found himself breathing hard that first day on the practice field as he went at the practice-like tempo – his first day this summer to wear shoulder pads and a helmet.
“(I’m) like, ‘Man, I’m sucking wind and I shouldn’t be,’ but … we’ll get there. … It’ll take some time,” he said.
Getting players used to the tempo of practices will “be a work in progress throughout the year,” Persell said…