Strength and Conditioning Coach Aaron Wellman
April 1, 2016
Q: What’s going to be the biggest challenge of going from college to the NFL?
A: The challenge for me is the same at any level: improving performance, mitigating risk, and individualizing programs when you have a large group of guys. And trying to do as a coach what is the absolute best physically for every single player on the roster—that’s always the challenge.
Q: It has to be individualized?
A: As much as we can, absolutely.
Q: You’re dealing with 32 year olds who have been in the NFL for 10 years.
A: And so all that comes into play when I talk about communicating and collaborating with the training staff. No two individuals respond the same way to the same stimulus. If I take both of you through a workout, the response to that workout is going to be very different—it’s no different with athletes.
Q: Or whether they are 19 or 32?
A: There’s always an individual response to training.
Q: Do you have to change the techniques? Guys at the combine would talk about competition, linemen versus backs. Is that something that doesn’t afford itself as well at the professional game?
A: I don’t know too much about what other college strength coaches were doing, I know what we do. For me, it’s about maximizing strength, speed, power and minimizing orthopedic stress on the body, mitigating risk—that’s what it’s about for me. We try to put our players in the best position for that.
Q: Are you looking forward to the April 11 when you get to see them?
A: I can’t wait.
I am not defending the former coach, but there is a strong possibility that SOME of the NYG's injury record was just a mild statistical anomaly, like flipping 4 heads in a row.
If that were true, then just doing the same thing is likely to show an improvement.
Of course we all hope that a change in methods will also result in a REAL step upwards.