Tech football taught to sweat blood
CT Sports Staff
April 27, 2007
Behind certain doors on the Virginia Tech campus work, and the effort to constantly improve, never stops.
And behind these doors is where the success of the few translates into the exultation of the masses, and also where the Virginia Tech Football team gets down to business.
The doors to the strength training room read: "Sweat Blood," words of motivation hardly needed for the Tech Football squad, because as we all have come to learn, the Hokies aren't soft. They are the men of the lunch pail, the blue collar crowd, that have a work ethic that could tire a heard of Clydesdales, and the strength to carry on a tradition built with sweat dripping effort and a tireless drive to win.
When a member of the football team pass through those doors and into their world class weight facility they know they must be serious because the reputation of the Hokies must be upheld.
The Virginia Tech football team takes pride in what they do best: they'll outlast, out hit, out run, and out grind teams with more finesse, because while other programs take a break during the spring and summer months, the Hokies are just getting started.
After a rebuilding year going 11-3, a disappointing bowl loss, and a dismal end of season ranking, the Hokies are hungry to hit the gridiron again.
So while the team bides team in the weight room and on the practice field until they enter the lane again this August, they work to strengthen the Hokie name with the "Ut Prosim," mentality.
But as everyone can understand, the human body is not naturally capable of with standing the kind of impacts the players crash into during games without some training. And the training begins with Amy Freel, the nutritionist for the football team.
"What we focus on," she explains, "is increasing their caloric intake, while maintaining a leaner physique."
"We do this by having them incorporate 3-4 complete meals a day, with some snacks as well," she said.
"The aim is to keep their metabolism up by having them consume good carbs like whole grains and sweet potatoes," Freel said. "We will also supply them with protein shakes after work outs to help them recover post practice from energy loss."
The kind of work outs that Dr. Mike Gentry, associate athletic director for athletic performance, is in charge of procuring for the Hokie football players.
"For our larger players," Gentry said. "It's all about agility."
"We focus on hips and lower back because most of our power is generated in that area."
"To strengthen and train those areas we have players do power cleans and squats with variations," Gentry said.
"There are five levels of progress in our training program," Gentry described. "Maroon, orange, hokie, iron hokie, and super iron hokie."
"There are different expectations for different positions. For instance, our linemen obviously have to be able to lift the most weight, since that is the nature of their position," Gentry said.
"In order for a linemen to achieve the highest level of excellence, super iron hokie, he must be able to squat at least 575, bench 400, power clean 315 and push jerk 340 pounds, respectively. That's a total weight manipulation of 1,630 lbs in different areas of the body." Gentry said.
"It's about getting that power and exploding strength off their stance," He explained.
One such player whose expectations are being raised is red shirt sophomore Ed Wang. Wang, whose position last year was Tight End, will be making the jump down the line to offensive tackle.
"The coaches want me to still be able to move quickly," Wang said, "But keep the weight on."
While his duties will involve the same basic skills, Offensive Tackle, and Tight End, are two very different positions on the field.
"At Tight end it would usually just be one on one," Wang said. "But now, on the inside, it's a lot more cluttered because there are more bodies to watch out for."
Wang's strength conditioning expectations, because of his switch of positions, have also become more difficult. The average weight of the starting offensive line last season was a heft 313 pounds. Wang's fall weight of 268, was easily on the small side, but he's been hard at work to gain lean mass; he's already up to 331 pounds.
"My squat is 470," Wang said. Which puts him on the very low end for Linemen. But his last spring his squat was 400; improvement is well on track.
"I push jerk 340, and power clean 300," Wang said. Both of those weights put him well within reach of Iron hokie status in the near future.
"Wang is only a sophomore," Gentry said. "So his max's aren't that impressive, yet. But he's maturing into a very big body, and his move onto the inside made him instantly more athletic. He's embraced his switch of positions, and his ethic has picked up noticeably, he's going to have a good season."
Hopefully, with Wang as an example, all of the Hokies will be hard at work this spring and summer to give their best for an impressive fall performance. Suffice to say, for the Hokies, that won't be hard to do. Because the Hokies carry a significant advantage: heart.
"These guys come in here four days a week, and hit it hard, with tons of enthusiasm," Gentry said. "We are forming all these guys into super iron hokies."
While the football team "sweats blood" for a good season in the future, another adage is also used to describe the passion and pride these players take on their reputation and dedication to their continued strength and dominance on the field: "There is no off season."
As metal clangs against metal and grunts of exertion are loudly over heard past the doors to the weight room, working hard all year long is a time-honored tradition for the Virginia Tech football team.
Because that's what Hokies do best.