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Here’s the Ben Herbert part. Love to hear the data and logic behind it all.
Ben Herbert gets to work
Herbert worked under Harbaugh at Michigan for the past six seasons. He said it was a “no-brainer” to join Harbaugh in Los Angeles.
“How Coach conducts his business,” Herbert said, “the trust, the rapport that we’ve built and the support that he has given me and how he has empowered me and my staff to do what we have done together, it’s significant.”
Herbert was a key piece in Harbaugh’s building a national-championship program in Ann Arbor. Herbert now brings his rather unique approach to football training to the pro level for the first time, and he laid out his vision thoroughly on Tuesday.
Herbert segmented his broader player-performance approach into five prongs:
1. “Make you harder to break.”
2. “Consistency.”
3. “Attention to detail.”
4. “Emotional stability.”
5. “Bigger, faster, stronger.”
And within those prongs, he went into more specifics.
Herbert said making players “harder to break” is his primary goal. He has identified several areas of the body that he deems the “most vulnerable” for football players: “The head, right and left shoulder, right and left hip girdle, right and left hamstring, right and left ankle.” He believes training must be sound in those specific areas to achieve the stated goal of making a player “harder to break.” For example, Herbert introduced neck work to the players Tuesday, and he believes that better neck flexion, extension and strength can decrease the likelihood of concussions.
Same logic with exercises designed to strengthen the four rotator cuff muscles. “When they’re strong and stable, where your humerus comes in your shoulder girdle, those four rotator cuff muscles keep that thing locked into place,” Herbert said.
Herbert defined consistency as, “Your ability to show up every day and repeatedly do what you are capable of doing.”
“Consistency is incredibly valuable,” he said.
Herbert used an example to depict his attention to detail. He had the players use Rogue-brand two-and-a-half-pound plates during their weight room session on Tuesday.
“When they put them back, they put them back a certain way,” Herbert said. “It says ‘Rogue’ at the top of the plate. Every ‘Rogue’ is perfectly square. It doesn’t matter if it’s the second plate or the 10th plate, it goes back precisely. No different than a DB’s eyes or his footwork, or an offensive lineman’s feet or his hand placement.”
Herbert explained emotional stability as keeping an even demeanor. “When I walk into a facility, who you know me to be is who I am every day,” he said.
And finally: bigger, faster stronger.
“I want to improve range of motion in tissue and joint,” Herbert said. “I want to give you more pressing capability. I want to make you improve your acceleration, your top-end speed. All of these things — we call them key performance indicators — that have to do with flexibility, mobility, strength and power, agility and speed.”
Those key performance indicators, or KPIs, for short, were the focus of Tuesday’s weight room session. The defense was up first at 8 a.m. while the offense held its meeting. Then the offense went at 10:15 while the defense met.
Herbert utilizes quantitative metrics to measure these KPIs.
“I love data,” he said.
Players filled out questionnaires about performance measures like ankle mobility, neck flexion and pressing power. If the players did not know, they had the option of listing a question mark. If they opted to respond, they could answer on a grading scale, such as A-plus for elite, C for average, etc. Then they performed the tests to set a baseline for their development within Herbert’s program.
“I want to get a sense for what they know, what they think they know,” Herbert said. “If that matches up, great. And then we just start to fill in the areas. It’s about making sure they understand what we do, why we do it, and most importantly, how their time and energy given to us is going to help them be better at doing their job.”
Hurst, now entering his seventh NFLseason, said this was his first time encountering this type of questionnaire in the pros.
“A staff … that’s really hands on and really wants to fix you and see your deficiencies and help you kind of overcome those, which I think is great,” he said, “Because playing football, you get beat up. Everyone thinks, ‘Oh, squat, bench, clean, throw stuff over my head.’ And it’s like, they’re really breaking it down and making sure that the soft tissue stuff doesn’t happen, guys are healthy and guys can play this brand football.”
Said Harbaugh of Herbert: “There’s nobody that combines the cutting edge scientific with the old school discipline strength and conditioning coach like he does. He’s the best I’ve ever seen or been around, as a player or as a coach.”
Herbert knows Tuesday was the first step in building trust with the players. He mentioned that a performance coach does not get “re-dos” when establishing a relationship with the players.
“If I don’t know something, I stand quietly,” Herbert said. “I don’t talk about things that I’m not certain of. But if I am certain of something that can help you, something that can help this team, I’m going to give you that information.”Comment
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I love this guy“Less is more? NO NO NO - MORE is MORE!”Comment
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This guy is the real deal.
Give him a forever contract, he must never leave the organization.ESPN Screename: GoBolts02Comment
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I thought so too, but then it looked like one guy was Jaimes and the other was Dissley. We have a lot of red heads on this team now, maybe the most in the NFL! (Hurst was obviously there)Originally posted by sonorajim View PostLike, how am I a traitor? Your team are traitors.Comment
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Post Nuclear holocaust 3 things survived.Originally posted by dmac_bolt View Post
Woodeye, roaches, and Ben Herbert tellin em' he can make their necks stronger.
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Lindsey is the official food boss at OL Masterminds.
Some of these dudes consume 7000 calories per day.
Edit: LOL woman in heels* is getting in your face with the truth.Last edited by wu-dai clan; 04-19-2024, 01:13 PM.We do not play modern football.Comment
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Hearing Ben Herbert talking about the stuff he knows makes me want to have a massage.Comment
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