Back when I played 8 man at GC, we had a head coach who came to us from the 6 man ranks (Bob James) who believed in conditioning. We were not the best team, in fact were mediocre, but one thing for sure, we NEVER ran out of gas in ANY game, even as we were getting clobbered by better teams. Pre -season conditioning practices were topped off by doing anywhere from 3500 to 4000 yards of sprints, depending upon how hard we hustled and listened (and how sadistic Coach James felt that day) (jk). He usually started us with 10 sprints at 40 yards, followed by 10 at 30 yds, 10 at 20 yds, and 10 at 10 yards, then working back up the ladder in 10 yard increments at 10 each to 40 yards again. The finishing touch was a killer where we ran 10 yards, then back, then 20 and back, then 30 and back and then 40 and back, and again finishing by repeating the sequence in 10 yard less increments.
He would relent after the first month and cut it back to 2500 to 3000 yards of sprints on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday practices.
There were a lot of Technicolor yawns those first few days in August......
