Dolphins Believe New Weightlifting Program Will Keep Them Healthier This Season
His message was always clear.
In the months leading up to this year’s NFL Draft, Miami Dolphins vice president of football operations Bill Parcells always issued the same instructions as the team’s scouts hit the road, searching for the right players.
”When it comes those late-round athletes, we want big, tough and disciplined,” Parcells said. “And we want guys that love the weight room.”
His final prerequisite — the affinity for lifting weights — doesn’t have as much to do with finding strong players as much as it does healthy ones. Parcells — and most who have worked for him — believes injuries aren’t just a matter of misfortune.
They also can be a matter of inadequate preparation.
”Injuries are a way to lose in our league,” coach Tony Sparano said. “The teams that get injured, the teams that are hurt a bunch, the players that don’t practice, all of those things, it’s hard to recover from those type of things.”
So far, Parcells’ preaching has paid off. Although teams typically spend bye weeks recovering from injuries, even when the bye week falls this early, that has not been the case for the Dolphins.
They have sustained one significant injury (guard Donald Thomas landed on injured reserve with a foot injury in Week 1). The team did not list anyone on the injury report for the first three games.
A reason to knock on wood? The Dolphins don’t think so. Yes, some of this health can be attributed to good luck — but players say not all of it.
”Injuries are going to happen,” safety Yeremiah Bell said. “You can’t say when it’s going to happen, and you can’t always stop it. But I honestly think, with this weightlifting program, it prepares your body more to play a full season.”
Bell knows freak injuries are unavoidable. In last season’s first week, he sustained a season-ending tear of his Achilles’ tendon. ”And I was just backpedaling, doing something I’ve been doing my whole career,” Bell added.
But considering 11 players ended last season on injured reserve, it stands to be more than chance. Nearly half were anterior cruciate ligament tears, which are similarly unavoidable.
The Dolphins’ new staff, though, attempts to curb more minor injuries through strength of body and strength of mind.
Players are doing a different type of weightlifting, designed to increase strength in the areas used during a 16-game season. Players are doing more Olympic-type lifts (such as power cleans and overhead jerks) than more traditional lifts (such as standard bench presses and squats), which they believe are better suited for quick movements.
”Weightlifting can’t prevent everything, but so far, it has helped,” safety Chris Crocker said.
Players say the emphasis on mentally overcoming small injuries also can help a team overcome the hardships of a long season. Linebacker Akin Ayodele learned that lesson when he played for Parcells in Dallas.
”It’s mind over matter,” he said. “They really believe if you can get yourself past a certain point mentally, your potential can really extend itself to something more.”
Of course, it isn’t always possible to play with injuries — nor is it always safe. That’s the difference between being hurt and being injured. In Parcells’ world, there’s no such thing as being hurt.
”I played through some injuries in Dallas that, honestly, if another coach told me to chill out and not play, I probably wouldn’t have played,” Ayodele said. “But if you succeed in that scenario, you realize what you can do if you really push yourself.”
The Dolphins have 13 more games to find that out.
- Jeff Darlington, Miami Herald
