New Strength Coach

[Noodle]

KY, I don't know how to paste in links, and I don't want Mad to go all Arellano Felix on my arse for quoting articles instead of linking, but from what I'm reading, you're right. Both The Rock and Redding are free weight guys.

And MM didn't can The Rock because of the hammy and pectoral injuries that plagued the team. (I remember reading posts here saying that the Rock introduced some pec and hammy machines, which people suspected may have contributed to the injury bug, but I haven't found any verification for this).

Instead, the stories say that MM didn't like the "atmosphere" in the weight room. What the hell does that mean? Did the Rock favor AC/DC whereas MM wanted Metallica? Too much chalk dust in the air? Not enough mirrors?

This is an odd one. I dig Redding, mostly because he cut his teeth at Nebraska and worked with the legendary Boyd Epley. But I don't know what the issues were with the strength and conditioning program that made MM pull the plug on the Rock.

[Guiness]

I think the bit about Rock moving to machines is hypothesis here on the forum. Can anyone even say for sure that he introduced pec and hams machines?

I'd be surprised if he did - why would he move away from what got him there.

I did also see some stuff about atmosphere, guys going too far competing against each other, but again, just conjecture. Like the mysteries Martin Luther questioned, there are no answers that will be revealed to us.

[Bossman641]

KY, I don't know how to paste in links, and I don't want Mad to go all Arellano Felix on my arse for quoting articles instead of linking, but from what I'm reading, you're right. Both The Rock and Redding are free weight guys.

And MM didn't can The Rock because of the hammy and pectoral injuries that plagued the team. (I remember reading posts here saying that the Rock introduced some pec and hammy machines, which people suspected may have contributed to the injury bug, but I haven't found any verification for this).

Instead, the stories say that MM didn't like the "atmosphere" in the weight room. What the hell does that mean? Did the Rock favor AC/DC whereas MM wanted Metallica? Too much chalk dust in the air? Not enough mirrors?

This is an odd one. I dig Redding, mostly because he cut his teeth at Nebraska and worked with the legendary Boyd Epley. But I don't know what the issues were with the strength and conditioning program that made MM pull the plug on the Rock.

This is all speculation on my part, but I remember reading quotes from MM about Grant and some of the other guys (RB's mostly I think) having competitions with OL and DL on certain machines. Maybe MM thought there was a little too much goofing around going on, or maybe he wanted more emphasis on preventing injuries rather then guys just trying to max out? I dunno, just me thinking out loud.

[Lurker64]

KY, I don't know how to paste in links

Here's a quick primer.

If you just want the URL to display as a URL

Type [url]Your URL here[/url], for example: [url]http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/38559842.html[/url] becomes http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/38559842.html.

If you want to make a text link

Type [url=Your URL here]The text you want the link to be[/url], for example: [url=http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/38559842.html]Packers Hire Veteran Strength Coach[/url] becomes Packers Hire Veteran Strength Coach.

If you don't want to bother typing in square brackets and mumbo jumbo, the board has a built-in functionality to help you here. If you look underneath the "Subject" header under "Post a Reply" you will see a series of nine buttons, the one on the far right is URL, and clicking that button will insert a single [url] into your post where the cursor is, and it will replace the button with URL*. Clicking the button again will insert a single [/url] into your post where the cursor is.

So a quick way to do this is:
1) Click URL
2) Paste your link
3) Click URL*

N.B. Don't quote this post and hope to learn anything from it, I had to embed a bunch of empty BB code in order to get those [url]s to display as text, instead of trying to create links.

[Waldo]

OK, hold the fuckin' phone.

Rock Gullickson was supposed to be the "anti-machine, I love free weights" guy.

Now we find out Redding will go back to the future, & use "old school" free weights.

IOW, the same rap all over again.

So this all sounds like bullshit.

There is some other reason for Rock Gullickson's firing, but I can't figure it out.

Someone, provide some GB scoop, if ya please.

Might have something to do with our multimillion dollar first round investment at DT injuring himself in the weight room. Are the trainers not there to prevent injury?

[mission]

he wanted more emphasis on preventing injuries rather then guys just trying to max out?

i think this is true... anyone who's been in a football team weight troom knows how shit can get at times -- even (especially) amongst teammates.

[KYPack]

he wanted more emphasis on preventing injuries rather then guys just trying to max out?

i think this is true... anyone who's been in a football team weight troom knows how shit can get at times -- even (especially) amongst teammates.

Quite true.

Any weight room falls into roughly 3 camps:

1. Dedicated professionals who want to build strength, endurance, and the ability to avoid injuries thru lifting.

2. Plate heads. Strong guys who want to lift the gym and out do their teammates in feats of strength.

3. The screw-offs. Guys who like to eat and do as little weight work as possible. Think Harrell here.

It's the strength coaches job to achieve gains in strength and conditioning and get as many people into group 1 as possible. Evidently MM thought Gullickson wasn't getting the job done. I think there was some political factors in Rock's firing, but I haven't heard anything concrete about it.

[pbmax]

Try this one on for size: Someone threw Harrell under the bus when he first hurt his back this spring. The backstory from JS was that he came to the offseason program out of shape. Patler has demonstrated that this is not as likely a scenario as it sounds, since Harrell had only seven weeks on his own after the playoff run. And the point of an offseason program is in part to prevent what happened, not induce it. JH can't be the first guy to come back to the offseason program having packed on a few or ignore the weight room.

This leak seems an odd thing for a coach to do, but maybe not for the Strength and Conditioning guy who either thinks Harrell is a bleep-up or is covering his posterior.

So he could have been on thin ice for the leak. He could have encouraged Harrell to go to far too early, or to rest on assurances from the young player that he was ready. Or Harrell could have been competing against teammates in an unsafe manner. All of which falls under his watch. If you are responsible for a player whom the entire team (DLine, coaches and GM) needs to come through and he gets hurt goofing off in the weight room, then I guess you were lucky you are still collecting checks.

At least, that is one possibility.

[Waldo]

I'm curious as to why you think Harrell is lazy. The kid is absurdly strong for his size and was a weight room beast at Tn.

Is it that GBPG article that blames his herniated disc on being out of shape. LOL. Is not the point of the S&C program to get in shape after a rest period? Out of shape = 320 pro athlete that weighs 10 pounds over playing weight, not some obese slob. Harrell is built like Jenkins, not Pickett and Cole. That one article destroyed his reputation as a hard worker forever, and it based on nothing more than a gotcha quote.

[KYPack]

Ya know what?, you guys are right.

Harrell got slagged for that PG article and it ain't fair. I wasn't there and don't really know what happened.

I thought Patlers comments on the Harrell situation were like most of his stuff...brilliant.

Justin probably wasn't that far out of shape, he was only gone a short time.

But any strength coach has to make an important assumption when the guys come back for their off-season weight training. He should figure that none of 'em did any of their unsupervised training, because some of 'em didn't.

Stretch 'em out and do some light work with 'em until you figure out who got their work in and who didn't.

My comment was more intended to cover the 3 kinds of players that inhabit the weight room. If Justin isn't a good example, I'll give you another one. Reggie White both hated to lift and didn't do it. he'd drop by the weight room every once in awhile, and mess around with the fellas. if anyone gave him any static, he lift the whole gym and drop it back on the ground. 'Cause Reggie was one of the strongest men in NFL history. He didn't like to lift and didn't bother with it. A strength coach has got to get the most out of his troops and help get them ready to play. Reggie didn't need the work, he was born NFL strong.

I think PB's comments might just be getting to the heart of the matter. The Harrell situation and resultant PR flack may well be why Rock Gullickson isn't getting his mail in Green Bay any more.

[Guiness]

Good conjecture all - and some pretty plausible stuff here.

A lot of it tying RG's fate to Harrel, but of course you have to consider Hawk and Grant's injuries as well. And Jenkins.

But the leak about Harrel might well have angered MM and been the actual cause, although I don't really see how that hurt the team...unless players figured he was the reason, and didn't want to work with him anymore?

And since it seems he replaced RG with a guy who, on the surface at least, has the same philosophy, it sure seems like it's was a personality thing.

[MadtownPacker]

KY, I don't know how to paste in links

It's as easy as pasting in your dentures you old coot. You can do it like Lurker said but probably best for an old fart like you to just actually believe it or not, paste the damn link text!!

The forum will pick it up as a URL and hyperlink it for you. On some URLs it wont work but does for almost all.

Example:

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/38559842.html

All I did was copy the link into the post.

[Fritz]

Despite the fact that this thread is conjecture (which I don't mind because it's acknowledged as such), this is some of the best work I've seen on this site in a while. Some smart posters, hypothesizing and being reasonable, curious as to why a move was made, and nobody attacking anyone else personally.

Packerrats at its best, in my opinion. Thanks, people.

[Guiness]

Rock Gullickson sucks donkey balls!

There, feel more at home Fritz? (sorry, couldn't resist. Just finished watching Clerks II)

I miss my Donkey

[SnakeLH2006]

My guess is Mike didn't like what the Rock was cooking.