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Comment woodbuck27:
I didn't see this article posted and if I've duplicated that I apoligize.
Here it is for what it's worth. I felt it had some good points.
Posted June 15, 2007
Favre focuses on feet, not sore arm
By Pete Dougherty
pdougher@greenbaypressgazette.com
Brett Favre always has liked playing quarterback on the move and wants to do more of it this season than last year.
To that end, he's again working this offseason with Phoenix-based personal trainer Ken Kroener on a core- and quarterback-oriented conditioning program. He's also talked with coach Mike McCarthy about calling more movement plays for the Green Bay Packers this season.
"We didn't do enough of it, in my opinion, movement stuff, move me around," Favre said Thursday after the Packers' organized team activities practice.
"I think that's what I do best. Mike — we've talked about it numerous occasions, he's going to go to it, so I have to be ready for that. I get tired a lot quicker now than I used to. So, after a play, I have to be able to regroup and move on to the next play."
McCarthy said some unidentified concerns prevented him from putting Favre on the move more last year. McCarthy might have wanted to keep things as simple as possible for his three rookie offensive linemen who played regularly in 2006, and he also might have worried about Favre's mobility because of the sore left ankle he played on most of last season.
However, McCarthy appears inclined to use more of the movement-type plays this year even though the 37-year-old Favre is well past his prime as a runner.
"I think he's still a very effective player when he is on the move," McCarthy said Thursday.
"And frankly, the people that know him fairly well, the people who have competed against him from a defensive standpoint, a number of them play with a wider (defensive) end, rush the ends up the field, try to take that away from him."
Favre didn't practice Wednesday or Thursday this week because of soreness in his throwing shoulder, which he said probably is tendinitis. As McCarthy planned heading into the offseason, Favre was with the team for nine of the 12 voluntary OTAs — he participated in all meetings on those days and seven practices but missed the final two on-field workouts because of his shoulder.
"I found out with my elbow (in 2000) that tendinitis, several years back, I just kept on throwing and it almost cost me the opening-day start," Favre said.
"I'll probably take a week off and see how it feels and then start gradually throwing and get back into it."
Kroener is the same personal trainer former coach Mike Sherman arranged for him to work with in 2005 to improve his core conditioning. Kroener was in Mississippi earlier this spring to help Favre get into shape and rehabilitate his ankle after arthroscopic surgery, and beginning in late June or early July, he will put Favre through a more intensive regimen to get ready for training camp.
Favre said the workouts emphasize strengthening the core of his body and improving his short-area foot quickness for quarterback play. He wears a heart monitor that he can check on a wristwatch to know how hard he's working at any given moment.
The workouts last only about an hour, but he's constantly on the go because the drills mimic the demands of a football game, with short explosive bursts, then rest, as between plays. Favre said the average NFL play lasts 4 seconds, so his workout similarly has him going all-out in a drill for anywhere from 2 to 7 seconds, then resting about 30 seconds, then doing a drill for 2 to 7 seconds, and so on, non-stop for the hour.
The workout includes not only strengthening his midsection, but also movement work against resistance, with Favre dropping back or rolling out while tied to a bungee cord. The heart-rate monitor then tells him whether he's giving full effort — "the heart-rate monitor won't lie," he said — and also measures how quickly he recovers. Such specialized work is becoming more common for professional athletes.
"What you ask a shortstop to do training-wise you wouldn't ask a fullback to do," Favre said. "That's kind of what we're doing. We're doing stuff that's really good for my style of play, in-pocket stuff, making the first guy miss, trying to quicken my first step. Not trying to run a 40-yard dash any faster, but being able to move around and throw from awkward positions."
Favre said his post-surgical left ankle — he had bone spurs removed on Feb. 26 — was sore for a couple days last week but generally has not been a problem this offseason. Though his workouts in Mississippi in the spring were slightly scaled back because of his ankle, he weighed in for the OTAs at about 220 pounds, which has been his playing weight the last several years.
That's much lighter than early in his career. He revealed that in 1993 and '94, he played at around 245 pounds even though he was listed at 222 pounds, and even when the Packers won the Super Bowl in the '96 season, when he was 27, he was 236 pounds.
"Probably had a little different weight on me at the time," he joked.
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