As the Patriots opened training camp today, coach Bill Belichick reflected on how much training camps have changed over the years.
Belichick noted that when he first came into the league, training camps were much longer, much more grueling, with more hitting, more scrimmages against other teams, and twice as many preseason games.
“Obviously we’ve had a number of changes over the years in the structure of the camp, how many practices you can have, what type of practices, what you can do in practice, etc,” Belichick said. “My first year in the league we went to training camp July 5, first regular season game was September 24. We had six preseason games and three preseason scrimmages. So of course it’s different. With the Giants we had fifty-some practices before our first game. Padded practices. It is what it is. Things have changed so we change and we always look at what we’re doing in everything, whether it’s training camp, schedules, everything, and try to evaluate, see if there’s a better way to do it. New ideas, sometimes those things work out well, sometimes we go back to what we’ve done before. We try to be as efficient and productive and do the best job we can preparing for the players. Absolutely. Constantly evaluating.”
Players have much more advanced offseason workout programs today, but Belichick said he still thinks nothing can replace football for getting players ready to play football.
“You can run around a track forever. That’s not really football conditioning. You need 21 other guys out there so you can simulate football and the reactions of football,” Belichick said. “Until you get the other 21 guys out there it’s not the same. Conditioning is conditioning but playing football is more.”
Belichick also noted how different the technology is, with players doing significant work on their tablets, where in the past they’d be writing down plays in notebooks that coaches put on chalkboards.
“When I started we had a lot of film projectors and a lot of paper and pencils,” he said. “Now the whole IT world is a lot different.”
The world of coaching is a lot different, but the 71-year-old Belichick continues to embrace it.
