NFL TRAINING: Patriots Cornerback Ty Law

Here’s part of RATRIOTS CORNERBACK TY LAW’S workout that I found on the Sports Illustrated Website.

Comment on what you think about it:

"TY TO BE FIT
How the Pats’ Ty Law builds speed

By Lisa Altobelli

After missing the Pro Bowl in his first three seasons, Patriots cornerback Ty Law, 30, decided he needed to get faster to get noticed. He sought out track coach Bob Kersee, who trained Olympic gold medalists Gail Devers, Joanna Hayes and his wife, Jackie Joyner-Kersee. “I heard how demanding Bob was, and I wanted that kind of intensity,” said Law, who lives in Massachusetts but trains with Kersee at UCLA and in St. Louis. “I don’t have a problem leaving everything behind – my cars, my jewelry, my comforts of home – and just concentrating on myself.” Kersee uses hills and staircases for workouts and also believes in competitiveness. He has Law, who is 5’11" and plays at 200 pounds, line up with his track stars for 50- and 100-meter sprints. “As antiquated as it sounds, it still bruises the ego to get beat by a girl,” says Law. He may get beaten on the track, but Law has made the Pro Bowl the past four years. A look at his regimen:

RUNNING WILD
High skipping “helps muscle fibers store kinetic energy,” says Kersee. Law’s “ballistic” routine:
? High skip for 50 yards.
? Skip rope rapidly, five minutes
? Sprint 50 yards with legs scissoring straight out in front.
? For agility, Law does shuttles, running out and back 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 yards.

MIXING IT UP
Law challenges himself with these “gimmick” workouts:
? Sprint 20 times up and down 40 flights of stadium stairs.
? Sprint 100 yards dragging a 25-pound sled.
? Sprint 20 50-yard bursts up a steep hill.
? Jump sideways back and forth over a standard 16-inch cone 20 times.

STRENGTH + STAMINA
? 15 lunges with 45-pound dumbbells. Four sets.
? 15 straight arm raises, with 45-pound dumbbells. Four sets.
? Five bench presses, 225 pounds. Four sets.
? Five squats, 250-300 pounds. Three sets.
? For endurance: stationary bike, 30 minutes; four-mile walk, then a two-mile run; 400-meter race, then a 300, a 200 and a 100.

DIETARY LAW
? Law doesn’t eat breakfast. “The way Bob works us, I’d probably throw up if I did.”
? During off-season training he eats every lunch and dinner at Surf & Sirloin in St. Louis. “The Greek owner, Larry Karagiannis, takes care of us.”
? He has a green tooth: “Lunch I’ll have either a Greek, chicken or steak salad. Dinner I have a vegetable such as asparagus or broccoli.”
? His dinner habits are fishy: “I have king crab, snapper, Dover sole or sea bass.”
? He’s his own water boy. “I carry around a gallon of room-temperature water and make sure I finish it by the end of the day.”
? After the season Law lets himself get well above his playing weight. In May, he says, “I cut out carbs for two weeks and drop a quick 15 pounds.”
Issue date: September 20, 2004

I think that it is stupid. That just goes to prove that natural talent will make up for a shitty S&C program anyday.

Some of it is good-- a lot of it is shitty.

You also have to question the validity of the article. These reporters can be sneaky, and I’m not sure that the Pats S&C coach would let his EXACT programs be published.

Haha, Im sure Kersee had him doing alot more than that :). Those skips and things you do at a warmup before you even get to the real stuff. Doing those drills will have most people tired before they get to the actual workout.However that ist he full warmup routine.

I agree - I’m not impressed what so ever. Especially with the nutrition! As was said, I’m sure there was more to it that just a lunch and dinner. If not though, he is definitely blessed, because even a D3 college corner back wouldn’t function well on two veggie-based meals per day! Okay, so you don’t eat breakfast… what about an MRP shake or bar, or at least some Gatorade!!! Where’s the post w/o meal!!! If he is getting his ass worked off in a morning session without breakfast nor a carb recovery meal from the night before, he is losing TONS of muscle! Anything intense lasting longer than 20 minutes after having fasted all night, his body would have no choice but to break down skeletal muscle tissue for glucose. He wouldn’t make it through 3, 100m dashes without passing out from hypoglycemia!

As far as his workout, it sounds tough, but so many details were left out. It says he does 20 sets of stairs sprints… unless this is over a span of about 2 hours, 90% of those reps would have to be at less than 100% effort. This means he is just training for semi-anaerobic endurance. The body has to be firing at 100% effort to recruit enough motor units to learn to contract more rapidly and powerfully. Without sufficient rest b/n reps or with too much total volume, he might even be training to get slower!!!

I’m not knocking kersee, but I wish SI would put together some quality training articles if they are going to touch the subject. Instead of this “made for the masses” crap. The average person reads that and thinks he is a God… anyone knowing a little bit about elite athletics wouldn’t even take the time to pick up the magazine.

My rant is over… time to go train!

TopSirloin