Hogs Haven
ESPN Commanders’ reporter John Keim spoke on his recent podcast about the up-coming training camp which begins for Washington this Wednesday. One thing he mentioned that caught my attention is how he expects to see more one-on-one matchups during camp this year – something they surprisingly deviated from last year under head coach Dan Quinn.
John went on to talk a bit about how Quinn absolutely loves competition, and how the decision to not see as many one-ones at last year’s camp was a bit of a surprise.
There was an interesting dynamic last year, as Washington had an older roster compared to this season. Could that have been a reason why Washington shied away from this so very important part of camp?
We may never know the answer to the question above, however both Peters and Quinn are scheduled to speak to the media later on Tuesday afternoon, so maybe this topic gets brought up by our journalists.
Competition breeds excellence. This is not just for football, but essentially every facet of life.
As an athlete growing up, one-on-ones were part of my life. At the early age of 8, my father would have my best friend (who lived across the street from me growing up in Martinsburg, WV.) and I out in the back yard in pads doing nutcrackers prior to the midget football season starting.
In high school, we’d carve out time to compete in what we called the “box of war”, which was a position-specific live one-on-one open-field tackling drill against our teammates. We’d also do Oklahoma’s, 7v7 and O-line-D-line 1v1s.
In college back in the late 90’s-early 2000’s, restrictions were much different than they are now. More live action was allowed and our coaches made sure they took full advantage of this teaching time to do one-on-ones. Today, collegiate practices are much different, only allowing a certain amount of “contact” per week. I always joke with my son that he has it easy in college compared to what I did, but there is still plenty of one-on-one exposure these athletes get.
From a pure coaching perspective, I always valued one-on-ones with my athletes. It was my measuring stick from practice to practice, week to week and even year to year. Without this competition, there was truly no way to judge where my athletes stood or how much progress they were making.
I would carve out time into my weekly INDY periods to have my players do specific 1v1 drills. We would run passing skelly at minimum twice a week, and I would often end my practices with some one-on-ones.
Everything we’d work on during any specific practice would be reinforced through one-on-ones. We’d often have our film crew tape these as they were incredible teaching moments.
In an NFL training camp, one-on-ones are the measuring stick that coaches can hold their players to. Some examples below are intriguing matchups I’d be interested in seeing...
