Wednesday practice report

by **High Horse** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 10:46 am

It is my understanding Joey is making some progress and is able to lift his foot somewhat better than he was in the past. I think the board reported that he was in Dallas over Spring Break working with his therapist.

by **hwgdds** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 8:30 pm

Ben Gottschalk was diagnosed with mono 2 weeks ago. He had the night sweats the first weeek, then the sore throat the second week. He feels fine now, but they don't want him to get run down and relapse like his roommate, Steven Kaiser. Can't risk spreading this to the team.

by **NickSMU17** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 8:38 pm

In sure him rooming with kaiser and then getting mono makes for a field day of jokes amongst the team, probably why they are keeping him out...

Hope he gets better soon, better now than fall we are going to need him...

by **Garret** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 9:01 am

Stlhockeyguy02 wrote:Wasn't one of the concerns expressed by a few Hawai'i/June Jones fans that Mr. DeLaura's program, while building strength and muscle mass, contributed to, or resulted in a higher number of player injuries?

I don't understand how a labrum injury was related to the strength and conditioning program by DeLaura. Injuries happen, but that seems like bad luck that might be possibly related to on-field techniques.

Hawaii has had its leading tackler from last year miss the entire spring since he's recovering from shoulder surgery. One top the candidates for starting SS got a torn ACL this spring. One of the key DEs from last year missed half of the spring after a forearm injury. A QB has missed almost a year due to a shoulder injury.

At Texas they seem to have TEs getting injured every other week in past years. Didn't they lose their top 4 or 5 TEs one year to injury and they ended up going to all-WR sets?

by **PonyKai** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 10:24 am

Well, regardless, we seem to be dealing with a lot of injuries.

by **couch 'em** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 12:00 pm

After we hired DeLaura I searched for info and found a long post on a Hawaii board about DeLaura focuses too much on power lifts on nit enough on "joint stabilization" techniques, and that it contributes to higher injury rates. That's all I've found good or bad.

by **Garret** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:43 pm

Stlhockeyguy02 wrote:I don't recall saying anything about this injury being related to a new strength program or trainer. I simply took the opportunity to ask a question, and hopefully raise my level of knowledge on the subject. Looks like I whiffed on getting a decent answer.

I apologize for coming off too harshly in my earlier post. A combination of the information that was posted earlier that seemed to blame all the injuries on DeLaura and your post asking about that information immediately after the information about the labrum injury was what I was reacting to. I also was speeding through this forum while I had some free time before my next business trip tomorrow and I clearly misinterpreted your post.

My bad.

by **RGV Pony** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:52 pm

Actually i posted information refuting that the mechanism of injury for a labrum issue would be the weightlifting regimen.

by **Garret** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:03 pm

couch 'em wrote:After we hired DeLaura I searched for info and found a long post on a Hawaii board about DeLaura focuses too much on power lifts on nit enough on "joint stabilization" techniques, and that it contributes to higher injury rates. That's all I've found good or bad.

There are a LOT of negative posts on Hawaii boards, so that particular post doesn't surprise me. But I wouldn't take that one post attacking DeLaura as the definitive review on him. Here is my take on Mel DeLaura, longer than I would normally have written but I feel like I should provide some info as part of my apology to Stlhockeyguy02:

1. I think that he did a good job at Hawaii--all the 4th quarter comeback wins, all the NFL draft picks from 2-star or no-star recruits, and the record of the team while he was running the strength and conditioning program proved something to me.

2. Classic example of a DeLaura project--Ikaika Alama-Francis went from a skinny walk-on who only played basketball (as a reserve with minutes limited to garbage time) at first at Hawaii to a 2nd-round NFL draft pick at DE. The before-and-after result was amazing--Ikaika had to put in the work of course to make that possible.

3. I don't think that DeLaura was as credentialed when he took over at UH as Hawaii's current S/C coach, but steadily improved over time. I thought he got the job in large part due to being JJ's former teammate. Too many hamstring injuries one year were a problem, but things were corrected to avoid that happening again. DeLaura now has far more expertise now than he did 10 years ago...Hawaii gave him on-the-job training that SMU is benefiting from now. So, some of the criticism of DeLaura during his time in Hawaii is definitely valid, but he showed he could learn from it and grow.

4. I think that Hawaii's current S/C coach is a better fit for UH right now under their current coaching staff. I think that DeLaura is a great fit for SMU while they have JJ. The most important thing for a S/C coach is having the trust of the head coach and the full understanding of what the head coach wants and the needs for each position (for example, the ideal DE in Glanville's 3-4 was very different than the ideal DE in McMackin's 4-3). After JJ left, DeLaura was going to be "JJ's guy" at UH and Heffernan was a good fit to replace DeLaura.

by **Garret** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:04 pm

RGV Pony wrote:Actually i posted information refuting that the mechanism of injury for a labrum issue would be the weightlifting regimen.

Yes, and I think that Hawaii's leading tackler from last year has a more serious version of the same injury now.