Training Brian Urlacher

You had some extraordinary success with Brian Urlacher. How much has he meant to your career? Spence, Chicago, IL

We like to think of Brian as kind of our poster child around here. Obviously, he is a guy who epitomizes what we want to achieve here at CES. Brian and his brother, Casey who also trained with us and lived at my house with me are more than just clients... they are like surrogate sons to me. Brian may not tell you the same story, but he was one of those guys that was going to be great, no matter where he trained.

Every so often, you get a chance to work with a guy who just has it. And it is really the whole package. The natural physical skills, the work ethic, the desire and discipline to take everything you have to offer as a coach and maximize it to his full advantage. That’s what makes him the best to ever play his position.

Sure, the physical tools are all there, but it’s what is inside of him that makes him great. Nobody, and I mean nobody would outwork him in any drill. He’d kill himself every rep from the second he set foot in the facility to the second he crawled out. He is just a warrior. And honestly, CES had nothing to do with that. We just gave him the tools and he made the absolute most of it.

You ask me what he has meant to my career? Well, ask an actor what winning an Oscar means. Ask a musician what winning a Grammy means. It means that you had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to work together with people who are just special... and what you were able to accomplish together is especially defining. There are a lot of guys I feel that way about. But there are not a lot of guys who have all the tools that Brian has... the ones you can measure and the ones you cannot. Every day I come to work, I see guys who have a lot of pieces they are trying to put together to get to that level that Brian has managed to be at for so long. But when you take guys like Brian, Champ, Albert…guys who truly have the ability to be the best who have ever played their position…they don’t come around very often. We are just lucky to be a small part of their success on the field, and honored to consider them a part of our training family at CES.

Until next time, keep training hard!

Coach Smith

Running the 40yd dash:

QUESTION: Let’s say a wide receiver comes to your facility without knowing how to run a 40-yard dash the right way. If he can run a 40 in 4.60 seconds: How much will you then, with the right training, be able to cut of that time? Reggie, Greenville, NC

That’s really the nuts and bolts of what we do during our combine training here…but it’s so much more than that. We understand that getting into the NFL is a very specific process. It’s basically the most in-depth job interview in the world.

And certainly, a guy’s 40 time is a critical part of that process. Generally speaking, we see improvements of about 2 tenths of a second in most guy’s 40 times.

But that’s not all the NFL Scouts are looking for. Testing today is evolving in the same direction CES has been going for the past 20 years. That is to say, scouts are testing more “position specific” now. They want to see linemen who are explosive over 5 or 10 yards. They want to see a running back with quick change of direction. They want to see quarterbacks who can read and react very quickly to what is happening around them. In short, testing is moving into position specific, movement specific areas where reaction is key.

We call that “True Sport Speed”, and that’s exactly what our program is designed to create. Does that show up in a 40? Sure it does. We teach our guys how to execute each drill they will be asked to perform at the combine and at their pro days, and we are training to see those results. But if you take a Brian Urlacher for example, (who is one of the most incredible natural athletes I have ever seen by the way)…the results he got during his combine preparation here at CES were fairly typical. Brian came into CES from New Mexico at 6’4, 230 pounds, and he ran about a 4.69. Nine weeks later at the combine, he ran 4.49 at just over 260 pounds. So it’s not just teaching a guy the techniques around performing the drills, although that is certainly a big part of it. It’s also about maximizing a player’s explosiveness on the way to making him a better player.

The real measurement of our success at CES and the time any player spends with us is not just combine results and draft placement. Sure, that’s where the money is made, so we obviously focus on that. But we also judge ourselves on what kind of season a guy has after he has left us. Trent Edwards comes to mind with the Buffalo Bills. He had a fantastic rookie season after his time with us. This last year, we had Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Albert Haynesworth with us during the off-season. None of those guys were with us for their combine preparations. But as CES PRO Clients during the off-season, we were happy to see their hard work manifest itself on the field. And that’s really the main thing to emphasize here.

Yes, we have a system that we think is very unique and special. But make no mistake: Players are successful and get the results out of our system because they are in here paying the price in blood, sweat and tears every day. They come in here and bust their butts. That’s why they are so good. It’s like anything else. If you come into our facility and just go through the motions, you are not going to see the results. But it’s what is INSIDE Brian Urlacher and Champ Bailey and Albert Haynesworth that make them great players. That’s what we see from our clients that is special. Our program is tough, so guys that don’t come to work every day don’t usually stick around for very long.