Speed, explosion, twitch: What South Carolina‘s new strength coach has added
Two of the words that came up again and again as South Carolina football players talked about their new strength coach: technical and twitchy.
The reins to the Gamecocks strength program changed hands this offseason, with the departure of Jeff Dillman, a coach among Will Muschamp’s first hires, and former Ole Miss coach Paul Jackson taking over. One of the main issues last season was a rash of “soft tissue” injuries, primarily lingering hamstring issues that a good training regimen should be able to control.
The coronavirus pandemic has practices and team workouts on hold for now. (“Can’t wait to get back in the lab!” Jackson tweeted earlier in April.)
Whenever the sport reconvenes, he’ll be asked to kick into high gear to get players back in playing condition after a long layoff.
So what did the players learn about Jackson before the coronavirus ended spring ball?
“Very high tech,” quarterback-turned-receiver Dakereon Joyner said in March. “He’s going to have us fast and very explosive. We trained great all offseason. I think it’s the best thing we’ve ever been.”
He noted that speed had been an emphasis, aiming to be “fast twitch.” In addition to his standard strength background, Jackson also worked with sprinters. That brought a different look to South Carolina’s approach.
At one point Jackson described it as getting players closer to their limits at times during practice. That way, when they went all-out in games their bodies would be used to it.
“It’s going really well,” defensive lineman Zacch Pickens said. “We’re moving fast. You don’t really see a lot of injuries. We’re kind of protecting ourselves. We’re getting ourselves ready to get faster and faster. That’s all we really want to do.”
At the start of spring, Muschamp praised some of the different things Jackson had been doing and the competitive environment he was building.
Sometimes with strength coaches, there’s value in a new voice. Those men are often culture setters for a staff, and at times a change can snap folks to attention.
Even some of the strongest players on the team.
“I love him,” offensive lineman Sadarius Hutcherson said. “He actually speaks to me just by his work. It’s just everybody’s getting more explosive there by lifting stronger.
“It kind of like a lot of everything. He likes to critique a lot of things. Makes us make sure we’re flexible at the same time.”
Hutcherson is roundly considered one of the team’s weight room stars, and he named players such as Pickens, Keir Thomas and Jordan Rhodes as other players showing well in the area. Hutcherson is also moving from tackle to guard, where his power can efficiently be brought to bear.
The impact of the new strength staff won’t be seen until the team next takes the field again — and even then, the extended layoff could cloud that. But when they were still on campus, the players were taking to it.
“It’s great,” Thomas said. “Those guys are phenomenal. You can see it. Everybody’s body is changing and we are gravitating to them. They’re great ... We work on more twitchy stuff, technical stuff. There is a reason for everything they’re doing and we’re pretty much listening.”
