August 14, 2022 · 9:25 AM

Today, in “back in my day…”

Nick Saban, channeling his inner Bear Bryant:

“Camp is a tough time, though it’s not as tough as it used to be.”

Pass the salt tablets!

12 Comments

Filed under Nick Saban Rules

12 responses to “Today, in “back in my day…””

  1. ben
    August 14, 2022 at 9:56 AM

    No shit, nick.

    The season is much longer than it used to be; the kids are much bigger and stronger than they used to be; and there’s a lot more study on the long term effects of football on a kid’s body while they’re still growing.

    Liked by 4 people

  2. RangerRuss
    August 14, 2022 at 10:13 AM

    Water discipline.
    SMFH.

    Liked by 2 people

    • rugbydawg79
      August 14, 2022 at 1:40 PM

      supposed to run till you puke…it didn’t kill me.

      Liked by 1 person

      • RangerRuss
        August 14, 2022 at 4:41 PM

        I’m still alive. Knowing what I was getting into allowed me to train on my own so as not to suffer as much during practice. Running in the heat every day after working in the heat on summer jobs. I actually got out of shape in Basic Training after High School football.
        As a freshman at UGA one of the Rangers invited me to PT at 0500 next day. ROTC? Riiiiiiight. Bunch of pussies. Stretching, calisthenics and took off on a run. None of that Airborne Shuffle singing jodies. Up the hill into DT, around the warehouses at the tracks at a blistering pace. Finally back to the Military building. But we didn’t stop. I was dying but wasn’t going to quit. Meadows actually picked up the pace. Across Sanford bridge on to Lumpkin, down and then up the hill back to the start point. The leaders were puking at the end. Students were willing to do that to themselves? These boys are alright. No water at the end though. Just the faucets on the side of buildings.
        It didn’t get easier in the yankee Army and I’ll always be grateful for those men preparing me for what I got into. I don’t know how anyone who didn’t play school sports ever made it on those runs and PT. I trained regularly and it kicked my ass. I only puked on the runs after drinking Jim Beam all night.
        My dumb ass.

        Liked by 2 people

  3. Doggoned
    August 14, 2022 at 11:07 AM

    Water makes you weak. Man up, boys.

    Liked by 2 people

    • dawg100
      August 14, 2022 at 11:29 AM

      NO two a days. Even without pads. That’s not camp, that’s vacation!

      Liked by 2 people

      • archiecreek
        August 14, 2022 at 12:21 PM

        Two a days in pads at 6 AM and 4 PM with a nooner in helmets and shoulder pads for special teams.
        In the South Georgia sun.
        With no water breaks.
        Football camp back in my day.

        Liked by 4 people

        • originaluglydawg
          August 15, 2022 at 10:35 AM

          Never got winded or tired during a game, playing both ways as a senior.
          Hydration was detrimental to conditioning.
          thirty percent of kids quit the first couple of days of summer camp.
          Military physical training was a breeze in comparison.

          Like

  4. SenorLorenzo
    August 14, 2022 at 12:51 PM

    As some of you have already alluded to, when I played well over 40 years ago, water was greatly frowned upon during practices, and even limited during games. It was thought to supposedly cause you to get sick and sluggish. It was a miracle more us from that generation didn’t suffer heat injuries than actually did.

    There was a single water faucet against a fence near where us WRs, RBs, QBs ran skeleton drills against the DBs, and while we waited for our turn, some would form a human wall while others would secretly fill their dirty sweaty helmets and drink from em. Then, when the coach would spot us and holler, we’d scatter like flies off a watermelon only to come back again a few minutes later to do it all over again.

    Glory days.

    Liked by 3 people

  5. rigger92
    August 14, 2022 at 3:49 PM

    Ha, when I was in basic training at Ft Knox they made us drink water until we puked. They also made us earn our food by doing whatever number of push ups or pull ups they felt like, if you didn’t make it you didn’t eat.

    Liked by 1 person

    • RangerRuss
      August 14, 2022 at 5:19 PM

      Once the drink-one-quart-canteen-per-half-hour water policy was instituted during the mid-80’s heat casualties dropped significantly. If soldiers were puking then common sense had left the range. Same as denying chow for physical deficiencies. That’s a UCMJ offense and someone needed to go to jail for that shit. Yeah, go to the back of the line. But everybody eats or someone pays.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Tony BarnFart
    August 15, 2022 at 10:57 AM

    We found an old bottle of salt tablets in the back of the equipment room closet as we started 8th grade football. Thankfully, that day had already passed but our coach at the time had very much been a part of the salt tablet days.

    Our practice water was a trough that was a hose connected to a close ended PVC pipe with holes drilled in the length for water to escape. Jr. high 2 a days in the early 90s was still hell on wheels.

    Like