OT: Hobbs in trouble...
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True - but they were also doing more reps in that plan (twice as many) and "Max Effort" isn't noted like the other distances.
If people are out of shape, and running 6 100s in 17 seconds is gassing them then that's fine. But these sprints are being presented as something cruel and unusual for athletes who do a lot of sprinting for their D1 sport
You conveniently left out crucial facts: "Smith, 41, was investigated and cleared of inappropriate conduct when he was head softball coach at Owens Community College in Ohio from 2014 to 2016."
I'm not clicking on the article again but there was a line about how they cleared him saying like "with a few exceptions the comments did not cross the line." Which means he did cross the line a few times.
I was responding to this from ASHOKAN:
"The average under-17 girl can complete a 100-meter sprint in 12.8 to 13.1"
https://livehealthy.chron.com/average-running-speed-teenage-girl-10107.html
You do realize that I am a retired NJ HS T&F coach right?
True - those are average times for track sprinters.
100 yards isn't very far, and 17 seconds should be basic for B1G SB athlete.
Here's a sprint workout from VT women's softball. Rutgers coach is right in there time wise (as mentioned the interval is a key and that was excluded)
Virginia Tech Softball's Conditioning Plan
https://www.stack.com/a/virginia-tech-softballs-conditioning-plan
Amazing the lack of journalistic integrity. Isnt this benchmark relevant to the facts in the story?
The workout you linked was doing 8 reps with 1 min rest and when they went to 10 reps the rest went to 2 mins. Just pointing out not jogging or trivial like some have suggested. Also important was when they had them run,,, was it after a 2 hour practice in the hot sun, etc?
It is by no means a jog. Multiply that by 4 and you get one lap around a standard 1/4 mile track in 68 seconds. I'm willing to wager you can't "jog" that fast for a 1/4 mile.
As for the article, it's two sides with two different stories. If I am to believe the players version, and 58 percent of the team leaving the program doesn't make me think it was a hospitable environment, the accusations of run until you vomit, get dizzy and/or pass out are troubling. I have read some idiotic comments by some here insisting the players should "toughen up" and have "become..pussified". How did that type of mentality work out for Jordan McNair from Maryland?
Sprints are nothing new and I have no problem with that. But running till vomiting , getting dizzy, or passing out (if true) is not the way to properly condition an athlete and can be quite dangerous. See the Jordan McNair reference above.
Insane that Hobbs and co. haven't put out a statement to get ahead of this before shit truly hits the fan tomorrow.
This NJ.com article states there were 10 girls that transferred. I would be interested to know to which schools they transferred. Additionally, are they starting on their new teams; or have they given up the sport. New coach, abilities questioned, no longer a starter, playing less, egos hurt, easier to blame the coach than their own ability as a player; or the fact they were not in shape.
What would you do if a top executive of your company was quoted that way? And Hobbs is representing not a company, but a university.
Its crazy that our old AD was so inept with the media they had to hire handlers for her and the next AD we hire calls reporters f'ing scum. Its mind boggling.
Millennial coaching requirements:
I'm convinced that when you step into campus a force field activates and three things happen:
1. Your basketball shot gets 60% worse.
2. Your football throwing talent gets zapped.
3. You lose all common sense when speaking publicly
It's like they test for this stuff on placement exams.
Not when the article is a hit piece.
As I have aged, I learned that it is always best to not react to bad news right away. Especially, when it appears that someone is trying to bait you or yank your chain. It is best to take at least a day or two, gather facts and respond in a calm and professional manner. Never show the person who is trying to provoke you that you are upset. Had Hobbs followed this approach, and presented such facts, NJ.com would have looked like fools here.
Politi column tomorrow morning will make its way around the internet
Wasn't he cleared?
He'd issue a better apology and have to go through some training and maybe a performance improvement plan. I don't care for or condone the response but times are different now with POTUS and some other CEOs like TMo ripping people and companies on social media.
According to internal school emails, the school investigated Smith and determined “the complaints, with few exceptions, do not involve the sorts of alleged behavior that rise to the level of a policy violation or otherwise concern practices which are clearly wrong.”
So this means there WERE some that were either violations or clearly wrong. Add that together with what he allegedly said on the team bus and you get a pretty clear picture of a guy who says things you can't say when you're a coach and makes players feel uncomfortable.
The conditioning stuff doesn't resonate with me at all. The stuff about Smith making off-color comments and going through players' phones SHOULD have been the story... it would have been a very minor story that blew over in a day because he's no longer with the program.
Then Hobbs had to open his mouth and now he's the story, and one that will hang around for a while.
Don't forget parents that have invested large amounts of time and money into their daughters finding out they aren't as good as they thought.
This thing about Hobbs going on a tirade at the end of the call...what led to it? Was he being berated by the SL for an hour and grew frustrated when they tried to cram an agenda up his rear? I can get testy myself when I know I'm being railroaded.
There is nothing unusual about what the softball coach did coming into a new program.
This is why Rutgers loses more than it wins. It doesn't understand what it takes to win at the highest levels of sport.
If the new football coach isn't allowed similar latitudes, we will never win again.
And if they do use similar strategies, they will be on the cover of the SL.
No win situation.
This is why Rutgers loses more than it wins. It doesn't understand what it takes to win at the highest levels of sport.
If the new football coach isn't allowed similar latitudes, we will never win again.
And if they do use similar strategies, they will be on the cover of the SL.
No win situation.
This is what the obtuse are missing:
1. We have no idea what Hobbs said, all we know is he later apologized for something.
2. We have no idea what preceded whatever Hobbs said that he apologized for.
You guys are playing right into the hands of the SL/NJ Advance Media.
Honestly of this matters...but I get it.,,
Also, in a non-fully funded sport, where most on the team get very little scholarship, transfers are to be expected. Especially off a lousy team in a decades-long lousy program with a coach that comes in with a winning/championship mindset.
I think Rutgers, on some level does understand what it takes to win, and they try to do that. They just do it ineptly, because the people calling the shots are, as I mentioned in the other thread, f*cking idiots. Moreover, they are universally disastrous in dealing with the media. What kind of dope hands over the narrative like Hobbs did? Apologizing in writing for something said in a phone call is a new level of dumb. He gave the media complete control of the narrative surrounding what was said. Because he apologized, the dopes will believe anything the journalist now claims Hobbs said.
This was a complaint over softball. Softball. The school should have blown it off with a blanket statement "We understand some of the team members who lost their starting jobs when the new coach came aboard have filed a complaint. While we are proud of the success of the new coaching staff, which brought the team from last place to 6th place in a single season, we will obviously not tolerate any abusive conduct from any of our coaches. We take these allegations very seriously, but I am not at liberty to comment any furthe rdue to pending litigation." Then comes Game 7 of the WS, Halloween weekend, and a big fat no one cares.
It pretty much tells you why schools like Florida win at everything including softball and why Rutgers is dogshit in so many sports.Our kids go home and cry and hire a lawyer... In Florida your parents send you back to the team with a scolding about not being tough enough.
It all goes together and shows you how Rutgers has to go to win on any real level. Softball by results is in a far better position than they were prior to the new coach. But how she's doing it isn't acceptable even though she's doing what any new coach in any sport who wants to win will do.
Why any coach with winning aspirations would come to this school is beyond me. You are fighting internal politics more than your opponents.
One is a winning culture. The other is a toxic one where winning is an afterthought.
It would never happen, but it would be better to tear down the whole department, sit out a number of years, and start it all over again.
Wholly changing a losing culture like this is much more difficult than building a winning one.
Throw in a rabid NJ media and the pessimism of the the people there in general and man, what a horrible environment. And we wonder why kids go anywhere and everywhere rather than stay in that quagmire.
unless the public doesn't, and they don't, know what really went down with the reporter and the circumstances--like perhaps their conversation was agreed to be off the record
Truth.
My pet peeve for 20+ years on this forum has been RU's single-minded inability to control the media narrative, at all, ever, for anything. For an institution of its size, buried in such a highly-charged political environment, the level of "suck" is other-worldly.
Millennial coaching requirements:
Today's college kids aren't Millenials, gramps.
It is breathtaking how bad they are at PR. Every public official ar Rutgers should be force to taking classes on how to deal with the press and they should be force to take it every year.
The press here in NJ are putrid gutter scum looking for clickbait, you should never ever give them anything other than ultra PC coachspeak only, and have someone else proof read it 1st if you have to, in fact someone should always proof read it. The AD department should have their own Communications & Marketing department, it can just be two people. It would save a lot of headaches.
Simple stuff.
