Oct. 5, 2007
TCU head coach Darryl Anderson recently sat down with GoFrogs.com to give fans an inside look into how practice has gone entering fall break.
Coach Anderson will give readers an inside look at what each week of practice has been like through a weekly journal. Below is the third installment of the journal.
Darryl Anderson
Third Installment
This week has been a good week, but it's a short week because of fall break. Really, practice has been extremely good and I think we are really gelling and coming together. I think the kids are really taking to the process of getting better and working on their speed development, conditioning and running hills. Because we are young we've talked about their maturation and coming to practice everyday with the same mentality. We are trying to get the kids to understand the long-term effects of what they are doing right now and be mission conscious.
The first five weeks of practice have blown by and I think the kids have accepted the challenge of being mission conscious. Really, the kids are making sure that they are getting something out of themselves everyday.
The fall break is a naturally included restoration period, so it has been perfect from a standpoint of getting the kids' legs underneath themselves. I think we are growing up and the older guys like Justyn Warner, Otis McDaniel, Dell Guy and Jonathan Jackson have become more accountable, which is nice to see.
With the younger guys, I think Matt Love is catching on and finally starting to figure things out. I mean he's laughing and smiling on the track, which is different from when he first got here. Really, Mychal Dungey, Matt Zurko, Andon Mitchell, Jordan Pitts, Jeff Pels and Love have really embraced everything about this program and are getting things done. I'm elated about that and I love this group of guys we brought in.
On the women's side, we have been moving forward and making progress. Virgil is back on the track this week and that has been good to have with her perky personality. I think the kids have embraced that.
Kishelle Paul has little by little started talking, while
Neidra Covington has done a super job this fall. All are jumpers have been great this fall. I think one of the people that I am really happy for this fall is
Candis Kelley. She finally understands what necessary steps need to be taken to be an All-American. That has been fun to watch.
Jessica Clarke has had a good week this week and she is now taking the steps to improve herself. Shekila Wilkinson and LaQuinta Ross have both embraced the quality of competition on the track and continuing to improve daily. They are all trying to take everything in and execute it.
Overall, the women are doing a good job and I feel that it is coming together nicely. I am really pleased with that.
Today we are going to get out and do a community service project by reading at one of the local schools. That will be fun for our team to represent TCU in the community. It will also help build relationships within the team. We try and do a lot of that because it helps are team come together.
We've got a lot going on and next week we start changing gears in the weight room. We will increase our intensity in our lifting and work on our explosive development. The sprinters will start doing more race-related and speed development work, while the jumpers will start doing some jump training. Now we finally are getting into the meat and potatoes portion of our training to make us good.
