Adrian Fedkiw
Long live the smoothie machine!
The Philadelphia Eagles are keeping Chip Kelly’s sports science program around, although it is being scaled back, according to CSNPhilly.com.
“I started diving into it a little bit more,” head coach Doug Pederson said via CSN Philly. “It was something that was really unfamiliar to me, even prior to this year. But it’s something that with (director of high performance Shaun Huls) and [head strength coach Josh Hingst] and the guys and Chris Peduzzi (head trainer) and our docs and just kind of diving in, I’m still kind of learning what it’s all about. But I think there’s some merit to understanding an individual player’s chemistry, makeup and you can begin to tailor workouts, recovery, nutrition.”
Sports science was installed when Kelly came to Philadelphia as the Eagles’ head coach in 2013. It taught the players how to take care of their bodies, stressing nutrition, hydration and sleeping habits. All of the equipment will be available for use, but what’s no longer mandatory are the daily breathing and hydration tests, questionnaires and sleep monitors.
Malcolm Jenkins, who has led the league in snaps the last two years, commented on the matter via CSN Philly.
“I think it’s just more the knowledge,” Jenkins said. “A lot of the tools aren’t available as much. We don’t have the GPSs, we don’t do the daily questionnaires, we don’t get a daily hydration test, but it’s the knowledge of what all of that taught you as far as hydration, as far as how well you sleep, the way we train and recovery and all that stuff. So I think, for the most part, I think guys learned a lot more about how to take care of themselves, not necessarily to have all that stuff.”
During Kelly’s three seasons in Philadelphia, the Eagles were the least injured team in 2013, suffered the fifth fewest in 2014 and sixth least in 2015, according to Football Outsiders’ adjusted games lost metric.