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Ashburn, Va. – The Washington Redskins have begun their voluntary offseason workouts and the team had a great turnout for the first day although attendance was not mandatory. The fact that so many of the players showed up says a lot about the newfound hope in this upcoming season. At the end of the first day, one of the reasons for that hope is the team’s new strength/conditioning leader, Mike Clark.

While the players had meetings with various coaches in the morning, the only coach that they can actually work with is Clark. He took the opportunity to introduce his style of training and philosophy. Afterward, several players said that Clark’s system made a lot of sense and that it would be really good for the team.

Clark brings 25 years of college and professional training with him and to start, he and assistant strength and conditioning coach Chad Englehart have begun modifying the Redskins’ weight room to accommodate the 2003 inductee into the USA Strength and Conditioning Coaches Hall of Fame’s more Olympic-style training practice.

A competitive lifter in college, Clark takes great care of himself and his body. He expects his players to be as devoted as he is. Back in March, he laid out what he expected of the players.

“I give them not a lot of different messages but one of the main things I’ll tell them is, ‘You’re in this room. You’re a world-class athlete and you need to train like one here,’” he said. “’You need to eat like one. You need to sleep like one. You need to do everything in your life like you’re a world-class athlete because it’s going to be very, very competitive.’ And their time playing this game is very short… to make the most of it. Don’t leave anything to chance.”

As well as his ‘live the life of a professional athlete’ attitude, players told Sports Journey after the first day of workouts that Clark has each skill position group training according to their jobs.

It certainly makes sense. Offensive linemen don’t need to strengthen their muscles in a way that will help them catch a jump ball like wide outs do; they need to move huge defensive linemen in the direction they want. Place kickers don’t need to back pedal the way defensive backs do, they need to kick a ball straight and hard.

Clark said that much of the players’ workouts will take place on their feet which also makes sense… players play on their feet not lying down as they would when bench pressing weights.

“We’re going to train dynamically on our feet,” Clark said in March. “World-class athletes train on their feet. At least 80-percent of what we do will be done on our feet. As a football player, you should look better going than coming. What that means is you really need to focus on that backside chain.”

Every offseason there is renewed hope in locker rooms and training facilities throughout the NFL and there is good reason for the Redskins to be optimistic for 2015. A real general manager is on the payroll and there are new coaches with a lot of credibility on it as well. One of those guys is Mike Clark and so far, according to several Redskins players, he has made a good impression.

Hail.

Diane Chesebrough Diane Chesebrough is an NFL reporter for Sports Journey and a member of the Pro Football Writers of America. Accredited media with the NFL, she has been a feature writer for several national magazines/periodicals. Follow her on Twitter: @DiChesebrough