Can Wellman Make Giants’ Injury Blues Go Away?

If one thing has frustrated New York Giants’ fans in recent years, it has to be the rash of injuries. First-year head coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese brought in a new strength and conditioning coach, Aaron Wellman, according to NJ.com in a report dated Jan. 28, 2016 to remedy that sore spot.

Wellman’s pedigree, education and experience as shown on Giants.com is impressive, but it will be meaningless without results. So the question becomes: what does Wellman bring to the New York Giants? An what, if any, impact has he already had on the long suffering boys in blue?

A key to answering the first question likely comes from a combination of his education and examining the success or challenges he faced in his coaching career thus far.

“Maximize Speed, Strength and Power while Minimizing Orthopedic Stress.” – Coach Wellman

In a presentation originally written by Coach Wellman and published by Antonia Flynn on Slideplayer.com outlines his training philosophy: “Maximize Speed, Strength and Power while Minimizing Orthopedic Stress,” and the research that supports his methods.

Classical training techniques sought to build muscle (therefore strength) and then teach them speed. Using that method, the athlete is essentially building muscles of a different type than they will actually use during competition, and therefore fundamentally flawed.

Wellman, on the other hand, believes that strength and speed training should be conducted at the same time. Drills and sets should be explosive with short rest periods to better simulate “real” conditions.

The Giants’ front office have taken this to heart investing in new and different weight room equipment. Likewise, head coach Ben McAdoo seems to have bought into this as well by changing the timing and scheduling of drills and practices, as reported by ESPN.com on July 25, 2016.

Further influence on Wellman is suggested by the way the Giants’ coaching staff has handled three injury concerns at the beginning of training camp.

Damon “Snacks” Harrison was placed on the PUP list due to a swollen knee according to New York Daily News on July 28, 2016. While the exact cause is not fully known, placing any player on the PUP is concerning; yet shows a personalized approach to physical management – Wellman’s area of expertise.

Early in camp, the Big Blue Nation collectively held its breath as Odell Beckham Jr. collided with Janoris Jenkins. Since then, OBJ appears to be okay, but has been limited in practice.

More interesting is the rehabilitation of Victor Cruz. As fellow GMEN HQ writer and our editor Curt Macysyn indicated, Cruz’s progress might not be quite as good as we have been led to believe. His workouts have been carefully dialed back. Coach McAdoo claims this is an expected part of Cruz’s “structured rehabilitation.”

This is a bitter pill for fans to swallow, as we do not know what to believe. As stated in Macysyn’s article, we’ve been misled before. Specifically in Beckham’s rookie year. his injury was supposedly minor; yet he missed all of preseason and the first four games of the 2014 campaign.

Granted, that was a different head coach. Let us all hope that McAdoo is a bit more forthcoming with details and the “structured rehabilitation” is a plan put in place by Wellman – the one coach that will not receive accolades, but may, in fact, be the most significant change within the organization. Time will tell, as will the injury reports.

For a better feel for Aaron Wellman, check out his interview on Giants.com