Arkansas football’s culture shift under Ryan Silverfield has been striking. To see it, one only needs to step inside the Razorback football facilities.
In addition to the new lights and Silverfield’s “All-In” catch phrase plastered throughout the building, the new Head Hog switched out the traditional clocks with what’s essentially a poster made to look like a clock with the word “now” written at the top.
It’s a reminder to everyone in the building that Silverfield expects the same mindset on the practice field as he does in games: focus on the play or rep at hand.
This sense of urgency carries over into the creative approaches Razorback coaches are using to address Arkansas’ problems last season.
The Razorbacks have implemented multiple drills to combat turnovers, including one that involves stiff-arming a tennis ball while coaches poke at the ball with a boxing glove attached to a stick. The innovation doesn’t stop when they leave the practice field, though.
Early last month, Arkansas hosted Ricky Kalmon, a hypnotist who specializes in performance enhancement and mental conditioning for athletes.
One of Kalmon’s main philosophies is living in the present and blocking out distractions, which aligns well with what pretty much any football coach wants to achieve. A few more of Kalmon’s core ideas include:
- Mental strength is just as important as, if not more important than, physical strength.
- Develop the ability to block out what you can’t control and focus on what you can.
- Learn to relax in the midst of pressure.
- Make the best of the time you have.
For a program that has struggled in one-score games for more than a decade, strengthening the mental side of the game could prove just as important as anything done on the field.
However, some folks didn’t find it nearly as inspiring.
Hogs, Hypnosis and Hysterics
It’s fair to say that some of the things Silverfield has done since arriving in Fayetteville have struck observers as a bit gimmicky, like the now-deleted X post of Silverfield holding a sledgehammer.
