Training In A Sand Pit?

I just spoke to a guy this morning about his nephew, who’s trying to play college football. We got on the subject of the training he has been doing at the H.I.T. Center. He said he meets with them 2 days per week and that their primary goal was to work on his speed and flexibility. Part of this included jumping around in a giant pit of sand. I told him I thought “sand” training was complete shite and asked if they did any strength training. His nephew was expected to do this on his own?!

My question is… have any of you seen this used in training before and is there any benefit to it whatsoever?

I go to the beach 1 or 2 times a week usually and run or do lunges as part of my GPP. I find, that for me anyways, it usually smokes my calfs, ankles, and lower back.

Its a love/hate thing. I enjoy the surf and the ocean, but I hate the associated pain these GPP sessions cause me.

It actually is quite good good for building stability and some strength. The sand pushing you all different ways teaches your body to brace itself for everything not just predictable head on hits. Leaving weight training to the nephew to figure out is a bunch of bullshit though.

i can see how running in a sand pit will help for speed and endurance, since its a lot tougher running in sand. you would probably adjust to tiring much quicker and pushing off more from the ground.

as for strength i have no clue

in usmc boot camp you spend alot of time in the “pit” doing all kinds of things we blew bubbles in the sand while we were bend and motherfucking thrusting away.good workout

When training on a hard surface you are using the force you get off the ground to push your body in the direction you want to go. So when you apply 100% of your force into running on a hard surface, you are recieving 100% force back from that surface.

When training on sand, the sand takes away any force you normally get from the ground. Making it much harder.

You also have to pull your legs up and out of the sand.

Training for speed in the sand will make training for speed on the ground feel like a breeze.