Minnesota Vikings: Why I Love Mike Zimmer Cutting Practice Short
In the five month grind that was high school basketball in a small town in Minnesota that was only good at basketball for about five minutes, I learn a thing or two. One of those things is that every year our coach would push us harder than ever and wouldn’t be too happy if we didn’t respond to that. That practice for us was the last practice before Christmas break. For the Minnesota Vikings, that practice is probably the one right before they leave Mankato for good for the year.
That practice was today.
The practice didn’t go well by all accounts.
Head Coach Mike Zimmer shut down practice about 20 minutes early due to a lackluster effort from his club and even made the team run for their showing. Zimmer wasn’t happy.
Zimmer was asked what bothered him about practice and he said ‘everything’ and called it a ‘terrible practice’. The only good thing is that they all get to go home according to Zimmer.
A taste of the Zimmer press conference pic.twitter.com/crDukkHsgu
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) August 13, 2015
Zimmer said that Thursday’s practice was not a practice that good teams have, but the reaction that Zimmer gave his team is what I believe good teams bring to the table.
I learned in basketball that you ‘rest on offense and work on defense’ and I learned that your effort in practice correlates more directly than you’d expect. If you don’t have a championship mentality in practice, you’re not going to win any championship games.
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They might be clichés, but clichés get a bad reputation despite that a good chunk of them are true.
We have known since the day Zimmer was hired that he was a pretty intense coach which I am all for. An intense coach usually pushes his team to do great things and not skate by.
Will one practice in the middle of August effect the season as a whole? Probably not, but the effect of the head coach making it none that he isn’t going to take anything, but the best from his team is something that gives a lasting impact.
One game my basketball team was getting crushed at halftime and the team as a whole wasn’t really listening to anything the coaches said in the first half. Our head coach came in the locker room and said, “I don’t know. You guys figure it out.”
He walked out and we played a great half of basketball.
Hopefully after this the Vikings just play great and greater football.
Next: The Vikings Are Staying In Mankato For A Long While!