Nick Saban calls for players to push themselves during practice

Nick Saban has been able to lead Alabama to as many wins as they’ve picked up in his tenure because of how he pushes his program compared to the rest of the country. That’s not changing anytime soon either based on one of his latest updates from fall camp.

Saban spoke at a press conference a week back about getting the most out of his players. He hopes that, over the course of camp, his team takes advantage of the opportunity in front of them and welcomes the challenges that they face on a day-to-day basis.

“This is a great opportunity, in these circumstances, for us to be able to persevere through some difficult things. To overcome adversity,” said Saban. “I don’t think you’d be a great competitor if you can’t overcome adversity. Adversity is coming some kind of way. You should enhance the challenge of what’s coming. This is another challenge, working every day.”

Saban also wants his guys to take note how what they’re doing and how they’re projecting. He wants them to realize everything that they’re doing needs to be prepped and ready in time for kickoff.

“I think it’s always important for players to self-assess and say, ‘Okay, I played this many plays today. I would play this many if we had a game. I’m not in good enough condition to sustain the level of effort, toughness, ability to stay focused to do my job for this many plays. And yet I know I’m going to play more later on,'” Saban explained. “Every practice, every opportunity you get is not something you want to endure in practice. But you want to push yourselves so that you can get to the next level of where you need to be to stay focused for longer and play with more consistency for longer in every game that you play.”

Part of that self-assessment is also being willing to sacrifice for your teammates. Saban likes to remind them all that they can’t get where they all want to go unless they all take on the habits of winners in their every day lives.

“You do have to make sacrifices. To be able to do the things that we want to try to do? That these guys have goals and aspirations to do? You have to make some sacrifices. You have to invest in yourself in terms of how you sleep, how you rest, how you recover. The habits that you have, how you eat, how you hydrate,” said Saban. “I mean there’s all kinds of things that go into, ‘What is my level of performance going to be?'”

Alabama has been the top dog, or at least one of them, for as long as some can remember in Tuscaloosa. That’s because of lessons like these that Saban is preaching just as much today as he has in years past when it comes to the Crimson Tide.