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Before the Lions hold their first practice of training camp Saturday afternoon, they will go through physical testing in the morning.

The training staff will test every player’s upper-body strength with the bench press and lower-body strength with the vertical jump.

“There’s accountability for your conditioning level,” coach Jim Schwartz said today in a press conference. “Guys worked extremely hard. We had great participation in our off-season program.

“But they’ve been away for about a month, and you want to see where everybody is. You want to see who’s been working, who hasn’t. There’s an accountability issue to their teammates. There’s an accountability issue to the coaching staff and to the club.”

The training staff will also conduct a 300-yard shuttle run, but all but a handful of veterans will be exempt. Schwartz told the players if they showed up for a certain number of days in the off-season program, they wouldn’t have to do it.

“So I put a little carrot in front of guys to participate,” Schwartz said, “basically saying, ‘Hey, look, if you make all these days, I know you’re going to be in shape.’ ”

Schwartz wants to hit the ground running. The Lions installed all their schemes by June. The players should know what to do, and they need to be in shape to do it.

In the first two days of camp, Schwartz said, the Lions already will practice third-down, red-zone and two-minute situations.

“There’s no longer an easing-in process to training camp,” Schwartz said. “You’ve got to be full-speed the first day.

“You go back 30 years in the NFL, maybe even more, guys were working at the bank or laying concrete or working in the shoe store in the off-season. These guys are professionals 12 months a year. They’re paid well enough that they’re paid to keep themselves in shape.”

TWEET, TWEET: NFL players have drawn attention lately for using the social networking site Twitter to update the public with short messages during meetings. Cincinnati wide receiver Chad Johnson plans to tweet during games.

Schwartz doesn’t want the Lions doing it.

“Obviously they’re not going to be Twittering during business hours,” Schwartz said. “They’re not going to be Twittering during practices or games or meetings or things like that. There’s a line that’s probably going to be drawn and we’ll address.”

SMOKIN’ ADVICE: Schwartz drew laughter when he recalled a meeting with Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who is famous for smoking cigarettes.

“After an hour with him,” Schwartz said, “I thought I could get in on the class-action lawsuit against the tobacco companies because I might have a couple black spots.”

After the laughter subsided, Schwartz added: “To hear advice from a guy like Jim Leyland and his perspective on things — not only in this city, but just in the business — you take everything.”

By NICHOLAS J. COTSONIKA • FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER • July 31, 2009
Lions' conditioning will be tested early | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press

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