In the pristine blue pool at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center, a group of genetic freaks assemble to start a mini-swim practice designed to improve arm strength and health.
These freaks are none other than the pitchers on the Florida Gators baseball team.
Gators baseball strength and conditioning coordinator Paul Chandler came up with the idea along with head coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
Pitcher Velocity Conditioning, or PVC, is just one aspect of Florida’s grinding offseason program.
The pitchers and the other team members, all of whom Chandler refers to as genetic freaks, work out five days a week with three lifting days and two running days.
Does Chandler have a problem motivating a Gators roster with seven players earning preseason All-American honors and 19 players returning from last season?
“Not at all,” Chandler said. “That starts with Sully and his coaching staff recruiting very motivating kids. Everyone who comes to Florida, it doesn’t matter what sport you play here, knows the expectations. That is winning and winning championships. It doesn’t matter what year it is, our goals and expectations are the same.”
In the two years with Chandler as strength coach, the Gators reached Omaha twice.
Success in recent years, especially in the four years with O’Sullivan at the helm, has been no secret for the Gators.
Baseball though is a game of failure and Chandler said he and the coaching staff make sure the players understand that.
“It really throughout the offseason, is getting kids comfortable with failure,” Chandler said. “We’ll put them in extremely stressful situations in the weight room that they’re going to succeed at and also not succeed at in terms of mental toughness training.”
The mentality of this team is simple. Chandler focuses on having the players improve every day, he said.
“There is always something that us as individuals and people in everyday life that we have to improve on,” Chandler said. “It is a constant reminder to the kids of their weaknesses. Everyone wants to practice their strengths, so it is really about getting guys to focus on their weaknesses, grind and keep them humble. For me, it doesn’t matter if the dude is all-world, preseason everything, or is a walk-on. They all get treated the same. They all have the same expectations of hard work and grind mentality. That starts when they are a freshman and all the way through our program. So, they get grinded. You talk to one of our kids about that and there is no shortcuts for anybody.”
Chandler first wanted to dive into coaching after seeing the grind his former college strength coach went through at Harding University, a small division two school in Searcy, Ark.
“My college strength coach always kind of impressed me, because he was juggling a lot of different things- [working at] a small division two school, being a professor and a wide receivers coach,” Chandler said. “I really liked the idea of how he molded a team in the offseason. That really sparked my interest. This is really a way to mold a team.”
At Harding, the Arkansas native played on the offensive line, eventually serving as a football graduate assistant teaching the defensive line and helping with the conditioning program.
He also swam competitively and coached club swimming, explaining the background behind the PVC conditioning program.
Chandler has come a long way since his days at the small school in Searcy, which has an enrollment today of 6,810 students.
That is only 357 more students than all of the incoming students at UF for the 2011 school year.
“I love UF,” Chandler said. “One of the biggest reasons is it all starts up top with Jeremy Foley. There is everything you possibly need to be successful and that is one of the reasons why I think it makes it a really easy place to stay and want to be at.”
Chandler is not the only person wanting to be at Florida.
The Gators head into spring with 13 freshmen, all of which impressed in the weight room, Chandler said.
“The kids are doing a great job,” Chandler said. “That goes back to how Sully and them have things set up. The older kids lead by example and early on we pair juniors and seniors up with the freshmen. They’re paired up with them, but they are not expected to lift the same amount of them. They are learning from an experienced older guy.”
As the top-ranked Gators approach the season opener Feb. 17 against No. 21 Cal State Fullerton, the mindset does not change.
“We really just focus on the idea if at this level if you are willing to grind and go hard, everything will take care of itself,” Chandler said. “It doesn’t matter if it is a conditioning session, in the weight room, in the athletic training room, or in the bullpen, if you grind and go hard, great things will happen for you.”
Diamond Notes
– Chandler shared who he thought was the strongest player on the Florida baseball team:
“The strongest player pound for pound and this will probably raise some eyebrows, is definitely Hudson Randall,” Chandler said. “He is a 180-pound kid, but he is by far our strongest kid pound-for-pound.”
-Chandler revealed the winners of the Iron Gator Challenge. The challenge is a five-week competition in which the team separates into four squads and competes against each other in various individual and team strength events. Junior shortstop Nolan Fontana won the individual position player title, while sophomore right-hander Jonathon Crawford finished first among the pitchers.