Trent Corney’s Training Camp Journal
May 31, 2016
First two-a-day today. When they said it was break, I thought, ‘Man, that was a quick, easy practice.’ And then they said for everyone to go get their shoulder pads. We got some really good work in today and I feel like I’m getting a lot better.
Coach Howard is really good at teaching the pass rush, and that’s what my weakness is – the techniques in pass rush. He’s teaching me things like flipping my hips, and I feel like once I master that then I’ll become a lot better player. I can already tell that Coach Howard is going to be the best coach I’ve ever had. His credentials are as good as anyone in North America and he played the position, too, so he has that knowledge as a player and a coach. He’s been coaching at the NFL and played in the NFL.
He really stresses the details. Back to the flipping the hips thing… when you’re going around the edge if you don’t flip your hips to the quarterback, you’re just going to get pushed out by the tackle upfield. I’m pretty explosive off the ball, but a lot of times a tackle can just push me up the field, the quarterback steps up and passes it. Coach is teaching me to flip the hips.
He really stresses always running to the ball and trying to get a strip/sack with a tomahawk chop. He wants us to always be trying to strip the ball from a ball carrier, that’s why it looks like we’re trying to start a lawn mower all the time with our arm going up. Those are the details we’re always working on and it’s going to make us better.
A guy like J Cole, he’s one of my idols. He’s got some serious speed for a big guy and whenever the ball is thrown he’s always doing everything correctly. He’s tomahawk-chopping, he’s ripping. Coach is always showing clips of J Cole because he’s always practicing right. I’m really watching him and eventually I want to become like him in terms of habits.
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Defensive end Trent Corney was the Bombers first pick, 9th overall, in the 2016 CFL Draft. A product of Brockville, Ont., he played his college ball at the University of Virginia.
Bluebombers.com will chronicle Corney’s daily battles through training camp, from the highs on the field to the transition from the college to the pro game.
