Settle this once and for all....

[John]

@Charlie_Francis

That’s rehab on the calves and is not the same thing as specifically overloading them beforehand. The idea is not to have achilles problems in the first place by:
1: Not overloading the calf with exercises that are already covered by other activities. You can read an extensive arguement about all this in the forum reviews about general vs specific work.
2: Working on a softer surface whenever possible- like grass for tempo and early phase sprinting.
Some of this stuff drives me crazy (can you tell??). i went to Australia and met the Rugby Golden Boot winner from a few years back. He bought a copy of Speed Trap many years ago and simply built a training program around it. He came to the attention of the NFL and was brought to the US. The team in question thought it would be a good idea to have him worked out by one of these “calf proponants”. After a single day of hopping up and down the track for 100m repeats on the track on one foot and then the other, rep after rep, he ruptured his achillles tendon.
He had never had a single injury over the years but just one day and he was never the same.
If you see the same program generating not one but many achilles and lower leg injuries and you still insist this is the way to fly- good luck to you- you’ll need it.

so if you saw a squad where a few athletes (3+) had achilles issues you would look at direct calf work as a possible cause?