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49ers Take Practice Indoors

Typically on Tuesdays, the 49ers players have the day off to rest their bodies and spend time with their families.

But that wasn’t the case this week.

With the bye week on the schedule, the 49ers practiced on a Tuesday for the first time since training camp. But it wasn’t a normal practice; the team was forced to move everyone to a nearby indoor soccer training facility with heavy rain throughout the Bay Area covering the practice fields at team headquarters.

“It was like a real cool hangout spot for the kids, that’s what it was like,” cornerback Shawntae Spencer said of the 49ers practice environment. “It was like the gymnasium you would find in a church. It was a little indoor soccer facility with two different rooms. We broke up as offense and defense and went and did our position stuff.”

As professional football players, the 49ers focused on the work at hand and not their unique surroundings.

“Really at this level, you have to get past what your surrounding area looks like,” tackle Tony Pashos said. “You have to forget what the turf looks like; really it’s all about football. It’s about getting the plays right and using the proper techniques. It really didn’t matter where we were at.

“It was something we had to do to adjust to the circumstances and we were good about it. We had a pretty good practice.”

The 49ers went through their normal practice routine just in a different environment.

“We warmed up, did our individual drills, then the round boys would go away and we’d do 7-on-7 stuff while the round boys would do pass rush,” Spencer explained. “Then the round boys would come back over and we’d do the same thing.”

By “round boys,” Spencer was referring to the 49ers linemen.

“I don’t like to call them ‘fat’ and they don’t like to be called that, because they’re not,” Spencer explained. “I prefer to call them by shapes. Everyone has their own shape. You have round guys and you have square guys. For example, [Dave] Baas, he’s like a square guy.”

Both offensive and defensive players were happy to get back on the practice field to work out some of the problems that came up in the team’s 45-10 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.

“It was a good opportunity to get back on the field together as a team after the loss,” defensive tackle Demetric Evans said. “It was an interesting practice, but a good practice.”

Although it wasn’t what they’ve grown accustomed to, the 49ers players were certainly glad to be indoors on a wet day.

“Practice outside, that would have been a nightmare,” Spencer explained. “Everyone is already touchy feely about practicing today, because Tuesday’s are usually our off day. You’re sore and then you throw some rain on it and you’re bound to have a fight at practice. If you fight, then you get to running. You get to running and then everything is going to be all bad.

“Today was like a normal work day without the hitting and things like that. Other than that, we did everything we usually do.”

As long as weather permits, the 49ers will be back on their own practice field Wednesday morning.