49ers face a mound of expectations

John Crumpacker, San Francisco Chronicle

Saturday, March 21, 2009

It's tempting to call it Mount Mike or Singletary Summit. Guard David Bass has another name for the tall, grassy berm on the side of the practice field at Santa Clara: "I've dubbed it Hamstring Hill. That's my personal title for it."

Of course, a 330-pound lineman would have a different perspective on running up such a hill than a fleet receiver or defensive back. Soon every player on the 49ers' roster will experience running up the incline as part of the team's offseason workout program.

"There's something about the hill," coach Mike Singletary said Saturday. "It's beautiful to look at. It's going to bring about something you can't really get in the weight room or on the track."

The hill is composed of 2,500 tons of dirt, is about 15 feet high 45 feet long, angling from top to bottom on the longer side. One side has a 30-degree angle of approach; it's 40 degrees on the other. Players will presumably run up and down the longer approach to the top, sometimes pulling weights behind them.

Since the end of the 2008 season, the hill has doubled in height, per Singletary's orders. It was recently seeded and won't be available for the huffing and puffing of players for a few weeks.

"All the guys I know who worked out on a hill were a cut above," Singletary said, naming former Chicago Bears teammate Walter Payton and former 49er Jerry Rice. "I'm excited about the hill. It adds another dimension to our workouts. ... What Walter ran, was a heck of a lot higher than that. The hill Jerry Rice ran was a heck of a lot higher than that."

The late Payton was famous for grinding up a steep hill in his native Mississippi. Rice and teammate Roger Craig regularly did hill work near San Carlos above Interstate 280 during their playing days.

Singletary cautioned his players at the end of the season that they had better be prepared to work when the offseason program began. So it was in a minicamp Friday and Saturday when the players were put through 50-minute circuit training sessions featuring short sprints, change of direction, lateral movement and running with weighted bags.

"If our guys are not afraid to work, we can accomplish anything," Singletary said. "I was very pleased with what I saw, and the coaches were, too."

In the name of team-building, players ran the circuits grouped randomly, with linemen sweating along with kickers, running backs and linebackers. Bass noted he was put in the position of trying to outrace running back Michael Robinson in one drill.

"It definitely brings out the man in you," tight end Vernon Davis said. "It's all mental. You can't back down."

The hill, though, remains a metaphor for a team aiming high for 2009.

"I see that mountain out there," linebacker Patrick Willis said. "So far we haven't tackled it. The closer you get to it, the more you realize that hill is tall."