Interesting People

From “Getting Fit Meant Sink or Swim for an Ex-NFL Star”, by Jen Murphy in The Wall Street Journal, November 3, 2019

Former Cleveland Browns offensive lineman Joe Thomas fueled his NFL workouts with 10,000 calories a day. Now, he would need about five days to eat that much. After retiring in March 2018, Mr. Thomas radically overhauled his diet and exercise.

During his 11-year NFL career, the 10-time Pro Bowler tipped the scales at 325 pounds. “When you’re practicing three hours a day in pads and a helmet in the heat, your muscles need fuel,” he said. “I spent years training myself to turn off my stomach-brain connection. When my stomach said full, I’d still eat two more plates of food.”

More than a decade of hits took a toll on his body. The 6-foot-6-inch Mr. Thomas has had four knee surgeries since his days playing for the University of Wisconsin. Constant joint pain and inflammation made practice excruciating during his final pro years. “My last season I made it to three training camp workouts,” he said. 

Photo: Nick Cammett/Diamond Images/Getty Images

In August 2016 the Browns installed a 25-meter lap pool in their training facility in Berea, Ohio.

Unable to run, Mr. Thomas turned to swimming to stay fit. “At first, I was like a submarine and sank straight to the bottom,” he recalled. “I spent just as much energy staying afloat as I did moving forward.”

By the start of the 2016 season in September, he was swimming 10 lengths of the pool daily. “That’s a warm-up for most swimmers, but I felt totally gassed,” he said. “It’s great cardio, and my body always felt better after I got out of the pool than before I got in.”

Last summer, Mr. Thomas moved his family to Madison, Wis., and began swimming with his brother-in-law, an avid triathlete, in a high school pool. He hired a coach to improve his technique. Mr. Thomas primarily swims freestyle because wear and tear on his shoulders over the years makes other strokes difficult. A typical workout lasts 20 minutes and he tries to make it to the pool two to three times a week. “I love that swimming is something I can do late into life,” he said. “If I jogged or did CrossFit, I’d have pain and swelling for days after. That’s not what I need. Swimming is good for my heart and my joints.”

When doing long swims he wears underwater headphones and listens to house music or ’80s and ’90s rock like Metallica, AC/DC and ZZ Top. 

T.R. and Work Ethic 

Some interesting facts about Teddy Roosevelt are shared in a new book, “The Strenuous Life”, by Ryan Swanson. Roosevelt's “mania for sports and physical fitness earned him the nickname, “Mr. Strenuosity”, asserts Mr. Swanson. The book “...argues that T.R. inspired and bullied the lethargic citizenry into better shape and transformed organized sports.” (WSJ book reviewer Edward Kosner). 

Some facts. During the Roosevelt presidency:

+ the first Olympic Games staged in the U.S. were held in St. Louis

+ the National Collegiate Athletic Association was established to reform college football, reducing violence and enhancing fan appeal

+ the National and American baseball leagues played the first World Series

+ New York’s mammoth Public Schools Athletic League was formed, the first big youth-fitness program in America and a model for other cities. [Kosner, WSJ]

He made up for mediocre talent through enthusiasm and boundless sweat. He kept meticulous records of his exercises. “I never was a champion at anything,” he reflected. But he never gave up. [Kosner]

In Roosevelt's time, “people worried that sitting in classrooms and offices would drain Americans of the vigor that farm work and manual labor instilled. Now, the concern is that social media, cellphones, robots and artificial intelligence will turn humans into pallid drones... 

"[A recent] survey found that more than a third of American adults and 17% of children and adolescents are obese, and millions more overweight. Teddy Roosevelt would be appalled.” 

“In life, as in a football game,” he liked to say, “hit the line hard.”

(Mr. Kosner, the former editor of Newsweek, New York, Esquire and the New York Daily News, is the author of a memoir, “It’s News to Me.” )

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

Here We Go!

Welcome to the inaugural column from the Boards and Buoys swim blog.

Mini-FAQ

1. Why “Boards and Buoys”? Most of you have been around swimming pools long enough to know that kickboards are a type of support, and pull buoys are a type of assist. They can be used in lots of other ways, too (future topics). This column will share a variety of things that have been gleaned from many resources. The aim is to support and assist the coaching and swimming community.

2. Where do these "nuggets" come from? I read a lot (magazines, newspapers, journals, and books, both online and old-fashioned hardcopy), watch video (broadcast and cable TV, online videos, vlogs), and listen (radio, podcasts, conversations). Sometimes something will jump out and distinguish itself in my mind as “important” or “interesting”. I keep a legal pad next to my TV chair and another on my desk by the computer. I've learned I can “remember” something a lot better if I write it down, and avoid the temptation to delude my brain by saying to myself, “No need to write that down, it's so important I would never forget it.” And yet... [grin]

Let's get started!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Shotguns and Rifles These two types of firearms have different uses and coverage. A shotgun spreads its projectile loads over a wider dispersal area than a rifle, but has less chance of hitting a specific target with a specific pellet. 

Our coaching methods have a similar “pattern”: We spread our instructions, directions, and coaching efforts across an entire group and hope we are reaching the majority of our athletes. A stroke coach or private lesson instructor focuses on one swimmer, one stroke, one technique at a time, and very often hits the target. A group coach does not have the luxury of time needed to address an individual swimmer except in bits and pieces during practice, especially true if there is no assistant coach who can “keep the plates spinning” with the group while the other coach works one on one with a single swimmer. 

Some of us have some leeway as far as pool time goes, and we may be able to address specific individual needs if that's possible.  We do the best we can with the situations we have, but there are times where we should consider encouraging a private stroke lesson or two.

The Baltimore Ravens star quarterback, Lamar Jackson, has received individual instruction since the summer after Jackson's freshman year at the University of Louisville from Joshua Harris, a high school English teacher. Jackson's youth football coach, Van Warren, had asked Harris if he would be willing to coach Jackson. Harris agreed, and then watched all the film of Jackson he could get, some if it dating back to high school. 

His observations noted changes in Jackson's stance and the varied placement of his shoulders and elbow when he threw. He kept a notepad full of comments others in the sports world were making about Jackson. He studied everything he could about his pupil. Harris took Jackson back to the basics, stressing fundamentals that needed resurrecting or re-learning and polishing. 

 

Photo Courtesy Wall Street Journal

The Harris-Jackson connection was good. Lamar Jackson won the Heisman Trophy the next year. The youth clinic Harris coaches at is free. 

 “The only price around here is work ethic”, Harris says. (Andrew Beaton, The Wall Street Journal, January 11-12, 2020)

Private coaching to improve one's skills isn't always the magic bullet, but sometimes it can help.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The intent here is to post a couple of items a week, things I think might help someone improve their skill set. I welcome suggestions and questions and will strive to keep this on a course that is both interesting and helpful. Thanks for dropping by!