The work around the workouts
For 12 years, my job was keeping NBA players on the floor.
People assume that means workouts. Honestly, the workouts were the easy part.
The real work was everything around them. How a guy slept on a back-to-back. What he ate on the plane home. Whether his hips were stiff because of a bad lift or a bad mattress in a hotel in Cleveland. Whether he was stressed about a contract, a new baby, a family thing back home. All of that shows up in how someone moves.
When it worked, it was never because of one magic drill. It was because the whole team around a player (strength, medical, nutrition, mental performance, the equipment guy, everybody) was looking at the same picture and pulling in the same direction.
Here’s what took me too long to realize: none of that is special to athletes.
You have a body that responds to sleep, stress, food, and movement the same way theirs does. You just don’t have 13 people watching it for you.
But you can steal the approach:
- Look at the whole picture, not one number
- Track a few things that actually matter, consistently
- Change one thing at a time and see what happens
- Recovery is part of the plan, not the reward for finishing it
Elite care shouldn’t need a jersey to get it. That’s what I’m working on now.
What’s one thing you’d change if you had a performance staff in your corner?