From Stroke to Strength - Part Three
I am 175 yards from the green with my ball resting in the infamous Torrey Pines (South) rough on the 18th hole. A few deep breaths after I line up my 5 iron shot with a few practice swings, then I go for it. Crack! The ball soars straight to the green and lands about 10 feet above the hole. Already happy about the shot, I become increasingly excited as the ball tracks back down the slope to about 2 feet from the hole. It was an easy tap in par. Just a year ago not hitting triple bogey on every hole at Torrey seemed like a win. Now I reached my goal of staying under 100 on one of the hardest courses in golf. What was more amazing is that I reached this goal after having a stroke only a month earlier.
Because my doctors instructed me to attempt to do everything I did before the incident, my first day back swinging a golf club was only a week after the stroke. Although, I did feel a noticeable improvement each day in that first two weeks, I still managed to dig up half of the driving range in the first 20 swings.
I then took a step back and thought about the movement of my arms and body from the back swing all the way through the contact. Reflecting on my swing from years past and running through the motions in my head helped me retrain the muscle memory, and in a matter of minutes I was striking the ball solid again.
Similar situations to that happened almost every day at the gym. Anders would challenge me with a new ladder drill and I would struggle through it for the first few times. Then, learning from my golfing experience, I took a minute to contemplate what my feet and body were doing in the drill and would perform the movement as if I’d been doing it for years.
I have really enjoyed how Anders has been mixing in new motions along with the standard drills. The staple workout movements, such as a squat, came back quickly. I knew what my body had to do and I simply had to visualize the movement. Then we would switch things up and do an advanced move, such as split squats. The technique felt similar to a squat, but required me to concentrate or I would lose my balance.
The progression has been great as every week my ability to move and perform has improved. If there is a bright side to having a stroke, then it would be the ability to relearn a movement to perfection. I have an opportunity to really challenge myself to become better and more spot on with my technique. Anders shared my enthusiasm and took this opportunity to spend time to show me the pure basics of elementary drills like pushups. I believe it’s really worked out well, and my form overall has improved dramatically.
So here I am 2 months later, basically back to normal. There are only a few small things that remind me I had a traumatic brain injury. The fine motor skills in my left hand misfire occasionally making typing or catching a ball slightly more difficult. But overall, I’m back to 99% of what I was before. My goal at the gym moving forward is to regain that 1% and push myself to go further.
Without Anders suggesting I get back in the gym as soon as I was released from the hospital, I would have probably been sitting on the couch for the past couple of months. Instead I’m more motivated than ever to be the most athletic and in shape I possibly can be. I’m incredibly grateful for everything Anders and the rest of the San Diego Athletics family has done for me during this unique time in my life.
