MORE THAN REST AND RECOVERY
4/22/2020 6:52:00 PM | General, Health & Wellness
‘Don’t Let What You Can’t Do Stop You From Doing What You Can Do’
(Editor's note: This is the fourth of a five-part series called "Staying Connected," which discusses the different and innovative ways Baylor Athletics is trying to reach and assist student-athletes during the COVID-19 crisis.)
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Jeremy Heffner was sitting in a plane on the Waco Airport tarmac, waiting to take off for the Big 12 women's basketball tournament in Kansas City.
Charlie Melton was already in K.C., with the men's basketball team just hours away from its opening game in the tournament. Chris Ruf was with the track & field teams in Albuquerque, N.M., waiting for the NCAA Indoor Championships to begin the next day.
It's one of those "Where were you?" moments in history, when the Big 12 and then the NCAA shut everything down due to health concerns with the COVID-19 outbreak.
"In the moment, you're thinking, we're all here in the same hotels together and at this venue together, let's just compete and go. That's your knee-jerk reaction," said Ruf, Baylor's Director of Athletics Performance for Olympic sports.
"Ultimately, they did the right thing. Moving forward, as we get through this, it's a really good reminder that that next day is never guaranteed. It also reminds us that we have to live in the moment and learn as much as we can each day."
During this unprecedented and trying time, that's exactly what the Baylor Athletics Performance team is doing. A group that includes Julie Anna Buzzard, Director of Performance Nutrition, is finding unique ways to assist 500-plus student-athletes with their nutritional and strength and conditioning needs in the moment while also planning for the day they will return.
"Obviously, we didn't know a timeline and we still don't," Buzzard said. "Initially, it was just extending spring break, then it was online and then it was online through the end of the semester. So, after each announcement, we were getting together with other members of the Health & Wellness staff and going, 'OK, what are we going to do with this deck of cards that we've been dealt?' And then figuring it out from a food standpoint."
At first, that included keeping the Beauchamp Athletics Nutrition Center open to provide to-go boxes and having BANC staff man the coffee station and other areas that would normally be self-serve, Buzzard said.
"When things got extended, it wasn't going to be safe to keep that open. So then, we had to decide where we were going to get the ones still here in Waco the food and nutrition they need without the dining halls," she said. "We were very blessed to have the red card system already in place, which is better known as 'Bear Fuel' to our athletes. That's an app on their phone that gives them a certain amount of money to use at a local vendor. And those vendors have been really great to work with us."
Those vendors also provided food for the baseball team during its self-quarantine following a trip to California and have continued to be a resource for the student-athletes still in town through online ordering and pick-up service.
Buzzard has also sent out recipes from Tracie Hartman, Executive Chef at the BANC, to student-athletes who are asking for healthy options.
"Some people have a pretty good grasp on their habits and what they're doing at home," Buzzard said, "but I'm getting texts of pictures of grocery store carts, saying, 'Hey, I bought salmon, and I don't know how to cook it.' Some people have said, 'I love the Salsa Chicken at the BANC, how do I cook it?' We're also looking at rolling out a cooking demo series in collaboration with Baylor Creative, not just for the athletes but also for the fan base of Baylor as well."
Working with other departments, including equipment services, Buzzard said there were also care packages sent to student-athletes that included vitamins, protein supplements and protein powder, depending on specific needs and whether or not they were recovering from injuries.
While several of the athletics performance coaches were nearing the end of their respective seasons, Corey Campbell was a few days away from the start of spring football when the NCAA decision came down. He was just promoted to Director of Athletics Performance for football in January and was working with Dave Aranda's new staff.
"It was tough, No. 1, because of the relationship factor," Campbell said. "Especially with all these new coaches, you wanted them to have the opportunity to be around the guys in-person. And then 2, from the football side of things, we didn't get any spring football in for them to be able to assess our guys, teach them schemes. And then from the performance side, learning what practice looks like and how we would adapt to that with respect to how we train."
Restricted from doing any kind of live virtual workouts on Zoom or any other platform, due to safety concerns, Campbell has been able to send the football players weekly training plans and a training kit that includes resistance bands, a foam roller and jump rope. He also uses Instagram "as a huge platform to post videos of what this at-home training looks like."
While he misses being at the facility working and training with the student-athletes, Campbell's message is simply, "Don't let what you can't do stop you from doing what you can do." With a few pieces of workout equipment in his garage, Campbell says he is able to "make do with what I got."
"As much as we ask our athletes to train and take care of themselves during this time, I have to be an example of that," he said. "I can't ask them to do anything I'm not willing to do. As much as I'm asking my guys to do, it wouldn't sit well with me if I'm not getting up and doing it myself."
To this point, the training programs have been low-stress and nothing that would have a "negative effect on their immune systems," Campbell said. The hope is that each of the players will take care of his business so that when the team does return to campus, "instead of trying to go from 0 to 60 (mph), they may be going from 20 to 60 or 40 to 60."
"At the end of the day, their safety and their health are of the utmost importance," he said. "We don't put anything in front of that. The time it's going to take is the time it's going to take. We're going to be systematic in our progression in getting the guys back and ready to go and perform at a high level come Week 1 of the season, whenever that may be."
For Heffner and Melton, other than it abruptly ending the season, the extended break from in-person training actually comes at a good time for the men's and women's basketball teams.
"This kind of fits our end-of-the-year model for basketball," said Melton, Director of Athletics Performance for men's basketball. "We normally take one to two weeks off. And even when they come back into the weight room and the practice gym for the month of April, things are different. They're not as taxing, they're a little more fun. We're trying to recover these guys' bodies. We started last July practicing for Italy, so we had already been burning the candle at both ends."
While the next season is still more than six months away, Melton stresses that the "team that does the most and stays the best prepared during this time is going to have a marked advantage over everybody else."
This time away from the facility has given Melton a chance to jump back into being a dad and a husband at home – "coming back off the road, there's always this readjustment period to dad being back in the house." His yard also looks better than ever, and he's spent four to six hours at a time organizing his garage, "rummaging around in there like an old man."
Because of the relationship he's built with Scott Drew and the staff over the years, Melton said they understand the benefit of "taking it slow but still being productive."
"They've seen the good impact of taking a couple weeks off to heal our tendinitis and general ailments. I think men's basketball is really, really prepared for what's ahead of us."
In addition to reaching out to assist the women's basketball players, Heffner is part of a transition advisory panel that includes fellow athletics performance coaches Adam Davis and Stacie Skodinski and athletic trainers Josh Ogden, Kristen Bartiss and Dalis Boyette.
That group has had regular Zoom meetings to discuss the best options for return to play once the student-athletes are back on campus and presented a plan to the rest of the Health & Wellness staff last Friday.
"In particular, if we come back this summer, it's going to be directed towards football, soccer and volleyball," said Heffner, Director of Athletics Performance for women's basketball. "because they're going to try to get everything done in an offseason that they didn't have. If you have a four-month timeline, and you do it all in four weeks, you're not going to have a team when you start the season and you certainly won't have a team by the end of the season."
In 2011, when an NFL lockout lasted 4 ½ months, preseason games were played two weeks after an agreement was reached for players to return.
"You had a record number of Achilles' tears, ACL injuries shot through the roof, non-contact soft-tissues injuries were spiked up, because they lost this whole preparatory period," Ruf said. "That's in the front of our minds right now, because no one is immune to that if they're not able to train at the level they need to train."
A former Division III football player at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, Ruf remembers working a job all summer, going through a couple weeks of two-a-days in August and jumping right into the season. But, this is a whole different level.
"You can't trick physiology. There's an adaptation process that has to happen," he said. "The realization is that at the Power 5 level, the engines of our student-athletes and their horsepower and their outputs are significantly different than what it was on your average Division III football team 20-plus years ago. So, we need to take that into account.
"They're going to lose some of their horsepower. They're not going to lose all of it, but their chassis needs to be tuned up a little bit as well before they're able to safely unleash all that horsepower."
Heeding the warnings from that 2011 NFL lockout, Heffner said the transition advisory panel also looked at a statement on transition periods put out jointly last year by the National Strength and Conditioning Association and Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association.
"The reality is that 50 percent of our injuries are occurring right when we come back from inactivity," Heffner said. "That's because coaches want to do too much, too quickly. Realizing that was a major issue, they started producing these guidelines. If you've been off for longer than two weeks, you're going to have to have a transition period when you come back. You can't go right into full-speed practices.
"We're narrowing the scope just a little bit, because this is unprecedented. This is not two weeks, we're talking about four, eight, 12 weeks. So, what we've done is taken their guidelines and then we've made additional recommendations based on the length of time they've been away."
As part of the return to play, Buzzard said the student-athletes will also go through a body composition test to compare where they were when they left.
"For example, with football, we did their last scan at the end of February," she said. "So, whenever they come back, we'll be able to do that again and compare where their fat mass or muscle mass or muscle loss in their body from when they left to when they come back. We use those results to work with them in establishing a plan on how they can come back. We can figure out as a group how we're going to help support them from nutrition, from rehab, from strength training. So, it's definitely a collaborative effort."
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Jeremy Heffner was sitting in a plane on the Waco Airport tarmac, waiting to take off for the Big 12 women's basketball tournament in Kansas City.
Charlie Melton was already in K.C., with the men's basketball team just hours away from its opening game in the tournament. Chris Ruf was with the track & field teams in Albuquerque, N.M., waiting for the NCAA Indoor Championships to begin the next day.
It's one of those "Where were you?" moments in history, when the Big 12 and then the NCAA shut everything down due to health concerns with the COVID-19 outbreak.
"In the moment, you're thinking, we're all here in the same hotels together and at this venue together, let's just compete and go. That's your knee-jerk reaction," said Ruf, Baylor's Director of Athletics Performance for Olympic sports.
"Ultimately, they did the right thing. Moving forward, as we get through this, it's a really good reminder that that next day is never guaranteed. It also reminds us that we have to live in the moment and learn as much as we can each day."
During this unprecedented and trying time, that's exactly what the Baylor Athletics Performance team is doing. A group that includes Julie Anna Buzzard, Director of Performance Nutrition, is finding unique ways to assist 500-plus student-athletes with their nutritional and strength and conditioning needs in the moment while also planning for the day they will return.
"Obviously, we didn't know a timeline and we still don't," Buzzard said. "Initially, it was just extending spring break, then it was online and then it was online through the end of the semester. So, after each announcement, we were getting together with other members of the Health & Wellness staff and going, 'OK, what are we going to do with this deck of cards that we've been dealt?' And then figuring it out from a food standpoint."
At first, that included keeping the Beauchamp Athletics Nutrition Center open to provide to-go boxes and having BANC staff man the coffee station and other areas that would normally be self-serve, Buzzard said.
"When things got extended, it wasn't going to be safe to keep that open. So then, we had to decide where we were going to get the ones still here in Waco the food and nutrition they need without the dining halls," she said. "We were very blessed to have the red card system already in place, which is better known as 'Bear Fuel' to our athletes. That's an app on their phone that gives them a certain amount of money to use at a local vendor. And those vendors have been really great to work with us."
Those vendors also provided food for the baseball team during its self-quarantine following a trip to California and have continued to be a resource for the student-athletes still in town through online ordering and pick-up service.
Buzzard has also sent out recipes from Tracie Hartman, Executive Chef at the BANC, to student-athletes who are asking for healthy options.
"Some people have a pretty good grasp on their habits and what they're doing at home," Buzzard said, "but I'm getting texts of pictures of grocery store carts, saying, 'Hey, I bought salmon, and I don't know how to cook it.' Some people have said, 'I love the Salsa Chicken at the BANC, how do I cook it?' We're also looking at rolling out a cooking demo series in collaboration with Baylor Creative, not just for the athletes but also for the fan base of Baylor as well."
Working with other departments, including equipment services, Buzzard said there were also care packages sent to student-athletes that included vitamins, protein supplements and protein powder, depending on specific needs and whether or not they were recovering from injuries.
While several of the athletics performance coaches were nearing the end of their respective seasons, Corey Campbell was a few days away from the start of spring football when the NCAA decision came down. He was just promoted to Director of Athletics Performance for football in January and was working with Dave Aranda's new staff.
"It was tough, No. 1, because of the relationship factor," Campbell said. "Especially with all these new coaches, you wanted them to have the opportunity to be around the guys in-person. And then 2, from the football side of things, we didn't get any spring football in for them to be able to assess our guys, teach them schemes. And then from the performance side, learning what practice looks like and how we would adapt to that with respect to how we train."
Restricted from doing any kind of live virtual workouts on Zoom or any other platform, due to safety concerns, Campbell has been able to send the football players weekly training plans and a training kit that includes resistance bands, a foam roller and jump rope. He also uses Instagram "as a huge platform to post videos of what this at-home training looks like."
While he misses being at the facility working and training with the student-athletes, Campbell's message is simply, "Don't let what you can't do stop you from doing what you can do." With a few pieces of workout equipment in his garage, Campbell says he is able to "make do with what I got."
"As much as we ask our athletes to train and take care of themselves during this time, I have to be an example of that," he said. "I can't ask them to do anything I'm not willing to do. As much as I'm asking my guys to do, it wouldn't sit well with me if I'm not getting up and doing it myself."
To this point, the training programs have been low-stress and nothing that would have a "negative effect on their immune systems," Campbell said. The hope is that each of the players will take care of his business so that when the team does return to campus, "instead of trying to go from 0 to 60 (mph), they may be going from 20 to 60 or 40 to 60."
"At the end of the day, their safety and their health are of the utmost importance," he said. "We don't put anything in front of that. The time it's going to take is the time it's going to take. We're going to be systematic in our progression in getting the guys back and ready to go and perform at a high level come Week 1 of the season, whenever that may be."
For Heffner and Melton, other than it abruptly ending the season, the extended break from in-person training actually comes at a good time for the men's and women's basketball teams.
"This kind of fits our end-of-the-year model for basketball," said Melton, Director of Athletics Performance for men's basketball. "We normally take one to two weeks off. And even when they come back into the weight room and the practice gym for the month of April, things are different. They're not as taxing, they're a little more fun. We're trying to recover these guys' bodies. We started last July practicing for Italy, so we had already been burning the candle at both ends."
While the next season is still more than six months away, Melton stresses that the "team that does the most and stays the best prepared during this time is going to have a marked advantage over everybody else."
This time away from the facility has given Melton a chance to jump back into being a dad and a husband at home – "coming back off the road, there's always this readjustment period to dad being back in the house." His yard also looks better than ever, and he's spent four to six hours at a time organizing his garage, "rummaging around in there like an old man."
Because of the relationship he's built with Scott Drew and the staff over the years, Melton said they understand the benefit of "taking it slow but still being productive."
"They've seen the good impact of taking a couple weeks off to heal our tendinitis and general ailments. I think men's basketball is really, really prepared for what's ahead of us."
In addition to reaching out to assist the women's basketball players, Heffner is part of a transition advisory panel that includes fellow athletics performance coaches Adam Davis and Stacie Skodinski and athletic trainers Josh Ogden, Kristen Bartiss and Dalis Boyette.
That group has had regular Zoom meetings to discuss the best options for return to play once the student-athletes are back on campus and presented a plan to the rest of the Health & Wellness staff last Friday.
"In particular, if we come back this summer, it's going to be directed towards football, soccer and volleyball," said Heffner, Director of Athletics Performance for women's basketball. "because they're going to try to get everything done in an offseason that they didn't have. If you have a four-month timeline, and you do it all in four weeks, you're not going to have a team when you start the season and you certainly won't have a team by the end of the season."
In 2011, when an NFL lockout lasted 4 ½ months, preseason games were played two weeks after an agreement was reached for players to return.
"You had a record number of Achilles' tears, ACL injuries shot through the roof, non-contact soft-tissues injuries were spiked up, because they lost this whole preparatory period," Ruf said. "That's in the front of our minds right now, because no one is immune to that if they're not able to train at the level they need to train."
A former Division III football player at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, Ruf remembers working a job all summer, going through a couple weeks of two-a-days in August and jumping right into the season. But, this is a whole different level.
"You can't trick physiology. There's an adaptation process that has to happen," he said. "The realization is that at the Power 5 level, the engines of our student-athletes and their horsepower and their outputs are significantly different than what it was on your average Division III football team 20-plus years ago. So, we need to take that into account.
"They're going to lose some of their horsepower. They're not going to lose all of it, but their chassis needs to be tuned up a little bit as well before they're able to safely unleash all that horsepower."
Heeding the warnings from that 2011 NFL lockout, Heffner said the transition advisory panel also looked at a statement on transition periods put out jointly last year by the National Strength and Conditioning Association and Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association.
"The reality is that 50 percent of our injuries are occurring right when we come back from inactivity," Heffner said. "That's because coaches want to do too much, too quickly. Realizing that was a major issue, they started producing these guidelines. If you've been off for longer than two weeks, you're going to have to have a transition period when you come back. You can't go right into full-speed practices.
"We're narrowing the scope just a little bit, because this is unprecedented. This is not two weeks, we're talking about four, eight, 12 weeks. So, what we've done is taken their guidelines and then we've made additional recommendations based on the length of time they've been away."
As part of the return to play, Buzzard said the student-athletes will also go through a body composition test to compare where they were when they left.
"For example, with football, we did their last scan at the end of February," she said. "So, whenever they come back, we'll be able to do that again and compare where their fat mass or muscle mass or muscle loss in their body from when they left to when they come back. We use those results to work with them in establishing a plan on how they can come back. We can figure out as a group how we're going to help support them from nutrition, from rehab, from strength training. So, it's definitely a collaborative effort."
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