Chapter 683: The Professional Team
The offseason training had officially begun. Not only was Lu Ke not annoyed, but he was also full of motivation.
The upgraded offseason comprehensive training package was a treasure trove. The entire training framework included passing training, strength training, footwork training, tactical training, defensive reading training, film study, and many other parts. Through different combinations, a complete three-month training plan was created.
However, Lu Ke also knew that it was not scientific for him to rashly propose a complete and systematic training plan. So, when Leigh suggested hiring a professional training team, he nodded without any hesitation.
A data analyst, Kevin Foster.
He was a senior data analyst in the industry. He had worked in Silicon Valley and for the NFL. Later, Kevin chose to go solo and founded a data analysis company, specifically to cooperate with top players. He was mainly responsible for collecting recovery data during the offseason and injury periods, providing more objective references for the players' training.
Now, Kevin's list of collaborators included the recuperating Peyton Manning and Ray Lewis, who was in the second half of his career.
A professional nutritionist, Jude Carter.
Jude had been at home for nearly six months, not because she had no job. On the contrary, she had been invited to work on many projects, but she just wanted to relax and take a vacation for a while.
Before this, she had been the personal nutritionist for many top superstars, including basketball players Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan, tennis player Serena Williams, and football player Brett Favre. In the industry, she was a top-tier star.
If it weren't for Leigh's invitation, Jude would have wanted to continue relaxing and enjoying her life after fifty.
A physical therapist, Gerrard Walker.
He was one of the official physical therapists of the San Francisco 49ers. However, in the past season, Gerrard had left the team to travel by sea and had just returned to San Francisco. Before the team signed him, Leigh had already "intercepted" him and signed Gerrard for Lu Ke.
However, to be precise, this was not an interception, because Gerrard and Lu Ke only signed a three-month cooperation agreement. After the new season started, Gerrard would return to the San Francisco 49ers and continue to work with them. As for whether their private cooperation could continue, that would be decided later.
A strength and conditioning coach, Andre Richardson.
He was the youngest and most unknown member of the team.
Andre was once an NCAA professional athlete, mainly in baseball and basketball. He had never been involved in football. After graduating from college, he became a professional strength and conditioning coach. He was only thirty-three years old this year. Compared to other experienced and highly accomplished strength and conditioning coaches, he really didn't have much to show for.
Before coming to be Lu Ke's strength and conditioning coach, Andre was an official strength and conditioning coach for the NBA. He was mainly responsible for the rookie training camps and the NBA's minor league, the NBDL.
Andre came to Leigh's attention through Joe Montana.
Montana's third son, Nate Joseph Montana, was the same age as Lu Ke, both born in 1989. He was also a quarterback, but his football talent didn't seem to have been inherited from his father, and his career had been very bumpy.
After entering Notre Dame in 2008, he had been transferring between different colleges for the past few years, looking for a chance to be a starter. Lu Ke, his peer, had already completed his professional debut, while Nate was still in his senior year and would continue to play in the NCAA, hoping to prove himself and then enter the league through the draft.
However, given Nate's current record, his chances were slim. He was also active on the basketball court.
It was because of his son that Montana unexpectedly met Andre. After a deep conversation, Montana learned more about Andre's knowledge, professional ability, and practical level. He appreciated him very much and highly recommended him, lamenting many times that Andre was overqualified and had humbled himself to stay in the minor league.
Now is the era of "even a good product needs a good sales pitch." Self-promotion and commercial promotion are crucial. Talents who don't know how to promote themselves are often drowned out by the flood of information. This is even more true for strength and conditioning coaches.
Famous private trainers often make a name for themselves through industry connections and social media platforms. Their social skills are their strong suit compared to their actual business abilities, but their prices are rising and they are not soft on charging. What's worse, their schedules are often fully booked, and it's usually difficult to get an appointment.
As a Hall of Fame player for the San Francisco 49ers, Montana wanted the team to revive and find its next franchise quarterback more than anyone else. He had been keeping an eye on Lu Ke's every move. When he heard that Leigh was building a private training team for Lu Ke, Montana proactively recommended Andre.
However, Montana didn't force it. He only made a recommendation, and the specific business ability assessment was left to Leigh.
In the end, Leigh decided to hire Andre.
The first reason was that Andre's professional knowledge structure was indeed impressive. It was not a hollow framework but was built on serious study, and he even studied related knowledge such as nutrition, psychology, and physical therapy for his job. The second reason was Andre's youth. He could serve as both a mentor and a friend to Lu Ke.
If all went well, Leigh hoped that Andre could cooperate with Lu Ke for a long time and truly accompany Lu Ke as he grew. For a quarterback, a top strength and conditioning coach plays a crucial role in extending their career.
And that was exactly the case.
When Lu Ke met the four members of his private training team, it didn't take much effort for him to become familiar with Andre. His outgoing personality, practical style, and dedicated focus quickly gave the two of them a common language.
Lu Ke and Andre met and formulated a detailed training plan for the entire offseason.
Lu Ke didn't foolishly reveal the entire system training plan. Instead, he made subtle suggestions based on Andre's training plan, enriching the entire physical training framework step by step.
Because he was young, Andre was very quick to accept new things and praised Lu Ke's training ideas.
For example, parkour.
This was a new element in the system's offseason training package. When Lu Ke first saw it, he was confused.
He knew what parkour was: a new extreme sport that involves running, jumping, and flying between streets, buildings, and roads without any tools. But he didn't know what parkour had to do with football, just like how yoga and football seemed to have no connection.
But Andre gave it a very high rating. In his opinion, parkour was a way to tap into potential and instincts. It not only strengthens the body and improves agility, but it also improves reaction speed and adaptability. A professional parkour practitioner can correctly control danger and minimize it.
For a quarterback, it trains the player's ability to survive and react in a tight pocket, and also trains the player's ability to reasonably judge the situation, make choices, distribute physical strength, and achieve their goal when they are at their physical limit. Of course, the most important thing is to train the player's flexibility and agility.
Currently, no football player is willing to incorporate parkour into their training. But then again, no player is willing to do yoga either.
Likewise, Lu Ke was also impressed by Andre's training plan, which proposed a different training method than the system.
For example, the trampoline.
Andre designed a new training method that used a trampoline to train hand-foot coordination, balance, and control.
During the training, Lu Ke had to constantly stay in a bouncing state while moving and throwing and catching a ball. However, it was not a football, but a large yoga ball. Through this training, Lu Ke could accurately judge a three-dimensional space even while bouncing, and also train his hand-eye coordination and body control.
Of course, it also helped with his breathing regulation ability.
Compared to the monotonous and boring training, parkour and the trampoline were more of a recreational activity. Each training session lasted between thirty and sixty minutes as a means of regulating the training. Because there were no shortcuts for strength training, it could only be repeated over and over again. By enriching other training methods, the entire physical training became more appealing.
After going back and forth, Lu Ke developed a brand new training plan. It not only included the daily training tasks and offseason training package set by the system but also included the different training methods added by Andre. Before the offseason officially started, Lu Ke was already eager to get into training.
Every day now, his physical training and technical training went hand in hand. He ate three meals according to a nutritional plan and received massages and physical therapy after training. He started at 5:30 in the morning and continued intermittently, with a combination of work and rest, until 6:00 in the evening, when he could finally complete all the training items.
After a full day of training, Lu Ke would fall asleep. He had no time to overthink or entertain himself. But for Lu Ke, this was a form of enjoyment.
Once again, Lu Ke completed all his technical training for the day. After a thirty-minute rest and adjustment, he would move on to the next phase of physical training, which was a recovery warm-up.
When training was over, it was truly over. Lu Ke didn't ask for any extra training. Because he knew that too much of a good thing was bad. It could not only lead to injury, but the training effect might not even be positive. He had to focus on the entire offseason, training step by step, and wait for the day when everything came to fruition.
From a distance, Lu Ke could see Leigh approaching.
🗒️NOTE:
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/MistaQuartz
Explore up to 30 chapters in advance!