ad-free
Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2013-05-04
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kBcgY3F444
I'm a firm believer that everything starts with the catalyst for me that catalyst was brought Miller in two thousand seven I took the head job as the head friend conditioning coach but miss you Wolverines %HESITATION upon arrival I learned that one of our incoming recruits Elliott Mueller had been in a car accident that he had lost his father that he had lost his girl friend and
his brother Brock had been paralyzed I took it upon myself to go to the hospital and is that Brock from that day the rest of my life was changed I watched a man that was told he would never walk again I saw his courage I saw as disbelief I saw that he didn't believe there is any moment that anyone could tell him whether or not he
will block so I walked into that room and spend time with him we quickly became connected over the next two years I tried to offer moral support to try to give direction to try to lift them up when he struggled he went to rehabilitation for two years and after two years he was unable to stand on his own he was unable to walk he was in
a position where he was going to be left and I have to figure out the rest of his life for himself so at that point I decided that I would offer him the opportunity if you wanted it to come in the weight room with the team in an environment that was explosive energetic and positive see if we couldn't start something else that would help him along
his way so it was a little bit different for me yet understand for twenty years I trained hundreds of Melinda confessional athletes over five hundred Olympic professional athletes in forty two sporting events two collegiate schools and it worked with just about everybody when it came from some type of athletic involvement the goal has always been to provide stimulus from a scientific background that would accommodate accommodate
adaptation to help performance to help a person be more explosive help a person be faster help a person accomplish a goal as an athlete this time it was a different goal it was help a man stand and take one step how was I going to do that the same thing that I used as a principal over the years which is what flaw scientific principle the body
conforms it adapts to the door intensities and directions it's a bit chilly subjected to what does that mean if I take a give away let's take the squat for instance and I place that weight on my back the way it is given three hundred pounds my body will conform adapt to three hundred pounds in a downward direction if I see get my body to that on
a habitual basis knowing this I knew that I had to get brought in a standing position to accommodate this adaptation how do you do that with a man whose legs don't work so I took an apparatus that we use in training which is the aromatic device that adds resistance to an athlete to accommodate nor recruitment and I converted into an apparatus that became a sister I
took an old rock climbing harness that I had from when I rock climb put on Brock's waste attacks the device to him and was able to get him standing as you see in the picture here at that point we're able to continuously add stresses we came up with hundreds of exercises to accommodate the necessary adaptations to get him on his feet within six months Brock was
standing within a year rock was walking he led us out for the season opener I guess you kind in front of a hundred and ten thousand people with two canes truly a momentous moment to watch a human being come from suffrage and pain and a family that was destroyed to be lifted again by one man's efforts and one man's accomplishments to me it was an impactful
situation something to change the rest of my life I no longer coach for the Michigan Wolverines I currently own a training center that's implement Michigan called bar was methods we have hundreds of Olympic professional athletes that run through there we ran a hundred twenty two through this year we have high school athletes we have young kids we have the general population we have everything that walks
or talks at sometime some that don't but they will from that point on we now have people have come in from all over the world people have been in similar situations many of which are walking now the same accommodations in same stressors one of the major limitations I feel that we have in an academic world is we tend to follow protocol we tend to follow a
list we tend to say these are our steps and if it didn't work for this person or something wrong with the person maybe there's something wrong with our protocol maybe we need to take the extra step to evaluate each person as an individual take something out of your life and give the extra time and push a human being to a place they want to be just
like you do when your coach no different over the time we have a new park person has come in recent years he now works out with Brock you'll see Brock standing in this picture this is Katie from Louisiana who's flown and she's getting so she's got more control this is Chris Chris Williams is from candy drive three hours each way to work out for four hours
a day so we can go back Chris was paralyzed for over three years he now walks those moments to me are the most impactful moments it's not a game it's not an accolade is not a championship none of those things matter it's the journey if the people you impact along the way it's what you give of yourself to somebody else to make them great that eventually
is what makes him great in my own personal opinion we look at life you can't ignore the catalyst you don't know where it's coming from it may be the person who walks by you on the street and maybe a person you've known your entire life it maybe a tragic it may be a victory or it may be a man who was told he would never walk
again and the second time he enjoys the victory of a first step I hope that everybody in this room at some point is given the opportunity to look their maker in the eye and say on this day I don't care if I die today because today I've given everything I could possibly give that you've given me to somebody else I lifted him up I take my
heart and I put it in their soul to drive them to success and on this day I'm okay with death because today I'll die a champion if you thank you bloom inspired inspired no just just one of the many things always get only time fall here it always is catalyst may god bless everyone of you as god has blessed Brock and I
