In order to get on the field in college, I had a lot of work to do. I remember coming into College as a Freshman playing Center and had to adjust to 2 things; the speed of the game and being undersized. My footwork and hips were good and I had good strength in my lower body, but it was my upper body that was lacking. After getting pushed around a couple of times, I remember a coach telling me not to worry as I was only a Freshman. I still didn’t like it and wanted to do something about it. In the next 3 years I learned that you can raise yourself up to the next level while being in the fight in which I was. I then decided to dedicate myself to the weight room but I have to tell you that it wasn’t any kind of overnight success. Good things take time and for me to accomplish my goals, that was the case. I went into College at 225 and by the time I was a Senior I weighed close to 270 which was a decent size for a Center playing offensive line but there was a lot of work that took place. When I was recruited to play football and was deciding between Penn and The Airforce Academy, I remember the Academy gave me their weightlifting program which I kept even while at Penn. In the back of this stapled together program there were all the calibrations of weights, reps and days to lift that I worked with and set goals. After my Junior season was over, I sat down with this information and went through and charted out every day of the week from December 1989 to August of 1990 (9 months worth of training). I had laid out what my goals were to be in order to be able to bench 400 pounds. I looked at this paperwork everyday and continued to work hard to accomplish this goal of mine. By August of 1990, our team had testing and I was able to bench 400 pounds in front of the team. Many of the kids watched me and couldn’t even believe it! This was the time to make a statement to the team and the coaching staff that I was prepared to not only be a leader, but a starter and I wasn’t looking back. Though I was never gifted with a lot of natural strength, I set goals and worked really hard to accomplish my goal of getting stronger. Not only was I more confident, but I finally was at the size and strength to be a competitor on the field.

My Advice
The advice I’d give to others would be to focus earlier on strength training. I would also tell others to find a way to do it earlier and more often as I realize now how much it benefitted me.
Sports also taught me a lot about goal setting and as I got older, I learned more about the importance of sharing your goals with other people. They may laugh at you or say you’re crazy, but I think there’s a lot of power in it. It holds you accountable. It’s one thing to just walk around and vocalize what you want to do but it’s a whole other thing to accomplish what you say. That’s why you need to write down your goals and have a plan. Having a script without a plan are just words. With a plan, it’s your roadmap to success. Today, as I work with many people from IBM, I hold them accountable. I ask others about their plan in order to accomplish it and then I critique it. If you have a written plan and you tell others about it and allow them to critique it, I believe you’ll be on your way to more success than if you just walk around telling people you’re going to bench 400 pounds!