A Workout Designed For Champions

Mike DiMauro, The New London Day
July 13, 2007

It was noon on some nothing afternoon, the summer sun roasting the green fields of Poquonnock Plains Park, where there is no shade, no place to hide. And there they were. Two men teetering on whether to vomit, pass out or forge on. Two men redefining the exhausted concept of hard work.

What, you think hard work is trying a case in court in some snazzy suit or maybe writing a column on deadline? Please.

This was the agony, the part of the National Football League nobody ever sees.

This was a pro named Jacques Cesaire of the San Diego Chargers and a young man who'd love to be a pro in a few months, George Hall, the former Fitch High great, a free agent signee of the Minnesota Vikings.

This was Cesaire and Hall working out with their trainers, two Fitch grads and football program alums, Greg Drab and Calvin McCoy. They are the proprietors of Advantage Personal Training, with locations in Mystic and Niantic.

This was offseason training, the ache that comes before the glory of Sunday at 1.

Before you get a chance to experience it, we must exercise full disclosure: I am also an official, paying client of Drab's and McCoy's. They get me every week, an hour apiece. They are responsible for my loss of 17 pounds of pure fat. This is what I believe they know about physical fitness and the rhythms of the human body: everything.

So there.

This was the day, however, when Drab and McCoy went from their favorite flabby Lord of the Laptop to a pair of sculpted studs.

Cesaire, a defensive lineman with the Chargers since 2002, has been a client of Drab's for about as long. Hall, perhaps the best linebacker in the history of the estimable Fitch program, signed with the Vikings as a free agent in April and attended mini camp a few weeks later. He'll report to preseason camp with the Vikings later this month.

What strikes you immediately about them, aside from wanting them on your side in case a brawl breaks out, is how seriously they take their bodies. This was the second straight day Drab and McCoy had them in the midday sun. Cesaire and Hall came back willingly, in the spirit of “thank you sir, may I have another?”

Much of what they did involved little rest time. Station to station, drill to drill. All with rhythmic footwork. Two drills were particularly noteworthy:

Cesaire and Hall wore thick rubber bands around his knees and ankles, as if they were belts. To be clear: They were not rubber bands tied around each knee and ankle. Rather, the knees and ankles were contained inside the bands.

They began in the “ready” position — think of, say, a linebacker as the ball is snapped — and had to run through sets of cones stationed in a 20-yard radius. The bands provided tight resistance, serving to strengthen their hips and gluteal muscles. Strong hips and glutes, say Drab and McCoy, aid in running more efficiently and preventing injuries to the hamstrings and groin.

Next came a drill with a ladder lying on the ground, in a shape that resembled a hopscotch game. Hall and Cesaire were given a dozen different footwork exercises to negotiate their feet through the ladder, with their feet moving rapidly. Now close your eyes and think of firecrackers exploding on the fourth of July. That's the sound their feet made on the stone dust under the ladder.

And those were only two of the drills during an hour-long event.

Cesaire, a graduate of Southern Connecticut, spends part of every offseason in Groton, having married Fitch graduate Jill Murray. He found Drab one day by happenstance.

“I was driving to North Haven every day to a Gold's Gym,” Cesaire said. “I was getting stronger, up to about 315 (pounds), but I couldn't move.”

Cesaire wanted more flexibility and a more practical workout. He looked in the phonebook. The first listing under the letter “A” was “Advantage.”

Cesaire said of his first workout: “I knew this guy (Drab) was going to get me to the next level. I'm staying.”

It would be difficult for Drab and McCoy to get a higher endorsement.

Funny, though, how they've offered their services to many high school programs in the Eastern Connecticut Conference, only to encounter lukewarm interest — if that. Fitch coach Jim Buonocore is the only one smart enough thus far to incorporate, full time, Advantage's workouts that are tailored specifically for football.

It is, of course, the nature of football coaches to be control freaks and to do things their way and only their way. But the following football truths have become self-evident:

Conditioning is as vital to football blocking and tackling.

Methods of conditioning are changing for the better.

Ignoring those methods hurts programs in ways some coaches probably can't conceive.

Watching Cesaire and Hall suggested that football isn't about conditioning anymore. It is about correct conditioning. The scope of it evolves every day. Cesaire and Hall found the right place to learn. And sweat.