Every year I try to keep in excellent shape and improve some part of my game. I play in the offseason overseas to keep my game tuned up and hopefully improve a little in some area.
I feel good, and the way I determine it is through my workout. I work so hard in the offseason that if I'm able to do everything I have to, I figure I must be healthy.
I think the real reason for my improvement is because I had such a long period in the off-season just working as hard as I could on all my new dives; making sure I did lots of repetition to get them consistent.
Rest is obviously a key in the offseason.
I can have fun anywhere, as long as I'm with good people. But in the offseason, I like to go somewhere warm, a nice spot in the Caribbean.
I just think overall a lot of it has to do with conditioning and players putting in the time and the effort in the off-season to keep themselves in condition for 12 months a year.
During the off-season, I go to the movies almost every day.
I was doing Hamlet in the off-season, and I had a specific idea in my mind about what I wanted that character to look like, and because it's going to lead into the next year, I knew that it was going to have to be established somewhere in the show.
What you do during the offseason is, first, build a base. That takes about three weeks, and then you try to get as strong as you can before you go to spring training. Once you get there, you taper down and it's just a maintenance program for the next six or seven months.
A great deal of it is mental, the ability to learn within the game, to perform at a high level - often with injury - and to weather the ups and downs of an emotional game through a 16-game season. Also, there is the willingness to prepare in the offseason, the film room, to learn the scheme and execute without a lot of repetition - that's football character.
I go out and put in a load during the offseason so I know what I'm going to be able to do, as long as I stay healthy, when it comes time for the season.
When it's time to focus in and play ball during the season, 100% of my focus is on that. When it's the offseason and I've got time to be away and I can do other interests - they don't conflict. I'm good at compartmentalizing. I can put everything in its appropriate box at the time and open it up when I need to at a later time.
The thing you realize as you get older and you play, that you don't really understand when you're a backup the first few offseasons, how important that mental rest is. It's a grind physically during the season, dealing with the hits and the physical pain that goes with playing in this game. But mentally it's probably more taxing, so you need that ability to find that escape.
Playing professional sports, it's important to eat healthy and take care of your body. In the offseason, rest is really important to me.
I work out four days a week in the off-season, and in the warm, running weather months, I do five days. A push/pull regime of weightlifting, cycling, and the occasional Saturday or Sunday run with my oldest son, even if it's cold out.
Physical therapy is part of my offseason routine. That has helped me greatly.
I always took my workouts serious because I have a football background. I came from football, so when I got to baseball, I continued my football workouts in the offseason.
I have used, you know, marijuana ... since I've been in the league....But as far as abusing it and, you know, letting it take control over me, I don't do that, no....hopefully ... I won't get into any trouble by the NFL by saying that, you know. I have had fun throughout my years and, you know, predominantly in the offseason.
I've been surfing for a couple years, in the offseason in California and in Hawaii. I'm not very good, but it's just something that to be out there in the water, no cell phone, no music... very few sports are as pure as that.
During the offseason, I go to the movies almost every day. You hear about women buying shoes? I buy DVDs. I definitely have a problem.
Most of the players in the league use marijuana, and I have and do partake in smoking weed in the offseason sometimes.
No, one of the great things about my three-year deal is that it's year-round. They've offered me an opportunity to cover a lot of things in the offseason, too.
I thought long and hard about my future this past year and during the offseason, and I've decided 2015 will be the last time I compete for a championship.
How much has spending most of the offseason in prison affected Jamal Lewis' poor start?.
I've been training like crazy with my trainer Decker Davis all the time, and we've been doing this new thing called Danger Train. It's kind of storytelling about the offseason training, there's a lot more to come with that. More than anything, from a nutrition aspect to the speed aspect to the strengthening aspect and, most importantly, to the mental aspect, we're always trying to grow exponentially. We're continuing to find new ways to do that.
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