Tag: nevelle clarke

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. — Look in one direction, and you’ll see UCF receiver Gabe Davis working with resistance bands at a furious pace. Look in another, and there’s Utah running back Zack Moss benching 225 pounds over and over. Florida running back Lamichal Perine, fresh off a great Senior Bowl week, is stretching out, getting ready for another day of training. Alabama safety Xavier McKinney and Minnesota safety Antoine Winfield Jr. are in and out, alternating between pre-combine training and flying home to work with their position coaches. NFL players like Jets guard Kelechi Osemele show up every day. Other NFL players, like receivers Brandin Cooks, Randall Cobb, and Kenny Golladay, are working out at Gaines’ other facility at a small strip mall in Calabasas, about 12 miles away.

It’s not what you’d expect to see in an unimposing industrial park just down the 101 from Thousand Oaks, but here’s where several of the most interesting prospects in the 2020 draft class are getting ready for the combine at the Athletic Gaines facility, run by longtime performance coach Travelle Gaines. A multi-sport athlete in high school who was drafted by the Montreal Expos and dreamed of coaching at the University of Washington, Gaines started helping a handful of NFL players in the Pacific Northwest with their own training processes after injuries derailed his own athletic dreams.

Former Seahawks cornerback Marcus Trufant was Gaines’ big breakthrough.

“In 2006, [Trufant] didn’t have a good year with the Seahawks, he had been injury-riddled and he was at a make-or-break point,” Gaines recalled when I first met him in 2010. “2007 was his contract year, and he had to change something. He committed to change his lifestyle. We got him on a strict nutritional plan, got him to decrease his body fat dramatically. He bought into the program I put in place for him, went out and had a great season, started in the Pro Bowl, and received a [six-year, $50.2 million] contract a few months later. He was a huge story of mine; a lot of people wanted to know what he did. That brought in other Seahawks players. They had friends, and the friends had friends, and by the end of that summer, I had 30 guys working with me.”

Draft prospects came next, and with a quickness. Gaines has worked with 45 eventual first-round picks, including Andrew Luck, Myles Garrett, Anthony Barr, N’Keal Harry, Ronnie Stanley, Jimmy Smith, and Bradley Roby, and this is his 14th year preparing prospects especially for the scouting combine. It’s obviously a different manner of training; the NFL players Gaines works with in the offseason are concerned with maintaining their football conditioning, while prospects like McKinney and Winfield and Moss are specifically getting ready for the 40-yard dash, the bench press, the vertical jump, and other aspects of the track meet. Football comes later, when many of the guys Gaines and his staff work with at this point come back to him once their NFL futures are secured.

Now, it is absolutely about being bigger, stronger, and faster, and as Gaines explains, he prepares his chargers for the mental rigors as much as anything.

“The biggest thing, when guys come in… the first thing you’re dealing with is the mental side,” Gaines told me. “A lot of them have been coddled their whole lives. Put on a pedestal. And for the first time in their lives, they’re really and truly on their own. You have guys who will show up with their support systems — four, five, six people. Sometimes, their parents say to me, ‘I’m giving you my baby.’ For the first time, they have money — they’re coming in here with 10, 20, 30, maybe 100 thousand dollars from endorsements or agent advances. And you never know how you’re going to act until it’s actually there. I was one of those people who said, ‘When I make a million dollars, I’m never going to do this. Then, you make a million dollars, and it’s like, ‘I’m gonna do this and then some.’

“So, mentally — by coming out to L.A., it accelerates that transition. You’re going from a small town in Florida or Alabama to one of the major markets. We have to determine where each one of these kids is at, mentally. For the most part, honestly, I can tell if they’re going to make it or not.”

Bert Whigham, Gaines’ Director of Football, got a bit more specific when it comes to how prospects are vetted from a mental readiness perspective. It’s Whigham and the rest of Gaines’ expanding staff who allow Gaines to perform double duty with prospects and pros.

“There’s three forms of thought,” he said. “There’s Alphas, there’s Cerebrals, and there’s Primes. Alphas see opportunities everywhere; that’s what makes them Alphas. They see the opportunity to win, to make money, to dominate. A Cerebral person sees threats. Now, they can still be great, but they see it like, I need to prepare in order to beat this guy. He can beat me if I don’t prepare. Primes have the ability to see both, and that’s what’s rare. You see the opportunity to beat the guy, but you also understand that he’s a threat to you, so you need to prepare and get used to that.

As Whigham explained, a lot of people in football are total alphas, but that mindset can get them in trouble on and off the field, because they see the ability to dominate, and the threat of the metaphorical brick coming right at their head doesn’t matter, because they can beat the brick. Or, they fail to understand that unless they prepare in different ways, they’re going to lose their job to a younger player. Because they always think they can beat the competition.

“But the ability to see both, that the differentiator. Gabe has both. Lamical Perine has both. That’s a rare trait. Zack Moss has both.”

Next, for Gaines and his staff, is the physical perspective. This includes strict medical, dietary, and conditioning programs that allow prospects to redefine their bodies healthily in a pretty big hurry.

“A lot of times, when you see these body transformations… I mean, I was a college strength coach myself,” Gaines said. “There, you have 105 players, and with the rules changes, you only have five strength coaches. Add in the 20-hour rule, and you can only do so much. Now, they’re coming into an environment where they’re getting a customized program for them. They’re working out three times a day, and they’re on very strict nutrition plans designed for these eight weeks.

“So, mentally, it’s how are you going to handle this money and being in L.A. And how are you going to handle the rigorous demands of this — will you stay focused and concentrate on all that? How are you going to not pay attention to what the media is saying about you? Everybody has their own mock draft. Everybody has their own opinion of you. Taking everything in stride is important, and you just have to remember that it only takes one team to fall in love with you.

“This is my 14th combine class, and just having NFL players around… Brandin Cooks has talked to the kids. N’Keal Harry has spent time with the guys. It’s different than the day-to-day grind of getting ready for an actual game. It’s preparing the mental aspect as well, and preparing for the biggest job interview of your life. It’s how you handle the pressure. How you handle the media scrutiny. How you handle the team [interviews]. How you handle all these things, and preparing for the NFL.”

At this point in his career, Gaines is in a position where he doesn’t have to go looking for clients — he goes with word-of-mouth exclusively, and the vetting process for training prospects doesn’t have to be as rigorous, because there isn’t a conveyor belt of combine participants showing up at his door every day.

“Every player who’s here is because he has a relationship with somebody I trained, or somebody I know. I’m training a lot fewer kids now, because I want to provide more personal attention. I like working in extremely small groups, or one-on-one. I have six players preparing for the combine this year. When I was at Athletes Performance, we had 150 kids a year. My process now is, I try to do an extremely good job of knowing that they’re super-dialed in. They really, really want to do this. Because like them, my job depends on… if a guy has bad results, I’m not going to have clients next year. There’s a new facility popping up every day. Everybody has a new gimmick — that special ‘pixie dust.’ What I’ve learned in 14 years is that nobody has a magic potion. If they did, we’d all be using it. So, it’s about having clients who really want to be here, and are really focused. They aren’t going to take this process for granted.”

With that in mind, Gaines gave me an insight into the guys he’s training this year.

UCF cornerback Nevelle Clarke: “6-foot-2 cornerback who can run. He’s an LOB type. Tough. I like Nevelle. His dad’s there [in the gym]. Norman. His dad’s funny. He’s there wearing all the loud colors, taking photos with his high-tech camera. As far as what we’re working on, change of direction is huge with Nevelle. We’re working on his hip flexibility and mobility — getting him to open his hips so he can turn and run better. His overall speed and agility; that’s the biggest thing.”

Utah running back Zack Moss: “The biggest thing we’re working on with Zack is his stride length. If you were building a running back — compact, boxy, low to the ground, great lower half, very powerful, very tough — that’s Zack Moss. And he was one of the best pass-catching running backs in the NCAA last year. But we’re working specifically on his stride length, turning him into more of a track star, and getting him ready for that track meet.”

UCF receiver Gabe Davis: “What I’m working on with Gabe? Man… trying to kick him out of the gym. He’s there seven days a week. He’s obsessive. He came from nothing — a small town outside of Orlando, Florida called Sanford. He has not taken this process for granted. He is laser-focused. He’s flying out massage therapists and Pilates instructors. I don’t know where he’s going to get drafted, but if you’re looking for a hard-working athlete who’s not going to get in trouble and will do whatever you tell him, that’s Gabe Davis. He’s going to be great wherever he goes. With his height/weight/skills and his mindset, Gabe is special.”

Gaines refused to go on the record when I asked him what he thought Davis would run at 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, but let’s just say, if you’re thinking about a 4.5 40-yard dash, bet the under.

One reason? “His body compensation. In five weeks with us, he lost 5% of his body fat. 14% to 9%. We’ll have him at 7% before he gets to the combine [the picture below shows the 7% result]. That’s nutrition, the way we work him out, his metabolics. And that shows you how hard he works. He eats five times a day. We take him through blood work, allergy tests, and we design his program from there.”

Florida RB Lamical Perine: My guy! Lamical Perine has probably had the dream postseason. MVP of the Orange Bowl, and he was the Offensive MVP of the Senior Bowl. His trajectory… he’s getting out at the right time. I think he’s going to have a very good combine, and it’s similar to Zack. We’re working on his speed and his body compensation, and getting him ready. He’s such a great kid, and he’s just a pleasure to be around. Very respectful. He’s probably one of my favorites. We’re looking at his change of direction, his agility, and his 40. The 40 is key. The biggest thing for the running backs is that I want to make sure they run a great 40 time, and that they have a great bench press. They’re showing that they can take that pounding, and they’re strong up top. And that they have the speed to break away from anybody.”

Judging from the activity in that gym in mid-Februady, the impetus was strong for Indianapolis, and it will have only gotten stronger as the combine looms.

“When I was training two weeks ago, it was more about trying to stay in football shape — just trying to keep my body in a football mode,” Perine told me then. “Now, I’m basically training for a track meet. Working on my speed and quickness, and everything about the 40. A lot of band resistance work, running 10-yard splits… lower-body stuff so I’m ready to run.”

Minnesota safety Antoine Winfield Jr.: “Great kid. He is extremely focused. Obviously a great pedigree; he’s been around the game his whole life. He is very polished and buttoned-up. He works extremely hard. We’re working on speed with him.”

Okay, I posited to Gaines, we hear this a lot. Improving somebody’s speed. Working on speed. But what does that actually mean?

“The two ways you get faster are stride length, and stride frequency,” Gaines said. “You can help your stride length by doing repetitive technique drills. Hurdles, skipping drills. Things that will force your knee drive up, increase your hip fexibility, and help with your ankle dorsiflexion. The way you get more frequency is by being more explosive. You use plyometrics and other drills to increase the elasticity of your muscles. So, we do a combination of technique work, every single day, twice a day, and we do explosive training drills twice a day.”

And then, when the hay’s in the barn, the prospects are as prepped as they’re going to be, and it’s time to get rolling, everyone will travel to Indianapolis for — yes, it’s a cliche, but it’s true — the biggest job interviews of their lives. Gaines and his crew will be there for the players, working to help them navigate a combine schedule through the week that wouldn’t be out of place in Navy SEAL training.

Full schedule breakdown here: pic.twitter.com/4C1FAwGiuv

— Jordan Reid (@JReidNFL) February 17, 2020

“We’ll have a suite for the kids, with equipment and food and massage therapists and everything. Bert gets there first; he’ll be there Sunday night. I’ll come later in the week because of the pros that are here. What I tell the kids is that sleep and nutrition are the most important things. These teams only have 15 minutes with each kid, so they try and grab them after that time. It’ll be even worse now, because each team has fewer player interviews and the drills are in prime time. It’s great for the west coast kids, because they’re getting up a 6:00 a.m., which is really 3:00 a.m. I’ve gone through it several years with kids, where they’re staying up too late because they’re nervous. And you don’t run until the fifth day. So, you’re going through 24 hours in the hospital with MRIs, psychiatric meetings, interviews, and you’re just mentally drained. And if you’re mentally drained, you’re just not going to perform. You’re trying to protect your sanity, so your rest and your downtime are the most important things.”

Of course, everybody wants proof of concept. People want to know how Gaines’ training methods have worked. He’s happy to refer to a few examples.

“Three off the top of my head. First, Kyle Long. Had a seventh-round projected grade, went 20th overall [to the Bears in 2013], made three Pro Bowls. He just destroyed the combine. Lamarr Houston, he had an undrafted grade. Went 44th overall [to the Raiders in 2010], and he just destroyed the combine, too. I think he ran a 4.77 40 at 6-foot-3 and 274 pounds. And then, I don’t know if you remember a kid named Josh Robinson — he was the fastest kid at the 2012 combine. He ran a 4.29 and came out of nowhere. Came out of UCF and became a multi-year starter for the Vikings. Those are three guys who were projected to either not get drafted or go really late, who all went really early and had successful NFL careers.”

And the final message for the prospects?

“The same thing Marshawn said: Protect yo’ chickens. It’s the same thing — save your money, don’t make any impulse buys, protect your body, Because it goes fast, man. Randall Cobb is 29 years old, and he’s been in the NFL for 10 years. A third of his life. It’s crazy. You’ve got to have the right people around you.”

Getting the right people around you starts at the beginning. And for these prospects, as has been the case for so many before them over the last 14 years, it’s the ability to prepare them for the combine that has defined and enhanced Gaines’ reputation as a developer of football talent.

At this point in the NFL timeline, nothing means more than that.

Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar previously covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”