Your car or your body. Which do you maintain better?

I recently had the oil changed in the van that we use to tour in.  Our mechanic rotated the tires and checked the fluids.  I also got the van washed later that day.  I was reminded of a conversation I had with the fellas about maintenance.  

We had just finished a show where one of the performers tweaked his hamstring and I really wanted to stress the importance of making sure that we were taking care of our bodies.  I stressed the importance of strength, flexibility and conditioning.

We put a lot of miles on our touring van and as a result it requires more maintenance and more frequent maintenance than if we only occasionally drove it around the city.  The same is true of our bodies.  If all we did was occasionally challenge ourselves physically, we would not have to pay too much attention to our strength, flexibility or conditioning.

When I worked with the Houston Rockets, I had access to the weight room, the team trainer and the team doctor.  At one point, there was even a part-time team massage therapist which I too was able to make appointments with.

Now that I am not with an NBA team, I provide these necessities for myself.  I am not one to splurge on much of anything but when it comes to the three most important tools that I possess (my mind, body and spirit), I go out of my way to continually invest in their well being.  When it comes to my body, I have a membership to both 24 hour Fitness and Bally's, an investment that allows me to go to any of their locations nationwide.  The good thing about this investment is that because of the work that I do it is a business expense and can be a tax write off.  Fortunately many of the hotels we stay in have some sort of fitness room even if it is just a stationary bike.  It is definitely not necessary to go to a gym to maintain one's physical fitness - there are all kinds of things one can do with ones own body weight to stay fit.  

I also make what I think are wise investments when it comes to what I eat/drink on a consistent basis.

Going back to the van analogy, when we get our oil changed our local mechanic always makes sure to check our fluids.  He knows that we travel around the country and put a lot of miles on the engine and as our van's "doctor", he is vigilant about making sure he does his job to keep us rolling.

Sometimes I think he is more vigilant about maintaining our van than we are about maintaining our bodies.  Take fluids and nutrition for instance.  We had a teammate years ago that broke his femur.  Now understand that your femur is the largest bone in your body - it's your thigh bone.  He was barely 21 and appeared to be in amazing shape, yet he broke his femur.  Turns out he couldn't remember the last time he ate anything green, had a glass of milk or drank water.  He was basically living on Church's chicken and Coke (the soda).  

Our muscles and tendons and joints need lubrication and our bones and organs and "engine" need fuel.  Unless we are consuming what they need, they are not going to get it and will soon break down.  I cannot stress enough the importance water plays in the effective functioning of our bodies.  Water carries nutrients and oxygen to cells, regulates body temperature, lessens the burden on the kidneys and the liver, helps dissolve minerals and nutrients to make them accessible to the body amongst other things.  The human body on average is made up of 70% water and dehydration is the result of too little water intake.

How water benefits the human body

  

  

Study after study shows that fruits and vegetables are the key to health and wellness.  It is for this reason that I make it a habit to have a banana or apple not too far away.  Another easy way to include vegetables is eating at Subway and for fruit I carry a small cooler when we travel.  Eating well on the road can be very inconvenient but not impossible.  This is no Subway commercial but think about it: Most Subways have tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, onions, bell peppers, cucumbers, black olives, jalapenos and banana peppers and you can get them all with your sandwich at no extra cost.  Why not get them all.  Think of it in terms of your car:  I know this is ridiculous but, let's say your car told you one day it didn't like oil or transmission fluid - the taste just didn't agree with it and it preferred Vodka and Red Bull instead.  Would you stop putting oil and transmission fluid in.  No, you would tell your car to deal with it because you know in order to run effectively it NEEDS oil and transmission fluid regardless of how bad it might taste.  So you feed it to your car anyway and hope it doesn't get revenge by refusing to play it's radio or refusing to roll down the window when you press the button.

Why would we maintain our vehicles better than we maintain ourselves?  I encourage you to feed yourself the things you NEED even if you don't like the taste of them, OR find tastier ways to get them into your system.  Don't be like the 5 year old that wants soda with every meal and refuses to eat his vegetables - that 5 year old doesn't know any better, WE DO!  

Don't be fooled by thinking that because you take vitamins, you are getting what you need.  That multi-vitamin you are taking may be doing more harm than good.  Check out this article and tell me what you think about vitamin supplements.  Not all supplementation has the potential to be harmful.  As diligent as I may be, I do not eat enough fruits and vegetables on a daily basis so I bridge that gap by taking a whole food based nutritional product.  Keep in mind that if you are an athlete, act like it and consume nutrition like it.  Be Great!

GT

GT the Entertainer

                                                                                          

Not too many performers in the acrobatic slam dunk game bring to the table what GT brings to the table.  But before I get into all of that. let me begin by stating the thing that allows GT to deliver what he delivers is he is simply a smart guy.  

Not only in the sense of being able to identify logical patterns which is a big part of intellect but he has the ability to also identify emotional patterns and connect them.  He has a lightning fast ability to see connections and coherently express them at will.  Combined with his penchant for telling it like he sees it, he has the gift of being funny.

His contributions to ACRODUNK are many and varied.  From graphic design to video editing and from show elements that have become iconic to just day to day team entertainment - GT has altered the trajectory of ACRODUNK for sure.

However small or large the impact might be, every member of a team leaves his/her mark.  Sometimes the impact is long-lasting and even permanent.  It is great to witness when a teammate comes to the table and takes what is already effective and powerful and makes it better.  GT has done that very thing with many aspects of our shows.      

Every great team relies on teammates that have deep reservoirs of ability and ACRODUNK has been fortunate to have many.  In recent years it has been GT’s connections that have helped populate our teams with awesome talent.  It is his gift as an entertainer that helps us be more than just a dunk team.  His gift as computer wiz that has aided our marketing, web and social media presence.  His gift of commitment that has saved many a dunk from disaster (you might have to watch the following clip twice to notice the role GT plays to make this dunk happen.  By the way, the graphic with the cool swirling ACRODUNK logo with fire and smoke at the end of the vid is GT’s work).

It was during GT’s first season with ACRODUNK, that his potential to become an effective teammate became apparent.  It was quite a busy season which we kicked off with about 90 shows over the course of 6 weeks.  G-Man got hurt just before Thanksgiving and with GT’s help we were able to get another dunker, Timothy Muscarella up and running to finish that leg of the tour.  Later as the 2nd half of the season was gearing up, another talented entertainer Anthony Grant was brought into the ACRODUNK family through GT’s connections.  (Tae Crawford and Matthew Marzo later joined our ranks thanks to GT's influence).

We went on to end that season with 2 veterans suffering major injuries and a changing roster from month to month and GT was the constant throughout it all - not without his own aches/pains and challenges.  He ended up performing in every show the core team had that season and began to find his voice as the funny man on the team.  

His catch-phrase “Stir at it!” became what was remembered most by audience members at schools across the country.  Being cool & funny is hard to pull off but because of his varied talents - dance, tumbling, dunking, humor - GT was able to win fans over nationwide.

GT’s confidence is admirable - I have enjoyed seeing the risks that he’s taken and the results that risk taking has produced.   Often times a challenge/opportunity will present itself and GT will profess his ability to handle it.  Whether he possesses the ability at the time is a minor detail because in most instances by the time the work needs to be delivered he will have figured out how to do it.

As we develop our stage show, GT’s talents as a DJ have been incorporated into the mix.  From our stint on America’s Got Talent to the shows we’ll create in the future. his role of helping create memorable shows continues.

Thanks GT for your contributions.  Although pint sized, you have gallons of talent and ability and ACRODUNK is all the better for it.

GREGORY L. MUELLER

Mueller at 2011 Univ. S. Carolina performance

ACRODUNK would not be what it is if not for the contribution of the performers who have blessed us with their giftedness.  Gregory Mueller is one of many who have made a particular mark.  As I think about the progress we’ve made, the challenges we’ve overcome and the future that lies ahead of us - I am reminded of how strong we are because of Greg being on our team.

His maturity, professionalism and presentation skills are just the beginning of the depth of his abilities.  As an MC, he is polished, knowledgeable, professional and thorough.  He is able to develop rapport with all the various audiences we perform for from 1st graders at elementary schools to families gathered at festivals and fairs to millions of viewers watching us on TV.

More than all of his other skills and abilities, the core of Greg’s effectiveness is that he is a problem solver.

He quickly considers the tools we need,  the skills we need and the people we should call.  He has the uncanny ability to quickly see a variety of options and assess their viability in light of the objective we want to achieve.  Because he understands what ACRODUNK is about, he is also quickly able to consider and then discard those options that would compromise our integrity and go against what we stand for.  

As an acrobatic dunker, Mueller is a double through the legs master.  His signature ability is that he can finish any pass with a double through the legs dunk.  Any pass!  As a non gymnast, Mueller had to go way out of his comfort zone to learn how to flip dunk.  Over the years and 1000’s of shows later, he can pretty much flip dunk blind folded and clutch-dunk solo and off the pass.

There is a certain level of comfort that comes from having teammates that know what the hell they are doing and will pick up the slack when necessary.  Mueller is one of the few players in the game that can do it all.  Having provided leadership over the course of many hundreds of shows, he has experienced a multitude of challenges that give him a breadth and scope of experience unmatched by others in the game.

There are students enrolled in college right now because they were inspired by Greg Mueller.  There are young people pursuing their dreams right now because they were convinced that they matter by Greg Mueller.  There are dudes in the acrobatic dunk game who have taken their skills to a higher level because they were taking notes from Greg Mueller.

Not to discount any of our other teammates who all bring something special to the table, I have often thought how much greater our team would be if we had a few more Greg Muellers in the mix.  Greg, thank you for being the amazingly committed teammate that you have been over the years.  ACRODUNK and I appreciate you!

Check out the video below with Mueller heading the effort to make a difference in the lives of a local Houston Family.  As we were preparing to set a world record, our biggest challenge was what to do with the basketballs after we dunked them so we wouldn't land on them.  His suggestion to create a chute of some kind to carry the balls out of the performance area is what ultimately led to the ingenious solution we ended up using.