Special thanks for the input and to the listeners on WXYC’s Thursday Night Feature. I have to admit that I was nervous about presenting the legendary music and story of Bo Diddley. His innovations and creative process is nothing short of astounding. Bo Diddley was truly a “Man’s Man.”
For the show, I was able to inerview, Blues Hall of Fame member, photographer, curator, and producer Dick Waterman and former Chess Records sax player and producer, Gene Barge. (Little known fact: Barge was actually the sax player on Chuck Willis’s C.C. Rider.)
Both Dick and Gene provided great insights on Bo Diddley and the Chicago Blues scene. As an added bonus, they were able to touch upon where the direction of blues is headed today.
With that first hour, you’ll enjoy Bo’s biographical tidbits and Bo’s early Chess years. The tough part is that with help from an esteemed WXYC elder, I was able to uncover Gene Autry’s guitar riff from “Jingle Jangle” and compare the portion to “Who Do You Love?” That may not be on the recorded version.
With that said, the shame is that I was able to play a lot of Bo’s ‘funk’ and his ‘Black Alligator’ work from the ’70s from ‘Another Dimension’, ‘Big Bad Bo’ and ‘Bo and Co.’ In fact, for sample fans out there, pick up ‘Big Bad Bo’, De La Soul used the sample off ‘Hit or Miss.’ The song is a classic funk sample. Also, be sure to try and find a lot of Bo’s live work, which you can catch a good feel for in the YouTube video that I’ve posted below.
Here is the information that I used for the show: 1.) Bo Diddley Box Set - For XYC DJs, do yourself and dig deep into vinyl. The cuts between 1955-1962 are all classics, and they all contain that classic Bo Diddley riff. Another tidbit is to check out the liner notes. Bo set the record straight with his thoughts upon Chess Records, his musical style, his influences, and even icons like Chuck Berry …Great read.
2.) “The Indestructible Bo Diddley” - This may be the definitive article on Bo Diddley from Neil Strauss of “Rolling Stone Magazine.” Seriously, this is a great read, and Strauss depicts a great impromptu jam session in Diddley’s living room filled with home-made amplifiers and guitars…Very strong read.
3.) Bo Diddley Wikipedia Entry - Good source of consolidated info. This was probably the best source for details of the last two years before his death on June 2, 2008. Check out the final entry that details his last show in his birthplace of McComb, Mississippi.
Bo Diddley - I’m a M-A-N - Chess Records
Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley - Checker/Chess Records (Talk)
Bo Diddley - Send It To Jerome - Chess/Checker
Bo Diddley - Diddley Daddy - Chess/Checker
Bo Diddley - Pretty Thing - Chess/Checker
Bo Diddley - Before You Accuse Me - Chess (Talk)
Bo Diddley - Who Do You Love? - Chess
Bo Diddley - Mona - Chess (Talk)
Bo Diddley - Oooh Baby - Chess Records (Talk)
Dick Waterman Interview
Gene Autry - “Jingle Jangle” (Talk)
Elmore James - “Dust My Broom”
Bo Diddley - “Look At My Baby” - Chess (Talk)
Bo Diddley - “Cops & Robbers” - Chess (Talk)
Bo Diddley - Ride On Josephine - Chess
Bo Diddley - Aztec Bo Diddley The Chess Box
Bo Diddley - “Back Home” - Bo Diddley The Chess Box/Chess
Bo Diddley - “Pills” - Bo Diddley The Chess Box/Chess
Bo Diddley - “Untitled Instrumental” - Bo Diddley The Chess Box/Chess (Talk)
Gene Barge Interview
Bo Diddley - “Bo Diddley The Gunslinger” - Bo Diddley 16 All-Time Greatest Hits/Chess
(Talk)
Bo Diddley - “Bad Side Of The Moon”- Another Dimension/Chess
Bo Diddley - “I Said Shuttup Woman” - Another Dimension/Chess
Bo Diddley - “Go For Broke (Instrumental) ” - Another Dimension/Chess (Talk)
Bo Diddley - “He Got All The Whiskey” - Big Bad Bo/Chess
Bo Diddley - “Hit or Miss” - Big Bad Bo/Chess (Talk)
Bo Diddley & Co. - “He’s A Hell Of A Man” - Bo Diddley & Co./Fan Club
As I mentioned in the show, I actually met Bo inside the lobby of the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles, and he was one of the cooler bump-ins that I’ve had with a celebrity. I only now wish that I could ask more about his Chicago days.
Also, thanks to George Thorogood and Dan Aykroyd for placing Bo in their works. Both of those works introduced me to Bo Diddley’s music. Bo appeared as a pool hustler in Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone” video, and he appeared in Trading Places as a Philadelphia pawn-shop owner/broker, who not only states Aykroyd’s watch that tells time in ‘Sch-tad’ ‘That watch is hot”, but also pronounces “…in Philadelphia, that watch is worth fifty bucks.”
After learning and reading more about Bo, the setting in Trading Places with all of the loose equipment hanging from the walls, electronics under the shelves, and blues music playing in the background, that may be a solid setting for listening to his work.
For Bo Diddley fans, here is a special treat for you. I’ll be hosting WXYC’s Thursday Night Feature tomorrow night, July 3rd from 9-12AM, and the topic will be Bo Diddley and his music.
We’ll have two solid interviews from Blues Hall of Famer and renowned blues archivist and photographer, Dick Waterman, and former Bo Diddley labelmate and famed Chess/Checkers sax player Gene Barge providing their insights upon Bo’s legacy and where the direction of blues is headed today. We’ll also touch upon Bo’s Chicago roots and his influences.
I’m looking forward to sharing info on Bo Diddley. If you have any insights or special requests, feel free to drop a line here. In the Chapel Hill area, tune into WXYC FM 89.3. Outside of the Hill, tune-in through cyberspace by streaming online via www.wxyc.org or via iTunes Radio. WXYC is listed under the the ‘Eclectic’ section.
Diddy Wah Diddy, walk it home and join us tomorrow night on WXYC.
I told people that this young gunna’ is different…
A while back, I posted this shot of Brandon Jennings that I caught at the MLK Invitational in Greensboro. I called him the second coming of Kenny Anderson. I called him the best high-school point guard of this decade, and I still don’t think that I’m that far-off with that assessment. (Note: Many people would say that Chris Paul would be at that level. I thought Jennings played against tougher competition.)
Sure, Kevin Garnett shook the world of basketball by going pro in the ’90s. We hadn’t seen such as move in a span of twenty years beforehand. However, not since ‘89 when Danny Ferry and Brian Shaw ditched the Clippers and the Celtics and their first-round selection status to for Italy’s Il Messangaro have we seen a realistic threat of a player ditching the traditional route of a NBA future for a year of tutelage in Europe. (Note: As a ’80s Celtic fan, I never forgave Shaw for that one…Double-down on that one when he joined up with the Lakers in the early ’00’s…I think he may be one of the worst things that happened to the Celtics over the past 25 years.)
According to his mother, Alice Knox, the threat is more than just a passing. “We’re weighing all the options,” Knox said last Thursday. “We’re not bluffing about playing in Europe and even if Brandon gets the SAT score doesn’t mean he’s going to college.” Jennings later told ESPN.com that going to Europe would take a “perfect situation” where a team needs a point guard, has an attentive coach and an American on the roster to guide Jennings.
This may be the best idea that has come about in college basketball the past fifteen years.
Who is not tired of perceived ’student-athletes’ treating college basketball and campuses as a jump-off for the league?
These cases are complete wastes of educational time on college campuses. In the case of Jennings, he has not displayed even a feign of interest for developing academic progress in two years at Oak Hill. The guy barely passed his SAT…with suspicion, and from all points of view, he has made no intention to progress his education beyond his freshman year at
Arizona. If not for the NBA’s half-assed effort to retain kids in college basketball, Jennings and others such as Michael Beasley, Derrick Rose, Kevin Love, and O.J. Mayo would have been long gone. Why do these players have to spend time on a college campus?
Hell, Kevin Love didn’t even live on UCLA’s campus this season.
If Brandon Jennings does not want to go to school, and is only attending for the sole reason to spend time to go to the league, then he should be able to play as a pro. That is the league’s responsibility to develop that product not an educational institution that does not list ‘basketball’ as a certified major.
In fact, future players choosing to develop in the NBDL and in Europe will probably become far better players with NBA and Euro Pro coaching. If a player has no interest in earning a college degree or attending college classes. Why should he be forced to do so?
For a player like Brandon Jennings, he will be allowed to focus full-time on developing his game, but also due to the fact that he would be forced to learn another culture, spend inordinate time with himself, and be forced to deal with players from another country would better his game.
The question is whether he’ll be able to compete in a lot of the European A-leagues…Yet, I don’t think that a first-round pick would be able to hang in Europe. I’m serious….Going up against a 26-year old Omar Cook is no joke…Guys are very hungry over there for their jobs. Believe me, joke time is over.
Despite the fierce competitiveness that a player would endure in Europe, after watching the changes of players who visit Chapel Hill from their European stints, I’m convinced that Europe would not only ready them for the following year’s draft, but also develop them as people. (I just would love to see how a Brandon Jennings and others would react to the notorious two-a-day practices or how he’ll deal with Euro team management and their erratic paydays after a couple of shaky nights.)
My fellow heelhoops list-serv mate and New Republic editor, Jason Zengerle, wrote a great article on Sonny Vaccaro in the New Republic entitled“The Pivot.”Check out Zengerle’s article here. There a lot of juicy ideas to tug upon in an argument over the ethics of college basketball. Zengerle penned a great article.
Now, Vaccaro is the ultimate lighting rod for arguments concerning the ethics of college athletics, and he is the full-blended definition of a real-life Robin Hood who acted as a mercenary for shoe companies. No one can ever take a one-sided approach in debating his worth to college basketball.
Yet, Zengerle pulled out an innovative idea from Vaccaro. Vaccaro states that he has been looking for young hoops phenoms who’d be interested in playing overseas for the year they’d otherwise be in college before coming back to enter the NBA draft. “I need Jackie Robinson; I need a guy who can stand this,” he says. “And I think I’ll have one.”
From the type of guys that he has influenced over the years that have gone astray from the traditional route such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, O.J. Mayo, Shawn Kemp, Chris Mills, and Carmelo Anthony, Jennings fits that Jackie Robinson mold. And with Vaccaro’s connections and proximity to Los Angeles, we can assume that his fingers are pulling some cords from above the manifold.
All said, a move for Europe could be a great move for Jennings…
This blogga hopes that these types of will become a trend because a lot of these types of players will be forced to grow-up fast in this type of environment. Formerly coddled players will be better people, more well-rounded culturally, more appreciative, and more importantly from their point of view, better players. Spending mass amounts of time in an empty apartment online, burning-up Skype, watching DVDs, and forced to learn a pigeon-form of a language can do wonderous things for developing an appreciation of the real “game.”
Jennings has a tough chin, commands the court, holds Penn Relay speed, mesmerizes the court with dizzying handles, and what makes him even more special…A slick left-handed jumper that launches and hits from deep. Believe me, the NBA won’t forget about him overseas.
However, let’s just hope that he doesn’t fall into the deep abyss of the forgotten elites, where and what are the high-school legends from Los Angeles from the late ’80s and early ’90s such as Sean Higgins, Earl Duncan, Schea Cotton, and John Williams doing now?
The concept of branding has been leaning toward two-way communication over the past decade…
That type of talk isn’t hot off-the-press news. However, we can say that the online marketing has been driving innovative ways toward that concept over the past decade. Promoting brands through interactive services and online communication tools are emerging as the more powerful branding concept for big brands. Check out this article from AdWeek’s Brian Morissey, “Why Nike Embraces Brand Utility.”
Always ahead of the game, Nike has made a jump away from the traditional online branding seen through banner placements and online giveaway efforts. They’re making more of a stronger play by utilizing web tools that not only offer services, but also engage the user with the brand and with their athletes delivering their highly valued expertise and values.
In the Morissey’s article, Nike Global Director of Digital Media, Stefan Olander explains. “We’ve been viewing digital as less of a marketing channel than a place for services,…It’s really hard to convey a brand message” through Web ads.”
He’s spot on…Nike has made solid efforts with creating Facebook groups for NikeID and their “Ballers Network”, which was built through a partnership with Dime Magazine, and by all means, a great tool with their Nike Plus features on their Nike Running site.
However, I believe a stronger example is shown through the video content from the Nike Skills Instructional Camps last summer. Nike tailored instructional camps for the positions held by their elite basketball endorsers such as Kobe Bryant, Amare Stoudamire, Vince Carter, Steve Nash, and LeBron James.
The Steve Nash Skills Camp video that was released in November not only provides great highlights from future stars, but also gives great insights to developing moves and drills and shares tidbits from his talks with campers.
Now, Steve Nash is one of the more engaging athletes in the Nike stable, and he has a ton to bring to the table in terms of conversations and insights. Also, be sure to check out Kobe Bryant’s Skills Camp video. Yet, here is a great example of how Nike incorporates their brand with a segment that can run online, sharply targets youth basketball consumers, and partners the brand with the content in a subtle manner.
With youth basketball demanding stronger skills and a protected environment for eilte athletes to learn skills, Nike created a great tool to not only build their brand, but also a great vehicle to tell a story on the side. Nike is developing the brand while creating valued content with substance and two-way communication with potential consumers and viewers.
That’s Grade A work.
Blogga’s Note: (I know you cats from Beaverton are always dropping in here. The deeper critque from this blogga would like to see more instructional tips and more audio from a player like Nash’s talks…This is the best vid out of them all. That spot-up shooting drill from Kevin Eastman was the dope…We need more…There is at least twenty kids who will learn from that ‘change of direction’ tip. Share it.
As a super-side note, it’s only a matter of time when Nash becomes a GM. The guy knows that the players not only were the elite players in the country, but also spoke to them as the All-Conference and first-rounders of the future that they are.
For people pushing up, check out the video at the 8:00 mark, listen to that speech…”Don’t stop because I got to get to do the little things…Be in the moment and work every day, but it’s because you got to keep getting better to get to here. I still feel like I’ve never arrived. I still feel like I can improve and add more to my game and my team.”…Pure class.)
Here’s another one from the Vince Carter Skills Camp. I have to say that there is a pivot move that I know comes directly from Chapel Hill and his tutelage under Coaches Dean Smith and Bill Guthridge.
Nike in the first year of the sponsored training program for the Chicago Bank of America Marathon stealthily placed 10 decals smack in the middle of the asphalt bike lanes in five different locations on the lakefront path. Supposedly, the ads were so close together that a runner on a soft jog could see an ad every three to four seconds.
Although the ads were for a 17-week free training program, they were easily removable, and they could be removed after three days, Nike not only didn’t receive permission from the Chicago Park District, but also the natural landscape of the lakefront’s jogging path was disturbed.
Now, I can understand the Chicago Park District wanting to garner ad revenue from advertising in public places. They’re not only ripe for the taking with the amount of pedestrian traffic and watchful eyes, but also the revenue is steered toward park maintenance. Yet, there has to be some taste and class left for our cities. When the natural surroundings and features are disturbed by blatant advertising, that’s…foul.
What is strange is that the Park District didn’t give any notice to Nike about the ads. Perhaps, our public places have become so inundated with corporate advertising that we don’t even realize when their corporate banners and decals have been approved or not.
Whether the ads are for the American Red Cross or GEICO Insurance, ads in public places need to be treated with high respect and taste for our urban grounds. There is too much of a slippery slope when ads are placed upon paved grounds.
Decal ads should be treated the same way that decal stickers are placed upon lamplight posts, subway turnstiles, or other public amenities.
With guerilla marketing way past the fifteen-minute mark and deep into the maintream, Deardorff makes a great point. “I started to imagine the awful possibilities–garish ads along the path, fences and the wall along Lake Shore Drive. After all, if one company is allowed to do it, why can’t every training program or 5-kilometer race paste down fliers?”
Here’s a plea for marketers and advertisers to respect public spaces. Yes, they’re too easy to use, and they’re unchartered waters. Yet, don’t poach.
In this case, the Lakefront path is one of the most esteemed urban-runs in America, there has to be a stronger way to promote a program. The natural landscape is a major part of people’s runs. Please respect.
Be sure to heck out some of the pics on that Cool Hunting post. I was fortunate to check out a few of these type of places around Santa Cruz, and in the back of my mind, I have the dream of living in one of these dwellings with a Japanese Miyagi-style garden in the back…The book explores womblike coves, geodesic domes, theater domes, and isolation chambers for expanding consciousness…Drippy candles, magic circles, Whaaattt! “If you build it, he will come.”
Here’s the ‘Spaced Out’ site that accompanies the site. Check it out. They have some great excerpts as well. I’m on this one for a great summer coffee-table read, and I’ll be back with a review.
It seems that most college basketball fans of today believe that the sport was born in 1979 with the legendary Michigan State/Indiana State final that debuted the intense rivalry of Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird. Yet, many college basketball aficionados don’t realize how close the DePaul Blue Demons altered Final Four history. More importantly, that particular Blue Demon team launched one of the more powerful runs of any program in the late 20th century.
Coach Ray Meyer’s grandfather presence on that 1978-79 team combined with freshman “dough-boy”, Mark Aguirre, Senior, Gary Garland, who is better known for his back-up singing for sister Whitney Houston, and Clyde Bradshaw, who shredded defenses with his flashy ball-handling and yes…with his beard, was a spitting image of his namesake, Walt “Clyde” Frazier, to lead a powerful stretch run. However, many people forget that one of the great Blue Demons of that time was Curtis Watkins, who passed last week of a clogged artery.
Curtis Watkins was the ‘glue’ of that magical team and that Final Four run.
In order to reach the Final Four, the Demons beat perennial powerhouse, UCLA with All-American, David Greenwood. I was mesmerized the Demons, and I absolutely fell for the quiet, gritty play of Watkins with his 24 point performance that pushed them to the Final Four. He was a city tough from Harvey, who seemed to hold down any challenge that came his way.
I found my boyhood love with the Demons on my kitchen Zenith Technicolor. Perhaps, following that team helped me learn the fragility of how good times roll. Watkins landed a bruised knee at the end of the UCLA game, and the team really didn’t perform at the level of efficiency with him banged-up. The result was Larry Bird dropping 35 on the Demons and landing a trip to the feted 1979 final. Now, I’m not saying that Watkins would have shut down Bird, but man…if only he could have been healthy.
In this Chicago Sun-Times article, then DePaul Assistant Coach, Joey Meyer, who was the top assistant on his father’s staff, seems to agree. “”Bird might have gone off on us anyway [he scored 35 in Indiana State’s 76-74 victory], but it really, really hurt not to have Curtis [at full strength] to defend him…He was the kind of kid coaches love — so quiet but so talented. We always said you could always win if you had kids like Curtis. You wished you could clone him.”
I wish that he could have had a few more years of eligibility to enjoy him into the early ’80s with those powerhouse teams. As a nine-year old, he was the reason why I wore my socks to my knees.
May the grit and quiet grind of Curtis Watkins live on…
I’ve been in the dark with the NBA over the past six years…
My light finally switched off after the Los Angeles Lakers/Sacramento Kings Western Conference Final in 2002. Yes, I’ve always felt that there were separate rules in order to give favored treatment for stars, which is highly understandable. Vets and superstars in any sport always will get the subjective calls. That’s respect, and they have paid their dues.
As a long-time supporter of the NBA, and believe me, I’ve taken some serious lumps for my loyalty, I began to lose my faith with that 2002 series. I’ve always sworn both Games 4 & 6 stunk like a three-day old ashtray filled to the rim with cheap Swisher Sweets.
The officiating in both Games 4&6 were not only so egregiously bad that even the most passive NBA fan noticed how the officiating was. Even Ralph Nader was in on the mix.
For those of you with short memories, the Lakers shot 27 free throws in the fourth quarter and scored 16 of their final 18 points at the foul line in a 106-102 victory. Nader pointedly noted that Lakers guard Kobe Bryant’s elbow to Mike Bibby’s nose that was not called a foul with less than 20 seconds left “prompted many fans to start wondering about what was motivating these officials,” (Actually, my wonder arrived in the stretch of a three calls of one Divac and two quick whistles on Pollard.)
Nader may not be the voice of the common fan or the mainstream sportswriter, but his call in 2002 was spot on with his quote. “Unless the NBA orders a review of this game’s officiating, perceptions and suspicions, however presently absent any evidence, will abound,”
The sham is that no one seemed to follow-up on the purported ‘rigged games.’ Game 4 of the 2002 series was brutally called. With Game 6, Kings Forward, Scot Pollard, replayed his memory tape in AOL’s FanHouse here. It’s good that he still holds disbelief around how both him and Kings Center, Vlade Divac fouled out of the game. As bad of a ‘flopper’ that Divac was known throughout his career, the calls upon him that game were deplorable.
I’m also glad to hear that he believes that the league isn’t a conspiracy with his statement. “If any games were ever fixed in the league, it would have come out. That’s a hard secret to keep. For that many people? That’s a lot of refs … I just don’t buy that there were that many refs over those many years.”
However, there are groupings of three officials on the floor. To hear that groups of officials can not be swayed is bewildering. (I would love to hear more about the infamous Knicks Game 7 victory over the Bulls in ‘94…That was atrocious.) To assume that there is only a ‘rogue’ individual affecting the outcomes of the games is insulting. To hear Donaghy’s claims that officials are ‘company men’ who want to extend a series to seven games isn’t suprising. Yet, if you’re part of a small-market team, the integrity of outcomes has been seriously damaged.
On one hand, I’m glad that finally the officiating of the Kings/Lakers series has been brought to light. On the other hand, this blows the integrity of the game out-of-the-water for me. In some fashions, the game seems to be designed in a eerie WWE/Vince McMahon produced way…How can you trust the middle parts of a series, the swing 3,4,5 games, which are the best part of a series? If you’re a ticket-holder, player, or a coach, of a mid-market team or a team on the decline of marketing capabilities, you have to wonder that if your team is not up +10 in the latter portion of a game, what’s going to happen.
With outcomes being affected, franchises (Hornets, Grizzlies, Sonics?) moving for nefarious reasons, the lack of protecting the brand of the sport by not enforcing a more solid age limit, the league has taken major hits. Changes are going to have to be made, which is a shame because the NBA was a great game.
On Sunday night, we had some heated discussions on WXYC SportsRap. First off, should Tywon Lawson, Wayne Ellington, and Danny Green stay in the draft? As of this afternoon, despite the hairline fracture in the elbow, Danny Green won’t tap-out.I’m telling you people…The ‘jacknife’ is tough.
Well, the report from the Milk House was a luke-warm feeling from the NBA Draft pundits, now for the real test…The individual workouts, which are the true make-or-break tests for potential draftees. For your reference pleasures, here are the listings for the workouts.
Lawson has supposedly scheduled: L.A. Clippers (7th pick), Indiana (11), Sacramento (12), Washington (18) and Denver (20)
Ellington has scheduled: Seattle (4, 24), New Jersey (10, 21), Sacramento (12) and Toronto (17).
Green has scheduled: Miami (obviously not for No. 2, but the Heat do have No. 52 in the second round), Washington (18, 47), Cleveland (19) and San Antonio (26, 45 and 57). And supposedly with Toronto (17)
We also touched on a lot of topics such as UNC basketball’s fortunes for next year, UNC Baseball, and from this SportsRap veteran, the surprisingly rambunctious subject of whether or not Kimbo Slice is a worthy contender and poster-boy for UFC and MMA. I still stand on the side that boxing is a stronger art, and I understand the take-down action.
Yet, I’m still wondering what is the difference between a cage fight and a street brawl between two bouncers.
Personally, I think the same caliber of fights went down in the ’90s between wrestlers and the meatheads who came into town…Even after a year of Gracie schooling, I’m wondering what that difference is. However, my co-hosts disagree, and I can understand…Damn, that Red Bull generation wants that action…;) I have to admit that in the future boxing’s demand may strictly derive from the inner cities. The time is ticking deep into night for a classic pastime.
Check out this week’s listen here. Tune in next week on Sunday night between 9-10PM on wxyc.org or via iTunes under the ‘Eclectic’ section of iTunes radio.
P.S. Dear, Mr. Green, Danny Green has proven his toughness…Now, come on home. Let him get that jumper steady, and he’s a lock next year for the first round.
I saw this on Yardbarker and the LATimes last week, and after passing this video over to a few health practitioners, I had to post this video on Troy Polalmalu’s workout regimen. This is too good for your health.
Although the knee-jerk reaction is to compare this workout regimen to something out of the Book of Living by Ricky Williams. What’s strong about this workout is that Polamalu is developing his foundation, which all starts from your feet, which is another reason why you have to keep those ‘jimsons’ correct…And you wondered about my footwear fetishes…I keep telling you that those kicks are all for a purpose you crazy peoples.
I should have known that this ‘alternative’ strategy would come from former Oakland Raider, Marv Marinovich, who mesmerized me with his ProBodX book and his workouts with bubble balls. Marinovich is famed for the foreboding tale of his relationship with his son, Todd Marinovich. Yet, drop that one…In terms of developing physical health, the guy has not only done incredible work with athletes such as Tyson Chandler of the New Orleans Hornets, former New York Giant, Jason Sehorn, and as seen here, Pittsburgh Steeler All-Pro Safety, Troy Polamalu, but also developed some strong innovative fitness strategies. Marinovich’s ProBodX is supposed to improve flexibility, strength, endurance and mental stamina without provoking injuries. The key, according to Marinovich is to engage the “nervous and musculoskeletical systems as a whole rather than as separate parts.”
Polamalu’s description of his workouts as ‘bending spoons’ is right on. The body’s foundational balance is in your feet. If you’re feet are not supported, your body will compensate other muscles and bones in order to create balance and support for your feet. The consequential cost is that the nutrition will be sapped from other parts of your body to create the foundational support for your feet.
For those of you with funky feet, you should work with orthotics. However, if you’re willing to take the second step, take a firm direction from this video and work with your feet.
I’m going to keep on this one. Troy Polamalu is way ahead of the game. Get up on the balance balls, and take care of those footsies.
