Guru from Hell

Chuck has been great. He tolerates my personality well and seems to find me pretty funny. He is a complete straight-shooter, pushes me and gets in my face when needed, tells me like it is but is quick to follow up with something encouraging, and makes me laugh. Professionally I have great respect for his knowledge, but personally, I like him, too.

Every day he has called to ask, “Do you feel your butt today?” By this he is asking if my gluts are sore from the exercises intended to recruit the muscle, but this has become the deliberate phrase used to evoke witty response. On cue I respond, “I love when men ask me this!” We both laugh into the phone. Every time.

It’s been pretty amazing to be in his clinic for the last week, not just the privilege of working with Chuck, but seeing the array of amazing athletes who come through its door as if its revolving. I have been there every day and have seen all kinds: professional football, basketball, baseball and soccer players, professional surfers, professional golfers, and high-end amateur athletes, as well. Often times I have been working independently on my exercises in a corner of the spacious facility while I watch Chuck work with others. I’ve been amazed at his ability to relate to every sport, each athlete, and specify the exercise to each athlete’s sport and related mechanical deficiency. I see why he has the reputation he does.

It’s funny to watch him interact, especially with the beefy football guys. He’s in their face, screaming at them with movement corrections, firing them up, etc. And everyone does exactly what he says; no one disobeys Chuck.

A few days ago I was there while Chuck was working with Professional Wakeboarder, Rusty Malinoski (ranked #1 in world). Truthfully, I had no clue who he was (until Chuck told me) as I don’t follow wakeboarding, but I was soon fixated on his session. He was a BEAST.
Chuck would give him a rigorous routine of speed and agility exercises, and he’d be grunting and screaming like the guys lifting 500lbs. He’d finish the set and promptly collapse on the floor, huffing and puffing. Seconds later you’d hear Chuck’s booming voice, “Get UP! Get up right now! Go to the next one! NOW!!” Immediately Rusty would scream in exhaustion as he forced is body to begin the next rigorous set… again grunting with unbelievable effort expended. It was awesome to watch. The dude was seriously pushing his body to the limits, and Chuck was not giving in. It was truly something to behold.

I was watching this spectacle from the corner of the room with my jaw on the floor as I was getting yet another bike fit (yes!). During a break in Rusty’s session I watched Chuck point over to me and heard him say, “That’s Carole. She’s a professional triathlete”. Rusty seemed impressed with that. So I thought.

He started to wander over… as he did, he yelled out, “I’ll trade jobs with you”… I wasn’t about to let that one go.

CS: “You think so, huh?” I shot back with a confident smile.

He was at my bike and checking it out.
RM: “That’s a cool bike. What, so how many miles are in your race?”

CS: “112.”

His eyebrows raised as his eyes bulged.

CS: “And then you have to run a marathon.”

He looked back at his coach and laughed.

RS: “Forget THAT!” he said, laughing.

Of course I had to go for the jugular and bring it home.

CS: “What, and you stand on a board??” I winked at him so he knew I was teasing. I was. No way I’d attempt what he does. Wakeboarding is HARD, especially at his acrobatic level of flips and jumps. I tried to learn to surf for years when I lived in California, I could never do it well. I definitely respected his job… but of course wasn’t about to back down in the moment. Absolutely I needed to defend my sport and its TOUGH athletes!

He laughed at my comment. Cool guy, for sure…
He was there another day and brought his new baby in to meet Chuck. Sweet little guy. You know that kid has some hard-core DNA.

So, some fun times to have met some athletes from other sports this last week. The respect they hold for Chuck, and the teasing relationship they have with him really illuminated how well he connects with them all. Given their diversity in personality, sport and goals, this only added credence in my mind to Chuck’s legendary reputation.

I feel honored to have worked with him.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 12:55 AM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.