Ask any NFL or fantasy football fan, and they will tell you that injuries are still a routine part of the game. The NFL’s most prolific player, Derrick Henry, was recently placed on injured reserve with a broken foot, and Christian McCaffrey has missed the majority of the season with a leg injury of his own. Football is a violent sport, and violence necessarily leads to injuries, especially at the highest level of competition. In 2005, Doctor Bennet Omaul is credited with discovering Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in former football players, a degenerative brain disease attributed to repeat head trauma. The 2015 film Concussion, starring Will Smith, raised awareness on the issue, as did lab results that found the presence of CTE in the brains of former NFL players who committed suicide (e.g. Junior Seau and Aaron Hernandez). In recent years, the NFL has implemented a number of changes to make the game less dangerous and safeguard football’s status as America’s favorite sport. While there is still a lot we don’t know, it is abundantly clear that minimizing impact to the head is one surefire way to achieve this goal.

Some people hate the new, “softer” NFL (relatively to an exceptionally brutal previously era), but the new rules are here to stay, and more changes are likely to follow as data trickles in. To be sure, I’m not suggesting that football is now safe, nor am I saying that anyone should play it or watch it. What I am presenting are 7 more or less objective reasons why the NFL might be safer today than at any other point in the past. Without further ado. . .

7 Reasons The NFL Today Is Safer Than Ever

#1. Contact Rule Changes In Practice

There are now 17 games in an NFL season, not counting the playoffs. Practice, however, happens year-round. Players used to routinely hit each other hard in practice in order to prepare for in-game competition. After all, how do you get better at tackling without tackling? NFL practices today are more a simulation of in-game contact. They use tackling dummies and work on skills that translate to the game, but hard hitting is typically reserved for the game itself. I put this one as #1 for a reason. I think contact rule changes in practice is the single biggest change that has made the NFL safer due to the sheer volume of practice repetitions.

#2. Expansion Of Concussion Protocol

A few years ago, the NFL implemented concussion protocol to keep players who had just suffered a concussion off the field. The NFL hired professionals on the sideline at each game whose job is to identify potential head trauma and ensure that affected players go through proper health protocols, whether or not they want to voluntarily leave the game. Concussions in the past were referred to as “stingers,” or a “player getting his bell rung.” Oftentimes, players would re-enter the game or practice before their injury had time to heal. This put them at a much higher risk of getting a second concussion and suffering permanent brain damage.

“Second impact syndrome” is the most extreme example of this risk, upon which multiple concussions in a row can lead to death or severe brain damage. Concussion protocol is far from perfect, but keeping concussed players off the field in order to heal has been a huge step in the right direction.

#3. Advances In Helmet Technology

The NFL is constantly researching padding technology to reduce the incidence and severity of all injuries, with head injuries being foremost on the agenda. In 2018, the NFL and NFL Player’s Association agreed to ban 10 helmet models that yielded poor results in safety studies that simulated in-game impact. According to NFL.com (here), 200 players in 2017 wore helmets that are now banned, and so this measure has been another big step toward greater player safety.

#4. Contact Rule Changes In The Game

#4 has likely generated the most controversy. Replay has eliminated a lot of the human error in NFL officiating, but some fans are unhappy with the frequency of unnecessary roughness and helmet-to-helmet penalties that have been called in recent years. These changes have come as a part of the NFL’s overall effort to reduce the incidence of head trauma.

For example, you can’t lower the head to initiate helmet-to-helmet contact, a tactic that was commonplace in the old NFL. You can’t blow up defenseless players without the ball haplessly making their way down the field. You can’t tackle quarterbacks low, throw your weight on them too hard, or otherwise use force that is deemed unnecessary. Players have largely made the adjustment, and the quantity of hits like these has decreased substantially. However, there is still not an NFL game in which multiple players do not violate these rules, which goes to show just how much awareness and caution is necessary to comply.

#5. An Increased Percentage Of Touchbacks On Kickoffs

Kickoffs relatively account for more concussions than any other play in football. According to WebMD, one college study in 2015 found that kick-offs accounted for 21% of concussions, but only made up 6% of plays. The NFL did its own study, WebMD reports, which found that concussions were five times more likely to occur on kick-offs than on any other play. This is hardly surprising. On the kick-off, you have 11 grown men sprinting into 11 other grown men, all with malicious intentions.

The NFL has since changed kick-off rules in the interest of player safety. Kickers now kick-off 5 yards closer to the opposing end-zone to allow for more touchbacks, where no return is made and the receiving team starts their possession from a predetermined position on the field. The NFL also moved the predetermined position up 5 yards, which further disadvantages return teams from taking the ball out of the end zone. In addition, players on the kicking team no longer get a running start, and kicking teams cannot use bunch packages designed to isolate (and, effectively endanger) returners.

In 2003, 7.3% kick-offs ended in a touchback, whereas the record-setting figure in 2020 was 61.2% (source), evidencing that this routine aspect of the game is a lot less a problem than before. Kick-offs, which take place at the beginning of halves and after points are scored, are now largely ceremonial.

#6. A Reduction In Design Run Plays

Running plays, I reason, are somewhat more dangerous than passing plays. On a design run play, you have 11 guys collapsing on 11 guys to bring a ball carrier to the ground. Everyone on the field is engaged in physicality. On a pass play, in contrast, there are typically four or five receivers, including the running back and tight end. Many pass plays end without receivers and defenders in the secondary experiencing any contact at all (it’s illegal to make too much contact with a receiver down the field). On completed passes, the receiver is typically brought down quickly by one or two defenders, runs out of bounds, or dives to the ground, in order to avoid a major hit.

Running is still important for tactical reasons and short yardage situations, but passing has become a much more efficient way to move the ball. As a result, NFL has witnessed a steady decline in the % of run plays over the last several years. Passing plays currently average around 7 yards per attempt, whereas run plays clock in at a little above 4 yards per carry. In the early 2000s, the median % of pass plays per team was around 55%; now it is closer to 60% (source). However, the difference is much larger if you take into account “design run plays,” versus “design pass plays.” There are way more quarterbacks today who scramble than there were in past years. A lot of the “run plays” in the statistics were actually design pass plays on which the quarterback ended up taking off. Quarterbacks, physically weaker, more fragile, and more important to the team’s success than running backs, are notorious for sliding or running out of bounds to avoid contact. Unlike the average design run play, there is often no impact on quarterback scrambles.

#6 doesn’t get talked about a lot, but I think it has made measurable impact on the safety of the game.

7. New NFL Cultural Sensitivity To Head Trauma

The NFL is a fraternity. With a few notable outliers (Vontaze Burfict?), players have each others back. As ruthlessly competitive as they are, most players do not wish to physically injure their opponent. Players also know that the NFL is an iterated game. That means that you play teams more than once over the course of a career, and sometimes more than once in the same season. What goes around comes around, and how you treat others is typically how they are going to treat you.

As a result, I think you’re seeing players take more measures to protect heads, as much as possible. That means not lowering your head to tackle the opponent, which protects both the offensive and defensive party. I also see a lot of ball carriers going out of bounds or diving forward instead of absorbing contact. I don’t remember exactly how it was in the past, but it seems that players today are a lot quicker to shun contact, especially when they can achieve a similar result by giving themselves up early.

Getting tackled can also be a tactical disadvantage, because it makes a ball carrier a lot more likely to fumble. It’s often not worth absorbing a big blow just to gain a yard or two, unless the end zone or first down is within reach. . .

That’s all I got for this one! Let me know what I left out in the comments.

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[You can follow me on Twitter @creatorvilla.] Today I want to share the results of a study conducted several decades ago that has forever changed the way we view the relationship between sunlight, testosterone, and athletic performance. In the study, Doctors Abraham Myerson and Rudolph Neustadt exposed men to UV light and measured the excretion of various sex hormones. The study revealed that exposure to UV light triggered huge increases in testosterone levels which did not return to baseline levels for over a week. This increase was dependent on the location of the body and the amount of skin exposed to the UV light. The researchers found that men’s baseline testosterone increased by 120% (more than double!) when the participants’ chest and back were exposed to UV light. However, the biggest increase in testosterone came when the participants’ testicles were exposed to UV light. The latter resulted in a massive 200% increase (triple) in baseline testosterone levels. This study has enormous implications for guys attempting to optimize testosterone levels and for athletes who want to maximize performance naturally and legally. It is a wonder why the sporting and fitness industries haven’t gone mainstream with this knowledge. Then again, there is little money to be made by advising people to get more sunlight. Companies would rather sell you expensive supplements. Athletes who have this knowledge may also wish to maintain a competitive advantage over their rivals.

The main takeaway of the study is that exposure to UV light anywhere on the body drives a huge increase in testosterone levels. I, however, wanted to test out the particulars of the study. Bluntly put, I wanted to see what would happen when I directly exposed the balls to UV light. I did this through an open window during the heat of day when the UV Index was high. I noticed they immediately began to grow upon first exposure. I knew this is the area where the body produces the vast majority of testosterone, so it made sense that local exposure to sunlight would trigger a disproportionate increase. The physical changes I observed coupled with the increases in energy and motivation to work out convinced me not only that the study was accurate, but that it was a major game-changer for the sports and fitness industries.

Exposing one’s nether parts to sunlight is neither practical nor desirable for obvious reasons. This has led some guys aware of the benefits to use UV red light therapy to achieve the same outcome in the privacy of their own home (link). I don’t doubt this works, but since it’s not something I’ve personally experimented with, I won’t say much about it. What I do know is that red light technology can be quiet pricey. However, I did discover a cheap and natural method that arguably worked even better for me than expensive alternatives.

Disclaimer: Don’t try this at home. You should consult your doctor about Vitamin D and testosterone optimization given that they are very powerful hormones and a lot could go wrong.

Vitamin D is known as the sunshine vitamin for good reason. The human body has a Vitamin D receptor in nearly ever cell of the body and is highly evolved to generate Vitamin D upon exposure to the sun. After I first read the study a few years ago, I wondered whether the increase in testosterone was triggered by the local production of Vitamin D directly on the skin in response to the UV light exposure. That in mind, I experimented with different doses of Vitamin D topical applied directly to the balls. Lo and behold, I noticed the same enlarging effect as when I had gotten direct UV light exposure. In this process of trial and error, I came to the conclusion that less is more. When the skin is exposed to UV light, it naturally generates Vitamin D in a uniform fashion. Small exposed areas of skin naturally produce small amounts of Vitamin D, and applying to much Vitamin D to any one region can interfere with its natural synthesis by the body. I found that less than 1,000 IU was enough for me to achieve the desired effect and that higher doses were wholly ineffective. Whenever I apply Vitamin D anywhere directly to my skin I prefer to crack open the Vitamin D softgels rather than purchase a topical product. My method is cheaper and it enables me to control the dosing better than prepared formulations. I would apply about half of a 1000 IU softgel every few days and could notice a major difference within a few hours.

Today I make sure I get adequate sun exposure as part of a healthy lifestyle, but I have not experimented with UV light or Vitamin D in this fashion in years. Currently, I have no reason to maintain peak testosterone levels. However, if I ever found myself training for an athletic competition or was experiencing symptoms of low testosterone, the power of the sun would be my first recourse. Nowadays people are quick to take supplements, inject steroids, or go on testosterone replacement therapy, giving up on their body’s natural ability to produce what they need. Meanwhile, nature offers a cheaper (if not free) solution that is arguably more effective than artificial alternatives.

See my article on the The Most Natural Way To Optimize Vitamin D Levels for more pro tips on harnessing the power of the sun.

The roar of the crowd is not for you, it’s for what you can do. And as soon as you can’t do it, they’ll be cheering for somebody else.

There’s a fascinating story hot right now in the sports world. For those who aren’t clued in, Kwame Brown was drafted #1 overall by Michael Jordan’s Washington’s Wizards in the 2001 NBA Draft. He was the first athlete from high school to ever achieve that distinction, and was only 18 years-old at the time. Kwame ended up playing 13 seasons in the NBA with 8 different teams, grossing $64 million in salary before taxes. He averaged ~7 points and 6 rebounds in ~22 minutes per game.

Despite his long and lucrative career, Kwame was frequently labeled a “bust” for not living up to the expectations of the first overall pick. ESPN’s Stephen A Smith was his most vocal critic, and routinely referred to him as a “bonafide scrub,” and intentionally mispronounced his name as Kwamé (It’s KwamÄ“). After keeping quiet for two decades that spanned his entire career and several years post-retirement, the now-retired Kwame recently sounded off against his critics. His YouTube channel has grown to nearly 240,000 followers as of the time of this writing, in one of the most meteoric rises of any social media personality.

I’m not going to get into the individual beefs Kwame has with a wide variety of personalities. You can Google that on your own time. I will outline 4 factors that I think explain Kwame Brown’s extreme popularity, and what my main takeaways are from this dramatic saga.

1. Comic relief

Kwame Brown is funny, even while addressing very serious topics. His “Momma’s cooking,” and “with seasoning” are among his favorite lines that have become a kind of trademark. “Momma’s cooking”–I think–is a reference to the values and character he was raised with. He uses this line often while addressing or roasting his critics. In this context, you can guess what “with seasoning” signifies.

2. Humble beginnings

Kwame overcame great odds to play in the NBA for more than a decade. In one of his live streams, he referenced how he started taking care of his family from age 14 and was a part of the free lunch program at his school. This makes him a more relatable and likable personality.

3. Outspoken character

For someone who was maligned and ridiculed for as long as he was to now forcefully stand up for himself is pretty much universally appealing. Kwame got a number of critics to apologize to him in a way that I have never seen before, while others have kept quiet in uncharacteristic fashion. Kwame does not have much of a filter, nor does he seem to care what people think about his opinions, whether that’s sports, politics, or society. Outspokenness is a personality trait that people widely admire.

4. Social consciousness

In Kwame’s live streams, he frequently addresses the charity work he is involved in. Kwame has talked about building community centers and giving back, especially in the areas that need it the most. He has also addressed some issues with the modern school system, even ideas that I’ve mentioned in the past on this blog (e.g. how much little kinetic energy there is.) Kwame has also been critical of how the media uses their platforms to trash, slander, and tear down people in an effort to get ratings and make money. I think a lot of people agree with him and are tired of how superficial and click-baity so much modern media has become.

Whatever you think of the man, Kwame now has a pretty big platform that only seems to be getting bigger by the day. Hopefully, he decides to use his newfound popularity for the betterment of society and to pursue some of the philanthropic goals he has talked about.

One thing this story calls to mind is the importance of watching what comes out of my mouth. This is ancient wisdom that seems to have been lost in modern times, especially with the anonymity afforded by social media. When we get loose with our words, especially as they relate to other people, we invite chaos and drama into our lives.

Here are a few Biblical proverbs that I was reminded off while witnessing the fallout from this drama.

He who guards his mouth protects his life, but the one who opens his lips invites his own ruin.

Proverbs 13:3

A fool’s lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating.

Proverbs 18:6

Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble.

Proverbs 21:23

Note: This post isn’t going to change your life, but it may entertain you. Baseball, “America’s favorite pastime” has fallen on hard times. While leagues like the NFL and NBA have taken measures to make the game more entertaining and appealing, especially to young people, change in baseball has evolved at a snail’s pace. Just this week, Chicago White Sox Manager Tony La Russa chided rookie slugger, Yermin Mercedes–get this–for hitting a homerun. Yes, a homerun on a 3-0 pitch while his team had a big lead in the 9th inning, but a homerun no less. Most people agree that baseball’s “unwritten rules” are just plain awful. Take a look at the fan response to this Tweet, for example.

Fans want MORE homeruns, and LESS salty pitchers plunking opposing batters for “showing them up.” Fans simply don’t care about the ego of pitchers, who make the game unwatchable with their unhittable fastballs and “sweet stuff.” The chart below tells you everything you need to know. As you can see, viewership of baseball’s flagship World Series event is on the decline, and it gets even worse the further you go back in time.

If you are waiting for the MLB to change, you will probably be waiting until the next pandemic, hence why I hereby propose an alternative XLB league designed with the fans in mind. Kind of like Vince McMahon’s XFL experiment minus the CTE. Here are the rules of the road!

XLB Rules:

• 6 inning games because 9 innings are three too many. No game should last longer than a motion picture.
• 2 strikes you’re out, and 3 balls and you walk. People will think of new idioms for life.
• A flat mound. Let’s not make it even harder to hit a 90 MPH fastball.
• Mic’ing up of players. Trash talk encouraged in-between pitches. And showboating.
• 8 players on the field, and no more than 2 outfielders. Groundballs are for T-ball.
• Corked backs not only allowed, but encouraged.
• Parks are 300 feet so you can let it fly. (See previous two rules.)
• No extra innings. A homer off instead, where 3 chosen power hitters get 3 pitches a piece from a pitcher on their team.

Note: Some of these suggestions were crowdsourced from my brothers and friends, but that’s OK, because it doesn’t take a genius to put this together.

Tag your bored billionaire friend! And let me know in the comments what XLB Rules we missed and/or got wrong.

OHH, and there’s this video for added inspiration. . . (NSFW!! Turn the volume off if foul language offends you.)

[You can follow me on Twitter @creatorvilla.] Today I want to share a short clip I transcribed in which navy seal and motivational speaker David Goggins discusses his relationship to drugs and alcohol. Goggins knows a lot about sobriety as someone who went through hell week training three times and routinely competes in ultramarathons and other excruciating athletic events. For Goggins, sobriety is about staying in control of his mind and living authentically. To be sure, this is not a knock on anyone or any lifestyle, just one man’s perspective that I found thought-provoking.

I want to make sure that every single thing I feel is real. I want no masking. I want nothing to mask my ability to feel fear and to overcome fear, whatever it may be.

David Goggins

Transcript:

Interviewer: And I know one thing that, —we spoke about it before [we were on] camera. To most of the world, you’re super clean. You’ve never done drugs. You’ve never had alcohol. You don’t drink alcohol.

Goggins: I’ve tasted alcohol, but no, I’m not a drinker.

Interviewer: Do you think that has to do with your father who used to drink a lot?

Goggins: It’s probably due to him, but it’s also due to—at a young age, I realized that I had a very weak mind, a very weak mind. And I want nothing to interfere with my own thought process. A lot of people before they go on stage, they get a little bit tipsy, get a little buzz. Maybe smoke a little something, do a little something.

I want to make sure that every single thing I feel is real. I want no masking. I want nothing to mask my ability to feel fear and to overcome fear, whatever it may be.

I’m not saying people who drink or do these different things are trying to hide. Some people just do it. For me, I think it’s almost a masking agent, so then your mind doesn’t have to work as hard. That means I’m losing.

To billions of fans around the world, soccer is better known as “The Beautiful Game” (O Jogo Bonito, in Portuguese). This phrase was popularized by the legendary footballer Pelé, who won three world cups with the Brazilian national team in the late 50s and early 60s. Today, soccer universally garners respect as the world’s most popular sport. No other game inspires and captivates more youth, and no event brings people together quite like the World Cup.

This week, I had the privilege of interviewing my good friend, Alioune Tandiang, about his passion for the sport. Ali played Center Back in college and is the founder of H-Town, a semi-pro soccer team based out of Columbus, Ohio, currently in its 8th year of operation. The following is a lively account of a 90-minute conversation in which Ali details the positive effect the game has had on his life and in the community. I initially thought this was going to be a chill article on soccer, but it turned out be a lot more biographical and insightful than I envisioned. l hope you have half as much fun reading it as I had putting it together. FYI, you can catch Ali outside on Instagram @A_Tandiang.

Tell the people about yourself.

My name is Alioune Tandiang, and I go by Ali. My family is originally from Dakar, Senegal. I was born in Kuwait City and moved to the states when I was 7 years old. I am a graduate of Cincinnati Christian University with a degree in Business. I currently work at Nationwide as a Life Solutions Analyst.

I played basketball and football my whole life, and first made the transition to soccer when I was 17 years old because I thought I wasn’t good enough to play football. This was back during my junior year at Harvest Prep.

When did you know you had a passion for the game?

My senior year of high school, so I would say it took about a year. Practice was one thing, but playing in the game was the best feeling in the world. I had the desire to continue playing in college, but I didn’t think I was good enough. I figured I would be going up against kids who had played their entire life. It wasn’t going to happen until my friend Devin, who was a freshman on the team at Ohio Christian University, got in my ear and egged me on to try out. Long story short, I ended up trying out, and I made the team.

That first year was pretty rough. I didn’t play much at all outside of garbage time. What’s worse is I had to drop out of school at the end of the year due to financial hardship. After I got enough money to ­go back two years later, assuming I would be on scholarship, I was informed by the coach that they could not offer me financial aid. “Ali, it hurts me to tell you, but we don’t have a spot for you.”

I thought my college soccer career was over, but I decided I wasn’t going to give up. I looked around for schools in the area that were offering athletic scholarships when an opportunity at Cincinnati Christian University caught my eye. I reached out to the coach, who offered me a tryout, and I made the team. However, I was told, since I hadn’t been in school for two years, I would have to sit out my first year. There I was this 23-year old freshman on scholarship but unable to see the field.

In my first year of eligibility, I earned a starting spot at Center Back. I can tell you I was glad when I saw OCU on our schedule, the team that said they didn’t have a spot for me. I started against them, and we ended up winning 1-0. It was an amazing feeling. That year, we set a record for conference and regular season wins since CCU made the transition to the more competitive NAIA Division. I played soccer every year while I was there and graduated with a degree in Business Management.

A few years ago, you founded an amateur league team called H-Town. What inspired you?

I started H-Town in 2013 a year after I graduated high school and a few months before I made the team at OCU. I still wanted to play organized soccer, like I said, I just didn’t think I was good enough. I also loved playing and competing with my brothers and friends. That was the biggest thing for me, and to give others that same opportunity. There are a lot of people who can’t afford to play in college or aren’t good enough.

H-Town stuck around even after I enrolled in school. The games were every Sunday in Columbus, which is where most of my family and friends lived. College games are usually Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. When I was at CCU, I came home every single weekend just to play and compete. My coach didn’t know it, or I probably would have got in trouble.

H-Town also became a thing on social media. We made a Kik group back when the app was popular, and I and a few buddies would communicate on a daily basis. After it got bigger, we moved to Snapchat and Instagram. H-Town is like a brotherhood, and I got close to a lot of guys I knew in high school. In the beginning, we talked about soccer almost 24/7. We would debate who was better, Ronaldo or Messi, what color jerseys we would get, and what we could do better on the field. Now we talk about more grown up things, like career changes, real estate, and stocks. I think the change reflects our growth and maturity as people in different areas.

Getting people to sign up for the team and show up on game day are probably the biggest challenge for organizers of team sports. How do you make it happen year after year?

For us, the problem isn’t so much people showing up, but people showing up on time. It’s an amateur Sunday league, and people don’t have to compete for spots. They pretty much know they are going to get playing time. To me, it’s a sign of disrespect. A lot of times, I’m using my own money to fund the team, so if I’m asking you to show up 15 minutes early, it’s the least you can do. The first year, it was really bad, but the only way I could get people to show up on time was by taking playing time away. I never want to be that guy, but we want to be able to field a full team and compete every week.

The makeup of the team is different every single year. People get injured. In 2018, I had fasciotomy surgery on my left leg and had to miss some time. I would give my teammates at CCU a ride to Columbus on Saturday to compete for H-Town on Sunday, and I would chauffer them back home Sunday evening. It took some hustle, but I always made sure H-Town was in good hands.

H-Town has its core, which consists of me, my brothers, my cousin Demba, and a few other OGs, including people from Harvest Prep—Corey, Devin, Trenton. There are also guys I know from the community or met playing pick-up soccer.

A lot of people analogize sports with life. Can you identify any lessons or truths from the game that have application in real life? 

I would say success doesn’t happen overnight. That’s my biggest lesson from H-Town and just life in general. When we first started, I thought it would be a cakewalk. I played high school soccer, my brothers and I are somewhat athletic. We were playing against a lot of older guys. I thought we would dominate. What I learned fast is that it takes a while to develop the camaraderie of success. In fact, we didn’t have success initially. We had the talent, but we lacked the chemistry. I made mistakes. I recruited really good players who didn’t fit in with what we were trying to accomplish. It could be that they lacked discipline or were disrespectful. Success isn’t about having the best players, it’s about having chemistry. It’s about having people who work well as a team.

In H-Town’s first year competing in the Columbus Premier League back in 2014, we lost every game but one. Mind you, this was the B Division. Before the season started, I asked the commissioner to be placed in the A Division. I told him we dominated in the Westerville League. We’re winning by 9-10 goals. The B Division is too easy. The commissioner told me, “It’s not going to be like that. You’re going to struggle.” I literally laughed. I told my friends and they laughed with me.

Our first game in the CPL, we lost 4-0. It was a rude awakening. The rest of the season didn’t go much different. We kept losing, and we kept arguing. I even got into a few confrontations with players on our team. In hindsight, it was something that needed to happen. The next two or three years in the CPL, we were unable to advance to the A Division, but we made a lot of progress.

H-Town’s last season, before Covid hit, we were one game away from finally qualifying for the first division. If we would have won or tied that game, we would have gotten promoted. Every year, the top two teams of the B Division get promoted to the A Division, and the bottom two teams of the A Division get relegated to the B Division. And so we’ve gotten a lot better, and we’ve learned that success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes hard work and it takes time, and that’s true for both H-Town and life.

What is your dream job? 

To be a college soccer coach at a Power Five school. That’s NCAA, Division One. I want to help people with the knowledge I have, and I think the best way I can relate to others is through the game. It’s my passion. I love soccer, and I love helping people, and coaching brings all of that together.

This isn’t a goal I’m actively pursuing, as my focus right now is in the business world. I’m trying to obtain my Series 6 license, which will enable me to give professional financial advice. Things like what kind of life insurance policy to enroll in. I also have financial goals I want to meet—get an apartment, pay off student loans, things of that nature. But my dream job is to coach college soccer, and I hope one day to achieve it.

You have a pretty famous habit of collecting soccer cleats. How many pairs do you currently own? 

I own about 9 pairs. Some are old. Some are pairs I bought just for the hec of it. I got a pair of New Balance cleats when I was working at Dicks Sporting Goods. A New Balance rep came to me. He said, “I know you play soccer. I’ll give you a gift card. You can order any New Balance cleat you want. I want you to play in it, and give us feedback on how we can improve our product.” I pretty much became a test dummy for New Balance cleats. They gave me their most expensive pair, the New Balance Furon, that retailed for around $210. New Balance was trying to make a comeback with soccer cleats to compete with elite brands like Nike and Adidas.

I’ve collected other ones just for the memory. I got the white and pink Nike Mercurial, one of the most famous cleats ever designed. These were the Euro Cup 2012 edition, worn by Ronaldo, who was one of my favorite players at the time. The damage on those was around $220 before tax. I also bought the Cristiano Ronaldo Galaxy Edition. I own both the indoor and the outdoor version.

Each cleat I own has a story. Every time I wear a cleat, it reminds me of a time and season of life.  

Can you describe the feeling of getting a new pair of cleats for someone who may not understand the appeal? 

You’re always excited to play, but when you get a new pair of cleats, it’s a whole ‘nother level. Is it comfortable? How is the touch? It’s like getting a fresh outfit for school. You’re excited to try it on and show it off, and you know that everyone is going to comment.

I know you used to play a lot of FIFA with your friends and teammates at CCU and compete in various tournaments. Is that something you still do?  

FIFA was a phase I grew out of. I did used to compete in a lot of tournaments with H-Town and at CCU. Let me tell you a story. For CCU tournaments, you would get three random draws when selecting your team. If you went for a fourth draw, you were stuck with whatever team came up, so it was a risky choice. During one school tournament on international mode, I wasn’t happy with my first three options, and I ended up getting stuck with India, literally the worst team in FIFA. Their overall was like 69, which is trash. It doesn’t matter how good you are, you typically won’t win with India.

I knew I was good enough to beat certain people, but not my friend and teammate Jaylen. He was the best FIFA player I have ever competed against. In the tournament, I won my first two games, and the third game was the championship. It was me against Jaylen. He had Ivory Coast, which was solid. Their overall was like 82. So I was playing against a better player with literally the worst team in the game, and the odds were against me.

The tournament was golden goal, which means the first team to score wins. All of my teammates were there, and there were about 40-50 people watching in the lobby. Everyone was rooting for me because you got to root for the underdog. The game started out really competitive, until I connected on a through ball and scored and won the tournament. The lobby went crazy. We were also competing for a $25 Canes gift card, which was nice. I played the best game of my life and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Everyone called me FIFA king for the rest of the year.

I stopped playing because of work. I work like crazy, and I’m in a committed relationship, so I don’t have time to play video games.

With so many top-notch leagues around the world from La Liga to the Premier League to Serie A, and more local ones like La Liga Mx and the MLS, the menu of professional soccer can be overwhelming. Which leagues or teams do you follow the most?

The leagues I follow the most are La Liga and the English Premier League. La Liga has my favorite team, Real Madrid, and they have one of the best teams ever in Barcelona, and one of the best players ever in Messi. I also like the EPL because that’s where Sadio Mané plays, the most famous player from Senegal.

These two leagues are the best in the world, and I like to watch the highest level competition. The winner of the Champions League tournament, where all the best teams around the world compete, is almost always from La Liga or the EPL. I also watch a bit of MLS and the German Bundesliga, but that’s about it.

A lot of American fans are unhappy with the state of soccer in the US. The US men’s national team failed to qualify for the World Cup in Russia in 2018. What do you think is the biggest thing holding the US back from dominating CONCACAF, let alone competing with world powers like Argentina, Germany, Brazil?

I’ll tell you what holds the US back from competing with the rest of the world. First of all, they have a clear system in other countries. I’m talking about the Brazils and Spains and Argentinas of the world. The guys who go pro typically start playing competitively from like age 6, and work their way up the ranks. The infrastructure there is also different. There is no college soccer. And if there is, the best players don’t go there. What they do have are soccer academies. From a young age, kids will go to these academies where you take regular classes like math and science, but train soccer all the time. The expectation is that many of these kids will go on to play professionally. Look at Messi, who is from Argentina. Barcelona brough him to Spain as a kid to go through their academy, and he became the best ever.

In the states, we have soccer academies, but nobody lives there. And to attend, you have to be really rich. We have a system in the US called pay to play. If you’re parents aren’t rich, you aren’t going to academy, and if you do, it’s going to be a cheaper one. That’s the biggest problem. Not many people can afford to put down five or six grand so their kids can go to academy. If this system was in place in other countries, we would never have got Messi, Neymar, and Ronaldo because they all grew up dirt poor.

In the US, our top athletes play football or basketball or even baseball. At smaller schools and colleges, many people who play soccer aren’t athletic to begin with. Like I said earlier, I started playing because I couldn’t make it at those other sports. My friend Devin started playing to get in shape for football.

Americans also think soccer games are boring, so culture plays a role. Games sometimes only have one or two goals and can end in a tie. In high school and CCU, we always struggled to get people in the stands. Professional athletes also make way more money in these other sports, so there’s an economic dimension, but the culture comes first.

Your family is originally from Senegal, where a lot of kids grow up playing the game and idolizing the likes of Sadio Mané. Why do you think soccer has such great appeal in Senegal and around the world?

It’s the simplicity of the game. You don’t need pads. You don’t need a hoop. You just need a ball. And oftentimes, you don’t even need that. You hear stories of kids who play the game with water bottles. Soccer is really cheap and it brings people together.

Do you have a favorite footballer? What is it you like about him? 

Right now it’s Sadio Mané. Obviously, I’m biased. He’s from Senegal, and he’s one of the best players in the world. My favorite player used to be Cristiano Ronaldo, but Mané relates to me better. It’s not Mané’s talent because I’m not that good, but him being a guy who grew up in Senegal and continues to stay humble. You won’t see him flashing cars or jewelry. There are a lot of professional soccer players who are not humble, but as you get older you realize being humble is the way to go.

This interview would be incomplete if I didn’t ask you the million-dollar question. Who are you taking, Messi or Ronaldo? 

I grew up being a Ronaldo fan, and I used to argue that he is the best in the world. Now that I’m wiser and older, I realize that Messi is a better player. That said, I would prefer to have Ronaldo on my team because he is more clutch. I think he shows up in bigger games, but talent-wise, Messi is the best player I’ve ever seen. And he does it so effortlessly. Oftentimes, I’ll be watching the game and it looks like Messi is tired or doesn’t care, and he’ll come out of no where and score the best goal you’ve ever seen.

What’s next for you and H-Town? 

Our current season has been postponed due to the pandemic. It’s been a year and a half now since we took the field. The next season is set to start in April of this year. We have a championship game left from last year that we are still scheduled to play. If we win, we get promoted to Division A for the first time. I’ve started to reach out to guys that have played previously to see if they want to play again. Some people have already opted out. They are old now, have families, and don’t want to risk injury. We also have to see how the pandemic plays out, how many people get vaccinated. Things right now are very much up in the air.

I give you the last word. 

I’m not naturally outgoing. In high school and college, I had a reputation for being a quiet guy. At school and now work, people may think, “Ali is a really quiet guy,” but H-Town knows better. H-Town will tell you I’m a vocal guy who likes to yell and hype his team up. Soccer is my getaway. It’s a place for me to be me and get all of my energy out.

Soccer also kindled a lot of the relationships I now have. I probably would never have met people like you, Devin, and Jeff if it weren’t for the game. Even the job I now work. After graduating college, I could not find a job anywhere. They tell you friends and networking is important. The reason I have this job at Nationwide is a friend I met through soccer. His name is Dave Blamo. So soccer has been a real blessing to my life.

I’m a strong believer that exercise is a vital part of a healthy lifestyle, especially for those of us who live sedentary lives. Exercise gets blood flowing, releases happy chemicals, enhances emotional processing, conveys a sense of achievement, and makes us feel better about life. I haven’t always been a big fan of cardio. I played soccer in high school but running isn’t something I do for fun. I also prefer a muscular physique, so most of my time in the gym is spent lifting weights. However, I also know from experience and research that cardio is healthy for the mind and body. As a result, I incorporated a simple, intense exercise into my routine that let’s me have my cake and eat it too. I’ve termed it the gorilla walk. The gorilla walk is both aerobic (cardio) and anaerobic/anabolic (muscle-building)–the perfect marriage of cardio and resistance exercise.

Disclaimer: The gorilla walk is potentially dangerous, especially if you do it on a treadmill. Do not try this at home.

What I need for the gorilla walk is a space to walk fast/jog lightly, a backpack, and weights (plates and dumbbells). Inside, I like to use a treadmill and an old sturdy backpack. I started out with a 25 LB plate in the backpack and two 2-3 LB dumbbells in each hand. With a dumbbell in each hand, I like to jog as usual, with my hands moving up and down rhythmically. I want the backpack and dumbbells to be heavy enough that I can move 4-4.5 MPH for no more than 10-20 minutes. More weight=greater intensity=bigger gains. I can experiment by going up and down in weight and altering hand positions. For example, I sometimes take a break from the backpack, increase the weight of the dumbbells, and place them overhead or in a curling position. The goal is to get my whole body moving and building muscle at the same time.

The genius of the gorilla walk lies in its ability to activate the entire body. The backpack builds up the lats and shoulders, and the dumbbells work on arms, chest, and overall upper body definition depending on where you hold them. The legs and core work hard moving and balancing the weight. The gorilla walk is a cross-fit style work-out. It’s extremely stress-relieving and mindfulness-promoting, and efficiently consolidates many exercises into one. It can be good for losing weight, putting on muscle, and experiencing the therapeutic benefits of exercise.

Below are links to the treadmill and adjustable dumbbells I use, and a weighted military-style vest that’s perfect for this exercise. With a proper vest, I can do the gorilla walk with more weight than a backpack and look a little less ridiculous in a public gym.

Are you a fan of the gorilla walk? You can’t knock it it until you try it.

Treadmill: https://amzn.to/2PQTFtZ

Weighted Military-Style Vest: https://amzn.to/2PTn6vy

Adjustable Dumbbells: https://amzn.to/2N1yenA

25-LB Plate: https://amzn.to/2PQL5LI

There’s a famous segment on SportsCenter entitled “Why We Love Sports.” It consists of inspiring and memorable highlights like an incredible catch, a big come-from-behind victory, or an athlete making the wish of his #1 fan come true. Today I want to address the same question–why we love sports–but from a different angle. In this post I address a reason behind the popularity of sports that may surprise you.

Over the years, I’ve cut out many activities in the interest of becoming the best version of myself, but sports is not one of them. Sometimes I’ll watch sports with my friends or in a foreign language for added benefit, but I’m not against watching sports by myself. People say that watching sports or other repetitive TV adds little measurable value to one’s life. After all, the inventory of sports is infinite–you can never “catch up” or “be ahead of the game.” It’s easy to spend an entire today absorbed in matches that quickly become irrelevant. And if you were raised around sports, you can already converse about them with little time spent actually watching the game. However, there’s a benefit to watching sports that transcends the highlight reel and the pop culture savvy, and it is has to do with human psychology.

Life is a delicate balance between order and chaos. Chaos is the natural state that everyone is born into and that exists apart from human institutions. It’s a state of discomfort, insecurity, and fear. Chaos is the absence of order. Bringing order to the world is the goal of every progressive activity. Order creates comfort, security, and confidence–order is ultimately what people are after.

Let me illustrate the difference. Chaos is sleeping outside in a tent in a predator-rich environment not knowing what your next meal is. Order is having a roof over your head with AC and a pantry full of delicious food. Chaos is the first day of a new job in a new city with unfamiliar people and technology. Order is day 250 of that same job. Order is going out with friends and family. Chaos is going out with total strangers. Order is being married to someone for 10 years. Chaos is when that someone passes away or the relationship stops working. You get the point.

Not all chaos is bad. We need a measure or chaos to progress. Too much order and you may get complacent. When someone tells you “get out of your comfort zone,” what they mean is you need a little more chaos in your life. Chaos that can stretch you and grow you into a better person. The problem is that some of us are way beyond the chaos threshold for growth. Too much chaos has become an obstacle to growth and leaves us feeling uncomfortable and insecure. What we need in life is more order.

What does any of this have to do with sports? Sports, simply, are a source of order in the world (in other cultures, family, society, and religion play an outsized role). Sports are highly predictable despite some uncertainty over the outcome. We know how much time each game lasts; we know how many players are on each team; we know how the mechanics of the game work; we know the rules and violations; we know how players are expected to perform; and we know how players and spectators are expected to behave. “Why We Love Sports” is all about chaos. But the majority of games ending in chaos, and the entirety of games ending predictably, are defined by the order of the sport itself. There is no room for chaos in sports outside the confines of the game.

Sports add order to people’s lives. Sports give people a space where their expectations about what is going to happen can be met. And the more professional the competition, the more this is so. To be sure, order isn’t the only reason people love sports. There’s community and connection; there’s the fond memories of playing the game recreationally or as a child; there’s the knowledge that “anything can happen”; there’s the big money and real life drama; and there’s the sheer amazement of seeing the product of talent and countless hours of hard work on display.

Order, however, is the one benefit that people experience but do not rationalize. And that’s the gap I’ve hoped to bridge in this article.

Today’s athletes are far better than yesterday’s athletes–you hear it all the time. It’s a common argument used in generational legacy debates (Maradona versus Messi, Lebron versus Jordan, Woods versus Nicklaus). In fact, many people today believe that we’ve made progress in every area as a society, and athletic performance is the rule not the exception. After all, aren’t athletic records broken every year? The picture, however, is slightly more nuanced than a first glance would let on.

Journalist and Colombia-graduate David Epstein has spent the great part of his professional life studying athletic performance. He is author of The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance and Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. Epstein gave a Ted Talk in which he addressed the very question posed in the previous paragraph. Epstein concludes that humans couldn’t possibly have genetically evolved in such a short period of time. Epstein attributes advances in athletic performance today to changing technology, changing genes, and changing mindsets.

Changing technologies as in synthetic track surfaces and more aerodynamic bicycles. Changing genes as in better selecting for sports based on body types (e.g. taller builds in basketball and bigger builds for football). And changing mindsets as in more people attempting great athletic feats like matching Roger Bannister’s famous 4-minute mile. I would personally add a fourth explanation: changing performance-enhancing drugs. Reality is that athletes today are not genetically superior, but modern technology and scientific methods may be partially responsible for advances in athletic performance.

I have reposted the fascinating talk with permission from Ted.

Transcript:

The Olympic motto is “Citius, Altius, Fortius.” Faster, Higher, Stronger. And athletes have fulfilled that motto rapidly. The winner of the 2012 Olympic marathon ran two hours and eight minutes. Had he been racing against the winner of the 1904 Olympic marathon, he would have won by nearly an hour and a half. Now we all have this feeling that we’re somehow just getting better as a human race, inexorably progressing, but it’s not like we’ve evolved into a new species in a century. So what’s going on here? I want to take a look at what’s really behind this march of athletic progress.

In 1936, Jesse Owens held the world record in the 100 meters. Had Jesse Owens been racing last year in the world championships of the 100 meters, when Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt finished, Owens would have still had 14 feet to go. That’s a lot in sprinter land. To give you a sense of how much it is, I want to share with you a demonstration conceived by sports scientist Ross Tucker. Now picture the stadium last year at the world championships of the 100 meters: thousands of fans waiting with baited breath to see Usain Bolt, the fastest man in history; flashbulbs popping as the nine fastest men in the world coil themselves into their blocks. And I want you to pretend that Jesse Owens is in that race. Now close your eyes for a second and picture the race. Bang! The gun goes off. An American sprinter jumps out to the front. Usain Bolt starts to catch him. Usain Bolt passes him, and as the runners come to the finish, you’ll hear a beep as each man crosses the line. (Beeps) That’s the entire finish of the race. You can open your eyes now. That first beep was Usain Bolt. That last beep was Jesse Owens. Listen to it again. (Beeps immediately after) When you think of it like that, it’s not that big a difference, is it? And then consider that Usain Bolt started by propelling himself out of blocks down a specially fabricated carpet designed to allow him to travel as fast as humanly possible. Jesse Owens, on the other hand, ran on cinders, the ash from burnt wood, and that soft surface stole far more energy from his legs as he ran. Rather than blocks, Jesse Owens had a gardening trowel that he had to use to dig holes in the cinders to start from. Biomechanical analysis of the speed of Owens’ joints shows that had been running on the same surface as Bolt, he wouldn’t have been 14 feet behind, he would have been within one stride. Rather than the last beep, Owens would have been the second beep. Listen to it again. (Beeps) That’s the difference track surface technology has made, and it’s done it throughout the running world.

Consider a longer event. In 1954, Sir Roger Bannister became the first man to run under four minutes in the mile. Nowadays, college kids do that every year. On rare occasions, a high school kid does it. As of the end of last year, 1,314 men had run under four minutes in the mile, but like Jesse Owens, Sir Roger Bannister ran on soft cinders that stole far more energy from his legs than the synthetic tracks of today. So I consulted biomechanics experts to find out how much slower it is to run on cinders than synthetic tracks, and their consensus that it’s one and a half percent slower. So if you apply a one and a half percent slowdown conversion to every man who ran his sub-four mile on a synthetic track, this is what happens. Only 530 are left. If you look at it from that perspective, fewer than ten new men per [year] have joined the sub-four mile club since Sir Roger Bannister. Now, 530 is a lot more than one, and that’s partly because there are many more people training today and they’re training more intelligently. Even college kids are professional in their training compared to Sir Roger Bannister, who trained for 45 minutes at a time while he ditched gynecology lectures in med school. And that guy who won the 1904 Olympic marathon in three in a half hours, that guy was drinking rat poison and brandy while he ran along the course. That was his idea of a performance-enhancing drug. (Laughter)

Clearly, athletes have gotten more savvy about performance-enhancing drugs as well, and that’s made a difference in some sports at some times, but technology has made a difference in all sports, from faster skis to lighter shoes. Take a look at the record for the 100-meter freestyle swim. The record is always trending downward, but it’s punctuated by these steep cliffs. This first cliff, in 1956, is the introduction of the flip turn. Rather than stopping and turning around, athletes could somersault under the water and get going right away in the opposite direction. This second cliff, the introduction of gutters on the side of the pool that allows water to splash off, rather than becoming turbulence that impedes the swimmers as they race. This final cliff, the introduction of full-body and low-friction swimsuits.

Throughout sports, technology has changed the face of performance. In 1972, Eddy Merckx set the record for the longest distance cycled in one hour at 30 miles, 3,774 feet. Now that record improved and improved as bicycles improved and became more aerodynamic all the way until 1996, when it was set at 35 miles, 1,531 feet, nearly five miles farther than Eddy Merckx cycled in 1972. But then in 2000, the International Cycling Union decreed that anyone who wanted to hold that record had to do so with essentially the same equipment that Eddy Merckx used in 1972. Where does the record stand today? 30 miles, 4,657 feet, a grand total of 883 feet farther than Eddy Merckx cycled more than four decades ago. Essentially the entire improvement in this record was due to technology.

Still, technology isn’t the only thing pushing athletes forward. While indeed we haven’t evolved into a new species in a century, the gene pool within competitive sports most certainly has changed. In the early half of the 20th century, physical education instructors and coaches had the idea that the average body type was the best for all athletic endeavors: medium height, medium weight, no matter the sport. And this showed in athletes’ bodies. In the 1920s, the average elite high-jumper and average elite shot-putter were the same exact size. But as that idea started to fade away, as sports scientists and coaches realized that rather than the average body type, you want highly specialized bodies that fit into certain athletic niches, a form of artificial selection took place, a self-sorting for bodies that fit certain sports, and athletes’ bodies became more different from one another. Today, rather than the same size as the average elite high jumper, the average elite shot-putter is two and a half inches taller and 130 pounds heavier. And this happened throughout the sports world.

In fact, if you plot on a height versus mass graph one data point for each of two dozen sports in the first half of the 20th century, it looks like this. There’s some dispersal, but it’s kind of grouped around that average body type. Then that idea started to go away, and at the same time, digital technology — first radio, then television and the Internet — gave millions, or in some cases billions, of people a ticket to consume elite sports performance. The financial incentives and fame and glory afforded elite athletes skyrocketed, and it tipped toward the tiny upper echelon of performance. It accelerated the artificial selection for specialized bodies. And if you plot a data point for these same two dozen sports today, it looks like this. The athletes’ bodies have gotten much more different from one another. And because this chart looks like the charts that show the expanding universe, with the galaxies flying away from one another, the scientists who discovered it call it “The Big Bang of Body Types.”

In sports where height is prized, like basketball, the tall athletes got taller. In 1983, the National Basketball Association signed a groundbreaking agreement making players partners in the league, entitled to shares of ticket revenues and television contracts. Suddenly, anybody who could be an NBA player wanted to be, and teams started scouring the globe for the bodies that could help them win championships. Almost overnight, the proportion of men in the NBA who are at least seven feet tall doubled to 10 percent. Today, one in 10 men in the NBA is at least seven feet tall, but a seven-foot-tall man is incredibly rare in the general population — so rare that if you know an American man between the ages of 20 and 40 who is at least seven feet tall, there’s a 17 percent chance he’s in the NBA right now. (Laughter) That is, find six honest seven footers, one is in the NBA right now. And that’s not the only way that NBA players’ bodies are unique. This is Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man,” the ideal proportions, with arm span equal to height. My arm span is exactly equal to my height. Yours is probably very nearly so. But not the average NBA player. The average NBA player is a shade under 6’7″, with arms that are seven feet long. Not only are NBA players ridiculously tall, they are ludicrously long. Had Leonardo wanted to draw the Vitruvian NBA Player, he would have needed a rectangle and an ellipse, not a circle and a square.

So in sports where large size is prized, the large athletes have gotten larger. Conversely, in sports where diminutive stature is an advantage, the small athletes got smaller. The average elite female gymnast shrunk from 5’3″ to 4’9″ on average over the last 30 years, all the better for their power-to-weight ratio and for spinning in the air. And while the large got larger and the small got smaller, the weird got weirder. The average length of the forearm of a water polo player in relation to their total arm got longer, all the better for a forceful throwing whip. And as the large got larger, small got smaller, and the weird weirder. In swimming, the ideal body type is a long torso and short legs. It’s like the long hull of a canoe for speed over the water. And the opposite is advantageous in running. You want long legs and a short torso. And this shows in athletes’ bodies today. Here you see Michael Phelps, the greatest swimmer in history, standing next to Hicham El Guerrouj, the world record holder in the mile. These men are seven inches different in height, but because of the body types advantaged in their sports, they wear the same length pants. Seven inches difference in height, these men have the same length legs.

Now in some cases, the search for bodies that could push athletic performance forward ended up introducing into the competitive world populations of people that weren’t previously competing at all, like Kenyan distance runners. We think of Kenyans as being great marathoners. Kenyans think of the Kalenjin tribe as being great marathoners. The Kalenjin make up just 12 percent of the Kenyan population but the vast majority of elite runners. And they happen, on average, to have a certain unique physiology: legs that are very long and very thin at their extremity, and this is because they have their ancestry at very low latitude in a very hot and dry climate, and an evolutionary adaptation to that is limbs that are very long and very thin at the extremity for cooling purposes. It’s the same reason that a radiator has long coils, to increase surface area compared to volume to let heat out, and because the leg is like a pendulum, the longer and thinner it is at the extremity, the more energy-efficient it is to swing. To put Kalenjin running success in perspective, consider that 17 American men in history have run faster than two hours and 10 minutes in the marathon. That’s a four-minute-and-58-second-per-mile pace. Thirty-two Kalenjin men did that last October. (Laughter) That’s from a source population the size of metropolitan Atlanta.

Still, even changing technology and the changing gene pool in sports don’t account for all of the changes in performance. Athletes have a different mindset than they once did. Have you ever seen in a movie when someone gets an electrical shock and they’re thrown across a room? There’s no explosion there. What’s happening when that happens is that the electrical impulse is causing all their muscle fibers to twitch at once, and they’re throwing themselves across the room. They’re essentially jumping. That’s the power that’s contained in the human body. But normally we can’t access nearly all of it. Our brain acts as a limiter, preventing us from accessing all of our physical resources, because we might hurt ourselves, tearing tendons or ligaments. But the more we learn about how that limiter functions, the more we learn how we can push it back just a bit, in some cases by convincing the brain that the body won’t be in mortal danger by pushing harder. Endurance and ultra-endurance sports serve as a great example. Ultra-endurance was once thought to be harmful to human health, but now we realize that we have all these traits that are perfect for ultra-endurance: no body fur and a glut of sweat glands that keep us cool while running; narrow waists and long legs compared to our frames; large surface area of joints for shock absorption. We have an arch in our foot that acts like a spring, short toes that are better for pushing off than for grasping tree limbs, and when we run, we can turn our torso and our shoulders like this while keeping our heads straight. Our primate cousins can’t do that. They have to run like this. And we have big old butt muscles that keep us upright while running. Have you ever looked at an ape’s butt? They have no buns because they don’t run upright. And as athletes have realized that we’re perfectly suited for ultra-endurance, they’ve taken on feats that would have been unthinkable before, athletes like Spanish endurance racer Kílian Jornet. Here’s Kílian running up the Matterhorn. (Laughter) With a sweatshirt there tied around his waist. It’s so steep he can’t even run here. He’s pulling up on a rope. This is a vertical ascent of more than 8,000 feet, and Kílian went up and down in under three hours. Amazing. And talented though he is, Kílian is not a physiological freak. Now that he has done this, other athletes will follow, just as other athletes followed after Sir Roger Bannister ran under four minutes in the mile.

Changing technology, changing genes, and a changing mindset. Innovation in sports, whether that’s new track surfaces or new swimming techniques, the democratization of sport, the spread to new bodies and to new populations around the world, and imagination in sport, an understanding of what the human body is truly capable of, have conspired to make athletes stronger, faster, bolder, and better than ever.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)