Falsone& Yao: An Olympic Dream -- Part II

http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/dream_II.html

An Olympic Dream -- Part II

Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part interview with Houston Rockets strength and conditioning coach Anthony Falsone. Part one of this interview was posted on Rockets.com on Tuesday, August 24.
ROCKETS.COM: Obviously, you spent a lot of time over there with Yao, pushing him as hard as you could. How has that affected your relationship with Yao?

FALSONE: I think this has strengthened our relationship. That sad thing was that he was my interpreter over there. Over here you realize that Yao understands a lot and he can communicate with us, but over there, he was my crutch. I couldn’t communicate with anyone without him. We have a good relationship, and I think Yao sees a tremendous benefit in what I do as far as his career goes for longevity and health. It’s important that we have a good relationship because he has to spend more time with me than probably just about anyone. It’s going to benefit him. It’s a good professional relationship and also a good personal relationship, as well. He respects what I do.

ROCKETS.COM: You’ve worked with many NBA players in your career. How easy was it to work with Yao?

FALSONE: He’s a great player to work with, simply because he’s so gifted and has a tremendous work ethic. There is something inside of him that he wants to do better, he wants to get to that next level, he wants to make a mark on the game – he really does. For me, that’s a rarity. It’s not always the way it is in the NBA. Tremendous talent sometimes leads to a lack of will or effort. But Yao is a great leader, a great team player – just a true All-Star player, and he understands that.

ROCKETS.COM: Being over in China, you got to see first-hand how Yao is treated over there. Is the hype around him as big as we hear it is?

FALSONE: The hype over there was just amazing. I mean, Yao is big here. He’s very well known and very popular. Over there he’s the biggest thing that’s ever happened. He’s an icon. It was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it. I mean people, the masses just come running at him and the police have to hold them back.

ROCKETS.COM: How well do you think Yao handles all of that attention?

FALSONE: Yao understands what he represents. He really does. He’s representing 1.3 billion people every time he takes the floor. How he handles himself and everything he does is really a representation of a whole country, and he understands that. Some people would not be willing to do that, and I think that until you see it, you don’t understand how much weight the guy carries. He really does. There is more to it than just him playing basketball and doing well for himself. He’s tied to them, and they are extremely proud of him. We were going down the street and cars were pulling over just to stop and wave or say hello. Everybody recognizes him. In a way, it’s a double-edged sword – because of his great ability, he’s created this character that can’t really go out and enjoy life, especially there. It was definitely interesting. I’ll say he was like Beatles – only the Beatles didn’t speak Chinese and Yao doesn’t sing, but other than that, exactly the same.

ROCKETS.COM: It sounds like wherever Yao went you were there. What was it like for you to be around all of that hype?

FALSONE: It was crazy. When I first got there, Del Harris asked me if I could work with the team and I told him that I would do whatever I could do. I love doing that. Whenever it comes to motivating athletes, that’s when I’m at my best. So, as soon as that was done, he went and did an interview and they were asking him, “Who is this guy from the Rockets? Tell us about him,” and coach Harris said, “Anthony is one of the world’s best at getting players ready for the season.” He made a great statement about me and I appreciated it. Well, we were in Beijing and Erick Zhang – Yao’s agent – was in Shanghai, and he said that the next day in the paper in Shanghai it said, “World’s Greatest Strength Coach Working with Yao Ming.” He saved me a copy of the paper and told me that I was on every station in Shanghai and in every newspaper. It was just amazing to me. People would come up to me and I didn’t really realize what they wanted, and Yao would tell me they wanted my autograph. It was amazing, but it was really fun though. I just had that association with Yao, so it was a lot of fun to see a different side of it.

ROCKETS.COM: How beneficial do you think it was for the organization to be able to send you over there to work so closely with Yao in the offseason?

FALSONE: It’s great, because it was all we could do. Like I said, Yao is tremendously committed to the Chinese government, and rightfully so. He is where he is because of their support. If I was a professional athlete playing overseas and had a chance to go play for my Olympic team – that’s a great honor, so you can’t really second-guess his decision to be involved and support Chinese basketball. We don’t have the luxury of having Yao in the offseason and doing all of the things we’d like to do, but we have to do what we can do. One of those things is to be available to him and provide him with the opportunity to improve to really help us to keep there from being any surprises come training camp. We don’t want anything to affect our chances of winning an NBA title. That’s our goal, and Yao Ming is going to help us do that. If we have to do this every year, I think it’s definitely beneficial. I’m willing to do it. I enjoyed it, and Yao makes it easy because he is so willing to get better and understands that yeah, you are tired and there are times where you’re playing year-round basketball and not getting a break, but we’re giving him all of the tools necessary to make it as easy on his body as possible. It’s something that we have to do. It’s not a perfect environment, but all he can do is do what he can do – that is prepare his body, stay in the best shape possible, keep his weight down and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be able to do this for as long as he wants to.

ROCKETS.COM: So what kind of shape did you get Yao into while you were there? How’s he looking?

FALSONE: Well, he was 321 pounds in Dallas and at about 10-and-a-half percent body fat. Our goal for him at training camp is 310 pounds at 10 percent body fat, so his weight was high but his body fat wasn’t too bad. We had done some work with him and told him he needed to drop some weight in Dallas, so he knew what he needed to do and did his part as best he could. Then I got there and turned it up a notch – turned the oven up a little bit higher. I kept him active, watched his diet and had him biking every day – sometimes twice if we could. We were lifting every other day between basketball practices, too. When I left, he was 311 pounds at 9.3 percent body fat, so if he shows up today at training camp, his body fat goal is met. His weight – he has to lose another pound, but we had been lifting weights. But if a guys body fat is where it needs to be and he’s just a pound over, I’m pretty much going to take that as muscle weight, and I think coach understands that, as well.

ROCKETS.COM: Listening to you, one can tell that body fat plays an important role in conditioning for you. Is that correct?

FALSONE: Body fat is the key. That has made such a difference in the Rockets as a team, that goal. In the years I was here before, not that it was wrong or any different with most teams, players’ weight and body fat never really was much of an issue. We did body fat three times a year – at training camp, at the All-Star break and at the end of the season when guys would leave so we had a gauge for when guys came back for training camp. Weight, we did the same way. I would say that is typical of most teams in the NBA – it was just what we had done. But when Coach Van Gundy took the job and we had our first meeting, he said he wanted body fat and weight done once a week. He believes – and I believe it now, too – that heavy players get hurt. And it’s not just heavy with fat; it’s sometimes heavy with muscle. Maybe some guys can body build too much and put too much muscle on their frame – a frame that maybe is not accustomed to carrying that much muscle. It’s additional weight, period. We established those goals, and I bought into that mindset. Last year was the first year we instituted the weekly weigh-in and weekly body fat check. Guys were held accountable and we had a lot fewer injuries last year. So I’ve bought into the mindset that weight is an issue, and we’ve been a lot better as a team because of it.

ROCKETS.COM: Now that you are back in the states, are you concerned at all with what type of shape Yao will show in at training camp?

FALSONE: The time period between the Olympics and training camp always concerns me. A month is a long time. He’s told us he’ll be here in late September and the Olympics are over at the end of August, so any time any player – not just Yao – has that kind of time off it concerns you because you never know how mentally fatigued they are. You’re not sure how much a guy might have been pushed to the edge and how much time a guy might need away from the game mentally. That’s where I really come in as a great tool for us, because I understand that. If we have to go see him and check up with him, I understand where he’s been, what he’s done and what they’ve asked of him. I understand where he is mentally and know where he needs to be. That’s kind of my job as well – to read players and try to get something out of them. I don’t think we have to worry with Yao though, because he is such a professional, but a month is a long time. The main thing is for him to stay as healthy as he can during the Olympics, and if he can maintain his health and get out of there with no injuries, he’ll be fine.

 

Hey Clutch, thanks for picking me