Fitness guru works Disney magic with NFLers

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. The NFL may be in the midst of a lockout, but the doors are wide open for several dozen veteran players at a sprawling youth sports complex amid Disney's land of make-believe. On a remote field at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex, one of the top football trainers in the business is making believers out of such stars as Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor and linebacker James Farrior, New England Patriots running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis, free-agent wide receiver Javon Walker and San Diego Chargers tackle Travis Johnson. Renowned strength and conditioning wizard Tom Shaw can't help their dreams come true by ending the work stoppage. But he can have them in peak physical shape when the standoff ends. And that's why Tom Shaw Performance Enhancement is hopping more than ever these days with NFL players sweating in the brutal Central Florida sun, hoping to keep their edge at a time when they would be working out in minicamps across the league. Last week Jets wide receiver Santonio Holmes, MVP of Super Bowl XLIII, spent a week in Shaw's intense camp along with Jaguars wideout Mike Simms-Walker and Titans tailback Chris Johnson. They're all planning to return, and so are plenty of others, including Steelers All-Pro safety Troy Polamalu, as word of Shaw's program continues to spread. The numbers are impressive: Over the past decade, Shaw has trained 122 first-round picks and eight eventual No. 1 selections in advance of the NFL draft. And no fewer than 10 Super Bowl MVPs are Performance Enhancement alums. Shaw, who earned three Super Bowl rings as a strength and conditioning coach for the Patriots under head coach Bill Belichick, puts everyone through rigorous paces in the state-of-the-art facilities: lifting weights, climbing ropes, running on cross country trails, endless speed and agility drills and all manner of resistance training. But they share a sense of fun and camaraderie, too. On a recent morning, there's an all-out game of "Gator Ball" under way, with two 12-player teams racing up and down the field throwing and running with a round ball, engaged in a hybrid of lacrosse and soccer. It's a way of letting off steam after another brutal session, and Shaw, a former 9.6-second 100-yard-dash man from Gulf High in Newport Richey, Fla., even joins in the fray. "We've always had a good turnout, but the lockout gives us an advantage of getting more players here," Shaw said following the workout. "We probably have 15 more guys than usual at this time of year. These guys are motivated, and that's why they're working so hard." Shaw works hard, too, to push the players through the paces so they can increase their strength, agility and speed, keeping meticulous charts on their progress, from week to week and year to year for the many returning players who swear by his system. He honed it while spending eight years at Florida State as an assistant track coach and a speedconditioning coach for several Seminole sports, including football. "A lot of the things we do sets the tone for their whole career," Shaw said, and explained that the core of his system revolves around testing his players at every stage of their career. "There are guys that don't work hard and they just run their tongues off they just run until they get tired and go, 'OK, that was a great workout.' Well, how do you know if it's a great workout? James Farrior, Ike Taylor, all these guys here every one of these guys I test. "So I can tell you what James' vertical jump was when he was a rookie. I can tell you what his vertical jump was last year and his pre-test this year. And he'll have a post-test before he leaves. So I can tell you what he's going to run the 40 in, what he ran it when he was in college. I have the base-line data to get an idea where he is. That's the only way you can tell if your program is working." Farrior, who is preparing for his 15th season in the NFL, attributes his longevity in part to the grueling regimen with Shaw he tackles each offseason. "I go back with Tom 12 or 13 years," he said. "I was already in the league and a good friend of mine, (veteran Saints defensive back) Darren Sharper, told me about it after going through the program. And I've been here ever since. Tom's a great guy to be around. He's a tough coach when you need him to be, and he knows how to lay off. He's one of the best in the business." Steelers teammate Taylor has an even longer connection with Shaw, dating to 1993 when Shaw first opened his program in Kenner, La. He had gone to work for Mike Ditka, then head coach of the New Orleans Saints, and created his program as a side business. As it turned out, a handful of FSU players heading into the draft, including acclaimed Seminoles defensive backreturn specialist Deion Sanders, wanted to get in shape for the combine. So their agents sent them to Kenner as Shaw was pioneering his pre-draft conditioning operation. Taylor was just a New Orleans middle-schooler at the time. But Shaw met him and began to work with the earnest, hard-working youngster. Taylor played running back for Louisiana-LaFayette and likely would have been a low-round pick in the 2003 draft. But the intensive work he did with Shaw improved his speed, from the 4.3s in the 40-yard dash to 4.25. And that caught the eyes of the Steelers, who took a chance on him as a fourth-round pick. Taylor is now in his ninth season as a key member of the Steelers' D, and boasts a pair of Super Bowl rings. "We've been through a lot," Taylor said. "It's hard work, but then look what we do in Gator Ball. There's a lot of camaraderie here. Coach Shaw is amazing. He's fun to be around, and everybody feels like we're getting better and staying consistent. We yell at each other. We can get mad. But that's just part of being competitive and pushing ourselves." That's particularly important given the current labor uncertainty, with a growing sense that the lockout could last at least through late summer. "Obviously with the season not happening right now, you could lose your competitive edge," said free-agent wideout Walker, a former star for the Green Bay Packers until he was sidetracked by injuries. "But that's what Tom brings in over here." Walker, a former Seminoles star, knew of Shaw's status as an elite trainer years ago. He trained with him after college, ran a low 4.3 40-yard dash in the combine and got drafted by Green Bay in the first round. He's thrilled to be reunited with Shaw, working on improving his speed in hopes of making an impact with a new team. "I'm lighter right now than I was in college," he said. "And my running has really picked up. The way I feel, I could play another 10 years." Green-Ellis, a 1,000-yard rusher for the Patriots last year, began working with Shaw as a New Orleans 17-year-old. Now in his fourth NFL season, he feels completely ready to go whenever play resumes. "I feel like I'm getting the same conditioning here that I would if I was in camp," he said. "And because Coach Shaw was with the Patriots for eight years, the program is similar and really good for me." Shaw's program might never have left Louisiana, but Hurricane Katrina took its toll on his business in a big way in 2005. His workout facility was converted into a center for relief supplies and trucks, which transported blue tarps into the devastated city to cover damaged rooftops. Suddenly Shaw needed to find a new home. After searching different sites in Florida, he contacted Disney World and spoke with then-vice president of Disney Sports Attractions Reggie Williams, a star linebacker for 14 seasons with the Bengals. Williams was instrumental in creating the Wide World of Sports Complex in 1997 and was delighted to bring Shaw and his program to the bustling, 220-acre youth and pro sports mecca at Disney. Shaw is now in his sixth year here and his endeavor is thriving, especially with the infusion of more than 30 million from ESPN, which took over the complex in 2010. Shaw's athletes have become an attraction unto themselves, with youth teams often watching their workouts and sometimes getting to take on the NFL stars in Gator Ball. "We'll actually play a lacrosse team from anywhere. They might have 40 kids on a team and we have 20, but we'll play a big game," Shaw said. "We do it with lacrosse and soccer teams all the time and everyone enjoys it." Shaw's players also enjoy the overall atmosphere of the sporting complex, home to the Atlanta Braves during spring training, Olympic track teams, AAU basketball games and much more. They even get to take in a little of the Disney magic in their down time. "We went fishing at the magic lake on a pontoon boat, and we all went to the Magic Kingdom as a group and rode the rides," he said. And there's some more fun on tap with the team traveling to Atlanta to take on NFL athletes working out with one of Shaw's elite training counterparts, Chip Smith, who runs Competitive Edge Sports. They're jokingly referring to it as the Lockout Bowl. "We're going to challenge them to a 10-on-10 touch football game on one day," Shaw said. "And then we're taking them on in Gator Ball." All in a day's work for a master football trainer and his cadre of NFL players working into top shape for the season, whenever it comes.