TODAY’S TRAINING INSPIRATION:
JOHN GARRETT
Today’s Colin Timberlake Training Inspiration is a man who showed that every once in a while, opportunity presents itself in a way you wouldn’t expect…and if you are up to the challenge, you can seize the day and succeed in ways people may have considered beyond your abilities.
In 1983, John Garrett was the backup goaltender for the Vancouver Canucks, often riding the bench behind the great Richard Brodeur, who had led the team to the Stanley Cup Finals the previous season. On the strength of a strong season and that miraculous playoff run, Brodeur had been selected as Vancouver’s representative in the 1983 All-Star Game.
But when Brodeur was felled by a puck that left him with a perforated eardrum, he was unable to participate in the midseason classic and the All-Star Game was left in a precarious position. One of its featured attractions was sidelined and they were short a goalie.
At the time, the way the All-Star Game worked was, if a player representing a team was unable to attend, he would be replaced by another solid player from the same team. In the case of forwards or defenseman, who are far more plentiful than goalies, this was not such a problem. The Canucks would have simply promoted past or future all-stars such as Tiger Williams, Stan Smyl or Thomas Gradin and everything would have gone off without a hitch.
But the Canucks representative had been in the one position where each team really only had two players. They couldn’t very well strap goalie pads onto Stan Smyl and put him in net, and they couldn’t have the Canucks without a player at the All-Star Game… So fate kissed backup goaltender John Garrett and he became an NHL All-Star.
Now, Garrett wasn’t a player who was going to normally be appearing at the NHL All-Star Game, and he knew it. He was no slouch, either. He had been a starter in the WHA and one of its better goaltenders (Brodeur had probably been the greatest goalie in the history of the league). Garrett was solid, good enough that he played in more than 500 NHL and WHA games, and securing over 200 wins. And he was feisty, with 132 penalty minutes in his 571 total regular season and playoff games. But many decent goaltenders have had numbers like Garrett’s and never gotten a sniff of the All-Star Game.
And so it was that on Feb. 8, 1983 in New York, the Campbell Conference had John Garrett in net for one of the greatest collections of talent the NHL has ever seen in one day. The opposing team alone featured the likes of Mike Bossy, Peter Stastny, Bryan Trottier, Mark Howe, Michel Goulet, Ron Francis, Ray Bourque, Denis Potvin and Daryl Sittler blasting shots at Garrett for the period he spent in the Campbell net (each of three goalies per team plays one period, in accordance with the All-Star Game tradition).
Especially in this era of high-flying talent, the All-Star Game was typically a 13-11 victory for one team or the other. But John Garrett stepped into the Campbell net for the second period and posted a shutout period in the All-Star Game, something roughly equivalent to a pair of no-hitters for a pitcher in baseball. It was literally the game of his life, on the biggest stage possible.
With his unlikely and thoroughly impressive performance, Garrett was considered a lock for the game MVP award, but it was stolen at the last minute when teammate Wayne Gretzky scored four goals in the third period in the 9-3 Campbell Conference victory. Still, Garrett was credited with the team victory in what was unquestionably one of his career highlights and one of the true Rocky Balboa one-in-a-million performances of the NHL.
Garrett showed that if you are ready to seize the moment on those rare occasions that fate dangles them in front of you, you can make a mark that exceeds what everyone may have expected of you. Oh yeah, and he had a kick-ass mask.
HAMMERING THE ANVIL…
Today is a bit of a mixed bag of augmentation exercises, catching up on the little things that are often neglected like abs, obliques, forearms, etc.
TODAY: FOREARMS (5-1-5, 120 Second Rests) and ABS
TUCKED-LEG TWISTING ROCKY IV’S (3 sets)
- 3-1-3 Tempo, 60 Second Rests
Body x 5
Body x 5
Body x 5
HANGING BENT-LEG RAISES (5 sets)
- 3-1-3 Tempo, 60 Second Rests
Legs x 10
Legs x 10
Legs x 10
Legs x 10
Legs x 10
HANGING TWISTING BENT-LEG RAISES (3 sets)
- 3-1-3 Tempo, 60 Second Rests
Legs x 10
Legs x 10
Legs x 10
BICYCLE CRUNCHES (3 sets)
- Fast Tempo, 60 Second Rests
x 18
x 18
x 14
TORSO TWISTS (3 sets)
x 25
x 25
UNDERHAND FOREARM DUMBBELL CURLS (5 sets)
15 x 12
20 x 8
20 x 6
25 x 5
30 x 5
OVERHAND FOREARM DUMBBELL CURLS (5 sets)
10 x 8
10 x 6
10 x 5
15 x 4
15 x 4
HIGH-INTENSITY-INTERVAL-TRAINING (30 seconds 10 mph 5 incline / 30 seconds rest)
6 Rounds
TRAINING NOTES
Total Sets (Abs): 19
Total Sets (Forearms): 10
I stacked Overhand Forearm Curls onto the end of Underhand, as is often the case.
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