At first glance they look like a couple of guys throwing a football around in a park.
Watch a little longer and you notice the receiver’s intensity as he pours on the speed, catching every throw like it’s the final seconds of an NFL playoff.
For Jonte Green, that’s a real possibility. The 25-year-old is a professional football player, now a cornerback with the Buffalo Bills.
Throwing the ball, while deliberately making each pass more of a challenge, is Antonio Strevay, 29, the fitness operations manager and head coach at Marcel’s Total Fitness & Athletics, 7285 E. Tanque Verde Road.
The client
Green, who played football for New Mexico State, already knew his way around a weight room. And with his pro career, he was exceptionally motivated to be in top shape for training camp in April.
But he walked into Marcel’s after his girlfriend, who has a degree in kinesiology — the study of human movement — met Strevay and thought his coaching could help Green, who had suffered a hamstring injury last season.
The coach
Strevay grew up immersed in sports, and played rugby at the University of Utah, where he studied exercise sports science with an athletic training emphasis. That’s where he got interested in functional training, which focuses on the mechanics of the body and how it moves. It stresses proper form to help prevent injury while you’re working to reach your goals.
“The number one goal for every single trainer is to never injure your client,” he said.
The Workout
Green, who owns a home in Tucson, started working with Strevay last fall.
Since then, Strevay has choreographed 90 minutes of movement five days a week to maximize Green’s flexibility, strength, quick reflexes and explosive speed. They meet either at the gym for strength training or across the street at Udall Park, where the soccer fields allow plenty of room to move.
“It’s taking it up to the next level,” said Strevay, noting that is his goal with every client, whether it’s someone recovering from injury, or wanting to improve balance, lose weight or run his or her first half-marathon. His youngest is 11 and the oldest in their mid-80s.
While Green trains at a high intensity, Strevay said, “A lot of the stuff I do with him I do with other people.”
An agility ladder placed flat on the floor, for example, is an excellent way to work with older clients on picking up their feet to improve coordination, which helps prevent falls, he said.
For Green, Strevay unfurls the ladder on the grass and starts him on footwork drills.
Once Green has raced through a few rounds, Strevay ups the intensity by putting a band around Green’s waist. Holding the other end of the band, Strevay hunkers down and pulls back, providing resistance as the 6-foot, 190-pound Green puts everything he has into trying to sprint through the drill. It’s all about form and strength.
“He’s getting a workout too,” Marcel Aguirre, the gym’s program director, laughed as he watched Strevay at a recent workout.
The football drills come at the final 20 to 30 minutes. In a real game, Green has to react to where the ball is — that may mean having to jump high, or put out a burst of speed to make an interception, Strevay explained.
Green is a gifted athlete, but Strevay said he is just as impressed with his dedication.
“A gift is only good if you work hard on it.”
