jomomma
02-20-2008, 06:37 PM
good story about maybe the best pre-draft & off-season workout facility in the country
>Prepping NFL hopefuls creates big business
http://images.chron.com/photos/2008/02/12/10088916/311xInlineGallery.jpg
photo: meg louks: houston chronicle
Trainer Danny Arnold talks to a client at Plex where many NFL hopefuls are training for the NFL combine
Chron.com - DANNY Arnold admits he never set out to revolutionize the way athletes prepare for battle, nor did he aspire — at first, anyway — to become one of the country's leading player-development gurus.
"I was a cornerback," Arnold said, "and I was coming off two major surgeries, including a (knee) reconstruction. I wanted to get faster. I had to get faster."
Which he did, and it won him a starting job at TSU.
But Arnold's aptitude for understanding the physiology of athletics, honed by his pursuit of knowledge and expert opinions, led him to greater things.
After fast-tracking through a coaching career at TSU when he was in his early 20s, Arnold, 35, owns and operates a self-built sports-performance business that's taking on the look of an empire. With 11 full-time employees, his 2-year-old flagship Plex complex occupies two acres on Avenue E in Stafford, and he has opened venues in Pearland and Jersey Village.
"The point I'd want to make about Danny," said Houston agent Jeff Nalley, who has sent many of his firm's 50 NFL players through the Plex program, "is that he's not just the best in Houston but also one of the very best in the country."
Arnold's reputation is such that he can say: "I'm lucky. I don't have to recruit. (The players) come to me."
Via agents such as Nalley, who understand the value of what Arnold has to offer their clients. In the case of wannabe NFL rookies, it's amazing how many dollars are hanging in the balance based on a young man's 40-yard dash time, his Wunderlich score or his vertical leap. The agents pay Arnold's fee, which exceeds $10,000 per pro prospect, viewing it as a wise investment.
"Danny knows what he's talking about and he cares about the players," said John Hamilton, explaining why he placed running back Calvin Dawson from Louisiana-Monroe in Arnold's care to help him prepare for this spring's NFL draft. "He (charges) a flat fee, and he couldn't care less if you're a potential first- or sixth-round pick."
On any given day, the Stafford site will be crawling with professional jocks as well as those aspiring to join their high-profile, high-paying ranks. But most of Arnold's time of late has been given over to honing his current class of pending NFL draftees, who have been hunkered down at Plex since before the first of the year learning how to wow the scouts at the combine that begins today in Indianapolis.
Although Arnold is conflicted by the combine regimen — he is unconvinced many of the tests measure what matters for a pro football player — he put his charges through their paces six days a week, 11 sessions total, staying mindful of the big picture.
"I see this as an eight- to 10-week interview process," he said of his pre-combine drills. "After this, it's up to the player where he trains in the future. So we've got to kick (butt) if we want to keep him. Believe me, athletes are like, 'What have you done for me lately?' "
The jerseys and photographs hanging in the Plex building are a testament to the clarity of Arnold's message. He can claim more than 140 NFL roster players as alums and "about 45 to 50" of those, he said, are regulars. Go to his Web site and it takes forever to scroll through the names, from Charles Woodson, Tommie Harris and Julius Peppers of the NFL to Lance Berkman and Woody Williams of the Astros to Damon Stoudamire and Othella Harrington of the NBA to local taekwondo stars Steven and Diana Lopez who have sharpened their fitness and athleticism under Arnold.
Branching out
He also is partnering with the Dynamo's development team, and the man who is arguably Houston's leading orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Walt Lowe, sends high school athletes to Arnold for rehab after torn ACL repairs and other operations.
"The telltale sign about how good Danny is," Nalley said, "is how many of the players stay with him when they have to pay for the training. ...
"It's about the trainer, not the facility. To be honest with you, Danny's first one was a dump. But then you'd see all these big-name players — Kellen Winslow, Woodson, Peppers — working out. They didn't care."
Lowe, who serves as Texans orthopedic specialist, said: "It's been pretty amazing watching Danny come from where he started. He's put a good program together. He's a real grass-roots guy. He made sure he had the knowledge to do what he's doing, and he has used a lot of elbow grease to make it work."
Arnold's first exposure to sports-performance training was about as grass roots as you can get, coming on Tom Williams' legendary "hill." Williams, the late Oilers assistant general manager who whipped Earl Campbell and others into shape during offseasons, let Arnold work out with the pros while he was at St. Thomas High School.
"I was the only high school kid in Tom's program," he said. "I learned a lot from him. He inspired me. He got me started thinking about what goes into training (athletes)."
The area where Arnold's clients' faces and apparel are on view is named for Williams, who pushed his charges relentlessly but sensibly, too. Arnold's approach is fundamentally the same, if highly evolved, to the point he provides players with apartments and feeds them.
Arnold doesn't push short-cut supplements like numerous trainers do — to his credit, Lowe said.
"That legitimizes Danny to me as much as anything else," Lowe said, "because most of that junk is worthless. But you can make a lot of money selling it."
Arnold relies heavily on plyometrics, explosive movements that train muscles to generate large amounts of force quickly. They're exhausting, especially to the uninitiated. Dawson's initial reaction to all the lunging and leaping about?
"My goodness," he said. "I was really sore. But now I understand what he's doing. I've improved a lot."
But no one enters the mix without Arnold's sports medicine physician, Dr. Minn Luu, signing off on it, to ensure they do no damage.
"When we train," Arnold said, "we focus on practicality. We train everybody multi-directionally. I'm not worried about how a guy tests but what will make him better on the field. For the combine, we have to prepare them for certain tasks, but that's not where I put my focus. I'm not training athletes; I'm training football players."
One of Arnold's combine prospects, former Oklahoma defensive end Alonzo Dotson, has known about Plex since he was at Alief Hastings.
"Danny knows his stuff," Dotson said. "He has a football player's mindset. Most strength coaches don't know what a player goes through, what he really needs. They tell you, 'Run 15,000 gassers, squat a million times.' It's not like that here."
Tell it like it is
Arnold's success hasn't left him with an elevated opinion of himself, which his clients appreciate. At the same time, his straight shooting is a trademark.
"I've yet to find the perfect athlete, and I don't think I ever will. Everybody has so much room to grow. That's my job — find your flaws, your deficits and fix them."
The pros have made Plex what it has become, which is to say one of the top three or four training sites in the United States, but he accepts anyone, he said, "who's a completely dedicated athlete. I won't turn you down as long as you're willing to work hard. I don't care if you're a third-string high school quarterback with no chance of making it at the next level."
Or, in the case of another recent client, a 75-year-old runner he helped to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
"Give me 100 percent," Arnold said, "and you're always welcome at Plex."
>Prepping NFL hopefuls creates big business
http://images.chron.com/photos/2008/02/12/10088916/311xInlineGallery.jpg
photo: meg louks: houston chronicle
Trainer Danny Arnold talks to a client at Plex where many NFL hopefuls are training for the NFL combine
Chron.com - DANNY Arnold admits he never set out to revolutionize the way athletes prepare for battle, nor did he aspire — at first, anyway — to become one of the country's leading player-development gurus.
"I was a cornerback," Arnold said, "and I was coming off two major surgeries, including a (knee) reconstruction. I wanted to get faster. I had to get faster."
Which he did, and it won him a starting job at TSU.
But Arnold's aptitude for understanding the physiology of athletics, honed by his pursuit of knowledge and expert opinions, led him to greater things.
After fast-tracking through a coaching career at TSU when he was in his early 20s, Arnold, 35, owns and operates a self-built sports-performance business that's taking on the look of an empire. With 11 full-time employees, his 2-year-old flagship Plex complex occupies two acres on Avenue E in Stafford, and he has opened venues in Pearland and Jersey Village.
"The point I'd want to make about Danny," said Houston agent Jeff Nalley, who has sent many of his firm's 50 NFL players through the Plex program, "is that he's not just the best in Houston but also one of the very best in the country."
Arnold's reputation is such that he can say: "I'm lucky. I don't have to recruit. (The players) come to me."
Via agents such as Nalley, who understand the value of what Arnold has to offer their clients. In the case of wannabe NFL rookies, it's amazing how many dollars are hanging in the balance based on a young man's 40-yard dash time, his Wunderlich score or his vertical leap. The agents pay Arnold's fee, which exceeds $10,000 per pro prospect, viewing it as a wise investment.
"Danny knows what he's talking about and he cares about the players," said John Hamilton, explaining why he placed running back Calvin Dawson from Louisiana-Monroe in Arnold's care to help him prepare for this spring's NFL draft. "He (charges) a flat fee, and he couldn't care less if you're a potential first- or sixth-round pick."
On any given day, the Stafford site will be crawling with professional jocks as well as those aspiring to join their high-profile, high-paying ranks. But most of Arnold's time of late has been given over to honing his current class of pending NFL draftees, who have been hunkered down at Plex since before the first of the year learning how to wow the scouts at the combine that begins today in Indianapolis.
Although Arnold is conflicted by the combine regimen — he is unconvinced many of the tests measure what matters for a pro football player — he put his charges through their paces six days a week, 11 sessions total, staying mindful of the big picture.
"I see this as an eight- to 10-week interview process," he said of his pre-combine drills. "After this, it's up to the player where he trains in the future. So we've got to kick (butt) if we want to keep him. Believe me, athletes are like, 'What have you done for me lately?' "
The jerseys and photographs hanging in the Plex building are a testament to the clarity of Arnold's message. He can claim more than 140 NFL roster players as alums and "about 45 to 50" of those, he said, are regulars. Go to his Web site and it takes forever to scroll through the names, from Charles Woodson, Tommie Harris and Julius Peppers of the NFL to Lance Berkman and Woody Williams of the Astros to Damon Stoudamire and Othella Harrington of the NBA to local taekwondo stars Steven and Diana Lopez who have sharpened their fitness and athleticism under Arnold.
Branching out
He also is partnering with the Dynamo's development team, and the man who is arguably Houston's leading orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Walt Lowe, sends high school athletes to Arnold for rehab after torn ACL repairs and other operations.
"The telltale sign about how good Danny is," Nalley said, "is how many of the players stay with him when they have to pay for the training. ...
"It's about the trainer, not the facility. To be honest with you, Danny's first one was a dump. But then you'd see all these big-name players — Kellen Winslow, Woodson, Peppers — working out. They didn't care."
Lowe, who serves as Texans orthopedic specialist, said: "It's been pretty amazing watching Danny come from where he started. He's put a good program together. He's a real grass-roots guy. He made sure he had the knowledge to do what he's doing, and he has used a lot of elbow grease to make it work."
Arnold's first exposure to sports-performance training was about as grass roots as you can get, coming on Tom Williams' legendary "hill." Williams, the late Oilers assistant general manager who whipped Earl Campbell and others into shape during offseasons, let Arnold work out with the pros while he was at St. Thomas High School.
"I was the only high school kid in Tom's program," he said. "I learned a lot from him. He inspired me. He got me started thinking about what goes into training (athletes)."
The area where Arnold's clients' faces and apparel are on view is named for Williams, who pushed his charges relentlessly but sensibly, too. Arnold's approach is fundamentally the same, if highly evolved, to the point he provides players with apartments and feeds them.
Arnold doesn't push short-cut supplements like numerous trainers do — to his credit, Lowe said.
"That legitimizes Danny to me as much as anything else," Lowe said, "because most of that junk is worthless. But you can make a lot of money selling it."
Arnold relies heavily on plyometrics, explosive movements that train muscles to generate large amounts of force quickly. They're exhausting, especially to the uninitiated. Dawson's initial reaction to all the lunging and leaping about?
"My goodness," he said. "I was really sore. But now I understand what he's doing. I've improved a lot."
But no one enters the mix without Arnold's sports medicine physician, Dr. Minn Luu, signing off on it, to ensure they do no damage.
"When we train," Arnold said, "we focus on practicality. We train everybody multi-directionally. I'm not worried about how a guy tests but what will make him better on the field. For the combine, we have to prepare them for certain tasks, but that's not where I put my focus. I'm not training athletes; I'm training football players."
One of Arnold's combine prospects, former Oklahoma defensive end Alonzo Dotson, has known about Plex since he was at Alief Hastings.
"Danny knows his stuff," Dotson said. "He has a football player's mindset. Most strength coaches don't know what a player goes through, what he really needs. They tell you, 'Run 15,000 gassers, squat a million times.' It's not like that here."
Tell it like it is
Arnold's success hasn't left him with an elevated opinion of himself, which his clients appreciate. At the same time, his straight shooting is a trademark.
"I've yet to find the perfect athlete, and I don't think I ever will. Everybody has so much room to grow. That's my job — find your flaws, your deficits and fix them."
The pros have made Plex what it has become, which is to say one of the top three or four training sites in the United States, but he accepts anyone, he said, "who's a completely dedicated athlete. I won't turn you down as long as you're willing to work hard. I don't care if you're a third-string high school quarterback with no chance of making it at the next level."
Or, in the case of another recent client, a 75-year-old runner he helped to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
"Give me 100 percent," Arnold said, "and you're always welcome at Plex."