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If Alex Rodriguez rebounds to produce near his career norms, an assist should go to two NBA stars.
On the advice of Kobe Bryant, Rodriguez traveled to Germany in early December to undergo a cutting-edge procedure called Orthokine, to promote better healing and function in his surgically repaired right knee.
A month later, after a 45-minute conversation with Grant Hill, Rodriguez became a devotee of Dr. Mike Clark’s Athletic Performance Optimization System. Clark, the chief executive officer of the National Academy of Sports Medicine, believes in treating the body globally,
rather than locally.
So if Rodriguez, for example, has a knee problem, Clark will hunt and attack the weaknesses, inflexibilities and muscular imbalances elsewhere that are causing extra stress on the knee. He then works to alter these improper movements through exercises, strengthening and soft tissue work personalized to the specific patient.
The history, in general, has been that if an athlete injures a body part, such as a knee or hip, that is what is repaired or isolated with some form of exercise.
“We look at the body as an integrated unit and then look at each individual part to identify what is causing the problem,” Clark said by phone. “We isolate and fix the cause of the problem and then we retrain the entire body to perform at the highest possible level. We can prove this over and over — and we have. We have researched this at the University of North Carolina, and we have implemented this system with multiple teams and athletes in multiple sports. We understand exactly how [athletes] should move, get out of pain and perform at their top level.”
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BECAUSE this is Rodriguez, there will be doubt cast upon anything he does based on his history of missteps and association with steroids. The initial impression on Rodriguez’s surgery, for example, generally was if he is going to Dusseldorf there must be something unholy about the procedure.
That is why when it came to Clark’s program, I contacted Hill. Few athletes have more pristine reputations. The shorthand on Hill: Duke star, early NBA excellence as a Piston, followed by five mostly wrecked seasons in his prime as he dealt with myriad injuries, notably to a left ankle that needed five surgeries and left him considering retirement.
Hill joined the Suns in 2007 at age 35, hoping for two more seasons as a complementary player. But he came to what has become the Fountain of Youth in sports. At that time, Clark was the Suns’ physical therapist. On the day Hill signed, Clark put the forward through more than two hours of tests and what Clark terms “corrective exercises.” The ankle issue, Clark believed, stemmed from hip tightness that forced the foot to rotate externally and pronate (flatten out). Hill said the session left him “emotional.”
“I couldn’t believe the level of care, thoroughness and that I actually felt better after the exercises,” Hill said. “I couldn’t believe that was the care I was going to get every day.”
Hill has defied his previous injury history and age (now 39) to become an iron man and productive player again. He played 243 of a possible 246 regular-season games the past three years, and 32 of the 34 Phoenix played this year in a condensed first half. He does not even wear a brace on the ankle.
And he was not alone on the Suns. Steve Nash has remained an elite, durable player at 38. Michael Redd, devastated by shoulder injuries the past two years as a Buck, is back playing regularly at 32. In his lone full season in Phoenix, 2008-09, Shaquille O’Neal, at 36, played his most games (75) in nine years and became an All-Star again. So impressed was O’Neal by the Suns’ Clark-trained group that he nicknamed it the YUMS: Young Unconventional Medical Staff.
“I should be a walking testimony,” Hill said. “What I have gone though in my past, I think [the Suns’ training staff] gets a lot of credit, but not enough. I think they are amazing.”
For 50 minutes in our conversation, Hill’s passion and knowledge were overt as he gave a true-believer’s declaration about the techniques that saved and are now elongating his career. So I have an insight how powerful the message was that Rodriguez received in early January.
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A-ROD’S friend and business partner, Mark Mastrov, the originator of the 24 Hour Fitness chain, introduced Rodriguez to Clark. But Clark insisted Rodriguez talk to Hill first.
During their conversation, Hill became acquainted with what even A-Rod’s detractors would state: He is a baseball gym rat, relentless about his workouts and determined to stay current on training theories.
“He is very detailed, very knowledgeable, curious,” Hill said. “He asked the right questions, that led to answers that led to more good questions.”
An almost instant convert, Rodriguez invited Clark to his Miami home. The toes-to-neck assessment, which included a breakdown of Rodriguez’s swing, left Clark believing A-Rod had strength imbalances and/or a lack of flexibility in his right big toe, left ankle, right knee and right hip. It is a chicken-and-egg argument what came first, but all feed upon each other to create a domino effect of wear, tear and pain. They also helped cause, in Clark’s estimation, an impingement in Rodriguez’s left shoulder. A result of the lack of movement here and instability there was a swing that had lost some range and power.
You might want to dismiss the idea of inflexibility in a toe as being consequential. But Clark doesn’t, believing “in a ground up” evaluation. Rodriguez had a 27-degree range of motion in his right big toe, when 70 is ideal. Without that flexibility, when the toe grounds into the dirt just past the midpoint of a swing, greater stress is placed on, among other things, the knee and hips — the two areas where Rodriguez has had surgery over the past three years.
Despite the varied issues, Rodriguez had such superior hand-eye coordination, strength and athletic ability to compensate that he still could produce at a high level. But Clark believes the repetition of improper movement and the stresses they caused slowly broke down even a superior athlete. So what Clark does with his system is try to retrain the body parts to have full flexibility and balanced strength, then chuck old bad habits so the parts move in coordination with each other to equally share the burden of, say, swinging a bat.
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YANKEES strength and conditioning coach Dana Cavalea was part of the sessions in Miami.
“We were working with the team, which is critical to this,” Clark said. “We don’t want to be mavericks. Our philosophy is full-team integration.”
A-Rod also has a member of Clark’s staff with him daily in spring. Rodriguez is trying to reverse a negative trend — and possibly time. His OPS has declined each of the past four years, and he played just 99 games last year — a career low for a full season. At 36, he wants to return to follow the Hill/Nash route and sustain health and excellence to chase championships and historic milestones. Clark called Rodriguez “by far one of my best” patients and predicted health and success if Rodriguez stays the course with the regimen.
The Yankees hope that is right. A-Rod is their third baseman and cleanup hitter, and there is the little matter of the six years at $143 million he has left on his contract. So the Yankees need him to be as good for as long as possible.
joel.sherman@nypost.com