February 4, 2023 • 32 mins
The scene is set as the NBA and the NHL are ready to conclude their season and crown a champion. All-season teams have one common goal in mind, a reward that every athlete dreams of and it fuels their desire to get to the biggest stage to make their dreams come true. The road is filled with daily competition, athletic endurance, pain threshold, mental fortitude, and luck. Not everyone is fortunate to get to that stage let alone make it to that level of competition. Not everyone has what it takes.
In this show, Dr. Grant Garcia discusses his experiences working with the top athletes in sports and their relentless drive to be the best. We discuss these successes on the field and off it as well. Rainier Beach high school football coach Corey Sampson joins us to share his thoughts on the various ways to recognize success, especially when it comes to his players. It can be graduating, giving back to your community, becoming a professional in your field of interest, etc. This show is inspired by the movie “American Underdog” and it opened up the discussion of “what it takes.” to achieve success and how that looks different for many of us.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
OK. We've got a great show today.
First off, thank you for everyone for listening.
I will Sanchez here with Doctor Grant Garcia.
Doctor Garcia first before we get started.
Welcome. It's good to talk to you again.
How are you? I'm good.
Thanks for having me. Finally, some change in the
weather in Seattle. Not super nice right now, but
it's not raining, so I can't complain about that.
(00:23):
And yeah, summer's coming, so I'm excited.
Anytime that we can see the sun,it really kind of gets you
motivated. And I think it's a perfect segue
into the show that we're going to discuss today because when
the sun's out, the weather's out, we tend to kind of get
outside a little bit more, a little bit more active.
And for us, you know or just I guess the everyday person, just
(00:44):
to be out there and take advantage of it and and try to
get some movement, it's great. But we're talking about today
what it takes, what it takes forathletes.
You know what it takes for individuals and what makes them
really special. And when you think of an
athlete, right, you could think about what are some of the
things that go into athletes, right.
You have to be athletic, right? You know, concentration, you're
(01:06):
you're making tough decisions, you have eye hand coordination,
stamina, you know and you know genes and things like that.
So you know, that's where we're going to kind of start so.
What do you think or what are some of the qualities that
matter to you or what you've seen because you've had
experience dealing with professional athletes, elite
athletes? What are some of the things or
(01:29):
qualities to stand out for you when you think about these
athletes? I think you're going to look at
different, different levels. I think the first thing is, you
know, athletic intelligence and it's a kind of a weird word, but
these, these athletes take it tothat next level.
You know, they. They think about things
differently. You know, they're hyper focused
on their bodies. You know, they talk about, you
(01:51):
know, Justin Verlander, who knows exactly what angle his
arms at when he throws. And if he throws at 10 degrees
less or five degrees more, you know, these sort of hyper
focused like LeBron James athletes, that's really what it
takes to get to that next level.Those people that are, you know,
hyper focus on their bodies, hyper focus on what it takes to
prevent injury and if you have injury, how to prevent or how to
continue to get back to that. I think it's the first step.
(02:13):
The next step is, you know, justhaving the, the skills.
You know, there's lots of peoplethat are emotionally
intelligent, good, intelligent people, athletic people, but you
just have to be above and beyondthe average person to get to
that level as well. And then I think the one that's
really big and you see this all the time in NFL, you see, you
know this guy came here, he was drafted phenomenal athlete,
(02:34):
going to be top of his class, you know, going to be like the
All Pro, but just didn't work. Right.
And then want to put the work in, even though naturally
gifted, made it through the whole process.
And we'll get to like you know what it takes you to get to that
level and then to unfortunately squander it with work ethic.
And so you got to have all that,you know.
And once you get to that level, you know, when you're in a
professional level, they're all the same.
(02:55):
Everybody's a pro. So it's not like you're
competing against people like you were in college or even as
high school when you were able to dominate them.
And so I think those three things are really important.
And the 4th 1 pertaining to morewhat I do in orthopedics.
Is the ability to bounce back, the emotional ability to bounce
back because most of the time we're dealing with athletes.
I mean, I would tell you the number of times that I have to
(03:16):
be a counselor in the office at six months, seven months, like,
hey, listen, let's get you back.Especially, you know, baseball
players, those football players that are like, I got injured for
the very first time in my life. I was just about to be drafted
or just about to go to college. You know, these things are a big
deal. And so those, if you can't
overstep those things, sometimesyou never get back.
And that's a big deal. You know that's a that's a great
(03:37):
point right. And and that's something I think
that we've talked about recently, right.
These have been the recent conversations with these
athletes trying to bring to light you know the mental aspect
of it and also the almost like the the wear and tear of the
mental aspect where some of these you know players have been
(03:57):
a little bit burnt out and you know they're they've been more
vocal about you know I'm you know in therapy and I'm talking
about this and. Ben Simmons has recently said
something like that. Kevin Love was very vocal a few
years ago where he was just like, I'm, I'm having a
breakdown and I had to go get help.
So having that mental aspect of it, you know, you mentally
(04:19):
strong, but also being mentally strong when you're mentally weak
to go get that help that you need.
You've worked, you know, whetherit's with the Bulls and the
White Sox and you, you know you've worked in New York and
you've had some affiliation withthe US tennis team and the
Giants and Mets and so on and soforth.
You know, what are some of thosethose things that really stand
out for you when it comes to that mental endurance?
(04:42):
And and having those difficult conversations with these players
saying that whether it's going to be all right or, you know,
maybe you've had some experiencewhere you had to break some news
or you know somebody that's given some bad news to some of
these athletes. I think that's probably the
hardest part of the job. You know, I think everyone who
says, you know, the operation, you know, you're nervous about
(05:03):
the operation. I'm doing a pro athlete, you're
you're nervous about, you know, the recovery and the the pro
athlete. That part to me is, is not the
part that gets the real athleticsurgeons or the surgeons that
deal with these athletes. I think it's a mental aspect.
You know, having to having to see someone who has a Patella
tendon rupture as a pro athlete and tell them you got a 50%
chance of making it back. You know, that doesn't go very
(05:26):
well between the player. The agent and the coach.
Right. Forget about the agent.
Right. We tend to forget about the
agent. Also, yeah, nobody.
The agent, the agents are great there, but they'll torture you.
Yeah, you know that's the the agent is icing on the cake that
you until you go to the pro level, you're not gonna, you're
not gonna experience that. But you know, I've had a couple
Pro Football players I've talkedto.
You know, the visit itself is anhour long, which is not my
(05:48):
average visit. And then all of a sudden at
night you're getting a call at 7:00 o'clock at night, you got
to be like, hey, you got 45 minutes on the phone with the
next agents talking about the injury and what they can do and
what their expected recovery is.And to be really honest with
you, there's not a lot of data on good pro athletes.
It's just not that we don't haveenough of them that we've done
these really interesting or unusual surgeries on that We can
really give them fully direct information.
(06:09):
I can say return to sport for college, high school and
professional is this. But in some cases, there's
certain things we don't know. You know, there's freaks that
have gotten back in really earlyamount of time.
And there's some people have taken a long time or simple they
get reinjured. And so to give them
expectations, you try to give them what the baseline data you
have in your experiences. But in some cases, you know
(06:30):
they're going to either exceed your expectations or underwhelm
your expectations and you got tobe realistic with yourself.
And even throughout the process,you know, pro athletes are just
like any other, any other athlete, you know, they can get
injured, they can reinjure theirsurgery and that can be really
frustrating for both the surgeon.
And everybody involved and but even the ones that are making
good progress, if we talk about mentally, I mean, you've got to
(06:51):
do a lot of counseling. You're constantly telling them,
you know, and it's always hard to say like you're actually
okay. But really there's a mental
aspect we got to work on like that doesn't always go out with
some athletes. Yeah, it's fascinating.
And I really, you know, just listening to you and taking from
that conversation just that. There's different levels of it
and there's different conversations to be had and
(07:12):
especially when you're dealing with elite athletes because as
we know, you know at that top level there's only but so many.
So the percentage is lower that means that the data is lower.
So that's that was really interesting to to hear you say
that and think about let's put alittle fun spin on it.
What are some of the best stories of a pro athlete that
you've heard of or you know firsthand like a Kurt Warner,
(07:34):
you know stocking shelves and then all of a sudden.
You know, getting opportunity, playing arena football, then
going over to play NFL Europe and the next thing you know in
the preseason the starting quarterback Trent Green gets
hurt and then you're a nobody. But you have the confidence of a
coaching staff and next thing you know you winning a Super
(07:54):
Bowl. So what are some of the things
when you think of these incredible stories that stand
out for you? I mean, there's a lot of them.
Most of them have had movies about them because they're just
so impressive. I mean that Kurt Warner one
always rings a bell and I think that's one of the reasons we
talked about this show after we saw, after I saw that movie,
just that statistic on what it takes before you even if you
(08:16):
have all the stuff light out foryou.
You know the 1% of people that are in high school that get to
go to college and that's D3D2D1 and then .001% of those go to D1
and then of those only 1% of those get drafted.
And then of those, only 1% of those, I mean, you're getting to
a pretty unusually small neighbor.
(08:37):
And that's if you have, you know, you're brought up with,
you know, a good football team around you, you've got all this
stuff with you. And then take that down a notch
further. If you come from a place like,
you know, Kurt Warner, what was it, D2 and, you know, an unnamed
school that no one ever drafts? And you know, that's amazing.
Or you come from a situation where you have severe poverty,
(08:59):
you have no opportunities to play certain sports because it's
not in your in the way it works.And then all of a sudden, you
know, you're so athletic, you'reable to get to that next level
and persevere, persevere throughso many obstacles.
And unfortunately, you know, I can't even think of a Pacific
one because there's so many of them.
And we're gonna probably talk about them in a bit, but you
know, there is the these storiesor the ones that recover from
(09:22):
injury. I mean, those are stories are
just as crazy to me. You know, the Alex Smith one.
I mean, that is, that's insane. Or, you know, remember Drew
Brees when he had a major rotator cuff tear?
I mean, that should be it. That's a career ending injury.
Meanwhile, they went on to do pretty well.
So yeah, I mean, the Chargers let him go.
Because of it, right? I mean, they thought he was
done. They they let him go and he goes
off to New Orleans and they draft Phillip Rivers and.
(09:45):
I mean they both had good careers, but you know, alluding
to that injury, I mean they didn't think that he was going
to recover from that. And just real quick, for those
that don't know the injury that happened to Alex Smith, just
describe that a little bit, justso you know, our listeners that
may not be sports fanatics can really kind of understand the
severity of that injury and the fact that he was able to get
(10:07):
back on a football field. So I think what people don't
understand is that the initial injury is not the part I'm
talking about. You know, it's bad.
So he basically had a you have your tibia, your long bone below
your knee cap, and it broke in half.
And that's happened before the players, and you put a rod in
that and usually people do fine.And a lot of times people get
back because again, the nice thing is if you break that area,
(10:29):
there's no joint between it, right?
So you're not damaging the jointitself, which is always worse
than damaging the long bone itself.
The problem is that he got infected.
And so as a result, he had to have multiple, multiple
surgeries to get that infection over with because it was an open
fracture, which is a much different animal when, you know,
I don't want to get too gross with the viewers, but you know,
those movies where you see the bones sticking out, that's what
(10:51):
happened to him. And so as a result, once I got
infected, that is a whole notheranimal.
And as a result, you know, he had so many surgeries, had to
have frames put on him. You know, I don't even know how
many he had. I thought it was like, excuse
me, I thought it was like probably like, what, 12 or 14
surgeries? So if not more than that,
probably have to correct me if I'm wrong, but you know, that's
(11:11):
that's not a normal amount for anybody, especially for one leg
and the fact he's able to get back to playing, you know,
usually he's, he's happy, he's lucky he kept his leg and then
he's able to play back in the NFL, Yeah.
I I remember the the game that he came back when he came back
to play Washington. In fact, they were playing the
Rams at the time and I had the game on.
(11:32):
And the quarterback, the starting quarterback got hurt
and he was the backup. He hadn't played yet after the
injury. So he finally gets back on.
The team comes out and I look atmy wife and I was like, oh, God,
please, just let this man just get through and he's out there
and they show his wife and his kids in the stands, right.
The stands are kind of half empty.
You know, Washington's not, you know, not a very good team that
(11:54):
year, you know, a few years ago.And then sure enough.
The sack leader, the most destructive force in the NFL,
Aaron Donald comes up and sacks him and jumps on top of him and
he's pretty much carrying him ontop and then falls over.
I said Oh my God. And sure enough he gets up.
(12:16):
And I told my wife I was like, this is absolutely amazing and
she was like, I would kill you. There's no way in the world I
will let you back on the field after what that man endured and
what that family endured. So I just started laughing, but
it was just one of those things and and we go back to.
These these people are just, they're different.
That's the best man. I don't know how to say it.
They're just there's just different with that mindset.
(12:40):
You know, whether it's a Tiger Woods, right, That a year ago
they talked about maybe him losing his leg and you know,
then he goes and plays in the Masters.
Adrian Peterson blow out both his Acl's.
Frank Gore, one of the longest active running backs, had blown
out both Acl's that I believe the last game in Miami before he
came to the the pros. Klay Thompson, ACL, Achilles.
(13:03):
What? What kind of mindset do you have
to have for you to have these catastrophic injuries and then
put yourself right back in the arena again?
You have to be different. You have to have an unsatiable
appetite to do what you do. And love what you do.
You know, I think that we all see and you hear that, you know,
(13:25):
you hear the constant coach saying, oh, you worked really
hard. You know, you got back well,
that doesn't mean anything. You know, a lot of us get
injured and I have a lot of patients that have had a CL
surgery by myself and other people around the the area and
they work really hard to get back.
You know, they did their rehab, you know, on their own and then
at home, etcetera. But it's different than trying
to get back to the pros and these guys are working out like
(13:47):
6-7 hours a day, You know, it's not comfortable.
In that level. And they're trying to get back
any edge they can and you know blood, sweat and tears to get
back with the idea that they're you know they in their minds
they're thinking they're going to but there's not always that's
not always the case. Or you could be like Odell
Beckham Junior right that TaurusACL made it back and then tore
(14:08):
it again. You know it's it's and they got
to go back out there with the idea that like I'm not going to
tear this again but there's a there is a chance.
And it's the same ACL again. Right.
Yep, same ACL. So you know that you have to and
then you have to. And then I think the ones that
are even more impressive are theones that had multiple injuries,
you know, the ones you don't even talk about like Tom Brady,
(14:28):
right. He's had multiple surgeries
always in the offseason somehow comes back stronger.
So it's just insane. I mean it's it's it's the
impressive, you know, it's someone who does those surgeries
on a regular basis To see someone like that, that
continually can do that and comeback and be motivated.
I mean obviously there is. Financial gain to come back and
being in professional athletics.But you know guys like Tom
(14:51):
Brady, I mean, he doesn't have to worry about that, right?
He didn't. He just got offered some insane
contract to be a Fox Sports broadcaster and he still decided
to come back and play football. So yeah, these, it's not just
about the money for them and it's about the pride and the
desire and the love for the game.
And there's a reason when you see these guys come back,
there's a reason. You see how they got there in
(15:11):
the 1st place, right? And most of the time, most of us
don't even know about their injuries because a lot of times
they got injured way before that, right in high school and
college where people aren't paying attention to them and the
pros, obviously we're watching them and there's updates on ESPN
about injury updates, but you know, in high school someone
gets surgery by someone locally,you know, and no one knows about
it. And they get back on the field.
(15:31):
Obviously, when they get drafted.
We look at all that stuff. We've talked about that before.
But you know, like a lot of these players, they have a
laundry list of surgeries and laundry list of things that had
done to them. So, you know, it's it's amazing
what level of perseverance theseathletes can go through to get
back to the next level. It is amazing and I think I want
to highlight also the fact that,you know, when we tend to think
(15:51):
of athletes, we think of your bigger, faster, stronger jump
higher than anyone else. But the reality is, yes, if you
can do those things you have a distinct advantage, but then you
have other, you know, elite athletes.
That make it that don't have allthose traits.
(16:13):
You know the UFC champion Charles Oliviera, right?
You know he is from the ghetto, he's from the town for favela.
You know he was diagnosed and I want, I want you to explain this
with bone rheumatism that attacked his ankles and heart
murmur at the age of seven. What is that?
Well, if I remember correctly, Ithink it's juvenile rheumatoid
(16:35):
arthritis and and that's not a good diagnosis to start with.
So you know, you do have, you can get early arthritic changes
of your ankles, which is never good at 7:00.
You can have issues with your eyes and other issues that like
you know, most people just try to live their daily lives at 30
or 40 years old, let alone try to go back to being a
professional athlete. So I mean and you're and you
(16:56):
probably deals with chronic painon a daily basis.
And and that's the fact is, like, I can't imagine being a
professional athlete alone with no pain, let alone okay.
It hurts. I'm going back out there and I'm
doing my thing. I mean, it's just amazing.
The idea of pain is so differentfor every person.
You know, you could have one person where you have the exact
same surgery, exact same response, literally perfect
(17:19):
result. And they say they have two or
three out of 10 pain and you seeanother person, exact same
surgery, exact same result, bestthey've ever felt in their whole
lives. So it's just we don't understand
pain and we like to make sure wecan figure it out.
But it's not the answer all the time.
And some people can persevere amazing amounts more than
others. Yeah, it's amazing.
(17:39):
And think about it. He's in a sport where he punches
and kicks people for a living. It makes martial artists as the
champion of the world. Right there.
And then you know you've got guys like Victor Cruz, right?
Didn't do grade in school, went to University of Massachusetts.
I believe he was sent home twicebecause of his grades.
(18:00):
Goes undrafted, finds a way to make the team for the Giants or
tries out for the the team, if I'm correct, doesn't make it,
comes back the next year, makes the team eventually wins the
Super Bowl champion. We hear about Michael Orr.
You know from the Blind Side movie for your movie fans out
there, you know adopted and you know eventually want to Super
(18:21):
Bowl and then you know you get into other athletes like a
Lindsey Vonn, right? You know, that's had multiple,
multiple injuries for your Olympic fans, broken arm bones,
torn knee ligaments. I mean it is the the mental
aspect of everything that these athletes do to get where they
want to go. That is something that's just
(18:43):
amazing to me. Is there something in your
field, right? And I know you guys work a lot
of hours and there's a lot of pressure and all different
levels of clients. You travel the world for
training. What is something that really
stands out for you when it comesto your profession?
Well, you know, I mean, again, Idon't want to compare myself to
(19:04):
a professional athlete, but you know the what it takes in.
In my field, especially when youdo sports is it's a different
you have to have a mindset, the right mindset.
First off you had to do the training.
So you know you got to find a way to make it into college and
do well there. And then you know those people
(19:25):
in college you have so many friends that were unfortunately
are not able to go to the Med school level because they just
it requires a pretty big cutoff.And then the Med school level,
they're always pushing you and you know there's certain
specialties that. Are more desirable than others
and obviously I wanted to go to one that end up being really
challenging. So I was a fortune enough to get
into orthopedics and then when you go to orthopedics you're
(19:46):
like okay, great. Now I want to go to I want to
get into orthopedics and you want to go to the place you know
the one that accepts 8 out of 1000 people And these aren't
like you know these aren't near like off the street friends and
family you've met. You know all these people have
been studying for the same thingand then of that you got to.
On those people that you're competing with, all those people
that are already in that sort of.08% for the next fellowship
(20:10):
because you really want to get into the place that takes care
of all the professional teams and then you got to get a job
and then all that stuff you train for, you got to try to be
more normal. So patients will be okay.
I like this guy, you know this guy seems like a good guy.
You know you're you're pricing impression of you is good and
you have to do a good job. You know you can do all the
training in the world, but if you're if you don't do a good
job of what you do and you can'thandle the pressure.
(20:31):
And you can't handle the conversations with patients.
They're not going to have surgery with you because I I
they don't trust you. You know, you got to have to
establish trust that you know what you're doing.
You had the good training, but then you got to be able to
capitalize on it. You know, I think we've talked
to us before, but there's not all doctors are created equal in
terms of the personalities. And I remember as a young kid
going to certain doctors and I would never have gone to them.
(20:52):
Now, you know, I I just didn't feel comfortable in that
situation. They're all well trained,
they're great people. But, you know, there's takes.
It takes a certain aspect. And then.
The pressure cooker, right. You know, I remember a couple
days ago I had a pretty high level baseball player and the
first thing the parents said to me, you know, dad's, dad's
standing next to the door, mom staying next to the door, kids
(21:12):
on, the kids sort of upset because they just tore their
Tommy John ligament and all theyall they want to know is if when
I can get it back as soon as possible.
Not even you know. And it happens all the time, you
know, and it's not it's not their fault.
They're really dedicated. They put a lot of money and time
into the baseball, but. It's a big deal and you got to
sit down there calmly and say, hey, listen, you know, I a lot
(21:32):
of times, at least in my practice, so my partners,
they'll send me the higher levelathletes just because they
don't. It's it's a lot of work to deal
with the parents and it's not, it's not a wrong thing.
It's just that, you know, when you get to that level,
everybody's invested, right? Is your parent not a parent?
If my kid's spending hours at the pool or hours playing
baseball and they get hurt, I sure as heck want to be right
there with the surgeon. What are we going to do?
(21:54):
How are we going to make this better?
You know, not just for me, but for the kid too.
And it's hard. And so you're and that's even at
the high school level, you know,the people that you may not even
make it to college. And then you get the college
player and they're like, hey, coach wants to talk to you.
You know, all those other things.
So it's not just the actual, youknow, the surgery portion of it.
I hate to say it is actually more of the easy part.
It's the other stuff, managing expectations.
(22:16):
We've talked about this before. Every athlete you see, you have
to manage expectations. You have to manage expectations
in your surgeries. You cannot go in there and tell
every single patient that you dosurgery on that they're going to
be perfect, because that is not true, no matter how good you
are. I worked in a lot of good
surgeons. It is not the case, OK?
A lot of people do well. That's why we do sports surgery,
that's what we do orthopedics, because it's a very fulfilling
(22:37):
option. But you got to be ready to take
care of the hard stuff too. And if you can't, it's the same
thing as an athlete. If you can't handle the
pressure, then. That's when the problems go awry
or that's when patients are upset because something happens
and they can't their doctors nottaking on their onus or the
responsibility of the challenge,You know, it's super easy.
And I tell patients this all thetime, it's super easy.
(22:58):
If every single one of my patients in the office did
amazing, if I had 100% success rate, being a surgeon would be
way too easy to be fairly honestwith you.
It's the hard part. Is that 5% or 10%, you know, or
the kid that you did and made a perfect ACL on and retairs it.
How do you deal with that? And that's the same thing with
athletes. How do you deal with that tear
of your own ACL and getting backto the next level when all the
(23:20):
odds are against you? Or in my case, I'm the one that
did the surgery, so I feel responsible, even if there was
nothing I did wrong, I did the exact same surgery for the last
kid. Yeah, you talk about amongst
everything is also having that connection.
And having that personality and and making your patients feel
comfortable, which is a a big part of it, right.
And I'm pretty sure everyone outthere that has their job,
(23:42):
there's a part of their job thatthey do that is not, you know,
quote UN quote, part of the requirement.
But in reality it is part of your requirement in order for
you to do your job. So I just want to throw that out
there. I want to go back to the, you
know, some of your experiences with this that you were talking
about with these student athletes, right.
And. The expectations from the
(24:03):
parents and you know everything that goes with that.
And I had a chance to catch up with head football coach from
Rainier Beach High School. He was in the state championship
a few years ago. His name is Corey Sampson.
He had the number one offensive lineman in the country this
year, Josh Connerly, that just committed to the University of
Oregon. And I asked him, I said how
(24:24):
difficult. Is it for a student athlete to
realize that there's more out there than just a D1 scholarship
when so many of these kids and their parents are really just
focused on that? You know, I try to be realistic
with a kid either hide or wait or cycle or even with the
parents you tell them. But you know, um is it's tough
(24:44):
pill to swallow. You know, it's a tough pillow
swallow because the kid, his whole life he's dreaming of
going playing Division One and wanted NFL and he gets that
threshold and someone tells him or hey, you're too small, you're
too slow, you don't weigh enough.
I mean, it's difficult. I mean kids.
I mean, I had kids say, hey, it's either D1 or bus and they
don't want to go to college like.
That I mean opportunity to go D1D2D3 or whatever it is, man.
(25:07):
It's a blessing to even have opportunity to go to college for
partial, full or whatever it is.I mean, take advantage of that.
But a lot of these kids are. Too, too caught up in the
Twitter seeing people or the offers.
Like that's not a real, a real world for everybody.
Keep a strong head, a strong mind and just and just hold on
to your dreams. I mean everybody has a different
(25:27):
Rd. a different path to get to, where they want to get to.
But at the end of the day, like you don't have to take the
straight D1 role or or a straight scholarship to Oklahoma
SC or school like that, there's other ways you can get to.
That way that to be successful, I mean, the final success
doesn't mean being a D1 player, you know, just keep on writing
and working hard and get up the community, get opportunity to go
(25:48):
to college. I like to thank Coach Samson for
taking time out to talk with me.Dr. Garcia, what are your
thoughts of what he had to say? So as you heard more than just
about the D1 scholarship, there's so few people that are
going to get that. But what I think people need to
understand is that it likes gives you a lot more, you know,
you get, you get the camaraderie.
You get the teamwork, you get the life experiences, you get
(26:11):
the relatability that you don't think about when you're a kid.
But when you're adults, you know, like what did you sports
you play, what sports you play. You know when you talk about it
with people, it brings you ability to connect with people.
It allows you to appreciate professional games when you're
not playing sports anymore. And it can open doors even if
you don't actually use it as a as a D1 athlete scholarship.
(26:33):
I mean, you have no idea. These athletes don't realize it,
that, you know, I'm, I swam. I wasn't a football player.
But that for me, with interviewsin Med school and residency was
a big help. And people were like, tell me
about your swimming, tell me about being captain, swim team.
Tell me about this stuff. You know, And that was just
swimming. I mean, I love swimming.
No offense to swimming, but it'snot football, right?
Doesn't have the same glitter, the same glamour, except for
(26:53):
that for every four years when like Michael Phelps used to
swim. So the fact is.
It opened doors for you no matter what.
And I try to tell patients that,but it's just hard for them.
It's hard from the process, thatstuff because they're 1618 and
all they care about is playing sports and they get all their
friends from football or they get all their friends from
basketball or baseball or they or they or they really want to
GoPro or they really want to getdrafted because that's all
(27:15):
they've been focused on. And so I think it's good to have
the well balanced athlete and I think that we we still need to
continue to emphasize that and it's hard in my office just with
my limited time, but you can always tell there's those kids
that are. It's almost funny because some
of the kids that are really good, they're really, really
good athletes. Those are the ones that aren't
as stressed, the ones that are the sort of mediocre athletes
(27:35):
that get hurt. Those are the ones that freak
out. And that part is interesting
because I feel like the ones that are got it all going for
them are all set up. You know, they got the academics
and they have, they have a backup plan, which I think
everybody needs. I think it's a lot less
stressful and then you do betterin the surgery.
I mean patients that go in less stressed, lower sort of
depressive symptoms. Do better.
(27:57):
And I think even if you don't get the D1 scholarship, there
are D3 athletes that get drafted.
I mean, if you just keep playingthe way you're playing, you stay
focused on your other stuff. You know, finish college if
you're not going to jump straight to Pro is important and
you could do a lot with that. I mean, I know of multiple
people that have worked in companies before and every time
a person gets introduced, they're like, hey, this is so
(28:18):
and so they played. They played college ball and
everyone's like, oh great. And that like, gets you in.
So you just just because you're not the number one guy in the
country you're not getting drafted does not mean it's not
going to give you a leg up. Yeah, and I think you know, some
of the stuff that the coach was alluding to also is the fact
that just getting away and giving yourself a chance to grow
and going to a college, whether it's a D1D2D3 or, you know,
(28:43):
community, couch, whatever, it'sjust you're taking your life to
another level. That's important for you to
grow. And I think that's so important
for, you know, everyone, whetheryou're a coach, a parent, a
friend, a family member to say, OK, this may not have worked out
the way you wanted to, but there's more, there's more
there. This is not the end because
(29:04):
we've seen it at different levels.
Success stories, you know, I'm, I'm going to allude to Felipe
Lopez, you know, they did a 30 for 30 for him.
I, you know, I lived in New York.
I remember when Felipe Lopez wasall the rage.
He was on every news. He was in the paper.
He was on the cover, Sports Illustrated, when he announced
that he was staying home and going to St.
(29:25):
John's. He won the school's first
Catholic championship, which wasat Wright's high school, and all
of a sudden they deemed him as the next big thing.
College career wasn't good and he finally got into the NBA and
he was only there a couple years.
He had an injury. And then kind of, you know,
tolled around and went to Europeand things like that.
(29:47):
And his mom was interviewed, right?
And they said he had an opportunity while the the fire
was hot, that he could have leftafter his freshman year and
maybe he would have got selectedhigher in the draft.
And she said no. Our dream as a family coming
from the Dominican Republic, poor, right?
The mom and dad and the family came over first to New York and
(30:10):
then they brought Felipe with them.
Our dream was for him to get a college education, not to play
in the NBA, to be the first to get a college education, to do
something that nobody else had done.
And that's why he stayed the four years.
Fast forward, he's done remarkable things to Dominican
(30:30):
Republic. He feeds families in the
neighborhood. He has a complex where he helps
train kids. So success.
Is defined by you, not by what others deem is successful.
Because a lot of people said that Felipe Lopez was not a
success, and the reality is he was a success and extreme
(30:52):
success, especially to his parents and his family and his
community. Anyway, as I ramble on, what is
something that if you had to share with your listeners, you
want to share with them. I think I would share this,
especially for. The athletes, but kind of
anybody, you know what it takes to get to what you want to do,
(31:13):
you will be, there will be roadblocks and you don't know
what they're going to be. Could be something academic,
could be something athletic, it could be something your family,
it could be an injury. You know they're going to be
roadblocks. And really it's how you deal
with those roadblocks and makingsure you do the research, get
the right information to take care of that, you know.
(31:35):
Finding the right person to takecare of your injury, who feels
good about this, finding the right person counselor to take
care of the academic side, whatever it is that you're
missing is a piece of you and isnot going in the direction you
wanted to. Find a way to correct that with
whatever it takes and I guess whatever.
What is it? What does it take versus
whatever it takes? I think the people that separate
(31:55):
themselves do whatever it takes,obviously within the realm of
things, to get to that next level and if you're willing to
do that. A lot of times you could be
successful. And again as you mentioned
before and I, as I see all the time and all my patients,
success is measured in so many different ways and really it's
about how you impact the people around you and in the end, the
(32:17):
people that I remember the most of your family.
So if you do those things right,that's the most important.
But again, just making sure thatyou stay on the course, that's
the hardest thing. I mean staying on track for any
specialty. And my job or being an athlete
or anything, you know, that's the most important thing is stay
on track, stay focused and it dowhat you love.
Because if you don't love it, there's no point in doing it.
(32:38):
That's Grant Garcia, orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine
specialist. Check them out of Grant Garcia.
md.com. Doctor Garcia, it was great to
catch up with you. I know you were going to be
traveling, so I wish you and thefamily the very best.
And I can't wait till we speak again.
Thanks Will. Always good talking to you.
Take care. Take care.
OK. We've got a great show today.
First off, thank you for everyone for listening.
I will Sanchez here with Doctor Grant Garcia.
Doctor Garcia first before we get started.
Welcome. It's good to talk to you again.
How are you? I'm good.
Thanks for having me. Finally, some change in the
weather in Seattle. Not super nice right now, but
it's not raining, so I can't complain about that.
(00:23):
And yeah, summer's coming, so I'm excited.
Anytime that we can see the sun,it really kind of gets you
motivated. And I think it's a perfect segue
into the show that we're going to discuss today because when
the sun's out, the weather's out, we tend to kind of get
outside a little bit more, a little bit more active.
And for us, you know or just I guess the everyday person, just
(00:44):
to be out there and take advantage of it and and try to
get some movement, it's great. But we're talking about today
what it takes, what it takes forathletes.
You know what it takes for individuals and what makes them
really special. And when you think of an
athlete, right, you could think about what are some of the
things that go into athletes, right.
You have to be athletic, right? You know, concentration, you're
(01:06):
you're making tough decisions, you have eye hand coordination,
stamina, you know and you know genes and things like that.
So you know, that's where we're going to kind of start so.
What do you think or what are some of the qualities that
matter to you or what you've seen because you've had
experience dealing with professional athletes, elite
athletes? What are some of the things or
(01:29):
qualities to stand out for you when you think about these
athletes? I think you're going to look at
different, different levels. I think the first thing is, you
know, athletic intelligence and it's a kind of a weird word, but
these, these athletes take it tothat next level.
You know, they. They think about things
differently. You know, they're hyper focused
on their bodies. You know, they talk about, you
(01:51):
know, Justin Verlander, who knows exactly what angle his
arms at when he throws. And if he throws at 10 degrees
less or five degrees more, you know, these sort of hyper
focused like LeBron James athletes, that's really what it
takes to get to that next level.Those people that are, you know,
hyper focus on their bodies, hyper focus on what it takes to
prevent injury and if you have injury, how to prevent or how to
continue to get back to that. I think it's the first step.
(02:13):
The next step is, you know, justhaving the, the skills.
You know, there's lots of peoplethat are emotionally
intelligent, good, intelligent people, athletic people, but you
just have to be above and beyondthe average person to get to
that level as well. And then I think the one that's
really big and you see this all the time in NFL, you see, you
know this guy came here, he was drafted phenomenal athlete,
(02:34):
going to be top of his class, you know, going to be like the
All Pro, but just didn't work. Right.
And then want to put the work in, even though naturally
gifted, made it through the whole process.
And we'll get to like you know what it takes you to get to that
level and then to unfortunately squander it with work ethic.
And so you got to have all that,you know.
And once you get to that level, you know, when you're in a
professional level, they're all the same.
(02:55):
Everybody's a pro. So it's not like you're
competing against people like you were in college or even as
high school when you were able to dominate them.
And so I think those three things are really important.
And the 4th 1 pertaining to morewhat I do in orthopedics.
Is the ability to bounce back, the emotional ability to bounce
back because most of the time we're dealing with athletes.
I mean, I would tell you the number of times that I have to
(03:16):
be a counselor in the office at six months, seven months, like,
hey, listen, let's get you back.Especially, you know, baseball
players, those football players that are like, I got injured for
the very first time in my life. I was just about to be drafted
or just about to go to college. You know, these things are a big
deal. And so those, if you can't
overstep those things, sometimesyou never get back.
And that's a big deal. You know that's a that's a great
(03:37):
point right. And and that's something I think
that we've talked about recently, right.
These have been the recent conversations with these
athletes trying to bring to light you know the mental aspect
of it and also the almost like the the wear and tear of the
mental aspect where some of these you know players have been
(03:57):
a little bit burnt out and you know they're they've been more
vocal about you know I'm you know in therapy and I'm talking
about this and. Ben Simmons has recently said
something like that. Kevin Love was very vocal a few
years ago where he was just like, I'm, I'm having a
breakdown and I had to go get help.
So having that mental aspect of it, you know, you mentally
(04:19):
strong, but also being mentally strong when you're mentally weak
to go get that help that you need.
You've worked, you know, whetherit's with the Bulls and the
White Sox and you, you know you've worked in New York and
you've had some affiliation withthe US tennis team and the
Giants and Mets and so on and soforth.
You know, what are some of thosethose things that really stand
out for you when it comes to that mental endurance?
(04:42):
And and having those difficult conversations with these players
saying that whether it's going to be all right or, you know,
maybe you've had some experiencewhere you had to break some news
or you know somebody that's given some bad news to some of
these athletes. I think that's probably the
hardest part of the job. You know, I think everyone who
says, you know, the operation, you know, you're nervous about
(05:03):
the operation. I'm doing a pro athlete, you're
you're nervous about, you know, the recovery and the the pro
athlete. That part to me is, is not the
part that gets the real athleticsurgeons or the surgeons that
deal with these athletes. I think it's a mental aspect.
You know, having to having to see someone who has a Patella
tendon rupture as a pro athlete and tell them you got a 50%
chance of making it back. You know, that doesn't go very
(05:26):
well between the player. The agent and the coach.
Right. Forget about the agent.
Right. We tend to forget about the
agent. Also, yeah, nobody.
The agent, the agents are great there, but they'll torture you.
Yeah, you know that's the the agent is icing on the cake that
you until you go to the pro level, you're not gonna, you're
not gonna experience that. But you know, I've had a couple
Pro Football players I've talkedto.
You know, the visit itself is anhour long, which is not my
(05:48):
average visit. And then all of a sudden at
night you're getting a call at 7:00 o'clock at night, you got
to be like, hey, you got 45 minutes on the phone with the
next agents talking about the injury and what they can do and
what their expected recovery is.And to be really honest with
you, there's not a lot of data on good pro athletes.
It's just not that we don't haveenough of them that we've done
these really interesting or unusual surgeries on that We can
really give them fully direct information.
(06:09):
I can say return to sport for college, high school and
professional is this. But in some cases, there's
certain things we don't know. You know, there's freaks that
have gotten back in really earlyamount of time.
And there's some people have taken a long time or simple they
get reinjured. And so to give them
expectations, you try to give them what the baseline data you
have in your experiences. But in some cases, you know
(06:30):
they're going to either exceed your expectations or underwhelm
your expectations and you got tobe realistic with yourself.
And even throughout the process,you know, pro athletes are just
like any other, any other athlete, you know, they can get
injured, they can reinjure theirsurgery and that can be really
frustrating for both the surgeon.
And everybody involved and but even the ones that are making
good progress, if we talk about mentally, I mean, you've got to
(06:51):
do a lot of counseling. You're constantly telling them,
you know, and it's always hard to say like you're actually
okay. But really there's a mental
aspect we got to work on like that doesn't always go out with
some athletes. Yeah, it's fascinating.
And I really, you know, just listening to you and taking from
that conversation just that. There's different levels of it
and there's different conversations to be had and
(07:12):
especially when you're dealing with elite athletes because as
we know, you know at that top level there's only but so many.
So the percentage is lower that means that the data is lower.
So that's that was really interesting to to hear you say
that and think about let's put alittle fun spin on it.
What are some of the best stories of a pro athlete that
you've heard of or you know firsthand like a Kurt Warner,
(07:34):
you know stocking shelves and then all of a sudden.
You know, getting opportunity, playing arena football, then
going over to play NFL Europe and the next thing you know in
the preseason the starting quarterback Trent Green gets
hurt and then you're a nobody. But you have the confidence of a
coaching staff and next thing you know you winning a Super
(07:54):
Bowl. So what are some of the things
when you think of these incredible stories that stand
out for you? I mean, there's a lot of them.
Most of them have had movies about them because they're just
so impressive. I mean that Kurt Warner one
always rings a bell and I think that's one of the reasons we
talked about this show after we saw, after I saw that movie,
just that statistic on what it takes before you even if you
(08:16):
have all the stuff light out foryou.
You know the 1% of people that are in high school that get to
go to college and that's D3D2D1 and then .001% of those go to D1
and then of those only 1% of those get drafted.
And then of those, only 1% of those, I mean, you're getting to
a pretty unusually small neighbor.
(08:37):
And that's if you have, you know, you're brought up with,
you know, a good football team around you, you've got all this
stuff with you. And then take that down a notch
further. If you come from a place like,
you know, Kurt Warner, what was it, D2 and, you know, an unnamed
school that no one ever drafts? And you know, that's amazing.
Or you come from a situation where you have severe poverty,
(08:59):
you have no opportunities to play certain sports because it's
not in your in the way it works.And then all of a sudden, you
know, you're so athletic, you'reable to get to that next level
and persevere, persevere throughso many obstacles.
And unfortunately, you know, I can't even think of a Pacific
one because there's so many of them.
And we're gonna probably talk about them in a bit, but you
know, there is the these storiesor the ones that recover from
(09:22):
injury. I mean, those are stories are
just as crazy to me. You know, the Alex Smith one.
I mean, that is, that's insane. Or, you know, remember Drew
Brees when he had a major rotator cuff tear?
I mean, that should be it. That's a career ending injury.
Meanwhile, they went on to do pretty well.
So yeah, I mean, the Chargers let him go.
Because of it, right? I mean, they thought he was
done. They they let him go and he goes
off to New Orleans and they draft Phillip Rivers and.
(09:45):
I mean they both had good careers, but you know, alluding
to that injury, I mean they didn't think that he was going
to recover from that. And just real quick, for those
that don't know the injury that happened to Alex Smith, just
describe that a little bit, justso you know, our listeners that
may not be sports fanatics can really kind of understand the
severity of that injury and the fact that he was able to get
(10:07):
back on a football field. So I think what people don't
understand is that the initial injury is not the part I'm
talking about. You know, it's bad.
So he basically had a you have your tibia, your long bone below
your knee cap, and it broke in half.
And that's happened before the players, and you put a rod in
that and usually people do fine.And a lot of times people get
back because again, the nice thing is if you break that area,
(10:29):
there's no joint between it, right?
So you're not damaging the jointitself, which is always worse
than damaging the long bone itself.
The problem is that he got infected.
And so as a result, he had to have multiple, multiple
surgeries to get that infection over with because it was an open
fracture, which is a much different animal when, you know,
I don't want to get too gross with the viewers, but you know,
those movies where you see the bones sticking out, that's what
(10:51):
happened to him. And so as a result, once I got
infected, that is a whole notheranimal.
And as a result, you know, he had so many surgeries, had to
have frames put on him. You know, I don't even know how
many he had. I thought it was like, excuse
me, I thought it was like probably like, what, 12 or 14
surgeries? So if not more than that,
probably have to correct me if I'm wrong, but you know, that's
(11:11):
that's not a normal amount for anybody, especially for one leg
and the fact he's able to get back to playing, you know,
usually he's, he's happy, he's lucky he kept his leg and then
he's able to play back in the NFL, Yeah.
I I remember the the game that he came back when he came back
to play Washington. In fact, they were playing the
Rams at the time and I had the game on.
(11:32):
And the quarterback, the starting quarterback got hurt
and he was the backup. He hadn't played yet after the
injury. So he finally gets back on.
The team comes out and I look atmy wife and I was like, oh, God,
please, just let this man just get through and he's out there
and they show his wife and his kids in the stands, right.
The stands are kind of half empty.
You know, Washington's not, you know, not a very good team that
(11:54):
year, you know, a few years ago.And then sure enough.
The sack leader, the most destructive force in the NFL,
Aaron Donald comes up and sacks him and jumps on top of him and
he's pretty much carrying him ontop and then falls over.
I said Oh my God. And sure enough he gets up.
(12:16):
And I told my wife I was like, this is absolutely amazing and
she was like, I would kill you. There's no way in the world I
will let you back on the field after what that man endured and
what that family endured. So I just started laughing, but
it was just one of those things and and we go back to.
These these people are just, they're different.
That's the best man. I don't know how to say it.
They're just there's just different with that mindset.
(12:40):
You know, whether it's a Tiger Woods, right, That a year ago
they talked about maybe him losing his leg and you know,
then he goes and plays in the Masters.
Adrian Peterson blow out both his Acl's.
Frank Gore, one of the longest active running backs, had blown
out both Acl's that I believe the last game in Miami before he
came to the the pros. Klay Thompson, ACL, Achilles.
(13:03):
What? What kind of mindset do you have
to have for you to have these catastrophic injuries and then
put yourself right back in the arena again?
You have to be different. You have to have an unsatiable
appetite to do what you do. And love what you do.
You know, I think that we all see and you hear that, you know,
(13:25):
you hear the constant coach saying, oh, you worked really
hard. You know, you got back well,
that doesn't mean anything. You know, a lot of us get
injured and I have a lot of patients that have had a CL
surgery by myself and other people around the the area and
they work really hard to get back.
You know, they did their rehab, you know, on their own and then
at home, etcetera. But it's different than trying
to get back to the pros and these guys are working out like
(13:47):
6-7 hours a day, You know, it's not comfortable.
In that level. And they're trying to get back
any edge they can and you know blood, sweat and tears to get
back with the idea that they're you know they in their minds
they're thinking they're going to but there's not always that's
not always the case. Or you could be like Odell
Beckham Junior right that TaurusACL made it back and then tore
(14:08):
it again. You know it's it's and they got
to go back out there with the idea that like I'm not going to
tear this again but there's a there is a chance.
And it's the same ACL again. Right.
Yep, same ACL. So you know that you have to and
then you have to. And then I think the ones that
are even more impressive are theones that had multiple injuries,
you know, the ones you don't even talk about like Tom Brady,
(14:28):
right. He's had multiple surgeries
always in the offseason somehow comes back stronger.
So it's just insane. I mean it's it's it's the
impressive, you know, it's someone who does those surgeries
on a regular basis To see someone like that, that
continually can do that and comeback and be motivated.
I mean obviously there is. Financial gain to come back and
being in professional athletics.But you know guys like Tom
(14:51):
Brady, I mean, he doesn't have to worry about that, right?
He didn't. He just got offered some insane
contract to be a Fox Sports broadcaster and he still decided
to come back and play football. So yeah, these, it's not just
about the money for them and it's about the pride and the
desire and the love for the game.
And there's a reason when you see these guys come back,
there's a reason. You see how they got there in
(15:11):
the 1st place, right? And most of the time, most of us
don't even know about their injuries because a lot of times
they got injured way before that, right in high school and
college where people aren't paying attention to them and the
pros, obviously we're watching them and there's updates on ESPN
about injury updates, but you know, in high school someone
gets surgery by someone locally,you know, and no one knows about
it. And they get back on the field.
(15:31):
Obviously, when they get drafted.
We look at all that stuff. We've talked about that before.
But you know, like a lot of these players, they have a
laundry list of surgeries and laundry list of things that had
done to them. So, you know, it's it's amazing
what level of perseverance theseathletes can go through to get
back to the next level. It is amazing and I think I want
to highlight also the fact that,you know, when we tend to think
(15:51):
of athletes, we think of your bigger, faster, stronger jump
higher than anyone else. But the reality is, yes, if you
can do those things you have a distinct advantage, but then you
have other, you know, elite athletes.
That make it that don't have allthose traits.
(16:13):
You know the UFC champion Charles Oliviera, right?
You know he is from the ghetto, he's from the town for favela.
You know he was diagnosed and I want, I want you to explain this
with bone rheumatism that attacked his ankles and heart
murmur at the age of seven. What is that?
Well, if I remember correctly, Ithink it's juvenile rheumatoid
(16:35):
arthritis and and that's not a good diagnosis to start with.
So you know, you do have, you can get early arthritic changes
of your ankles, which is never good at 7:00.
You can have issues with your eyes and other issues that like
you know, most people just try to live their daily lives at 30
or 40 years old, let alone try to go back to being a
professional athlete. So I mean and you're and you
(16:56):
probably deals with chronic painon a daily basis.
And and that's the fact is, like, I can't imagine being a
professional athlete alone with no pain, let alone okay.
It hurts. I'm going back out there and I'm
doing my thing. I mean, it's just amazing.
The idea of pain is so differentfor every person.
You know, you could have one person where you have the exact
same surgery, exact same response, literally perfect
(17:19):
result. And they say they have two or
three out of 10 pain and you seeanother person, exact same
surgery, exact same result, bestthey've ever felt in their whole
lives. So it's just we don't understand
pain and we like to make sure wecan figure it out.
But it's not the answer all the time.
And some people can persevere amazing amounts more than
others. Yeah, it's amazing.
(17:39):
And think about it. He's in a sport where he punches
and kicks people for a living. It makes martial artists as the
champion of the world. Right there.
And then you know you've got guys like Victor Cruz, right?
Didn't do grade in school, went to University of Massachusetts.
I believe he was sent home twicebecause of his grades.
(18:00):
Goes undrafted, finds a way to make the team for the Giants or
tries out for the the team, if I'm correct, doesn't make it,
comes back the next year, makes the team eventually wins the
Super Bowl champion. We hear about Michael Orr.
You know from the Blind Side movie for your movie fans out
there, you know adopted and you know eventually want to Super
(18:21):
Bowl and then you know you get into other athletes like a
Lindsey Vonn, right? You know, that's had multiple,
multiple injuries for your Olympic fans, broken arm bones,
torn knee ligaments. I mean it is the the mental
aspect of everything that these athletes do to get where they
want to go. That is something that's just
(18:43):
amazing to me. Is there something in your
field, right? And I know you guys work a lot
of hours and there's a lot of pressure and all different
levels of clients. You travel the world for
training. What is something that really
stands out for you when it comesto your profession?
Well, you know, I mean, again, Idon't want to compare myself to
(19:04):
a professional athlete, but you know the what it takes in.
In my field, especially when youdo sports is it's a different
you have to have a mindset, the right mindset.
First off you had to do the training.
So you know you got to find a way to make it into college and
do well there. And then you know those people
(19:25):
in college you have so many friends that were unfortunately
are not able to go to the Med school level because they just
it requires a pretty big cutoff.And then the Med school level,
they're always pushing you and you know there's certain
specialties that. Are more desirable than others
and obviously I wanted to go to one that end up being really
challenging. So I was a fortune enough to get
into orthopedics and then when you go to orthopedics you're
(19:46):
like okay, great. Now I want to go to I want to
get into orthopedics and you want to go to the place you know
the one that accepts 8 out of 1000 people And these aren't
like you know these aren't near like off the street friends and
family you've met. You know all these people have
been studying for the same thingand then of that you got to.
On those people that you're competing with, all those people
that are already in that sort of.08% for the next fellowship
(20:10):
because you really want to get into the place that takes care
of all the professional teams and then you got to get a job
and then all that stuff you train for, you got to try to be
more normal. So patients will be okay.
I like this guy, you know this guy seems like a good guy.
You know you're you're pricing impression of you is good and
you have to do a good job. You know you can do all the
training in the world, but if you're if you don't do a good
job of what you do and you can'thandle the pressure.
(20:31):
And you can't handle the conversations with patients.
They're not going to have surgery with you because I I
they don't trust you. You know, you got to have to
establish trust that you know what you're doing.
You had the good training, but then you got to be able to
capitalize on it. You know, I think we've talked
to us before, but there's not all doctors are created equal in
terms of the personalities. And I remember as a young kid
going to certain doctors and I would never have gone to them.
(20:52):
Now, you know, I I just didn't feel comfortable in that
situation. They're all well trained,
they're great people. But, you know, there's takes.
It takes a certain aspect. And then.
The pressure cooker, right. You know, I remember a couple
days ago I had a pretty high level baseball player and the
first thing the parents said to me, you know, dad's, dad's
standing next to the door, mom staying next to the door, kids
(21:12):
on, the kids sort of upset because they just tore their
Tommy John ligament and all theyall they want to know is if when
I can get it back as soon as possible.
Not even you know. And it happens all the time, you
know, and it's not it's not their fault.
They're really dedicated. They put a lot of money and time
into the baseball, but. It's a big deal and you got to
sit down there calmly and say, hey, listen, you know, I a lot
(21:32):
of times, at least in my practice, so my partners,
they'll send me the higher levelathletes just because they
don't. It's it's a lot of work to deal
with the parents and it's not, it's not a wrong thing.
It's just that, you know, when you get to that level,
everybody's invested, right? Is your parent not a parent?
If my kid's spending hours at the pool or hours playing
baseball and they get hurt, I sure as heck want to be right
there with the surgeon. What are we going to do?
(21:54):
How are we going to make this better?
You know, not just for me, but for the kid too.
And it's hard. And so you're and that's even at
the high school level, you know,the people that you may not even
make it to college. And then you get the college
player and they're like, hey, coach wants to talk to you.
You know, all those other things.
So it's not just the actual, youknow, the surgery portion of it.
I hate to say it is actually more of the easy part.
It's the other stuff, managing expectations.
(22:16):
We've talked about this before. Every athlete you see, you have
to manage expectations. You have to manage expectations
in your surgeries. You cannot go in there and tell
every single patient that you dosurgery on that they're going to
be perfect, because that is not true, no matter how good you
are. I worked in a lot of good
surgeons. It is not the case, OK?
A lot of people do well. That's why we do sports surgery,
that's what we do orthopedics, because it's a very fulfilling
(22:37):
option. But you got to be ready to take
care of the hard stuff too. And if you can't, it's the same
thing as an athlete. If you can't handle the
pressure, then. That's when the problems go awry
or that's when patients are upset because something happens
and they can't their doctors nottaking on their onus or the
responsibility of the challenge,You know, it's super easy.
And I tell patients this all thetime, it's super easy.
(22:58):
If every single one of my patients in the office did
amazing, if I had 100% success rate, being a surgeon would be
way too easy to be fairly honestwith you.
It's the hard part. Is that 5% or 10%, you know, or
the kid that you did and made a perfect ACL on and retairs it.
How do you deal with that? And that's the same thing with
athletes. How do you deal with that tear
of your own ACL and getting backto the next level when all the
(23:20):
odds are against you? Or in my case, I'm the one that
did the surgery, so I feel responsible, even if there was
nothing I did wrong, I did the exact same surgery for the last
kid. Yeah, you talk about amongst
everything is also having that connection.
And having that personality and and making your patients feel
comfortable, which is a a big part of it, right.
And I'm pretty sure everyone outthere that has their job,
(23:42):
there's a part of their job thatthey do that is not, you know,
quote UN quote, part of the requirement.
But in reality it is part of your requirement in order for
you to do your job. So I just want to throw that out
there. I want to go back to the, you
know, some of your experiences with this that you were talking
about with these student athletes, right.
And. The expectations from the
(24:03):
parents and you know everything that goes with that.
And I had a chance to catch up with head football coach from
Rainier Beach High School. He was in the state championship
a few years ago. His name is Corey Sampson.
He had the number one offensive lineman in the country this
year, Josh Connerly, that just committed to the University of
Oregon. And I asked him, I said how
(24:24):
difficult. Is it for a student athlete to
realize that there's more out there than just a D1 scholarship
when so many of these kids and their parents are really just
focused on that? You know, I try to be realistic
with a kid either hide or wait or cycle or even with the
parents you tell them. But you know, um is it's tough
(24:44):
pill to swallow. You know, it's a tough pillow
swallow because the kid, his whole life he's dreaming of
going playing Division One and wanted NFL and he gets that
threshold and someone tells him or hey, you're too small, you're
too slow, you don't weigh enough.
I mean, it's difficult. I mean kids.
I mean, I had kids say, hey, it's either D1 or bus and they
don't want to go to college like.
That I mean opportunity to go D1D2D3 or whatever it is, man.
(25:07):
It's a blessing to even have opportunity to go to college for
partial, full or whatever it is.I mean, take advantage of that.
But a lot of these kids are. Too, too caught up in the
Twitter seeing people or the offers.
Like that's not a real, a real world for everybody.
Keep a strong head, a strong mind and just and just hold on
to your dreams. I mean everybody has a different
(25:27):
Rd. a different path to get to, where they want to get to.
But at the end of the day, like you don't have to take the
straight D1 role or or a straight scholarship to Oklahoma
SC or school like that, there's other ways you can get to.
That way that to be successful, I mean, the final success
doesn't mean being a D1 player, you know, just keep on writing
and working hard and get up the community, get opportunity to go
(25:48):
to college. I like to thank Coach Samson for
taking time out to talk with me.Dr. Garcia, what are your
thoughts of what he had to say? So as you heard more than just
about the D1 scholarship, there's so few people that are
going to get that. But what I think people need to
understand is that it likes gives you a lot more, you know,
you get, you get the camaraderie.
You get the teamwork, you get the life experiences, you get
(26:11):
the relatability that you don't think about when you're a kid.
But when you're adults, you know, like what did you sports
you play, what sports you play. You know when you talk about it
with people, it brings you ability to connect with people.
It allows you to appreciate professional games when you're
not playing sports anymore. And it can open doors even if
you don't actually use it as a as a D1 athlete scholarship.
(26:33):
I mean, you have no idea. These athletes don't realize it,
that, you know, I'm, I swam. I wasn't a football player.
But that for me, with interviewsin Med school and residency was
a big help. And people were like, tell me
about your swimming, tell me about being captain, swim team.
Tell me about this stuff. You know, And that was just
swimming. I mean, I love swimming.
No offense to swimming, but it'snot football, right?
Doesn't have the same glitter, the same glamour, except for
(26:53):
that for every four years when like Michael Phelps used to
swim. So the fact is.
It opened doors for you no matter what.
And I try to tell patients that,but it's just hard for them.
It's hard from the process, thatstuff because they're 1618 and
all they care about is playing sports and they get all their
friends from football or they get all their friends from
basketball or baseball or they or they or they really want to
GoPro or they really want to getdrafted because that's all
(27:15):
they've been focused on. And so I think it's good to have
the well balanced athlete and I think that we we still need to
continue to emphasize that and it's hard in my office just with
my limited time, but you can always tell there's those kids
that are. It's almost funny because some
of the kids that are really good, they're really, really
good athletes. Those are the ones that aren't
as stressed, the ones that are the sort of mediocre athletes
(27:35):
that get hurt. Those are the ones that freak
out. And that part is interesting
because I feel like the ones that are got it all going for
them are all set up. You know, they got the academics
and they have, they have a backup plan, which I think
everybody needs. I think it's a lot less
stressful and then you do betterin the surgery.
I mean patients that go in less stressed, lower sort of
depressive symptoms. Do better.
(27:57):
And I think even if you don't get the D1 scholarship, there
are D3 athletes that get drafted.
I mean, if you just keep playingthe way you're playing, you stay
focused on your other stuff. You know, finish college if
you're not going to jump straight to Pro is important and
you could do a lot with that. I mean, I know of multiple
people that have worked in companies before and every time
a person gets introduced, they're like, hey, this is so
(28:18):
and so they played. They played college ball and
everyone's like, oh great. And that like, gets you in.
So you just just because you're not the number one guy in the
country you're not getting drafted does not mean it's not
going to give you a leg up. Yeah, and I think you know, some
of the stuff that the coach was alluding to also is the fact
that just getting away and giving yourself a chance to grow
and going to a college, whether it's a D1D2D3 or, you know,
(28:43):
community, couch, whatever, it'sjust you're taking your life to
another level. That's important for you to
grow. And I think that's so important
for, you know, everyone, whetheryou're a coach, a parent, a
friend, a family member to say, OK, this may not have worked out
the way you wanted to, but there's more, there's more
there. This is not the end because
(29:04):
we've seen it at different levels.
Success stories, you know, I'm, I'm going to allude to Felipe
Lopez, you know, they did a 30 for 30 for him.
I, you know, I lived in New York.
I remember when Felipe Lopez wasall the rage.
He was on every news. He was in the paper.
He was on the cover, Sports Illustrated, when he announced
that he was staying home and going to St.
(29:25):
John's. He won the school's first
Catholic championship, which wasat Wright's high school, and all
of a sudden they deemed him as the next big thing.
College career wasn't good and he finally got into the NBA and
he was only there a couple years.
He had an injury. And then kind of, you know,
tolled around and went to Europeand things like that.
(29:47):
And his mom was interviewed, right?
And they said he had an opportunity while the the fire
was hot, that he could have leftafter his freshman year and
maybe he would have got selectedhigher in the draft.
And she said no. Our dream as a family coming
from the Dominican Republic, poor, right?
The mom and dad and the family came over first to New York and
(30:10):
then they brought Felipe with them.
Our dream was for him to get a college education, not to play
in the NBA, to be the first to get a college education, to do
something that nobody else had done.
And that's why he stayed the four years.
Fast forward, he's done remarkable things to Dominican
(30:30):
Republic. He feeds families in the
neighborhood. He has a complex where he helps
train kids. So success.
Is defined by you, not by what others deem is successful.
Because a lot of people said that Felipe Lopez was not a
success, and the reality is he was a success and extreme
(30:52):
success, especially to his parents and his family and his
community. Anyway, as I ramble on, what is
something that if you had to share with your listeners, you
want to share with them. I think I would share this,
especially for. The athletes, but kind of
anybody, you know what it takes to get to what you want to do,
(31:13):
you will be, there will be roadblocks and you don't know
what they're going to be. Could be something academic,
could be something athletic, it could be something your family,
it could be an injury. You know they're going to be
roadblocks. And really it's how you deal
with those roadblocks and makingsure you do the research, get
the right information to take care of that, you know.
(31:35):
Finding the right person to takecare of your injury, who feels
good about this, finding the right person counselor to take
care of the academic side, whatever it is that you're
missing is a piece of you and isnot going in the direction you
wanted to. Find a way to correct that with
whatever it takes and I guess whatever.
What is it? What does it take versus
whatever it takes? I think the people that separate
(31:55):
themselves do whatever it takes,obviously within the realm of
things, to get to that next level and if you're willing to
do that. A lot of times you could be
successful. And again as you mentioned
before and I, as I see all the time and all my patients,
success is measured in so many different ways and really it's
about how you impact the people around you and in the end, the
(32:17):
people that I remember the most of your family.
So if you do those things right,that's the most important.
But again, just making sure thatyou stay on the course, that's
the hardest thing. I mean staying on track for any
specialty. And my job or being an athlete
or anything, you know, that's the most important thing is stay
on track, stay focused and it dowhat you love.
Because if you don't love it, there's no point in doing it.
(32:38):
That's Grant Garcia, orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine
specialist. Check them out of Grant Garcia.
md.com. Doctor Garcia, it was great to
catch up with you. I know you were going to be
traveling, so I wish you and thefamily the very best.
And I can't wait till we speak again.
Thanks Will. Always good talking to you.
Take care. Take care.
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