The General by Luke Hodge

Author:Luke Hodge
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction
ISBN: 9781760141905
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia

13

CHANGING WAYS

‘I won’t have lollies or chocolate until the end of the season.’

It was New Year’s Eve and 2013 was only hours away when I made this resolution to Lauren. She raised her eyebrows, knowing how much of a sweet tooth I was.

‘But there’s one allowance,’ I quickly added. ‘I’m allowed to have an M&M McFlurry. They’re not something you have every day, only on a special occasion. I’m going to need at least one release.’

This got a laugh out of my wife, but I was deadly serious about my 2013 makeover.

Call it an epiphany, call it a light-bulb moment, but something had clearly shifted in my brain. The realisation that football wouldn’t last forever had hit me like a ton of bricks. It was almost like I’d seen the dark side, had a peek at life without football when I was out injured, and been scarred by the experience. I wasn’t ready for it to end yet, and to ensure that didn’t happen I had to change. I had to be elite with my preparation.

I’d had an interesting conversation with one of our assistant coaches, Adam Simpson, about the year ahead. He played 306 games for North Melbourne, was captain for five seasons and was a member of two premiership teams. Simpson explained how when he turned 30, he started to drop 1 kilo in weight each pre-season. He found that this helped him to continue at the same level, whether it was a mindset thing or because his body felt lighter and more free. He figured he had to be proactive and do as much as he could to delay the wall that every AFL player hits at some point. That’s the moment when the game passes you by, when you realise you can no longer do what you used to be able to do and that there are faster, stronger, younger players who can. I was only 28, and I wanted no part of that wall.

There wasn’t any overseas footy trip. Instead, Lauren and I took the two boys down to Sorrento for a couple of weeks. I wasn’t allowed to run until January because of the knee injury, so I walked everywhere – and I mean everywhere.

Beer was out, red wine was the drink of choice if we were having one, and I was religiously sticking to the Lite n’ Easy program again. It was a completely different mindset, and it showed when I returned to pre-season training in November. My weight was down to 88 kilos and my skinfolds were around 50, which was more than satisfactory considering I was only walking and doing light gym exercises.

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