Episode Transcript
[00:00:13] Speaker A: Welcome to the second episode of the Liberal the podcast of the Hasib J. Sabach Library of the American Community School of Athens.
Today we have Mr. Christos Takas and Mr. Justin Kramer. Mr. Stakikas is health science teacher here at ACS while Mr. Kramer teaches science. Mr. Stakikas has background in exercise physiology, physical education, and in basketball coaching. Has a Master of Science in Applied and molecular Physiology from the Medical school of the NK UA. Mr. Kramer again has Master of Education. He has been focusing on secondary education from the University of Central Missouri. And he is highly skilled in lesson planning, educational technology, leadership, classroom instruction and research. That's impressive. And I might add, and I'm pretty sure that everyone will agree with me, is the most organized person you can ever think of meeting in your life.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: I can certainly confirm that.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: I think anyone who has stepped in Mr. Kramer's classroom can say that it's unbelievably organized.
[00:01:29] Speaker C: It's moderate OCD.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Okay, so, Mr. Stakikas, you teach health science and physical education, correct?
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Yes. And sports science.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: And sports science. For how long have you been here?
[00:01:41] Speaker B: I've been here for six years in the academy. Seven years in total. And out of those, I've been teaching these two subjects for the past four years.
[00:01:49] Speaker C: My first year was 1415. I've been teaching biology the whole time. The rest of my assignments in AP Environmental science. I created the Earth and Beyond course which does astronomy and geology.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: I didn't know you created. That goes beautiful.
[00:02:03] Speaker C: I've done some other things, whatever classes have been needed, but mostly biology, geology, astronomy and environment.
[00:02:09] Speaker A: So why physical education?
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Well, it has been strongly my background. I've been involved in sports ever since I was very young, around six, seven years old. And I played multiple sports. I started with soccer, but then because of mainly my dad's influences, I started playing basketball.
And it stayed ever since. So I've been still playing for different levels. Semi professional here in Athens. Nice High school in the States.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: We have a strong culture of basketball here.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: Nice. So it has always been part of your background?
[00:02:41] Speaker B: Yes. When I had to make a decision about what I would follow as a profession, that was the main influence, actually, the fact that I was always an athlete and I chose physical education. Then I made a shift more towards rehabilitation. Sports medicine, you know, could be connected to that. So that's where my background is actually coming from.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: That's what you studied in medical school, right?
[00:03:03] Speaker B: Yes, exactly.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:05] Speaker C: I grew up playing American football, basketball and baseball. And I think my parents just put me into sports as a Way to keep me out of trouble.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Keep you out of trouble? Why?
[00:03:16] Speaker C: Because if I was at practice, then I wasn't going to be in trouble.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: So you were a troublemaker as a kid? No, I was hoping to discover something saucy. No, never mind.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: I was.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:26] Speaker C: I don't.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: I wasn't. Big sauce. Surprise. I wasn't goin.
[00:03:30] Speaker C: I think I was too, but I think part of that was because of sports. You know, I always wanted to do the best I could to impress my coach and then, in turn, make sure my parents were proud of me. And so sports were a way to do that. And as I got older, my parents knew that we can't necessarily control if you're gonna go out and what you're gonna do when you're out. All we can do is trust that you're gonna do the right thing and make the right decisions. And they knew that if I was tied to a sport, a team at my high school or a team even outside the school, that that influence would cause me to make the right decisions.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:02] Speaker C: So it was my motivational factor. If I got in trouble, they would say, all right, you're done playing sports. Okay. My personal choices were motivated by the fact that I always played sports.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: Do you think that playing sports at whatever level plays a role in being aggressive? Does it work as escape evolve for extra energy? There is an argument for social studies that for the very vast majority of human history, people have been at war. Military education was an integral part of most of Western civilization in the United States. In several cases, still is. There is a strong military background in many academics, politicians, etc. And now that we live, at least for Europe and most of Northern America, in areas where war is no longer a daily occurrence, it has been proposed that sports, in terms of aggressivity and violence, both physical and mental, as an escape valve, as a society, meaning we don't do war anymore, but we are very passionate about sports teams. And the people who play on the field or the people we watch playing the game are like two opposite armies challenging themselves to win. Does it make sense for you as athlete, as coach?
[00:05:30] Speaker B: There are different aspects in this, because even if we go back to ancient Greece, where, for example, the Olympics game started, it was a time that every act of violence or war had to stop. So even back then, there was a certain respect for that time that athletic events were taking place and that provided the time for civilians to be able to become athletes as well. But even in the modern era, sports are something that mainly unites and that's exactly something that is great about it. That although it's something that, as you said, makes individuals very competitive in order to win, in order to prepare mentally and physically at the same time, it gives you discipline. There is also unity. There is a sense of cohesion between different nations. All the differences are set aside in order for this competition to take place. Which is something that I think really proves the greatness of sports and of the athletic mentality.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: What you said reminded me the cavalry code, the chivalric code in tournaments or during the Renaissance, in the middle age, that the idea that you have an opponent, the opponent not necessarily is your enemy, and you need to respect the person you are challenging because you're both doing a similar thing. So there is a mutual acknowledgement of skills, respect, and respect. In that sense, it's something similar. Leaving aside that belligerent aspect of the conflict, more often than not, and I've seen, when I was competing as well, you respect the other people because you know what they have gone through to get to this point. You know how hard it is to win, you know how hard it feels, how bad it feels when you lose. That is a respect component that is big in sport.
[00:07:22] Speaker C: You brought up the research about, are sports an outlet for aggressiveness?
[00:07:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:28] Speaker C: When you were asking the question, I was thinking like, well, what are the parallels between sports and war? And I agree, that sense of unity, I would imagine. I've never been a part of the military. My father was in the military. Sense of bonding and unity you get in team sports is pretty similar to what you would get in the military. When you were asking the question, that was the first thing that popped into my mind about the parallels. I didn't think about the aggressiveness. I think that's a really interesting thing, though. Cause the second thing I thought was, now that I'm a parent and my child is five, we're putting him in sports, and it's almost an outlet for him to run around and be crazy. Didn't think about that. I thought, like, I just want my son to be tired when I get home, so he goes to bed.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: I was thinking when I read some research in the past about this, there was a famous quote by Garry Kasparov, the famous chess player. He once called chess the bloodiest sport ever invented, because the positions and the names of the pieces on the chessboard reflects those of the army. We have the king, we have the queen, we have the bishop, we have the knights, we have towers, and we have other pieces that they are basically infantry cavalry, etc. Think of football. You have a goalkeeper. If you put the parallel in a kingdom, in a castle, being under siege, the goalkeeper is the one who guards the gold, the gate, so he's the ultimate defender of your castle. And then you have defenders and you have attackers. So people whose job is to take your opponent on the side, so to flank your opponent, so the forward can go front and score into the other person's gate. Basic battle formation. So in that way there are some aspects that are mutated from the war aspect, because that's how we started those games.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: There is an alternate name for these games, like basketball, soccer. They're also called invasion games. Exactly. Because there is a conquering part you're trying to wear off the opponent's defense in order to get into their goal.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: That side actually starts from war. Because one of the characteristics being identified in post modern society is that we don't actually need to rely on violence to create our identity. We don't necessarily need an enemy to understand who we are. Umberto Eco before dying, he wrote an essay about the need for early society, for early civilizations to have an enemy. Because if you have somebody you go against, you understand who you are. In negative meaning, we are not them.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: You have an identity.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: Basically, you have an identity.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: You gain an identity through being different.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: Exactly. So we have an identity because we are different from them and we are united by some common values, ideas. Sometimes it's religion, sometimes it's language. One of the characteristics of postmodern societies is that we no longer need that per se. We have a more fluid, shared identity that doesn't necessarily rely on violence or understanding. We are different from others. We understand we are all united by certain things. And then we have individual identities that define us in a more peaceful way. The same reason for if we want to resolve international issues, not necessarily we need to go to war. Now, one thing that I was thinking of when we decided to invite you both here, you are both sports people, you both played different sports, you are also academics and you are also teachers. More often than not, there is always the stereotype that puts in opposition the jocks and the intellectual people.
[00:11:13] Speaker C: I hate that.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: Of course you hate that. It's a clear source. It's a very lame cliche. We all agree there is no actual separation between athletic achievements and intellectual prowess. You can do both. Why do you think there is this idea that if you are athletic, you cannot be intellectual? And if you're intellectual, then you're doomed with physical activities?
[00:11:37] Speaker C: I think that's changing Though I think historically, and this is just my perception, that's been what's been displayed in media. You see the dumb jock in the movies, you see the nerd in the TV show. But I think there are people that are athletes. I think of Jalen Brown, who plays for the Boston Celtics. He had an internship at NASA. He's one of the best basketball players.
[00:12:00] Speaker B: In the world, studied at Berkeley.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: Think of Dolph Lundgren.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I know.
[00:12:04] Speaker A: Therehere you go. Dos Lundgren, the guy who plays Ivan Draco in Rocky Balboa movies. Almost 2 meters tall, if one has seen him in the Rocky movie. He's tall, muscular, as sculpted as a Greek God as anyone can imagine. He plays in the movie a Russian boxer that challenges Rocky when he was younger, was one of the finest physical specimens of a human being and he has mastery in chemical engineering.
[00:12:34] Speaker C: But that wasn't publicized. He was an intimidating figure and perfect for the role. Yeah, but perfect cast. This is the first time I had heard of that. I think now that athletes are demonstrating more that, look, I'm a great athlete and a lot of the characteristics that I've built to be a great athlete also translate to the business side. I think you're seeing a lot of athletes when they retire. Not just the business side, but the could be business, could be science, could be whatever. A lot of the things that they're. The characters that they're building are translating to that and they're being successful in a totally different field as well. Jaylen Brown was just the first example that popped into my head. But that list is pretty extensive.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: As to people you get internship at NASA.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Many professional athletes also are very successful investors.
[00:13:19] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: And they personally run most of their businesses, which means that they have an idea, they have the knowledge and know how of how to do it. Although they spent a career for multiple years as athletes. But then there is a continuation to that in a completely different field and they're successful.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: There isn't necessarily a strong separation between the two aspects. You can be athletically proficient, you can be in good shape or passionate about sport or dedicated to sport. Whether you win or not. While in the end we know it doesn't really matter, it builds character, it builds confidence, it makes you healthy, it keeps you healthy, hopefully. And you can a high achiever in the intellectual field as well. I agree with Justin when you say that that's how it's portrayed in some media, in movies. You were saying that it's a clear stereotype.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: It is, yes.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: But stereotypes are dangerous because they are Very easily understood and they are very easily made because they don't require much thinking into it. You put people in boxes and that's where they stay.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: You profile someone, yes, basically based on who they are, based on their appearance or their characteristics. That's a profession when we're talking about professional athletes.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: But what many people do not either interpret well or do not understand is how most of the high level athletes are so great intellectuals within their own sport. Because the decision making, the critical thinking and the problem solving skills that you need in order to be a high level athlete at a professional sport are very high.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: Oh yes, it's this, the discipline, the stress management you need to be, to be able to put in place just to prepare. Even if you don't compete. Imagine you need motivation to get to the gym or to get to the training field. And you have lots of stuff to do. If you're a student, you have an insane amount of homework to do. If you are working, you have your career to think of. You have your family. Even if you don't have a family, you still have interactions with humans to carry on. And you need to struggle to fit everything in. And not everyone has the organizational skills that Mr. Kremer has.
[00:15:39] Speaker C: You know, this is something that I, on a much smaller level that I really enjoy about my job because I teach ninth grade, a lot of those students are meeting me for the first time and one thing that I have to do is to display to them and I, and I say this, you can be the nerdy athlete, you can love it.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: The nerdy athlete, they really love it.
[00:16:01] Speaker C: I am the nerdy athlete. And I tell them this too. Once basketball season starts, I will go from in one day I will teach astronomy, say about relativity, general and special relativity. Then we'll turn around and I'll teach about photosynthesis and respiration and biology. Then we'll go to another class period and I'll teach about an environmental issue like soil salinization. And then I'll go to basketball practice and yell at somebody why they didn't set a good angle down screen. And all of that happens within the span of eight hours. My mind is switching very, very quickly from one topic to another. And I want people to know you can do it all. Oh, and I Woke up at 6 o'clock and worked out today. So like you can, you can do it all? Yeah, like it is possible. It's not easy and some days you get tired and what. But it is possible to do it all.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: It's not easy but it's worth it.
[00:16:55] Speaker C: And it's worth it.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: It makes you happy. And honestly.
[00:16:58] Speaker C: And like a good story is Coach Tahikas talked about he played basketball. We both still actively play. Now it's more for fun. I don't know.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Yeah, me too.
[00:17:08] Speaker C: Yeah, now it's more for fun. We play in competitive leagues and when kids find out like, oh, and you go play basketball. Yeah. And this is what I do. I had no idea science teachers could do that.
[00:17:22] Speaker A: Imagine what happens when I tell people I used to compete in bodybuilding.
[00:17:25] Speaker C: I almost fell out of my chair.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: They think we're one dimensional. It's either this or that. That you can't be both personalities at the same time.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: You know something that has always amazed me and has always amused me being in education is how students specifically think that we have no other dimension besides what they see in, or that we.
[00:17:48] Speaker B: Have a life in general.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: Or we have a life in general.
[00:17:51] Speaker C: But I think especially like we were talking about with the stereotype, like to blend stereotypes and it's okay. Like I almost take it upon myself that I have to show these kids like this is something they need to be exposed to, that you can do science and athletics and you know what I said if you want to have a conversation on politics, I'm very interested in politics. If you'd like to have a discussion on Oscar nominations and winners, we can do that too.
The kids have to know we're well rounded. Oh, and by the way, I played college baseball. I tell them that too. They're like, what? You played baseball? Yeah. You'll never see it. Like, I didn't know you bodybuild. We have so many facets to our life that we have to show them that everything can be done. Like you said, you don't live in the library and you don't live in your classroom and I don't live in the science lab.
We do many, many things. I do think that the intellect and the athlete, those two stereotypes, is the weirdest one for kids. They just don't think they can be blended.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: They have to, they have to realize. And that's why we're, it's an idea we're trying to develop to the kids that you have to be a world rounded, as Justin said, a multi dimensional personality, for example. I get that a lot, even in my friend's circle.
[00:19:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:08] Speaker B: The fact that I have a degree in sports, science or physical education, they're shocked when they hear that, oh, I go to the theater or that I read books or that I Like watching different types of movies.
[00:19:20] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:19:20] Speaker B: They think that, okay, since you're. That then you're just exercising. You follow a nutrition plan, that there are very specific things in your life while they're not. And it's good to help them develop this idea of how you can be multidimensional.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: I remember I had the same experience the other way around, because, for example, I can read the Iliad in ancient Greek, I can read classical Latin literature in Latin, or pretty much any classical literature from Europe in the original language. And I used to get very excited watching Mr. Olympia, or cycling races. Bike races.
[00:19:58] Speaker C: I experienced the inverse of what bike races?
[00:20:00] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:01] Speaker A: And I was like, ooh, are you coming out here tonight? No, tonight there's 3:00am There's Mr. Olympia. I want to watch Mr. Olympia. And most people didn't even know what Mr. Olympia was. And I had to explain what Mr. Olympia was. You watched that? Yeah, actually, that gets me very excited. There is some sort of distorted perception towards athleticism and being intellectual.
In Latin, for example, there is a motto, I'm pretty sure you are both familiar with it, that mensa sana in corpore sano, which means a healthy mind in a healthy body. And it was used for the first time by a Latin poet, Juvenal. It was a very important concept back then. Already I remember that the first book about the benefits of physical exercises from gymnastics was written in 1569 by Gerolamo Mercuriale, that was a physician in Italy in the mid 16th century who wrote De arte gymnastica, which literally means about gymnastics.
And one of the. Not the first per se, but it was the most important at the time that actually explains exercises that, for example, in bodybuilding you still use. He explains squats, he explains the basic exercises you do with dumbbells. He calls it with a Greek word, alteres.
Yes. Which is, I believe this still the same. The same word altires in modern Greek. That book is nearly 500 years old. But it was a concept that you need to exercise in order to be a well round human being. That's what you were saying just now, that you need to do both in order to be a well round person. They are not in opposition, I think.
[00:22:03] Speaker C: Because Chris and I, we coach the basketball team at acs, so we. I think most of our athletic experience comes from team sports.
We both exercise because, like you said, we agree 100%, healthy mind, healthy body, that they have to be in balance. But as you were going through the book and everything, I was thinking, like, sometimes I Just need to work my mind in different ways to stay sane. Like I need. It's not just like I love playing basketball because my mind needs to make snap decisions. I need to be. And I need to be able to go, how do I contort my body like this or like this? But then I need to be able to like to be pushed a little bit too. Like, well, maybe I want to read this article about this topic that I don't know a lot about because I want to push myself to learn. So I want to keep a well rounded mind as well. And I try to push my mind in different ways. It's not just the physical balance and the mental balance, but it's also how many ways can I push myself either mentally or physically. But mostly mentally because like you said, I have a kid and everything. I don't have time to always push myself physically.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: That also reflects on the intellect though, because it's something that is lifelong.
[00:23:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:23] Speaker B: Oh yeah, both of them. So even if we get older, we might not be able to do the same as we used to, but you can still be involved.
Not in the same level, but in a similar way.
[00:23:37] Speaker C: I think I'll play until I can't walk. I've already.
[00:23:39] Speaker B: Oh yeah, I can, I can practice. I can practice six times a week.
[00:23:42] Speaker C: No, no, not throughout anything.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: But I can practice two.
I can work out another three. Maybe it's about adaptability as well.
[00:23:51] Speaker A: I think what changes is the reasons, the motivations that made us do it. Meaning when you are 20, 25. Yeah. You do it for your health, you want to compete. You also want to look good. I still work out. I try to work out three times a week. If I miss one day of training, I won't make a big fuss about it. If one week I don't want because I have something to write, I have a paper to publish, I'm doing research, I need to prepare a class. So sorry. No, I need to focus on this. Yeah, okay, I'll let it go. It's one week won't change anything. I know that it's there, I want to do it. It's just I have different priorities now and our priorities that luckily I didn't have 20 years ago. But again, as you were saying, now you practice. Yes, but you do it for fun. You're not competing. So at one level I actually enjoy more now because I don't have the pressure of proving anything. I'm challenging myself because I want to do it, not because I have a comparison to oppose. It's A more relaxed, more enjoyable way. Do you agree totally?
[00:25:00] Speaker C: Yes, 100%.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: It's also about maintaining a self discipline, which also helps in other areas as well.
[00:25:07] Speaker C: I think too, like we were talking as basketball coaches, we really kind of push this on our, on our team too. And we're very purposeful about saying that we don't expect you just to be great basketball players in terms of your talent on the court and your physical ability. We also expect you to be mindful students, leaders in the school. We really want them to be well rounded. We tell them, we tell our athletes, like, if you can do it, if it fits in your schedule, play volleyball, run track. We have a couple kids right now that do like mixed martial arts outside of school. That's great. Don't quit that. We want you to be as well rounded as possible. So like, we are not only practicing it ourselves, we're also trying to help kids understand that you can do this too. You don't have to be just one thing. You don't have to be just a basketball player or just an intellect. You can do everything. And we are trying to be examples of that as well.
[00:26:06] Speaker B: We're trying to promote the idea of being a good student athlete overall, a leader in the school in multiple areas when it comes to your behavior, your composure, your academics and characteristics. And then subsequently as a basketball player as well. I'll use a great example that Justin mentioned. A few days ago we had a meeting with the students that would like to participate in the upcoming tryouts that we have in November. And there was one of the students that asked, when do the triads begin? And Justin very well said that they have already begun because we observe their behavior, how they act, how they do academically, what we hear from other teachers. So it's every aspect that we take into consideration to be a part of our team.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: Because again, it goes in the direction of making well round, responsible human beings.
[00:26:57] Speaker C: We've had, we've had 11th and 12th graders that have come to us and said, I don't think I can play basketball because of the workload of the school. And that's great. Like, they are very focused students. They have.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: It's a responsible way to say it.
[00:27:09] Speaker C: It's a responsible way. But what I tell them is, is that healthy. Can you just study, study, study, study, study and not do something with your body? And then you lose that mind, body, balance. So I'll tell them, like, listen, I get what your schedule is, I get what your ambitions are, and I think that's great. We can make a schedule that works for you to be physical and to be a part of a team too. Cause I think that's a great part of it. Cause they're developing leadership skills, a different part of the mental aspect. So we'll try to work with kids so that they can remain well rounded even if they feel like they can't manage the time to be well rounded. It's not just for health and fitness, that's a part of it. But also we want people to not lose that ability to be the nerdy athlete.
[00:27:53] Speaker A: The interesting part is that you, as you both said, you can do both and you can do both, especially at that age. I mean, it gets so much harder to do it when you're 16, 17, when you are a teenager, generally speaking, especially if you go to a school like this with a system like this, you have the opportunity of having both areas, both athletics and intellectual activities. And because you have, you still have the time. You have the energy that after 20, it's going slowly down every year. You have the energy, you have the time. You also have the enthusiasm of not knowing what you like the most. So you're motivated to try different things. That's the beauty of it. When you say you played different sports in high school and you encourage your students, don't quit it. You can still try to find a balance. Because now you can. When you have to worry about all those things that are part of adult life, which are fine, we learn how to manage. But now you have, at least time wise, it's still possible to do it.
[00:29:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's the part where the intellect is actually more instilled in this. Building the time management skills, the self discipline, managing your stress and everything that you have for work or from all the other parts of your life and still be able to find time to use in order to exercise for stress relief for your body, as we said earlier. But that's, that's because that's the, that's the part where they have different paths. The intellect and the physicality have different paths in this because the physicality develops up to a point, maybe in the 20s, up to the 30s, and then it starts declining. But I think that the intellect there has a different path. You keep growing, you have more nervous connections.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: Okay. Usually after we know that brain cells fully develop in your early 20s, so until 2023, which is basically why we go to college until that time, because that's the moment our brain is at its fullest. So until that time we pretty much absorb anything around Us and then we build on that body has a different thing. You get your peak in your early 20s and then slowly you're not as. Yeah, it's a fact. It's basic physiology.
[00:30:27] Speaker B: We know that there is a word about this called ergonomy. Knowing. Knowing how to use your body in a more efficient way. Actually every movement in a more efficient way.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: You know, I could see it very easily because I had exactly the opposite path as you guys had. I didn't play anything in high school because I was born with inverted feet. So until 11 I couldn't run, I had to wear orthopedic shoes. So I didn't play any sport in high school. And I started working out on my second year in college. And for me it was really hard start because when you, when you started that late compared to teenage experience, you already, I mean, you're in university so you have a lot of deadlines, the workload is even higher than high school and you may be starting to think, okay, I want to start working soon and use my degree for something. So you have that and you get very passionate about the sport. And that was very detrimental for me. I remember I became obsessed with working out. And when I tell you how much I work out, you will understand how bad it was. Without previous experience, without being used for physical weight training, I used to work out two hours every day, six days a week.
[00:31:47] Speaker B: It's the part where you have to choose whether exercising or being involved in sports becomes either a useful routine, a relief actually, or a distraction.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: Yeah, no, no, no, that or a.
[00:32:01] Speaker B: Distraction, you have to choose.
[00:32:03] Speaker A: Actually, my body chose for me because after three weeks of that regimen, my body shut down. I went in shock for two weeks, my body simply refused to work. What makes you most happy when you practice a sport? Provided that my favorite sports to practice are bike racing and bodybuilding. For bodybuilding, I have always been ecstatic when I can completely separate from the world, just me and the weights. And I feel like the more I do it, the more I weigh. I feel like I can lift the whole world and the rest and anything else doesn't matter. I'm completely isolated from anything that could bother me. There's only me and the effort I put in lifting this weight.
[00:32:55] Speaker B: I couldn't agree more actually with what you said. I will second your statement by saying that that's exactly how I feel. I feel like I'm zoned out, that it's my own, it's my self time. When I'm on the basketball court, for example, practicing Whether it's by myself, which I used to do a lot more previous years, now a little less. But even with my team, it's self time and I love being in that environment, letting myself in the sounds, in the whole experience of this atmosphere, being there, it's stress relieving. I'm letting a lot of energy on the court and it's something that I love to do. So for me, every single time it's something that I feel like I don't want it to end.
[00:33:42] Speaker C: I don't think mine is quite as poetic as your guys.
For me, I feel that way because I still weight train about three times per week and I feel the same way. I love that sensation. I feel when I finish and when now that I'm older, my workouts are usually high intensity and low weight. So I'm trying to have a good sweat at the end and then when I'm done, I'm like, wow, I did it. I love that feeling and I have that sense of accomplishment that I did something today. Now if I'm competing in a sport in Greece, it's mostly basketball. I'm so competitive. I think that's probably where I believe you organization from. Like I, I feel like organization gives me a competitive advantage for coaching. And then that just kind of trickled through my teaching as well.
I'm so competitive. So I love the feeling now that I'm 40, if I see somebody and I look at them, I'm saying that person's probably about 25 and I'm, I'm going to do whatever I want on this court. They're going to leave frustrated, I'm going to leave winning and that's what's going to happen. And sometimes if it doesn't happen, that's okay. How do I, how do I work a little bit harder to make sure that doesn't happen again? Or what could I have done better? I love that the physical plus the mental side of the game so much. And now that I'm older and maybe I can't do the things that I used to be able to do when I was 25, it's more mental. So how can I, how can I mentally manipulate this game? Yeah, how can I mentally manipulate this game? We get to do it as coaches.
[00:35:17] Speaker B: It's the best we've played together and we have this chemistry as well. Like as competitive as we are as coaches that still gives me like, gets.
[00:35:25] Speaker C: My competitive juices going.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: You can see where your good Asiaticians come from even in this.
[00:35:29] Speaker A: You know what reminded me you guys remember the end of the Odyssey when Odysseus comes home to Ithaca and finds the suitors that have tried.
[00:35:39] Speaker C: It's been a while, but.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, but we live in Greece.
[00:35:41] Speaker B: That's a great example, actually, because I.
[00:35:44] Speaker A: Think you know where I'm going. And he finds the suitors that have been trying. That have been courting his wife. They challenge him to use Odysseus bow without them knowing. That's him, that's the king return. And they all try to bend the bow and strike the arrow. And no one can. And he knows. So he arrives and they see him as old and frail. He's a beggar. He's worn out. And there is this beautiful scene that Homer describes that he takes off his clothes and they see that that's not that frail. That guy is well built. He's older than us, he's stronger than us. And he takes the bow, he strikes the arrow. The arrow goes into the target and then he proceeds, killing them all. So, yeah, that. Metaphorically, that's the same without the slaughtering. Without the slaughtering. Okay.
Christos, Justin, thank you for being with us.
[00:36:47] Speaker B: Thank you for having us.
[00:36:48] Speaker C: Yeah, it's our pleasure.
