Tom Brady explains Alex Guerrero’s value and the bonus Birmingham City can expect
Alex Guerrero worked as Tom Brady's body coach during an NFL career which yielded seven Super Bowl wins
Birmingham City are benefitting from the wisdom of ‘the greatest body coach in the world’ according to Tom Brady.
Legendary NFL quarterback Brady, now an investor in Blues alongside American investment firm Knighthead, credits Alex Guerrero for helping him play sport at the highest level into his forties. Guerrero has worked with other high profile NFL stars and is now passing on his knowledge to Blues’ players.
Guerrero led an audit of the first team’s training facility in Henley-in-Arden last year and Blues have implemented many of his recommendations. TBRx branding is plastered on the walls of a brand new, enhanced treatment facility on the first floor of the Elite Performance and Innovation Centre.
In addition to Guerrero, TBRx body coaches Peter Cummings and Rob Brennan were deployed at the club’s training base throughout last season and more joined them at the beginning of this season.
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Blues manager Chris Davies recently revealed that Brady’s team are leading on his players’ recovery. Sunday, for instance, is no longer a day off for Blues’ first team, they instead report to the training ground to recover from Saturday’s match.
“It’s really about maximising your potential as an athlete and I learned most of that through my own experience,” Brady told BirminghamLive. “I had tried a lot of things because I loved playing football and I wanted to play it for as long as I could, and I realised the investment I needed to make in myself was the only way it was going to allow me to do the thing that I loved, which was throw the football and lead my teammates.
“I began to explore areas where I could learn and grow. I met my best friend and body coach Alex Guerrero who’s involved with our organisation here and we’re implementing a set of beliefs that worked and have been tried and tested over a long period of time.
“I want these players to have the ability to do what I was able to do. Come out here, play the sport they love, change their own lives and the lives of their families, perform well and change the lives of everybody in this community.
“So much of it is investing that time and energy in your training, in your recovery. The things you’re drinking and eating are so important to the way that you perform on the pitch. The players have really embraced it and I’m excited to see how they do that over the course of a season.”
As a result of Blues implementing Guerrero’s methods, Brady expects the team to become stronger as the League One season develops.
On Guerrero, 59, Brady added: “He’s the greatest body coach in the world. He’s a tremendous asset to what we’re doing here to these players, to our medical staff and the athletic support team.
“This is all about preparing in advance. You can’t wait to get injured before you realise, ‘Oh I need to do something different’. Being proactive with how you treat your body allows you to go out and perform with confidence.
“I put a lot of time and energy and investment with Alex before I was going to train during the off-season so that when it came to these moments my body always felt good. The best benefit is that as the season goes along you become more and more conditioned to perform at a high level.
“The more you are on task doing your job through your preparation, through your recovery, the better you are going to feel as the season goes. Whereas most players feel like their bodies deteriorate, we want our players’ bodies to feel like they are getting better as the season goes along.”