Looking back through some of the older press coverage from my career brought up this article about my former ice hockey teammate, Dan Marashi, as he made the transition from competitive ice hockey into natural bodybuilding.
Dan and I had played together before his focus moved away from the rink and towards bodybuilding, and I later had the opportunity to help him prepare for a number of competitions.
The newspaper feature tells the story of that transition.
Having played professionally in the UK, represented British Universities and Team GB, and spent time pursuing opportunities in Canada, Dan eventually reached a point where he felt ready for a different challenge.
Strength training had already become an important part of his preparation as an athlete, but after stepping away from competitive ice hockey his focus shifted towards developing his physique and preparing specifically for natural bodybuilding.
It was quite a change in sporting demands.
Training for an ice hockey player is ultimately about performance – becoming stronger, faster, more powerful and able to repeatedly produce those qualities during a game.
Bodybuilding requires a very different approach.
The emphasis moves towards developing individual muscle groups, managing training volume, achieving symmetry and proportion, and then bringing everything together with nutrition and competition preparation.
Having known Dan through our playing days made helping with that transition particularly interesting for me. I already knew the athlete, his training background and the level of commitment he was capable of bringing to something when he decided to pursue it.
The article followed Dan as he prepared for competition with the British Natural Bodybuilding Federation and spoke about wanting bodybuilding to receive the same level of respect and professionalism that he’d experienced within competitive sport.
For me, this clipping is also a nice reminder of an earlier part of my own coaching career.
Long before the private coaching work I do today, I was already working with people from very different sporting backgrounds and learning how training needed to change according to the individual and the goal in front of them.
From sharing a changing room as teammates to later helping him prepare for bodybuilding shows, it’s another small chapter from more than 20 years spent around training, coaching and competitive sport.
Joseph Webb.
