When it comes to Grey Cup Week, the art of ramping oneself up to peak at exactly the right time (that’d be Sunday, naturally) is a very personal thing.
In looking after their physical, intellectual and spiritual health, the players will all focus on the same key areas, but they will do that in a variety of different ways.
What’s gospel for one player may not be the way to go for another.
Ensuring that they are tip top for Sunday’s kickoff, though, is a commonality among all players on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Toronto Argonauts, who will face each other in the 111th Grey Cup game at BC Place.
Here’s how some of those players aim to be ready.
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GET YOUR SLEEP
So many of the players I talked with extolled the virtues of sleep as a valued ally for this week. Plenty of it, in fact.
“I need to get at least eight hours of sleep,” said Winnipeg running back Brady Oliveira. “It’s extremely important for your body to bounce back after a heavy workload of the week before.”
“I took a nap yesterday,” said Toronto defensive back DaShaun Amos. “I think it might have been a record for me,” he added proudly. “Good sleep, that’s really who I am.”
“A good eight to nine hours is mandatory,” said Winnipeg offensive lineman Liam Dobson.
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(Thomas Srklj/CFL.ca)
“Mine is basically sleep,” said DaVaris Daniels when asked for a secret to being ready on Sunday. “Getting my rest when I need to and, you know, just staying off my feet as much as possible.”
“Sleep is key,” agreed Winnipeg offensive lineman Stanley Bryant. “You want to get, I think, six to eight hours, every night, if you can.”
“Really get good sleep,” Ka’Deem Carey agreed, “because with games like this, you get very excited. So sleep.”
Bombers’ receiver Nic Demski is all about a good slumber, too. “It’s all about how I wake up that day,” Demski said. “I wake up on my own terms.
Like, I don’t set an alarm on game day. If I could sleep through the night and not get woken up, and I wake up peacefully on my own terms, it just sets the day off right for me.”
FREE YOUR MIND WHEN YOU CAN
When it comes to ensuring a player is in the right frame of mind for the game, the rituals are varied as you can well imagine. But whether a player loads up on game prep or gets far away from the mental responsibilities for the down time they need, they all agree that it is crucial to get what you need.
“A lot of epsom salt baths,” said Argo running back Ka’Deem Carey with a laugh. “Light some candles. That’s definitely my ritual.”
Winnipeg safety Brandon Alexander is on the same kind of program as Carey, plunging into a tub with epsom salt-laden water whenever he can.
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(Jamie Douglas/CFL.ca)
“It makes me feel good, he said.” Rather than light some candles, though, he goes a slightly different route. “I’ll definitely turn the lights off and I have my meditation music going on,” he said. “Once I’m done I’ll take about a ten minute cold shower.”
“We have board game night with the boys,” said Bombers’ kicker Sergio Castillo of the get-togethers he and his teammates have to blow off steam. “It’s become an every other day thing since mid-October. There’s like 12, 15 of us just playing board games.
“We have a book club as well,” he added.
MIND THAT DIET. WHATEVER THAT MEANS FOR YOU
Like so many things, taking care of your diet means different things to different people. For some Grey Cup combatants, it involves disciplined nutritional balance. For others, while it definitely involves that, it also entails ensuring they get some comfort food into their systems too.
When his team touched down in Vancouver on Monday night, Winnipeg quarterback Zach Collaros announced that he’d be taking advantage of what the city has to offer when it comes to a favourite of his.
“I’m gonna go get sushi,” Collaros said. “I’m gonna go grab sushi a few times.”
At least one of his opponents agreed wholeheartedly.
“Zach is on the right page,” said Daniels. “For sure that sushi out here is a little different. There’s a few spots, actually, that I love. I’m not going to give my secrets away, because I don’t want nobody booking up my times.”
For Toronto offensive lineman Ryan Hunter, it’s all about making sure he has the fuel his body needs, not so much about the cravings.
“Yesterday,” he said, “I went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of produce, some simple carbs, some protein. Just some things so that I’m not eating out every single meal.”
“I like Skittles gummies,” said Bombers’ defensive end Willie Jefferson.
He used to eat the hard ones, he said, but stopped when he chipped a tooth.
Carey is a man willing to lead the carbs brigade. “When it comes to eating,” he said, “it’s pasta and mashed potatoes. So that’s all I’m eating this whole weekend, is pasta and mashed potatoes.” Then he laughed. “I’m telling you, I love potatoes.”
“I need bread or a lot of potatoes,” said Alexander. “I gotta have it everyday.”
And Demski has found power in sablefish. Back in August, the Bombers travelled here to Vancouver and Demski ordered some the night before the game. He had six catches for 109 yards and a touchdown the next day and so “Saturday night, I’ll be having sablefish,” he said, laughing.
“I eat a lot of french fries,” said Winnipeg defensive back Evan Holm, tying it into one of the team’s mantras. “I gotta stick to my process and that’s part of my process.”
TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY
Toronto receiver Damonte Coxie came up with an answer I wasn’t expecting when I asked for a tip on taking care of the body before a game. He pointed me in the direction of something usually used in the nutritional maintenance of young children.
“Pedialyte,” said Coxie of a drink supplement that helps with hydration.
“It’s like ‘water 2.0’ for us. A lot of us drink Pedialyte before the game.”
WR Damonte Coxie drinks Pedialyte before games to keep himself hydrated (Thomas Skrlj CFL.ca)
Oliveira will plunge his body into frigid waters, mining the recuperative powers of cryotherapy. “I don’t joke around when I say I live in the ice bath because I’m in that thing every single day, and it’s been working for me.”
Amos pays particular attention to his legs as the week plays out. “For me, mentally and physically, if my legs are feeling great, the rest of my body is gonna follow,” he said. “Because, as a DB, we run all day.”
Toronto defensive tackle Jake Ceresna ensures he stays as limber as possible. “I like to stretch a lot,” the All-CFL lineman said. “I like to hit the sauna. Just warm up my body, get my body loose and my flexibility going. I usually feel really good when I do that.”
KNOW YOURSELF, KNOW YOUR OPPONENT
Said Toronto returner Janarion Grant: “Practice right, practice with great effort, with great attitude. Gotta hone in even more now.”
For Ceresna, success needs a ‘less is more’ kind of approach. “Don’t overthink things, and just go out there and play fast and play my best game,” Ceresna said. “You know, when you try to do too much, sometimes you overdo it, and you end up not playing as well. So I like to just keep it simple and play fast.”
“I think peaking as a team is just being as efficient as possible,” he continued. “Every play, every block, every catch, every pass, is done for a reason. You’re not using excessive movement. You’re not doing too much that you don’t have to be doing.”
Returner Janarion Grant preaches practicing with great effort, especially ahead of a big game (Thomas Skrlj/CFL.ca)
Dobson espouses the cram then taper philosophy when it comes to studying film. “Yeah, you get into it,” he said. “You can never know too much about your opponent. So you do watch a lot of tape, you study a lot and try to learn as much as you can. But then, kind of the day before, the hay is in the barn, you’ve learned all you can learn. You’re not going to learn too much more in 24 hours. So that’s kind of when you step away. But throughout the week, you dive deep and dig into everything you can.”
Hunter agrees. “Compounding every day, adding a little bit of film, a little bit of study, and then by Sunday, you don’t even have to think, he said. “You just know where they’re gonna be already.”
Bryant likes that idea. “I think you should – and we all do – increase it,” he said of film study. “We’ve gotta see everything, even if it’s five, six weeks ago.”
“I’m a film junkie,” said Alexander. “I like to watch film on my opponent to see what their strong suits are and what can I do to minimize those things.”