Malcolm Carter – Football Training Success Story

“Hey, my name is Malcolm Carter. I’m a receiver for the Montreal Alouettes. This is my fifth month at LPS, and I’m enjoying every moment of it. Before I was training at LPS, I was training out in Ottawa. That was also where my school was, at Carleton. My trainer out there had a different philosophy. He was more into flexibility and change of direction, which was what I needed at the time for my combine, but now I need to put on more muscle mass and to be able to handle the length and extensive season of the CFL. I feel that LPS has helped me in that sense, of being able to build up my muscle and also just my flexibility, and the depth of my squat, which would help with my explosion too.

I got into football about 10 years ago. I was watching Randy Moss and Tom Brady get together and throw touchdowns and Randy Moss kind of spoke to me. And I loved his aura, and it just showed me that a tall person like me can also get into football, and there are no height restrictions for it. And it just stuck with me.

I always played basketball, and I ran track growing up, but there was just something about when I would be running down the field and I see the ball getting thrown to me, and everything just slows down. I just fell in love with that moment where the ball is in the air, and I just knew it was only me coming down with the ball. And I was just like … That was the moment where it clicked for me, and I was like, “There’s no other sport for me right now.”

Some of the challenges I had to deal with, even though I had the ability to play at the next level, you still have to realize you have to take complaints from coaches and you have to listen. There was a point where, when I was at Carleton, I was actually struggling with that. And me and the coaches then, there was a riff in between us. So, when I went down to Junior Ball for those years, I made sure to ask my coaches what I could do better to improve my game in all facets of it. Not just the offense, but also on special teams to get off blocks and make some tackles.

I need to learn more about the game and not just focus on what I could do. I need to learn what else I could do just to stay on the field. And that kind of helped me when I got to Montreal, especially with the coaches. I would be right in their ear, just asking, “Oh, what did I wrong on that last play? What could I do better for the next time?” And they really dug that, and they liked how I was wanting to get better. And that was … For me.

If I had the ability to do one thing, it probably would honestly become to LPS when I was in Toronto earlier, just because … Just to build on my muscle mass just a bit sooner. Coming out of high school, I wasn’t really strong at all. Like, I was relying on my university to help me get there, but I should have done that myself and found a program to help lift, and just build my strength, so my first-year university, I would come out the gates flying and be ready to attack. And I feel this place would have helped me out with that.

Well, I’m ready. I already beat all my maxes on all my lifts here, on my bench, my squat, my power clean, and my … I never even did snatches before, but they’ve told me … Like, I know it helps with my explosion, so I was all for that and ready to go. Learned how to do a snatch, already improved it by, I think, 100 kilos. They tell me it’s 100 kilos. But before the season, I think I can reach that goal with this training. And right now, just keep improving. That’s my goal to do each and every day here.

Between here and elsewhere, there is a community here, but there’s also a sense of everyone pushing each other to get better each and every day. Because each person comes in and they want to beat the previous goals or the previous week, and it kind of tells you, “No, you can’t stick with what you did last week. You always have to keep improving like everyone else.” But everyone is real positive about that. They always say, “Hey, man, you can do it, you can beat yourself. You can beat what you did last week. Just keep grinding, and you got this.” And that sets with me real nice, and I embrace that real nice.

I would tell young players, “Don’t worry. Always keep your head up. Don’t worry what everyone else is telling you. Figure out your own path.” Because everyone is different. I would just say, “Get in the weight room. Make sure your schooling is in order. And just make sure you found what works for you.” Because like I said, everyone is different, so whatever works for you, as long as you’re strong, and you get your strength up, and your schooling is in order, teams will find you and teams will want you to play for them. And always remember to just keep …

Also, remember, you always can learn something every day, so don’t get your … I guess, plug your ears, and trying to push forward in that way. But also remember your coaches can help you get better every day, so just keep asking them what you can do to get better.

I did struggle when I got to university because I did divert my eyes, and I guess get more into the party aspect, but as I kept going on, I realized that yeah, I need school. So, I pushed that away, pushed away the party again, and just focused down on school for a bit. But it was a bit too late after I already got in trouble with schooling, so I kind of learned the wrong way. I hope people, the younger kids learn to … Don’t get to my situation, and learn earlier, and I guess focus on school more too.

Next steps for me, after this year, would be to make sure I’m on the active roster the majority of the weeks. I know I can’t say I want to be the majority for the whole year, because it’s football, things can happen, but I would like to be able to contribute to my team’s success in any way possible, and hopefully that means me being on the field or me contributing on any of the plays. I just feel like with this training that I’ve done this year, it’s put me in a great position to achieve that goal.

So, we’ll see how it goes this year. I think I can make a splash in the CFL.”

– Malcolm Carter, Montreal Alouettes (CFL)

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