Pittsburgh D-Back Ike Taylor has learned the secret to performance training: intensity!

Ike Taylor stares at himself in a mirror and likes what he sees. But this isn’t another narcissistic athlete preening for the cameras; it’s a driven man running after perfection. And a job. Elbows flying, hands in fists, he keeps pace with a golf cart shining from the glare of the lengthy mirror it transports.

Running next to a moving golf cart with a mirror strapped to it doesn’t strike one as being standard operating procedure. But this attention to detail from the Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback could mean the difference between a pass play denied and an annoying touchdown dance by an exuberant wide receiver. Taylor’s goal is to analyze the image of his running form to make sure it’s as perfect as the glimmering moment when he intercepted a fourth-quarter pass to help ice Super Bowl 40 for the Steelers.

The golf cart motors ahead briskly, setting a pace that requires Taylor to run at full speed, as if he were chasing something he can’t quite catch — not unlike the starting job that, for five games late in 2006, fell out of his reach.

Super Bowling For Dollars
It had been a much happier situation heading into that season, when Taylor was sporting a Super Bowl ring, a new five-year, $22 million contract extension and one of Pittsburgh’s starting cornerback jobs. The only question at that point, it seemed, was whether Taylor would finally make the Pro Bowl. But after Week 9, when he gave up two touchdowns to wide receiver Javon Walker in a loss to the Broncos, the question was whether he’d be a Steeler at all.

After two more rough weeks, Taylor was benched. He didn’t start again until the final game of that season. It was a humbling experience, one he doesn’t want to see repeated ever again. “That’s why he wants to make sure his stride length is getting the maximum,” says Tom Shaw, who’s been his trainer since Taylor was 13 years old and has overseen fitness programs for the likes of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. “If we can add just two inches to each of his strides, then that’s 40 inches for the 40-yard dash. That can take two-tenths of a second off your time.”

Two-tenths of a second — that might have been the difference between a pair of TDs for Walker and a pair of INTs for Taylor. On such infinitesimal measurements are careers made — or lost.

It is a slightly balmy day in Orlando, Fla., and Taylor is out on the field long before he needs to be. Scattered around him are fresh-out-of-college NFL receiver hopefuls, and Taylor is shuffling footballs to Shaw, who chucks them 10, 20 and many more yards. This is Taylor’s chance to get loose while helping the young guys with some tips that could take them from unknown to undeniable talent, much like he did as an under-the-radar fourth-rounder out of Louisiana-Lafayette in 2003.

“I know what it’s like to be in their situation,” he says, “but I also like being around them and remembering how hungry I was when I first came into the league. You can’t forget how hard you need to work.” He then runs out for passes himself, going back on the ball as only a cornerback would, turning side to side to recreate a field situation.

Taylor smiles broadly as he finishes up with the prospects, holding his arms against his sleek 6’1”, 191-lb frame. Now it’s time to start Taylor’s individual routine, performing routes with a resistance cord. “We want to recreate a receiver doing a 5-yard hitch route,” he says. “I backpedal for three steps and, when I make my move as if to break up the pass, then the partner pulls for resistance. Imagine always running with a 5-lb weight and you’ll see the effect it has.”

Then it’s over to another defensive back cone drill: Taylor must backpedal like he would on a pass play, then make a quick lateral movement by a cone to mimic the quick cuts a receiver can make at any time. Cut after cut, it’s about change-of-direction speed, far different from full-out sprinting. Shaw has him do 2 or 3 sets on both the left side and right. He then proceeds to field runs in which Shaw expects a corner to cover the 99-yard distance in 10 seconds. “A half-minute rest and then he’s got us going back in the other direction,” Taylor says. “Eight to 10 full-length runs and you’re really feeling it.”

Friday Night Rice
After about 45 minutes of speed drills, Taylor is ready for a break. He talks about lifting weights — something he doesn’t do this day because, frankly, he overdid it in the past.

A year ago, Taylor’s bench press was well into the upper 300s. “I got way too big last year, and it slowed down my speed,” he says. So he has traded the extra brawn for function, allowing himself only 4 sets of 225-lb lifts, 8 reps each. That, in fact, is the starting exercise in an upper-body routine he performs every Monday and Thursday. He goes through eight exercises on those days, keeping it about form over fury. “A lot of lifters are yelling and swinging weights around with their whole body always into it, but that’s bringing muscles into play that shouldn’t be there,” he says.

Even so, Taylor wants to build up his arms a little bit — for both football and the girls, he concedes — concluding each upper-body workout with an exercise involving a garbage can full of rice. He runs his arms in the rice for 30 seconds and then out for another 30, thereby strengthening his forearms. “It’s weird,” says Taylor, “but it works.”

He emphasizes his lower body on Tuesdays and Thursdays, workouts that are highlighted by squats with 270 lb and an easy stroll — if you consider lunging down the hallway with a 60-lb weight behind your back easy. Abdominal exercises, along with the speed drills, are part of his daily regimen.

Taylor chuckles when he thinks about the nonstop, eight-minute stomach routines Shaw puts him through every weekday to strengthen his core, the hallmark of a cornerback’s fitness. “Crunches, sit-ups — those eight minutes last forever!”

In less time than it takes to work the abs, the break is over and Shaw summons Taylor to a final speed drill. It’s a sprint, but one in which he pulls a parachute tied around his waist. The parachute sometimes fails to fill with air, but when it does it provides substantial resistance. A few runs with the parachute and Taylor is done for the day, breathing heavily but satisfied with his effort.

It’s postworkout and Shaw sits in his makeshift trailer, reflecting on the gifted cornerback.

“Speed is what it’s all about for him,” Shaw says. “I don’t want Ike to just have a little more, but the kind of powerful speed where he can make adjustments on a play.”

For Shaw, the model is Deion Sanders, another former pupil. “Deion had great vision and anticipation, but when you could run like he could, a receiver could beat him with a move
initially and he could still catch up and intercept the ball.”

Taylor says his coach, Mike Tomlin, has been encouraging and believes he can become an elite cornerback. But it is the memory of his benching that pushes him through these workouts. “There are no guarantees in the NFL,” Taylor says. “If I didn’t realize it before, I sure do now.”
 

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