Note: The following appears in the Miami football gameday program.
Clemson’s path to the forefront of elite athlete recovery started with a culture change. For generations, despite the best efforts and cheeriest dispositions of athletic trainers, an unfortunate misconception lingered.
The athletic training room is for the injured, and for the injured, the athletic training room is not a happy place to be.
“We really wanted to get away from the mentality of the ‘training room,’ if you will,” said Head Coach Dabo Swinney while mimicking air quotes. “We wanted to get away from the idea that it is only for guys who are injured and don’t want to be in there.”
Enter 100 Yards of Wellness, Clemson’s new $4.9-million wellness space at Allen N. Reeves Football Complex that spans roughly 300 feet in length that has become a central hub of activity and major point of pride for Tiger football.
Completed in August, 100 Yards of Wellness represents the natural evolution of Clemson football’s long-time commitment to student-athlete health and wellness. By literally and figuratively breaking down walls that divided the focus areas, the new space combines Clemson’s athletic training and rehabilitation expertise with its continued innovation in active recovery and applied science.
“Now, it’s a total wellness commitment…the mental side, the wellness side, the ‘prehab’ side, the applied science side, your stretching, your nutrition…all of it combined in this one big space,” stated Swinney. “It has created an environment where the guys want to be there all the time. They’ve really bought into it. It’s been an awesome addition for our program.”
After moving into the gleaming Allen N. Reeves Football Complex in early 2017, Swinney and his staff remained vigilant for ways to improve the new facility. At the behest of Swinney, Clemson staff members traversed the country looking at athletic performance facilities in search of ideas.
While Clemson was ahead of most in terms of medical facilities, the benchmarking trip revealed an opportunity for Clemson to truly separate itself in the applied science sector.
In 2018, Clemson enclosed what was previously an outdoor patio area to create Clemson Applied Science Lab (or CASL, pronounced “castle”). The area served a two-fold mission. It served as the hub of Clemson’s data and performance analysis as well as a space for “prehab” and recovery.
As Clemson’s student-athletes bought in, the…