Last week continued to be another productive week for Speed Gel. As I continue to travel the state of Florida, I’m learning more and more about the need for a topical anti-inflammatory on the market for the treatment of sports injuries. I’m continually learning about the need for a treatment that allows for the healing of injured athletes while also removing the possibility of addiction and other side effects.

I started the week off with a trip to the University of Florida to meet with John Barrett, the baseball athletic trainer. He said that most of his players come in and ask for oral meds and then get dependent on them. The meds also cause stomach issues. He noted that by introducing Speed Gel to his athletes it would allow him to treat their pain with natural ingredients that didn’t have those effects on them.

After our meeting, Barrett walked me through the new UF baseball complex and introduced me to the new baseball coach, Kevin O’Sullivan. I hadn’t seen the complex since high school and it is truly amazing the technological advances that have been made in 12 years. I’d almost even go as far to say that athletes in college get a little spoiled at all of the equipment and technology that is at their disposal. UF has a great baseball complex.

We also ran into assistant baseball coach, Brad Weitzel, who is also a former professional scout for the Minnesota Twins. I knew Weitzel from his days as a Scout when I was recruited out of high school.

On a personal note, Weitzel showed me to his office where he pulled up the scouting report that he had written on me 12 years before. It was incredibly exciting for me, as a player, to see what he had written and observed about me. Normally, we don’t get to see those documents and aren’t exactly sure what scouts are reporting about us. This was truly a rare inside look for a player into the scouting world. Most of the stuff that he had observed about me were right on and even compared me to a few outstanding former and current MLB players. It was truly an honor to read those insights.

Finally, to round out the day I gave a 30-minute hitting talk in front of 10 of the UF baseball players. It was cool to talk to these guys about the game today and techniques that have helped me through the years. I’ll be going back in a few weeks to speak with the whole team about more hitting techniques.

For all of you tennis and golf fans, I also visited IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. This academy is nationally known for training the most elite athletes. IMG houses over 1,000 students who go to school full time while training and hosts professional athletes who are training in the off season or are prepping for upcoming tournaments. My first pro-agent that I signed with was with IMG and thus, I trained there for 2 years while working on my strength, conditioning, speed, and agility.

I had the pleasure of meeting with IMG’s Head Trainer and Physical Therapist Graeme Lauriston. Graeme loved the idea of an over-the-counter transdermal cream. IMG, he said, treats a lot of patella tendinitis, shoulder and elbow problems from tennis serves, and rotator cuff injuries.

While Graeme and I were chatting, a colleague of his came over and said that she had been looking for something on her patients that didn’t smell. As a sports medicine professional, she’s allergic to menthol so the hot/cold creams irritate her eyes and body. Thus, she was interested to learn about the benefits of Speed Gel since it doesn’t contain any menthol and would both benefit herself and her patients.

Finally to round out this busy week, I made a quick visit to the State of Florida College, formerly Manatee Community College. There I gave out Speed Gel samples to the volleyball and basketball players who were in training for their season. They were super excited to hear about the new product and I can’t wait to get their feedback!