PASSIONATE ABOUT SPEED

My passion has always been track and field. I was a handy athlete back in my time, nothing special, state level or so, but whatever I lacked in ability I tried to make up in intellect.

I travelled the world when I was younger. I didn’t have the luxury that people have these days of being able to sit in front of a computer and getting as much online coaching as you potentially could have.

The only way we could get to listen to anybody that had any type of authority was to travel. I was doing a corporate job and competing and was very, very passionate about speed. I love speed.

As I said mostly just for my own benefit, to try and grow and be a better athlete myself.

Travelling overseas, I made a nice little network for myself. After persistently trying, I got an opportunity with some professional NFL teams. I started off with the San Diego Chargers. 

Nothing was a paid position. I drove the team’s head of performance crazy until he gave me an opportunity to learn a little bit different, a little bit more about athleticism, at speed.

I never had the aim of making it my career. That was by fluke. It was an area of passion and, in actual fact, caused my wife a huge amount of grief.

The reason it frustrated her so much is because I only had four weeks of holidays a year and it was expensive. I had spent my four weeks, instead of being with her, learning or trying to learn more about speed.

Even though my highest passion is track and field, I could never make a career out of that because, simply, there’s no money in it.

I needed to be associated with ball-playing sports or athletes who are in ball-playing sports to make the money that I need to be able to live and, more importantly, give my family a lifestyle. So in that early sense, it was just purely passion.

I travelled far and wide, turning up to lectures by people like Charlie Francis, Ben Johnson’s coach, building a network and a knowledge base.

HELPING FIX MINI

Mini was suffering from a chronic back problem and had seen every surgeon possible. I think he’d seen a lot of different acupuncturists and chiropractors and massage therapists and whatever else was out there – traditional and non-traditional – as he tried to get himself back on the field.

The best part about my job is it’s so quantifiable. There’s nowhere to hide. You come to me at a certain time, you run a certain distance … You either go one way or the other.

Harry mentioned me to him, saying, ‘This could be a long shot, Mini, but why don’t you try this bloke, he’s very good, he specialises in running mechanics. Maybe that’s what’s contributing to the pain you’re getting.’

It worked out well between us. I got him back on the field and that’s how my reputation started. From then on, more and more players started coming to me.

More and more success stories started to happen and then I built on that. It started off as a snowball and I turned it into an avalanche.

WORST DECISION OF MY LIFE

My connection with the Roosters came to a sudden end in 2010. Jake Friend, who I was close to, got caught with some prescription drugs and the spotlight came on to the club.

Someone told a reporter that the players were extremely fond of me and then he did a background check on me and saw that in my younger days I ran with a bad crowd, got in trouble for something and served 18 months in custody.

At that time my wife was heavily pregnant, I was working a corporate job and I was trying to make ends meet while trying to fulfil my passion.

I wasn’t on big money but wherever I could go I would try to put myself in front of somebody to teach me a little bit more. My passion was costing me a fortune.

I was training in a gym at the time and I made good friends with one of the guys in there. I knew what he was doing wasn’t completely kosher, but when he asked me if he could rent my garage I agreed.

I didn’t feel I was doing anything wrong. I needed the money and it only lasted 10 weeks. In actual fact, it was the worst decision I’ve ever made in my life.

He stored a chemical in my garage to produce recreational drugs and was caught.

It haunted me greatly. I pleaded not guilty and even doing the time I was thinking, ‘Wow, I’m here for something that I have no idea why I’m in here for’.

I felt I’d done my time and rebuilt my life when the story finally came out. I thought it was a pretty shit thing for the reporter to do.

Did it close doors for me? Yeah. It did close a lot of doors for me. It cost me that gig there.

If the money was right, I’m not going to lie, I might consider going back into a club. But I probably wouldn’t and I don’t miss the politics.

I saw a lot of politics, from being aligned to a single club. From people who made judgements. I suffer from anxiety and depression, so I didn’t need that. It caused me extra grief in my life, and seeing the effect that it had on my family, that’s what really killed me.

From there, you can go one of two ways. You just bounce out of it, or you run away and hide. I would like to commend myself for showing the strength to stand up and man up.

I love my professional clientele and, after being in that environment, being around people with a huge amount of knowledge.

I don’t like getting mixed up in the politics and, I’ll be honest, when I started I probably contributed to the politics.

Now I can just do what I want, when I want, how I want. This way I’m much more at ease.

I didn’t hide. I never left. And my clients never left. They all stuck with me.

Roger Fabri is the owner of the Speed Agility Academy.