SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
July - 2016
25
of kids around the country. So
many of them embraced me
and told me to keep pushing
forward. They helped push me
to where I am today and I am
grateful.
SFM:
Most people don’t real-
ize the cost of qualifying and
the cost of Olympic training.
‘Qualifying’ meaning traveling
to tournaments all over the
world to improve your rank-
ings. Tell us a little bit about
that.
ND:
Making the Olympic Team
is basically a ‘points’ race. To
accumulate points, you must
travel all over the world to
compete. Expenses for each
trip include a plane ticket,
housing, camp fee, entry fee
and food. With nearly twenty
trips a year, annual expenses
easily exceed $50,000.
Keeping this busy schedule
makes it impossible to hold
down a job and cover even ba-
sic expenses at home. There is
some funding available if you
get to a certain point, but only
select tournaments are funded
each year (meaning the athlete
still has to scramble to come
up with thousands of dollars
to pay for the other ones).
SFM:
You recently started
training with a new coach.
How is that going?
ND:
Yes! I am very fortunate
to be friends with Dr. Rhadi
Ferguson who is a 2004 Olym-
pian. Rhadi used to live in my
area and when I told him I was
struggling to find a new physi-
cal trainer he set up a meeting
for me with Juan Carlos (JC)
Santana at The Institute for
Human Performance in Boca
Raton. I was hesitant at first to
connect with someone new so
close to the games but thank
god I got the courage up to
go to his gym because my life
changed when I walked in his
doors.
I’ve never met anyone in my
life like JC. He demands excel-
lence from me and pushes me
to depths I’ve never thought I
could reach. Everything we do
is “functional training” mean-
ing its sport specific. For in-
stance I compete in a Judo gi,
so he attaches Judo gi sleeves
to the weights I lift and has me
mimicking Judo movements.
JC also doesn’t allow me to de-
velop bad habits like bending
over and huffing and puffing
in between sets. He doesn’t
let me show any sign of pain
or weakness when I am lifting.
He also structured a diet and
weight cutting plan for me
down to the exact calorie.
JC also checks up on me sever-
al times a day to make sure I’m
eating right, sleeping right. He
even asks me how my body is
feeling. Depending on how I
am feeling he may change my
next workout. On top of all of
this, he’s just a really nice guy. I
can tell I’m going to be trained
by him for the rest of my ca-
reer and that I will know him
for the rest of my life. He just
“gets” me and I think its fate
that we met.
Delpopolo’s new coach, Juan
Carlos Santana, has been re-
ferred to as “the country’s
leading practitioner of func-
tional fitness” and has devel-
oped specific programs for all
professional sports. Santana
is currently the Founder and
Director of IHP, his state-of-
the-art training facility in Boca
Raton, Florida. IHP has been
recognized by several awards
as one of the top training fa-
cilities in the world, and the
country’s best “core-training”
facility.
Scrapp! Fight Magazine had
the opportunity to interview
Juan Carlos as well. See what
he had to say below.
SFM:
What is a typical train-
ing day like for Nick?
JC: Training volume and inten-
sity varies according to many
variables. For example, injury,
over-training syndrome, com-
petition schedule, and weight
status are just some of the
basic factors that can play a
role in the type and volume of
training that is undertaken by
any athlete. As of late, Nick
has been doing two workouts
per day; one cardio or strength
workout in the am and a Judo
workout at night.
The cardio workout is a series if
sprints with incomplete recov-
ery to work on the intermittent
conditioning needed for Judo.
The strength and conditioning
workout at IHP is made up of
a variety of power, strength,
and metabolic exercises and
