#381 – Racquetball – Doubles The Fun

Huntsman World Senior Games athlete, Frank Davis has competed at the event 24 times in a variety of sports. Most recently he’s excelled at racquetball. Today he shares an amazing story of dedication and grit. His doubles partner, crashing into a wall attempting return a volley, broke his shoulder in four places, but the two were determined to persevere. Tune in to hear how it all turned out.

Kyle and Lil also share the immunity boosting power of zinc.

Referenced article: 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/nutrition/10-foods-with-zinc-you-should-add-to-your-diet-to-help-boost-your-immune-system/ss-AAVnDDg?ocid=EMMX&cvid=3738a82916cc4dbd96e86d74d9832544#image=1

Transcript

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Kyle Case  0:00  
Hello and welcome to the Huntsman World Senior Games Active Life. I'll be your host on this amazing journey. We attempt to help get the most out of your life. Joining me in our studio today is my co pilot Kyle How are things going great, how about with you? feels to me like over the past couple of years at least, it's kind of been a renewed interest or at least a boost of interest in our immunity. Maybe just maybe there's a slight chance that has something to do with this global pandemic. I'm not sure but may as well so from global pandemic. I want to talk just a little bit about immunity today. Okay, one of the ways to boost immunity is to get enough Z. Yes. So yes, yes, you can get about all this stuff during that during the so it's true that Zeke is an essential mineral that may help support the immune functions and even I help as well just go for it. Rather than worrying about rushing to the pharmacy and picking up a supplement. I wanted to talk today about a few foods that have zinc that you can include into your routine Okay. To focus on the highest amount of shirts not Cheetos. Okay, let's look at Oh, I wish you well. But recommended daily allowance of zinc is 11 milligrams a day for adult men and eight milligrams a day for adult women. So most people with varied diets are able to meet this recommendation through food sources. However, people on vegetarian diets may need to consume higher amounts of zinc. And the reason for that is because even though there are lots of plant based sources of zinc, most of the foods that have high zinc also have high phytic acid, and that tends to interfere with the body's ability to absorb zinc. So it's kind of this weird thing like comes with a lot of zinc but also comes with a lot of stuff that doesn't want to use the zinc. So in case of vegetarian diets, it's recommended to prioritize food as using source because it's easy to ingest too much zinc from supplements if you're not careful, right, and an excess of zinc can cause gastrointestinal distress, like abdominal pain and vomiting. It's not a good situation. So try to avoid ingesting too much zinc, but even though excessive intake of Z can interfere, excuse me, and even though in addition to excessive intake MC can also interfere with other essential nutrients like copper. So getting it through your food, they say is the best way to go. It's not the only way they're using supplements but getting through if it's the best way so instead of reaching for supplement, you might want to consider upping your intake of certain zinc rich foods and I wanted to share just a few Oh good. I'm glad to hear everything but I'm gonna share a few This is according to an article. So the first one oysters Oh yeah, now I'll take a supplement supplements. Not the only one. shellfish are one of the richest sources of zinc with a serving of six oysters providing 33 milligrams of zinc, which is more than four times the recommended daily amount for women so very full of just for this full of zine. Any preparation of oysters will provide zinc, it doesn't matter. You can go with fresh oysters right from the shell, which it looks like you're not a fan of now. I don't know that I would consider myself a fan either. But you can also have clam chowder ... a same. Eitehr way you could have it on a stew on a cold day and like a clam chowder. I can probably do that. But either way the oysters are gonna provide you with your recommended zinc. So let's go. Number two. This is one of my favorites. Beef. Okay, so beef isn't just a great source of proteins and good sources Z. They say that a four ounce ground beef burger says like a quarter pounder provides just over half the daily intake of zinc from it. So like hamburgers might be covered there. Okay, here's another one if you don't care for all the red meat turkey. Oh, so if you want Heisey high protein foods that are which are looking for a little less saturated fat than the red meat, Turkey, the choice for you. One serving of Turkey provides about 1/3 of the daily recommended intake of zinc and it's not just Thanksgiving, it did have brown turkey that can be used in many similar ways as ground beef. You can use it in burgers or Hazzard chili like that. So Turkey might be an option for you. Here's one that we can easily do yogurt. So you already have some Zika in addition to being a good source of calcium and protein it contributes about 10% of your daily is equal to 150 grams serving Greek nonfat yogurt. So you have to get a little bit more than just one serving gonna be over but they're sinking their beans. We're talking a lot about beans for you. Yeah, since zinc is primarily associated with protein sources, it shouldn't be a surprise that beans one of the main plant based protein sources would also be Hi NZ. Well I'll beans are a good source varieties like white beans and black eyed peas are particularly high in zinc. And this is the last one okay and is here today and that is almonds. Really? Yeah, almonds have z. Hey, now I like Oh, I do I do too. I really do. Get stuck in my throat. We talked about this. But I like Almonds Almonds are a great source of zinc and plant protein. Really looking to increase your zinc intake they say reach for almonds instead of almond milk. A one ounce serving the homeless has about twice as much see as a glass of almond milk. So Zig Ziglar Zig Zig Zig but I know it was a lot but it does help increase your immunity. So little for these guests. Yes, we get another chance to visit with another one of our amazing athletes as Frank Davis is a racquetball player at the huntsman worlds in your games. And when I say he's a racquetball player as well, it's your games. I mean it. He's competed in 24 Different Huntsman worlds in your games. He's planning that this year will be his 25th which will get him right in line for the sandstone trophy. Yeah, in the John H. Morgan endurance awards. And we're excited Frank, welcome to the show.

Frank Davis  6:45  
Thank you. So it's great to be here

Kyle Case  6:48  
24 years ago on the 25 years of racquetball

Frank Davis  6:53  
going on 26

Kyle Case  6:55  
Well, are you counting the COVID year?

Frank Davis  6:59  
Okay, excuse me. You're right.

Kyle Case  7:02  
We there's a lot of athletes that are you know, kind of bummed out about right. And there's a lot of us to all of us. We're so excited to be back in business and doing things the way that we want to do we serve missed everybody that year, but we're excited to welcome you back this year and to get you that sandstone trophy that your due.

So, so 25 years ago you heard about the Huntsman World Senior Games and decided to come down. I'm wondering how you heard about it all those years ago?

Frank Davis  7:35  
I think I was you know, I was playing basketball at the time. That was my my game I played probably for 20 years I did basketball. I did track I did mountain biking, I did road biking. You know I've pretty well done a lot of them and I would do more if I could squeeze it all in. Rounded well rounded. I've done racquetball the last five years. Prior to that, like I said it was basketball. I still do the basketball shoot a three pointer, the foul shot and the you know the skill. If I do that every year I have done you know, for 24 years.

Kyle Case  8:25  
That's awesome. That's awesome. So how did you how did you transition to racquetball sounds like you've done a lot of things, but how did you kind of move over into racquetball?

Frank Davis  8:33  
Well, you know, candidly, I went down in a one I just in my 65 to 70 year old and I played in the National Senior championship, I was invited to go down by a team. And, you know, I say this all along. Never underestimate the skill level you'll run into in the Senior Games.

Kyle Case  8:59  
That's good advice. That is good advice. For

Frank Davis  9:02  
team that we put that took that tournament was basically every one of them they had a roster show where they played college ball and where they played pro ball every single one of those players that played pro bono, either ABA, NBA, European, Puerto Rican, so to say the least they were, you know, the worst. But, you know, I say this just to say it was my bucket list. I walked away from that tournament on the all tournament team at the MVP of the tournament, and I'm a five six and a half white guy. It was just my energy level was sick. A lot of these guys I mean, they play incredible half football, but they can't run before Babbage. And so, once I did that, and then I went back again, and you know, even when we're in these late 60s, the level of competition and the I don't know the craziness sometimes it gets in a basketball game, but they were breaking up and fights and pushing and stuff. I said, I'm through with this. And and then so I decided to go where I think I can. I didn't have to deal with that. And I played racquetball and I thought I'll switch. I couldn't do it at the time because they were pretty well. The schedules crossed I tried it one time and just didn't work. So I decided to give up on on basketball and do racquetball.

Kyle Case  10:42  
So time for a change and move on to racquetball something that you've been doing for a while for a while. Did you jump right in and have success right away? Or have you built up to it? What's your racquetball experience been saying that one more time? I'm just asking if you jumped right into racquetball and immediately started to have success or if you worked your way back up to to the gold medals.

Frank Davis  11:06  
Ah, well, I didn't metal the first year. I metal Well, let's say it's only been I think this has been the third year because of the drop in between but I I did metal the first year metal the second year, and then this is my first year and they up a bracket but there was actually the largest bracket and took the golden singles and the doubles.

Kyle Case  11:39  
So you just jumped right in and had success that sounds so

Frank Davis  11:43  
I you know. I have to admit, there were players there that I you know, they have incredible racket control much better with myself. My advantage is is candidly my speed you know, I still run around like a kid

Kyle Case  12:07  
will there's nothing wrong with that now. So, so you're you do both singles as well as

Frank Davis  12:15  
doubles are hot. I know. My first year doing doubles.

Kyle Case  12:19  
Okay, this last year that we just last year. So I know you had kind of a unique experience last year with your doubles competition. why don't why don't you tell us a little bit about that story.

Frank Davis  12:30  
Sure. I I had originally got a companion guide played racquetball with for years, signed up, and then he ended up hurting himself so he let me know we couldn't make it. So I reached out to somebody that I ran into two years ago, playing there, and we connected. And I watched him play and he watched me play and then later we talked and he was more of a finesse player. I was kind of a power player. And he just asked me if I would make a showing some pointers on on hitting the ball on serving, you know, getting power into a serve. Yeah. And so we went into court and and then when this this other friend of mine bailed out on me, I thought, Well, I'll see if I can. I knew how I could get a hold of I know some mutual friends. So I was able to get his email address and I emailed him and asked if they'd be interested in playing doubles. And he responded immediately said, Sure, I'd love to and we were able to meet about three times. He lives in Salt Lake or Bountiful, I live in Provo, Orem and he came down and we played a few times together and that's how we, we, you know, worked well together. We started off and I'm trying to think how many games you play total. There was. Anyway, we had. We were we were undefeated going into we start on Wednesday, and we had at least one or two games a day of matches, two games. Each match. Yeah. And I believe on Friday. We had two matches lined up the first match halfway through the first game. He went for a ball and he ran into the end of the front wall, very hard, hit very hard, and he just collapsed on the floor. And so you know, didn't know how bad he was heard. And, you know, he was honestly pika it and he got up and he had to go out and sit down for a while and I thought it was overwhelming and I thought we're just going to forefoot and they said, Just give me a few minutes, just let me know and we're not going to forefoot we're gonna go back in and we went back in his, his left arm was just drag hanging the bed over he couldn't even pick up the ball with his left hand. So he basically says, you know, I'll drop the ball and serve it when it's my turn, but that's about all I can do. And I'm gonna try anyway, as I watched him play and he would grimace if you've ever broken an arm or shoulder just just any type of movement is excruciating, but he stayed in there and they did the Serbs and, and they actually got a few foot aways when it came to him. But, you know, I was doing a little more of double duty, you know, kind of playing cutthroat Yeah, just trying to we lost the first game that he heard himself. And of course, in Senior Games, it's, it's you can lose one game but if you win the second game with a with more points than you lost the first one, you can win the mat. We came back and won the second game 15 to three. So we took the match. Then we had another match on the heels of that. And he just kind of, you know, sat down, tried to recuperate, etc. And he just said, I'm gonna, I'm gonna stay I'm gonna play you know, and he's telling me said you're gonna have to pick up the slack he said I but it was even more apparent that second match how how much he was hurting. That can see a grimace every time you move. And yeah, but he just didn't give up and we beat both games in the second match. And then his wife took him to the emergency room in the hospital and I went over later,

Kyle Case  16:56  
at some point, at some point, his wife is gonna be like, okay, honey. Well, you're tough. You're the toughest guy in the world, but we got to go the doctor.

Frank Davis  17:07  
And I, you know, and I was trying to say, Listen, you know, it's not that important. You need to take care of yourself now. He felt like it was gonna let me down and he wasn't about to do it. And so they took him to the hospital, and he was there for quite a while and they they x rayed and basically, I didn't know till the next morning and he had broken his arm. And buddies. He called me and he said, my arms broke. They've wrapped in a central but he said, I'll be there to our final match. And so he came, and we played the final match, and we beat both games and won the match and then took the gold and they you know, they wanted to right after the fact but then when he went home and he goes to his doctor, and I'm happy actually broke his shoulder in four different places.

Kyle Case  18:05  
Oh my word,

Frank Davis  18:06  
I can't even I can't even wrap my head around it. Because I've hurt myself before I mean, you know, all my all of my health issues are self inflicted. And I have hurt. I have had a rotator cuff and I've had pull muscles. I've had stuff and I know how hard it is to even move when you're like that, but anyway, it was. For me after 2524 years of participating in the games, I've won gold and I've taken metals in virtually everything I've competed in in some form or fashion. Counting up the other day I had something like close to 70 different metals. But this was probably the most rewarding one that I've ever not just because of how we had to had to go through that type of you know, have a partner that that went through that type of pain and that type of challenge to hang in there and not give up and you know, then I don't think he wants it. You got that and he could not his doctor wouldn't let him play he couldn't play for racquetball for maybe four months. I think he's, I think he just started again in March. Playing

Kyle Case  19:37  
what an incredible story and you know, obviously this broken shoulder is a huge piece of it. But the other part is your ability to kind of pick up the slack and you know, fill in the gaps but the two of you working together. I mean that's it really isn't. It is incredible. So congratulations on just an amazing accomplishment and winning the gold medal. And let me also just say this. We have we have 34 different sports we have a wide variety of different skill levels, and people come from all around the United States all around the world to compete. But one of our most competitive sports, we're just like you just attract the highest level of player it is racquetball and I'm not just saying that because Frank's here, it just it just is one of the things we would that you know, different skill levels across the board and different things like that, but racquetball is a competitive sport. The good ones come to this one. So it's a win a medal is an accomplishment. And Frank to do it with a partner with a broken shoulder is an accomplishment. It's unbelievable. So kudos, and congratulations.

Frank Davis  20:41  
As I said, you know, I'm amazed candidly, at the skill level, there was one team we played. We were told that the one guy had been inducted into the Senior Games Hall of Fame. And I understood from at least one of the participants there that he had never lost during the Senior Games. As long as it's played. David Blaine says a teenager had never lost a doubles match. And

Kyle Case  21:10  
ended in this first one. We

Frank Davis  21:12  
had this very quickly keep the ball away from it

Kyle Case  21:22  
Well, it's true. racquetball really is one of our most competitive sports and just a ton of fun to watch. Oh, my word so much action. Just you know, so many things going on at the same time. But once again congratulations. That's, that's just absolutely incredible. Couple of minutes left i You said that you played in a just a myriad of different sports. You share this amazing racquetball experience. The games offers a lot of things outside of the sporting events for the athletes to participate in. I'm wondering if you have like a favorite non sport activity that you've been associated with over the past 25 years of the games.

Frank Davis  22:01  
Ah, well, I have a condo in St. George. So I go down a lot. You know, I enjoy going down there during the games. I feel pretty well gone every year to the testing that they do for everything from you know medical testing though. Your balance to strength or whatever. And I kind of get a kick out of that to see how I can manage year to year if I'm getting degrading or staying the same.

Kyle Case  22:41  
Every year you get older but you get healthier.

Unknown Speaker  22:44  
It's interesting resting you introduced your whole thing about nutrition. I mean, that is my business. I'm in the health and nutrition business. So I'm a product of the product and I you know, I'm a firm believer of giving your body the right stuff, it can work miracles. It totally changed my life because I was a very sickly kid growing up and I had all sorts of health issues and ended up with chronic fatigue when I was in the 40s. And I'm for all intents and purposes as healthy or more healthy at 75 than I was when I was 45. And I attributed that to my focus in in giving my body the right nutrients.

Kyle Case  23:26  
It is so important. We all know that it's important right but making it happen sometimes is the trick. So congratulations. Yeah, who and like I said at the beginning, Frank, we're looking forward to seeing you down here again. And awarding you your award at the endurance Awards, the sandstone trophy that's yours to to claim and looking forward to it and hopefully we can get you and your partner back together and see if you can win a repeat.

Frank Davis  23:54  
Well, I'm planning on it. I'll be there and I think he will be too so.

Kyle Case  24:01  
Awesome. Well, Frank, thank you so much for your time. We definitely want to stay in touch and hopefully we can meet up in October. Yeah, but the huntsman will Senior Games.

Frank Davis  24:08  
Okay, well, thank you very much. I enjoyed it.

Kyle Case  24:11  
Awesome. Well, that's such an incredible ride on every single level, right and I won't even unpack it. We'll leave it where it is. A couple of things that I do want to just remind people of registration is open and it has been for a while now Don't miss out. We want you to get registered today. If your sport is closed and there are some sports that are closed make sure you get on a waiting list you can get all the registration details information that you need about the games at senior games.net. We've been talking for this whole year this whole season, about our 35th anniversary year. And one of the ways that we're going to celebrate is giving away 35 registration fee waivers. So if you haven't already, you're going to want to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to make sure that you don't miss out on any opportunity to get your 2022 registration fee waived for the games. You can find us at World Senior Games on both of those platforms. We want to remind you also to tune in live next and every Thursday at 5:30pm Mountain Time on AM 1450 or FM 93.1 for the Huntsman World Senior Games active life and then of course we take the slideshow and turn it into a podcast and you can subscribe to the podcast anywhere that you get your favorite podcasts. And then you can find this in previous shows right on our website which is once again, save your games to these inspirational thought comes from author and he says change the way you look at these things. Until next Thursday, stay active.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai