J.J. Watt Took an Ice Bath Through a Hole in a Frozen Lake

In Friday’s Hot Clicks: J.J. Watt’s very Wisconsin recovery technique, an NHL game-winner at the buzzer, and more.

He won’t be able to do this in Phoenix

J.J. Watt may be headed to the blistering heat of Arizona pretty soon, but he’s still spending his offseason training on the frozen tundra of Wisconsin.

Watt bought a cabin in “the middle of nowhere” (Summit, Wis.) in 2015. He called it “minimalistic” but in reality it’s 4,500 square feet and has an elevator. Watt’s workout regimen belies the cushy accommodations, though. His training sounds like a Rocky montage.

On Thursday, he wanted to cap off his workout with an ice bath, but not just any ice bath. Watt wanted to dunk his 290-pound frame into a frozen lake. Except, when he tried to cut a hole in the ice with a chainsaw, it wouldn’t crack the surface, so it looks like Watt and his training partners had to hack a hole with shovels.

It’s stuff like this that had Packers fans convinced Watt was going to come home to play in Green Bay, but he was apparently drawn to the warmer weather in the Valley of the Sun.

“I’m also not going to lie to you. It’s nice when it’s 65 and sunny when I woke up this morning,” Watt told reporters at his introductory press conference.

We’ll see how he feels when it’s 115 degrees in the summer.

Pretty clever!

Over in the world of soccer, third-tier Czech side Slavia Karlovy Vary lost to Slavia Prague, the country’s most powerful club, 10–3 in Czech Cup action. It wasn’t all bad for Karlovy Vary, though. The smaller team turned plenty of heads with this clever set piece routine.

The Karlovy Vary players huddled up in a circle and pretended to discuss strategy, then broke apart as the kick was delivered, leaving the Prague defense flummoxed.

I bring this up because it’s funny to see such a simple strategy work so well and because it reminded me of something from when I played lacrosse in high school.

The coach of our freshman team was called Coach G. He was a boisterous guy fresh out of college who would have fit right in on the cast of Jersey Shore. He drew up a play for us that looked a lot like this one. A player would run behind the goal with the ball and the other five players on offense would bunch up about 15 yards in front of the goal. The guy with the ball would yell something and everybody would streak toward the goal with their stick up, calling for the pass. He called this play “New York” because he was from Long Island and wasn’t great at coming up with creative play names.

It worked almost flawlessly. A freshman team isn’t disciplined enough on defense to adjust its assignments that quickly. One or two guys would always be open, and so we ran it in most games.

The next year, Coach G left and started coaching the JV at the school across town. At one point in our game against Coach G’s new team, we saw our rivals setting up this unmistakable play. All the sophomores on the sideline immediately started yelling “New York! New York! New York!” Our new coach had no idea what we were screaming about, and neither did the majority of the guys on the field.

The play resulted in a goal, of course, after which Coach G pointed at our sideline, cackling maniacally. I think he might have even grabbed his crotch. 

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Email dan.gartland@si.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.