"Talk To 'Em" (Your Negative Thoughts) Athlete Transformation Through Music Writing w/ Ben Lofrumento
Ben Lofrumento is a former standout tennis and basketball player whose senior season ended before it even began due to a knee injury sustained while training. Ben is currently a college student at the University of Maryland and decided to take a gap year due to COVD-19. Don’t get it twisted, this kid isn’t using this gap to chill out and collect Dorito dust in his Mom’s basement. He is using this time to gain professional experience, create YouTube content and inspire viewers with his expertise on mindset.
I came across Ben’s road to recovery on my good friend George Muha’s Morris Sussex Sports (MSS) podcast (featured further down in this post). Off the bat I was extremely impressed with the maturity level of Ben’s approach to his recovery from his knee injury and more recently his shoulder surgery. After speaking with Ben on the phone after his interview on MSS, I learned about some creative and healthy outlets Ben immersed himself in while most would be sitting around feeling sorry for themselves. Specifically, Ben took up music writing and recording and ended up recording an album. He is most proud of the song “Talk To ‘Em,” which is featured below. I recommend listening to the SONG prior to listening to the interview, because we spend the majority of interview dissecting lines of the song.
We also had an interesting realization that the process for transformation’s to life after sports often start with activities that start off as distractions, but quickly become fun due to gaining progress in the task at hand, and in Ben’s case, this was writing music. For me, it happened to be creating this podcast.
“Talk to em, at the end of the day just know that I am boss to ‘em.”
“I had a torn meniscus made me comprise the mission...made me livid and malicious”
“Had to make a pivot, had to change my thoughts to optimistic”
“Once I saw that bigger picture, I don’t hear a sound”
“I used the pain to make my mind a weapon, turned into my armory.”
“I used charisma and sorcery to make that harmony.”
“When I was in the rain, I learned to develop acceptance.”
“I do this for myself, I don’t need the clout.”
Below you will find more talking points of this interview:
The knee injury that kept Ben from playing his senior year of basketball.
Why one’s ability to adjust and having a capacity to adapt is important.
How song writing come into the picture.
Other healthy outlets Ben found during his recovery process (Entrepreneurship).
How tennis different senior year.
Why having perspective has been helpful while recovering from the shoulder injury.
Why how you show up so important.
Why falling in love with the process and not the outcome so important in injury recovery and transformation to life after sports.
Ben’s definition of toughness.
