‘Half of the Americans currently in their baby-boomer years, ’reports The National Center for Health Statistics, ‘have high blood pressure and 40 percent of them are obese. Only a third of adults exercise actively and 20 percent of patients older than age 59 suffer from diabetes’.
Mr. Disterdick’s on a mission to change that. “I was kind of the youngest kid… skinniest kid, …so in sporting events I used to be picked last, recalled the North Hollywood native.
Hard to imagine with all the medals and championships he’s won since. It was his tough childhood that molded him into the man he is today. He was tall and skinny, the target of bullies at school, and “I had no relationship with a father, growing up, playing ball, doing stuff, talking about things; it just didn’t exist” His life lessons came from the street.
His father was six-foot-six — an imposing, denigrating presence – and John grew up with zero self esteem and was afraid of being hurt in sports.
But, by 17, he could endure it no longer when he headed off to Purdue University, never to allow himself to be picked on or intimidated again.
He tried out for freshman football as a walkon, but didn’t measure-up. “There where so many huge players, and I was still skinny and tall. I had played a little end trying out, but just the pure size of these guys and how hard they where hitting, I just realized this is going to be a disaster”.
But he was tenacious, and in spite of never having competed in swimming, he managed to make the team and become cocaptain by his senior year. “That was my big jump into the sports world.”
He was hooked! The adrenalin rush when his name was announced, the butterflies before a meet, the traveling, and the ultimate, winning. He never wanted it to end.
Eager to test himself even more after college, he enlisted in the 82nd Airborne and ran track for the 3rd Army, where a Sergeant training in the gym introduced him to boxing “I just started meeting with him, mainly learning how to hit the bag and doing a little bit of speed work,” while boxing in some local meets. He learned the value of boxing, how intense and demanding 3-minute rounds of boxing could be. He enjoyed it, the workout, the atmosphere and the challenges. Anxious to tackle something else after his stint in the army, John embarked on an acting career, returning to California.
At a casting call he met Sonny Shields, a stunt man. “Sonny had a group that went over to his home in North Hollywood that trained in his backyard ring”.
Sonny’s invitation to work out was exactly what John needed. He was now training with a large
John wasn’t content just with boxing, he competed in speed skiing, (winning the Nationals in 1975), cycling and the triathlon, which was perfect for him, with his background in swimming, running and cycling.
“I started doing the triathlons and got real enamored by it. I had a financial company out there in Burbank, so I sponsored a couple of triathlons and got real interested in competing and…the whole governing body of the sport. The first time it was formed was in my office building in Burbank, California”.
And it was through a fateful response to a job ad from his company, he met his future wife, a beautiful young singer from Chattanooga, Tenn. They have five children, and moved back to Chattanooga after the ’94 Northridge earthquake.
“I really like Chattanooga, enthuses John, “there’s so much orientation here for sportsminded people. They have the triathlons, and they have the water sports, and they have the mountains for mountain biking. It’s a very sports oriented town.”
Once in Chattanooga, John quickly found a rowing club down the road from him, and joined and started sculling. In ’07, the 6’3”, 178-pounder qualified for the Indoor Rowing World Championships to compete in Boston with the top rowers in the world in’08.
It was in Chattanooga that John heard about the Ringside World Championships. Though he hadn’t trained for boxing in some time, he’d continued hitting the heavy bag; and the many sports he participated in kept him in great shape to make a good showing at the tournament.
“I hadn’t been in the ring; I was always just on my own. There’s a gym here, Westside gym…in Chattanooga; they call it Jabbing for Jesus. I met a guy by the name of Jack Godwin, who is actually in the hall of fame here in Chattanooga as a boxer.” Training with Jack prepared him to win his age and weight-division titles in the ’07, ‘08 ’09, ’10 and ’11 Ringside Tournaments.
After competing in a couple of Triathlons, cycling and rowing events this year, John’s now changing his training regime to boxing for this year’s Ringside World Championship Tournament. John’s an amazing, inspirational athlete whose strong beliefs in the Lord have made him a Road Warrior shattering all notions of aging. He’s easy to root for as he laces’em up.
To this Man of La Mancha, there are no Impossible Dreams.
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Manny, Your too kind in your article about me. I use the indoor rowing training as a major part of my preparation for Ringside. I wouls suggest that anyone who wants to build thier cardio ability to look into the Concept 2 rowing machine.
Thank you John for inspiring, Try to get out to Gleason’s this year.