Raising his play to a higher elevation

Only a few hours removed from an emotional victory over California, Dave Philistin found himself missing something.

It wasn’t the euphoria of a great game. It wasn’t his mother and brother, who made the trip from New Hampshire to watch the Maryland linebacker roll up a game-high 13 tackles against the Golden Bears.

It presumably wasn’t his appetite, since Philistin happily joined his family for dinner.

Finally, he realized what was different. The exhaustion typically part of the package of playing 70 snaps or so on a muggy, late-summer day wasn’t there.

“Somebody asked me ‘How do you feel’ after the game, I said ‘I could play another game tomorrow.’ That’s how good I felt,” Philistin said. “When I get high tackles in a game, I’m usually like ‘I don’t want to do anything. I don’t want to go out. I want to go to bed.’”

Not any more, not after Philistin arguably made the shrewdest offseason acquisition of anyone in Maryland’s program: an altitude machine that permits the senior linebacker to spend more than 10 hours a day at a simulated elevation.

He certainly isn’t the first to try a nouveau version of altitude training. Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez and Green Bay Packers linebacker A.J. Hawk are among a growing list of athletes who utilize similar devices.

Philistin already senses the results. The senior ranks second on the team with 39 tackles as Maryland (4-1, 1-0 ACC) prepares for Saturday’s trip to Virginia (1-3, 0-1).

“It’s a great advantage when the fourth quarter comes,” Philistin said. “If I can play in the fourth quarter like I do in the first quarter, that’s the ideal as far as playing football.”

A wise investment

Philistin is the freethinking and quirky sort, so it isn’t a surprise alternative training methods would pique his interest, even if it meant putting a clear tent over his bed and lending his dorm room a space-age feel.

“I’ve heard about it, but to see it was like something off a cartoon,” cornerback Nolan Carroll said.

Philistin’s brother mentioned the possibility after watching a segment about Gonzalez, who used a similar machine when he played at Ohio State, and he later bought Philistin the $7,000 device as a gift.

The concept is simple enough. If someone spends enough time in an environment with less oxygen available, eventually his or her body will make physiological adaptations to adjust to the thin air. As a result, the person will be able to fend off exhaustion at a lower altitude and perform at a higher level for a longer stretch.

So Philistin gradually increased the machine-generated altitude, starting at 4,000 feet before a two-week process eventually brought him to 10,000 feet. In addition to sleeping in the bubble, Philistin also watches game film and television and does homework in the unusual environment.

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