KJ Henry reveals secret behind wake surfing

ACC Media Days is supposed to be where the country if first informed about the upcoming football seasons of the conference’s teams. Or, it can be used to learn about water sports. When Clemson defensive lineman KJ Henry took the stand last week, he answered plenty of questions about football. However, right before he left, one reporter asked him: “Wake surfing? What’s the secret to being a good wake surfer?”

And Henry actually had quite an in-depth answer:

“It’s all about balance, number one, and number two, it’s really just getting over the ‘I can’t do it.’ I think I have a lot of teammates, a couple to my left, who can’t get up on a wake surfboard. Half the problem is they just tell themselves they can’t do it. That’s kind of what I figured out is I’m going to get this thing done.”

If a 6-foot-4, 255-pound defensive lineman mastered wake surfing, everybody else should be able to as well. Just got to put your mind to it.

And for Henry, he finds a balance in life out on the water.

“It’s definitely — being on the lake in Clemson is what I love to do. Especially during the summer because there’s nothing else to do. It’s something that I enjoy, no doubt about it.”

Henry reveals biggest lesson learned from Dabo Swinney

KJ Henry did get a chance to answer a number of actual football-oriented questions last week as well. One of which was about Dabo Swinney and what the veteran Tigers coach has taught the veteran player over his time at Clemson.

“I think the biggest lessons I have learned from Coach throughout my career is how he treats all of us. He tells us all the time he is not going to treat us equally, but he will treat us fairly.”

According to Henry, “that’s just a testament of learning and getting to know each player, each staff member he has and doing the best he can to bring out the best in them.”

Henry came to learn that Swinney’s style of coaching every player in their own way is vital. That now as a leader of the team in the locker room, he has to take after his coach. Not every younger player can be led in the same way. Sometimes, you have to relate to different players in different ways to connect with them.

“That’s probably the biggest lesson I learned in trying to help lead the team. On this defense, you can’t really attack everybody the exact same way. People learn differently. People understand things differently, and I have to get to know my teammates and my coaches in order to get the best out of everybody, and that’s probably been the best thing I’ve learned from Coach Swinney over my time.”