BLOOMINGTON — For Zen Michalski, switching from left tackle to right tackle is like writing with his non-dominant hand.
And for the Ohio State transfer, that’s more than just a metaphor. He joined Indiana football out of the transfer portal in the offseason, and head coach Curt Cignetti and offensive line coach Bob Bostad told him they envisioned him on the right side of the offensive line. So he started making an effort to use his right hand — his non-dominant hand — more frequently in routine daily actions.
“I was like, ‘I’m going to start doing everything with my right hand. I’m going to start holding my phone with my right hand. I’m going to start trying to eat with my (right hand),'” Michalski said Thursday at IU’s media availability. “I really tried to activate the other side of my brain. And honestly, that stuff sounds dumb, but I think it helped me out a lot.”
The redshirt senior said he’s ‘getting there’ with right-handed writing, but it’s less about actually being able to write well than growing comfortable using that hand.
Michalski had never played right tackle before joining the Hoosiers, so adapting to the other side of the line was important. There’s different techniques to blocking at right tackle compared to left tackle, but there’s mental challenges of switching sides as well — which was why he moved his pens and pencils to his other hand.
“After a certain amount of time, your body is programmed a certain way: your hips, your hands, your eyes, just the way that you set, walk, kind of do everything is very technique-based,” Michalski said. “It’s kind of like, ‘OK, I got to relearn all the little basic things that you might not have to be thinking about that I’ve been doing for four years.'”
Michalski has also made progress at his new position on the field. He said Bostad’s coaching has helped him transition smoothly, and that he’s felt increasingly comfortable at right tackle with more time and more reps.
The Floyds Knobb, Ind. native spent spring ball focusing on adjusting to the right side, and he put in extra work over the summer as well. Michalski grabbed offensive or defensive linemen throughout summer to get additional reps in with another body in front of him. He knew how tedious a process it is to change muscle memory, but also how important it is.
“I feel like towards the end of spring ball, I started to feel more natural. It’s really just about reps,” Michalski said. “I feel like it’s about getting out there and doing it as many times as you possibly can against real guys. Just stacking reps.”
Michalski joins the Hoosiers after four years at Ohio State. He started just once in that period for the Buckeyes, and suffered an injury last season that kept him out of the Buckeyes’ final nine games, including their run to the national championship.
After that season ended, he knew he needed a change of scenery. He felt burned out after a grueling career at Ohio State where opportunity had largely passed him by. That led him to IU, and he said the new environment has reinvigorated his love for the game.
“You’ve done something so long in the same place, the same (people). I think that just a fresh start with something new was going to be good,” Michalski said. “I could kind of just feel, especially after the season. Like, it was a long season. I got hurt and I had to come back from that, and it was just a grind. And I was like, ‘Man, I feel like for my fifth year, I just need to do something new.’ I needed to be somewhere different.”
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