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Passions & Pursuits

Dr. Joe LaCaze is a man of 3,500 jumps.
By Pamela A. Keene

Joe LaCaze, D.C., CCEP, loves to jump out of airplanes. In fact, he's logged more than 3,500 jumps as a Navy SEAL, a competitive skydiver and just for fun. And when people ask that proverbial question, "Why jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" he answers without missing a beat.

"There's no such thing as a totally safe plane. I crash-landed in two helicopters when I was on the Navy Parachute Team and walked away from both of them," he says.

LaCaze grew up in an Army family, and when the time came he followed his brother Mike into the Navy SEALs, reporting to SEAL training in Virginia Beach, Va., in 1969. Part of his training included parachuting, and as a 19-year-old, he began at Fort Benning, Ga.

He vividly remembers his first military jump. "There were 120 of us on a C-130, 60 lined up at each door, ready for our jumps," he says. "They had taught us exactly what to do, how to count, watch the chute deploy, ?everything. We were on a static line and there was such confusion that I just closed my eyes, jumped and prayed. When I felt the chute open, I finally opened my eyes."

Regardless, he was hooked. Over his 22 years as a Navy SEAL he did hundreds of military jumps. He also represented the Navy on its competition skydive team, doing 150 to 300 jumps in formation annually.

"Military jumps are different from competition. Depending on the number on the team, in competition we have to create a certain number of formations within very strict time limits. Then there's recreational skydiving, and that's another thing altogether."

Over the years, skydiving technology has changed, reducing the amount of physical stress on the lower extremities because of new chute designs. Now, skydivers are trained to land on their feet and take a few steps to maintain their balance.

"It used to be like jumping off a two- or three-story building without much to break your fall," he says. "But now it's intrinsically not as damaging."

He recalls one of his first show jumps as a member of the Navy Parachute Team, the only time he didn't land gracefully. "My feet hit first, then my head hit between my feet. Of course, my family was there for that event, but it's the only time I fell on a landing in front of a show audience."

LaCaze downplays his 3,500 number. "I've got friends who've done 8,000 to 10,000, because they've been jumping in competition forever," he says. "I stopped jumping competitively in 1984 when my youngest child was born." Still, he's quite accomplished as a skydiver. He's done jumps that required oxygen—at 18,000 feet. Most recreational jumps are done at 10,000 to 12,000 feet.

His all-time favorite place to skydive is Puerto Rico, where the SEALs did winter training. "Diving out over the water and the islands there is a beautiful experience," he says. "There's ?almost no way to describe it."

His active life of skydiving led him to chiropractic. While working at the Pentagon toward the end of his Naval career, he decided to have back surgery, a laminectomy, to relieve virtually crippling pain. "My body was trashed after all those jumps and 22 years as a SEAL," he says. "I was hunched over for four months. Before I went in for the surgery, I decided to see a chiropractor in Virginia and I was amazed. When I walked into his office I was at about 40 percent, but within a week I was up to 80 percent. I never had the surgery."

When LaCaze realized the potential of chiropractic for athletes, he decided to attend Life University when he retired from the Navy in the early 1990s. After practicing in Virginia and Peru, he returned to Life and taught spinal biomechanics there from 1998 to 2001, but he didn't shake his love of skydiving. Instead, he shared it with students who often did tandem jumps while LaCaze jumped solo, traveling to a small facility in Rockmart, west of Atlanta, with students in tow.

He has also become a certified extremities practitioner, specializing in the alignment of the feet, knees and hips. LaCaze is a Performance Enhancement Specialist certified through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. He has returned to his home state of Louisiana and now practices in Lafayette, La. LaCaze Athletic Solutions works with athletes to help them reach their maximum potential. He presents seminars and workshops, and contributes articles to professional and sports publications. Twice a week, he teaches plyometrics, an intense form of exercise that helps develop muscular power and raise metabolism. He currently consults with Rick Crawford, who has trained some of the best cyclists ever, including Lance Armstrong and Levi Leifheimer. He spends about a month each year working with the Florida State Swim and Dive Team at their large meets, including the ACC Conference and College Nationals competition. He also enjoys playing golf and helping golfers improve their games by teaching them the principles of body mechanics.

Physical fitness has always been a priority for LaCaze. With a career as a Navy SEAL and his own active lifestyle, he continues to keep himself at peak condition.

"I never want to return to a life of being hurt and out of shape again. I'm in pretty good physical shape now and I plan to stay that way," he says. "I have chiropractic and my knowledge of the human body to thank for that."

However, his focus has changed from jumping out of airplanes; he only skydives four or five times a year. "Today, my passion is my practice," he says. "It's inspiring to work with athletes and see them excel when they incorporate the principles of chiropractic and good body mechanics into their training. There's no limit to what they can do."