By Bob Baum
The Associated Press

TUCSON, Ariz. - Curt Schilling watched teammate Randy Johnson reach the peak of his pitching career in his late 30s, and wanted to do the same. So he cut out the junk food and took up martial arts.

"I wanted to not necessarily lose weight but trim body fat," Schilling said. "You do that by eating right.

"RJ is somebody who's never had trouble with excess body fat. I talked to him a little bit about it at the end of last year. He gave me some ideas, and I just kind of put together a plan."

Schilling, who turned 36 in November, adopted a new diet under the direction of a nutritionist and even took up the Korean martial art of Tang Soo Do in the offseason. He came to spring training this week 10 or 15 pounds lighter than he was last year.

"I feel good," Schilling said. "I feel very good about what we did about what I got done this winter and how it should affect me this year."

Unlike Johnson, who is almost obsessed with conditioning and diet, Schilling paid little attention to what he ate.

Schilling has had his two best seasons in the last two years as Arizona's right-handed ace alongside the left-handed Johnson. He was 22-6 with a 2.98 ERA and 293 strikeouts in the Diamondbacks' World Series championship season of 2001, then went 23-7 with a 3.23 ERA and 316 strikeouts last year.

The 45 victories equal the most by any pitcher since in consecutive years since Jim Palmer of the Baltimore Orioles in 1975-76.

After an 18-3 start last year, Schilling went 2-2 with a 5.87 ERA in September, but he said his decision to get in better shape had nothing to do with that swoon.

"I finished the year feeling as strong as I've ever felt at the end of the season," he said. "I just had a run of games that I pitched poorly in."

The lifestyle changes, Schilling said, were solely the result of his desire to continue to pitch at an elite level.

"You draw the common thread between Randy and Barry (Bonds) and Nolan Ryan, guys like that," he said. "The one thing they all have is tremendous physical condition. I guess I've gotten by with being at less than tremendous physical condition in the past, and I didn't want to push it.

"So I figured I would be pro-active. I tried to do that this winter."

Manager Bob Brenly said Schilling probably worked harder then he ever had in the offseason.

"I'm not a doctor anything like that, but I've got to believe carrying a little less weight will help his stamina a little bit," Brenly said. "He'll be stronger deeper into the season, and obviously we hope to be playing deep into the season."

As for the martial arts, Schilling said he'd been thinking about taking them up for a long time. The doctor who delivered he and his wife Shonda's fourth child last year taught Tang Soo Do to children, so Schilling decided to begin taking lessons, too.

They worked together four, five, sometimes six times a week, and it's helped him physically and mentally, he said.

"You really understand that a lot of the work, a lot of the practice is based on mental preparation, focus, concentration," Schilling said, "a lot of the same things that I have to use when I'm out there pitching."