Written by Just a few random thoughts that have been running around my mind and some training videos for everyone out there.
Random Thoughts:
- I’ve been struggling as of late when it comes to high school weight training either as a class or after school for sports. It seems to be very few and far between that you have sport coaches/weight training teachers who know what they’re doing in the weight room (I’m not saying all of them). Just talking to athletes about what they do in there blows my mind such as maxing every three weeks with terrible form, crumpling under the barbell during a squat or rounding their back and hitching a deadlift just to get the weight up. Most of these kids can’t do a bodyweight squat correctly, why are they maxing with a barbell on their back? I’m not trying to make people angry but it just seems ignorant when there is so much good/free information everywhere that would help these coaches and their athletes immensely. I attribute this to one of two things, they are to prideful to admit they don’t know what they are doing or they just don’t care to find out that what they are doing is wrong and harmful. Either way it’s unacceptable.
- The previous thought kind of led into the idea of being average. I’ve heard people for as long as I can remember talk about how they are better than “average” or that they don’t want to be just “average”. I always thought that thinking like that was arrogant, or that they felt they were superior. I used to be of the mindset that in order to be above average you had to be something like an astronaut, sports superstar, movie star, bill gates, you know things along those lines. I’m assuming I thought that way because from the time I was in elementary school to the end of high school that’s what I felt I was, just average. Why? Because I was led to believe that’s what I was by OTHER people. It wasn’t until college when I started taking my physical education and exercise science classes that I started to realize that I wasn’t “average” and that I never want to be “average”. I started becoming more confident in my intelligence and through weight training I became more physically confident, and most importantly I stopped listening to negative people. This all lead to me understanding that it’s OK to NOT want to be average. Nobody should want that. Whatever it is that you are currently doing you shouldn’t be satisfied with being average at it. Whether you are a student, strength coach, teacher, sport coach, attorney, grounds keeper, etc. you should STRIVE to be better so you can look back when it’s all said and done and be able to say you left your mark. Anyways the reason why this all got sparked was because I’ve been hoping this is the message that I am instilling in the athletes I work with. There is enough negativity in the world and I REFUSE to be a negative influence when it comes to working with these kids.
- My last thought as of late is that I want to buy a truck. Really not for any other reason than to buy a Prowler to leave in the bed of the truck just so I can always have it on hand in case the mood strikes to push it. Weird right?
Videos:
And without further delay, here are some videos to take your mind off the incoherent rant you just read….
Here are two of our female high school volleyball athletes. I think they are just realizing that they are really strong. SAPT is really proud of all their progress…
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The next video is of one of my training partners and GMU’s S&C graduate assistant John Delgado. He’s currently doing Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 and he decided to get real squirrely with this 315 deadlift for what I believe is 13 reps…
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The last video is of me getting in some work for my upcoming powerlifting competition. My training is going really well and my squats and pulls feel really fast and smooth (bench is still feeling a bit weird and wild). I’m about 7 weeks out from the Richmond Open and I am getting all sorts of jacked up about it.
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Best post yet, Ryan – great thoughts! And, prowler and truck combo weird?? Uh, no – freakin’ awesome!
Great vids of you and John. You guys are gonna kill it at Richmond!!
Great rant and some good eyecandy. I’m eyeballing that trap bar and cant wait until you all have me deadlifting. I just bought a sled to push at home when I’m not at SAPT. Her name is “Rosebud” and I have no idea how to get her in the trunk of my car!
haha I like the Citizen Kane reference. You’ll be on the trap bar soon enough!
Ry – This post caught my attention, of course. I have wondered if the high school training situation really is because the coaches have plausible deniability. They don’t associate their “weight-training” and “conditioning” program as unhealthy for the players since the coaches do not necessarily see the damage they are doing to the kids immediately. These are people who are not required to be certified athletic specialists (but, wouldn’t it be interesting if they did have to get certified in strength and conditioning). Maybe this is the training that they experienced as high school/college athletes or maybe they picked up on a hot trend like “burpees” and whatever else is the pain-inducing move of the week (which is another rant in itself – what I’ve learned at SAPT is that good S&C does not mean it has to be painful or gut-wrenching!). More importantly, I fear that most of the physical damage that is happening is not obvious until they are in season at which point the joints, tendons and/or muscles, etc. may finally react. For the coaches, they will think an injury was due to over-use or not enough “conditioning”. Oops, now I rant.
Good points Jenny. I do believe their heart is in the right place and the intention to get the athletes stronger and better is there; its just not the best way to go about attaining those goals. A lot of times you wont necessarily even see injury right away or during the season rather a cumulative effect will take place that sets the athlete up for injury down the road. Bottom line is the athletes health should be top priority.