Mirror Test
Last week Alex Rodriguez became mitigated to a cheerleader when his team needed him most. A-Rod, as he’s known, is one of the best hitters of the past 20 years, yet his success occurred during the heart of the steroid era. He has dated Kate Hudson and Cameron Diaz, owns a Mercedes dealership, is a 12-time all-star, has made over 325 million dollars, and has won a MLB championship. Yet, I wonder what A-Rod sees when he looks in the mirror? Does he think, what if? Is he happy? He came into the Majors as a phenom, as the first pick of the draft, and was very successful early in his career. What if he stayed away from steroids? How much money and fame would he sacrifice to know that he played the game cleanly? How much does he strive for acceptance and desire to be well liked by his peers, the fans, and the media? We will probably never know the answers to these questions, but these are relevant questions for us everyday.
Similarly Lance Armstrong has not only dominated his sport, but has made an even bigger impact with his fight against cancer. Armstrong’s continued denial of taking performance enhancement drugs has caused many to question his integrity. At what point would Lance have sacrificed some of his success to avoid having to continuously lie to others and himself?
When is it appropriate to sacrifice integrity for greatness? How fulfilling is winning when you know you cheated to get there? Is your satisfaction solely due to the end result, or because of the journey along the way? 41% of National Lottery Winners in the UK continued to work despite their newfound financial windfall. Many lottery winners have committed suicide or figured out other ways to rid themselves of their wealth. What do you see when you look into the mirror?
Knowing who you are, your identity, and what you believe in is often what defines our self-satisfaction, which greatly impacts our happiness. And happiness counts.
Linear Periodization (Yawn...?)
Grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable. I'm about to talk programming and, more specifically, my personal experiences with linear periodization: My go-to programming style is, and always will be, the conjugate sequence system. The reasons are many, but to simplify, I just plain consider it the most effective and safest way to improve strength, power, and athletic performance in most advanced athletes while ensuring that serious CNS fatigue stays at bay.
Plus, because the BULK of my programming experience has been for sports where the goal, from a S&C perspective, is to allow the athlete to perform close to their best for upwards of 2-months in many competitions that are all equally important. The constant cycling of compound lift variations and set/rep schemes lends itself quite well to these types of sport.
So, when I began working with track and field, who are only interested in peaking twice a year, the seeming simplicity was almost too much to bear. I found myself working with coaches who implemented their own linear periodization on the track and wanted the weight room sessions to mirror in terms of both volume and intensity.
This meant *gasp* that I would have to resort to programming bench pressing and squatting at repetitions that sometimes exceeded sets of 10. I know that sounds kind of silly, but for women who squat in the 300's and men who hover around 450, a 4x8 back squat session can get pretty out of control.
My first year with track and field I spent many painful hours trying to unravel the mysteries of linear periodization (mountain out of a mole-hill? I'd say so). I even went so far as to get a USATF Level 1 coaching certification in an effort to find some solid footing.
Well, fast forward a couple years, and we've won our conference the last three years and had numerous successes on the road to nationals each season.
Despite this success, I still had a problem. I couldn't accurately identify with the athletes as they trudged through what I believed to be an extremely intense training program.
I've always prided myself on personally experiencing virtually components of every program I've ever implemented. This is critically important because it helps me communicate and relate to the athletes better than if I have no experience with what they're going through.
Why had I never done this with the track program? I've actually got a couple good reasons: Baby #1 followed by Baby #2. But, no longer being in the pregnancy cycle, I figured I could probably manage my way through the sprinters and jumpers weight training program. That or I'd hurt myself trying.
In my next post I will dive into the details of this training plan and how I've been progressing.
Here are a couple teasers: 1. I haven't experienced this much muscle soreness in at least 5 years. 2. I'm amazed the team hasn't attempted a full blown mutiny given what they do on the track is followed immediately by my program. Remember, the programs mirror each other in volume and intensity. 3. My lift today really almost made me throw up. Happily, my iron stomach once again proved to have the upper hand. 4. I'm getting much stronger very quickly.
Until next time...
I Love My Fear
One of my favorite quotes is from Dave Tate. He said, “Real fear makes men do amazing things they would never do without it.” I’ve done a lot of reflecting over the past couple of weeks and what Dave said has really stuck with me. As I lead my life in other directions I look forward to but also fear the future. I fear falling into “that’s just the way it is” mindset, I fear defeat, I fear feeling I put myself in a situation where I can’t make a difference, I fear that I’m leaving a one-of-a-kind place. But just as Tate says, I love my fear. Is that weird that I feel that way? Is it weird to say that yes, I do love my fear. If I was just a normal person who had never set foot in SAPT’s doors then maybe it would be. However, as I leave SAPT I feel ready and able to embrace my fears. Reflecting back on the years at SAPT I remember vividly entering the facility for the first time and being in awe. I was in awe of the work ethic, the drive, the training, the coaching, it was all amazingly overwhelming. I felt like I couldn’t hang with any of them; the coaches, the athletes and clients, they were all above me. What could I offer these people? As I’ve gone on these past couple of years those fears have gone away; I’ve become a good coach and an even better man for being at SAPT. The coaches who I now call family and the athletes and clients I’ve worked with have made me understand that if you embrace your fears you can make a difference. I don’t know if the coaches and people of SAPT understand just how important they’ve been in making me the person I am but I hope they do. I hope they realize how thankful I am to all of them for everything they’ve given me. Leaving SAPT is extremely hard for me and I want everyone to know that I am eternally grateful and I truly wish you all nothing but the best life has to offer.
As I said before I fear the future, I fear falling into “that’s just the way it is” mindset, I fear defeat, I fear feeling I put myself in a situation where I can’t make a difference, I fear that I’m leaving a one-of-a-kind place. However, in reflection I’ve come to understand that I am not truly leaving SAPT because SAPT is not something you leave. Once you’ve been there it becomes a part of you and it is a place that will be with me always. With all this said if there is one thing the people and coaches of SAPT have taught me it’s that, you have to love your fear.
How Will You Succeed?
I stumbled across this on Facebook the other day. Normally I just scroll through things like this; it doesn't usually make a huge impact on my day. For some reason though this one stuck when I saw it. I'm not entirely sure why but it just struck a chord with me, and I really liked it. I believe it was the first line that might have done it for me, "I succeed because I am willing to do the things that you are not." I have a lot of changes going on in my life and this line made me think about all the athletes and clients I've worked with over the past couple of years at SAPT. The large majority of which have succeeded or will succeed in the near future. Is this because of me or the other coaches at SAPT? I say no. The coaching staff at SAPT is merely a vehicle our athletes and clients have used to travel on the road to success. It's something they posses within themselves that has gotten them to where they are. As I said SAPT was just the vehicle, it was up to them to turn on the car and drive down the path. The people I look back on and also the ones I currently watch train now have something their peers do not. They succeed because they are willing to do the things their peers are not. They are willing to wake up in the early morning during their summer break to come train hard. They are willing to come in after a long, hard day at work and get after it. They are willing to train through and around injuries. They are willing to hold onto hope that they will get past those injuries, even when it seems like all hope is lost they still do not ever give up. And they are willing and able to understand that success does not happen over night but only through hard, grueling work.
When I think about the kids, teenagers and adults I've worked with I am in awe of their drive, their tenacity and most importantly their heart. I am forever grateful to them for the inspiration and motivation they have given me and the other SAPT coaches. They will never stop getting better, they will never give up... Ever. That is why they succeed.
How will you succeed?
Good Goals
Every athlete has goals they want to achieve. The problem isn’t always the desire to have goals, but in the way the goals are set. I often use Allen Iverson as an example of someone who always talked about his goal of “winning a championship”. Yet, Iverson’s infamous comments about “practice” have long lived in Youtube lore, with close to 6 million hits. There’s no doubt that Iverson was one of the greatest scorers of all-time, and his will to compete when the lights were on was unbelievable, but perhaps his goal of winning a championship never occurred because of his lack of organized goal setting.
Many athletes are misguided in where they direct their attention. Often they focus on outcome goals—win a championship, be an all-star, average 20 points per game, etc. While setting outcome goals can be effective, and I believe they are somewhat necessary, setting practice goals that give you a road map are even more important.
As an athlete you determine how you practice. Sure a coach may have you for an hour or two a day, but after that you can decide how you want to use your time. Create practice goals that you want to accomplish on a daily, weekly, and monthly level. Goals like making 50 free throws a day, 300 a week, and 1200 a month. Create a process for success.
While playing time is largely out of your control, the amount you work on your craft in practice is almost completely in your control. Practice goals lead to improvement in skill, which leads to the best opportunity to getting the desired outcome. The process of improvement should be at the forefront of your mind rather than simply the dream.
What goals do you want to establish today? How can you improve today so that you’ll be better tomorrow? What’s going to give you the best opportunity to succeed a year from now? Know your outcome goals, but direct your attention to your process.
Try Adding Some Humor to Your Day
As of late I have been trying to purge negativity from my life. I am a pretty fun loving guy and joke around a lot but I still feel that I often focus too much on the negative. Most of the time its things I have no control over or things that are 10-15 years in the future that I worry about, stupid I know. With all that said I had the pleasure of listening to Ron Culberson speak the other day; taken straight from his bio "Ron Culberson, is a speaker, author and humorist who helps staff and managers achieve success through the philosophy of Do it Well, Make it Fun." His whole message is to not take life so seriously, especially at work. You can still be extremely successful at your job and in life while not taking it so seriously or being negative. Take a look at the video to get a feel for what Ron's message is all about.
It was funny that at the same time I heard this speech was at the same time I decided to make this change of eliminating as much negativity as I can from my life. One thing that really rang true when listening to Ron speak was he told a story of when he was talking to a terminally ill patient. The patient said "Where does the time go?" His point in telling this story was that time just doesn't fly when your having fun, time flies in general. I don't know about you but that really hit home with me. Our time on this earth is extremely limited and I plan on working hard but be assured I'm going to have fun and joke around while I'm doing it. So enjoy yourself at work today, there is always a day to make the journey funnier.
These guys have the right idea...
