Blog

That's right, we are indeed building a team, but not everyone is invited or will make it. Life may not be fair but entry into our team is. Why, because YOU have complete control of entry.

It is said you have control of two things in life: 1) attitude and 2) effort. I completely agree with that statement but we have upped the ante and added two more factors that we believe you have complete control of. These last two make up our T.E.A.M model for success.

 

Technique

Bolt

All I have to do is to work on transition and technique. -Usain Bolt

Make no mistake about it exercise is movement training; returns on movement training are best made when technique is of top priority. There is never an excuse to let technique and form go to crap. Top level athletes practice perfecting their movement skills every day, some general, some specific, but all with the purpose of extinguishing energy leaks and movement compensations.

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. -Bruce Lee

We are quite good at doing but very limited in doing things well. Technique simply cannot fail. Don't be lazy and give into poor positions and posture. Just like a car with shaky alignement, we are also quite inefficient and weak when our alignment isn't positioned how it was desinged to be. True toughness isn't simply grinding through a heavy set of squats and letting technique falter just to get two more garbage reps. True toughness is not giving into the path of least resistance. This means when things get tough and the body wants to lean forward, or the knees want to collapse, to have the discipline to stay the course and understand that technique is never sacrificed. Because at the end of the day the performance model tells us it's not how much we move but how well we move.

Effort

Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it. -George Halas

Give in once, give in twice, go ahead make it a way of life. Excuses may protect your pride but they won't be able to protect you when the bar is in your hand and it's your set. Effort is a yes or no thing. Did I or didn't I bring my best today? For class? For training? For my friends? For my family? For this set? for that rep?

The road to Easy Street goes through the sewer. –John Madden

Upping personal thresholds is quite a difficult challenge for many folks, as they simply don't like pain. Well that is fine, as it takes all kinds to make the world go round, but please don't whine when your progress isn't where you want it to be and then tell me you are working really hard.  

Effort is cultivated and developed over the long run and is perceived differently. What one person perceives as a high level effort may seem like a modest effort to another.

Attitude

Jordan

You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them. –Michael Jordan

Attitudes are cultivated from personal expectations of what life should be like and our perceptions of what it actually is. Is it okay to constantly feel bad for yourself when things aren't exactly how you'd like? Some live with self-pity and loathing every day. It is easy to live this way for certain, but we all know it will ultimately ruin us. When you expect more and better from yourself attitude finds a way to adjust to match that high standard.

Good is not good when better is expected. -Vin Scully

The goal here is create higher standards. High personal standards do not come and go, flee away in a crowd, or disappear when no one is watching. Creating and maintaining high standards takes discipline consistency and integrity, types of words we don't hear much about these days. Expect more from yourself and your attitude will follow suit.

Mental Toughness

Nothing is the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort pain, difficulty...I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well. –Teddy Roosevelt

The will to endure in the face of failure, adversity, loss, suffering, and the looming darkness is mental toughness. Great people accept the fact that easy, is not, nor never was part of the equation for a successful life. Great people in fact, are never merely looking for an easy life. These elite folks have superior expectations for themselves, work much harder than you or I, and are completely committed to the technical aspect of their craft. While we sit back and hope for a better tomorrow, people who shake foundations embrace today; good, bad or ugly.

The road is the road and no matter how beat up or what obstacle lies on the path, we must endure and it is only when we endure that we truly prosper. Life asks us, "Do you want to quit?" Mental toughness responds, "Never!"

I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. –Michael Jordan

Like I said anyone can be on the team, but not everyone will. High standards are just that and exceptional outcomes require nothing less than our best.

So yeah we have high standards for ourselves. We choose to be open and objective about our attitudes and efforts, and very critical of our technique every rep of the way. Why? Because we know that fire sharpens the blade and the path to greatness is paved with these character traits.  You want to be the best teammate you can be?  Make sure you are pulling your weight first.

After every training session our athletes give themselves a T.E.A.M. score of a 1-10, what is your score today?