Champions are essentialists! They know what they need to do and then they set out to do what is necessary, no more, no less. No doubt there are a thousand thing that they could do, but they chose a laser focus on the need to do things that will advance them toward their goal. They also realize that that there are always tradeoffs, in many cases this means you can’t do that.
GAIN is a community of professional’s eager to learn and willing to share ideas and information. GAIN is not about more exercises, sets, reps and training methods it is about passionate people who pursue excellence with honesty, integrity and respect to make a difference in the lives of the people we coach and teach. Who […]
Looking back to gain perspective may at first seem counterintuitive but stay with me on this. Think of the rower in a single scull, their back is to the finish line, they are looking back from where they come from on the previous strokes to stay aligned and moving toward the finish line. We can also gain perspective by looking back on where we have been – that perspective comes from experiences good, bad and indifferent.
Holidays are a special time of year. A time for giving and sharing. A time for the joy of living. A time to love life and all its surprises. We do live in a time of turmoil and profound change – embrace the change and recognize that change is a constant and in order to stay the same we must change. The holiday season is time to be the best you that you can be. Share your best you with with those you love.
My interest in what it takes to be a champion started early. As a youngster I was always questioning why? Why was that player better? Why did that team win all the time? As I got older and played football in college there were clear differences that became apparent. At first, I thought it was just talent. If you have talent you were successful, it was that straight forward or was it? If that was the case, then why was one of the most physically talented guys on the team sitting next to me on the bench? Then why did teams that appeared to have less talent consistently win?
GAIN 2020 will be held June 16 to 20 at Rice University in Houston Texas. This is the thirteenth year of GAIN; it started 2007 with twelve attendees and four instructors and has grown to ninety attendees from all over the world and eighteen faculty. GAIN is a community of professional’s eager to learn and willing to share ideas and information.
In life and in coaching it is important to focus on what really matters. What matters most is relationships – people – the human element. In today’s world of instant information and big data it is easy to forget that the numbers, data, scientific measurements are one-dimensional – we coach people who are multidimensional. They are not machines; they respond to care and concern.
These are my picks for the best books I read in 2019. As you can see I am light of sport and heavy on history and biography.
The whole concept of load management as it is being interpreted and implemented is beyond me. Frankly, it makes no sense. Call me old school, but isn’t good planning and training design that prepares the athlete for the rigors of competition what we are supposed to be doing? We have reduced the quality and intensity of training to meet magic numbers developed by flawed measurement devises based on artificial algorithms.
It is always interesting to see how great teams and great athletes always find a way to prevail. They can be banged up, tired and off their game and yet they still perform at a high level. To me that is a crucial difference between good and great.
