2012 USAPL Richmond Open: Opening Attempts
The 2012 USAPL Richmond Open is a couple days away and I’ve officially switched into competition mode. This has been a very up and down training cycle. I’m attributing this to trying to get used to my gear and my own impatience. This is my first geared competition (single-ply) and I spent FAR too much time trying to get a lot of weight out of my gear. I rushed into trying to get a lot of support out of my gear which in hindsight was the worst thing I could have done, why? People spend years trying to figure out and use their equipment correctly; I tried to figure it all out in about 11 weeks. This took all of my energy and focus off the NUMBER ONE thing…. Getting stronger! Instead of spending those 11 weeks trying to get the most weight out of my equipment I should have just been trying to get stronger. After all this time I’ve gotten VERY little help out of my equipment and didn’t get much stronger at all. It was extremely impatient and immature of me to do that and trust me when I say I have learned from my mistakes. I know now that learning the gear will come I just need to focus on getting strong. With all that said I’ve sat down and examined everything that has gone on and what I hope to accomplish out of the meet and it’s quite simple…. Perform to the best of my abilities and get at least an 1100 pound total. I put all of this behind me a couple days ago and am now completely focused on the positive. I can tell everyone one thing, no one will compete as hard as me and no one will leave it all on the platform like I will.
Opening Attempts...
[vsw id="l8i1aIImtx4&list=UUKSYQ75Buogznl62rdbks2Q&index=1&feature=plcp" source="youtube" width="425" height="344" autoplay="no"]
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
-Theodore Roosevelt
Steve & Kelsey Compete in a Wife Carrying Contest
I just returned from a trip to Pennsylvania and was trying to think of a very brief yet entertaining blog to post before heading into SAPT for the day. What immediately came to mind was to share a snippet of something AWESOME that Kelsey and I got to participate in last weekend: A wife carrying contest. What are these weird and wild things I speak of, you ask?
Well, some good friends of ours are getting married, and, instead of holding a women-only bridal shower (which is typically done....I think...) as part of the pre-wedding festivities, the couple wanted to have a large group, co-ed get together. Since their goal is to move to Finland after they get married, they desired to host a Wife Carrying Contest in honor of the national game of Finland.
Needless to say, the event was hilarious, fun, and challenging all at the same time (more than one couple took a spill upon the man tripping and falling headfirst).
Annnnddd......Kelsey and I took the gold medal, so you can rest assured your SAPT coaches did you proud! (Kelsey wrote a post on training for a wife carrying contest HERE, if you're interested)
Fortunately, someone grabbed an action shot of us, so I have proof that I'm not making this entire contest up:
"Why are you carrying Kelsey upside down like that" is probably the question you are asking me. Well, there are typically four ways to carry the woman (piggyback, over-shoulder, fireman carry, and upside down), and since the upside down method is the one typically used by the national champions in Europe, I figured I'd be foolish not to carry Kelsey like that. Naturally.
Here are a few wife carrying contest rules:
- The course has two dry obstacles and one water obstacle (typically a meter deep).
- The minimum weight of the wife to be carried must be 108lbs. If the wife does not weigh this much, then she must wear a backpack/rucksack on her to make her weigh at least 108lbs.
- The contestants only run the race two at a time (so you only have two couples running at once). The best time is then taken to determine the winner.
- The winner receives the wife's weight in beer.
- And, perhaps my favorite: The wife to be carried may be your own, the neighbor's, or "you may have found her farther afield", but she must be at least 17 years of age.
I'm heavily considering traveling to Maine (the North American wife carrying contest is held up there) to do this because, well, I don't think I really need to explain why this would be so epic.
Anyway, I'm done for now, hope you all have a great weekend.
3 Awesome Things I've Learned...
I’ve been in the strength and conditioning field for a very short time; luckily I have luck on my side and ended up surrounded by very smart people. Whether it’s coaching, watching my colleagues coach, reading, or training myself I consistently learn something new every day. With that said here are 3 awesome things I’ve learned both as a coach and as someone who trains.
- Keep things simple…
If you’re an inexperienced lifter or you’re dealing with an inexperienced athlete don’t try and get to crazy; you’re not and their not as advanced as you think. Squatting (bodyweight, goblet, barbell), deadlifting (kettlebells, trap bar, straight bar), and pressing (pushups, bench press, overhead press) are the best ways to gain strength, power, and body awareness. If you are just starting out or are coaching someone who is just starting out you will be much better off refining these motor patterns, using progressive overload, and coupling them with unilateral movements like split squats, stepback lunges, bowler squats, single leg balancing. I don’t care if someone is 8 years old or 50 years old these movements form the foundation for athletics and everyday life and should be learned proficiently. Things like powercleans or Turkish getups are awesome but they are advanced. I see absolutely no need to give them to someone who cannot squat, deadlift, or do a pushup correctly. Milk the simplicity of the other exercises for all their worth; you or your athlete will be better for it in the long run.
- Get Experience Under the Bar…
In one of the first conversations I ever had with Sarah was her telling me I need to compete in powerlifting. Her reasons were it would help me learn more about strength and conditioning and it would make me a better coach. I wasn’t quite sure how competing would do both those things but I started training for powerlifting anyway. Time has gone on since then and looking back I completely understand what she was talking about. You cannot be a coach or a trainer unless you get experience under the bar. I was re-watching the EliteFTS BIG seminar with Jim Wendler the other day (which everyone should watch) and he said two things that really stuck with me. Keep in mind I’m paraphrasing here but he said something along the lines of “I have authority on the subject (strength training) because I’ve had a bar on my back, not because of a certification I have or something I read” and later “everything you want to know about lifting can be learned through training”. These are bold statements but they are absolutely true.
If you’re a coach you need to try everything out, you need to get some scratches on you or no one will take your advice. It’s like a tennis player telling you how to improve your golf swing because they read an article about it once, doesn’t make any sense. And if you’re just trying to train stop reading internet articles all day long and go put a barbell on your back and squat it, go pull something heavy off the ground and then press something off your chest or over your head. You can listen all you want to this guy or this girl but the truth is you will NEVER know what works until you do it yourself. Get under the bar!
- Don’t Ever be Content and Always Have Fun…
This is where I feel people lose it. No one should be content whether it’s your knowledge base, your numbers, the money your business brings in, your teaching abilities, it doesn’t matter always strive to be better. If you’re a coach you shouldn’t ever come to a place where you say “I know everything I need to know” because you don’t. The greatest strength coaches in the world still educate themselves and then apply it. This is what’s going to make you and your athletes better. If you’re just a person trying to get stronger that’s great but once you hit a specific goal, don’t stop there, make a new one. I’m not saying don’t be happy about what you’ve done because that’s ridiculous. You should be happy about what you’ve accomplished and you should reflect on those achievements but strive for more.
This leads into my next point of having fun while you’re doing all of this. There hasn’t been one day where I haven’t had fun training or coaching. Are there days where I’m tired and don’t necessarily feel like going to train? Yeah, but by the end I had fun and am glad I did it. And as far as coaching or teaching for that matter, if you’re not enjoying helping people get better and realize their potential than you need a new career. That has been the best part of coaching and teaching for me is that I can truly have fun. I can joke around with the clients and athletes and I can help them reach their goals. People want to be so serious and mope around all the time, I don’t get it. We have all had some bad stuff happen in our lives but its our ability to overcome that makes life great. Life is truly short and we need to enjoy it and have some fun while we’re living it. With that said, I’ll leave you with this… because it’s funny!
Runner's High Measured in Humans, Dogs, & Ferrets
Here is some pretty cool research highlighted by SweatScience. I don't so much care about the ferrets, but the measured "high" in humans and dogs is fascinating!
A Tool for the Toolbox
An awesome aspect about being a strength coach is you get to watch great coaches do what they do best and at the same time be taught by them yourself. You have the pleasure of learning and then applying this knowledge gained to your athletes and you alike. The following deadlift refinement technique is not something I made up; again it’s something that I learned from the awesome coaches I’ve worked with and something I’ve been able to utilize with the athletes and my own training. Try this to fix up your deadlift technique… The volume is a little low for some reason (my apologies); better than last time though…
[vsw id="E44ocLkSOu0&list=UUKSYQ75Buogznl62rdbks2Q&index=1&feature=plcp" source="youtube" width="425" height="344" autoplay="no"]
A few supplementary notes…
- This is not something to go super heavy on. This is a tool to refine your deadlift technique.
- Keep the bar weight light but use bumper plates; as I mentioned in the video it was only 95lbs of bar weight.
- As far as band tension goes you shouldn’t be using anything more than a mini band.
- Use this during your warm-up or during your off days as a way to improve your form.
Also the below video is definitely worth checking out if you’re looking for some motivation before going to train. The video is of Jeremy Frey, a strength coach and powerlifter from EliteFTS. This guy is ridiculously smart when it comes to training and STRONG!
[vsw id="4WAkvOnZv7w&feature=player_embedded" source="youtube" width="425" height="344" autoplay="no"]
From High School to College Baseball: Another Success Story & A RANT!
I received an email yesterday informing us that one of our long-time trainees, Kent, has decided to commit to New Mexico State University’s offer to play baseball.
AWESOME!
Kent, and his younger brother Mitch, both committed to their training at SAPT about 2 years ago and take every repetition as if it might be their last chance to improve. That’s serious focus.
The result to this point? Kent gets to play D1 baseball while going to school and Mitch just made his high school’s varsity baseball team as a freshman… in my experience, that’s a pretty solid indicator of promising things to come.
Warning... I'm about to branch off into the promised rant:
Last week I read an opinion article from the NY Times called The Myth of the Student-Athlete. Feel free to read it… although, if you actually like college sports and understand how things really work, you will probably become angry on some level.
My level = enraged.
Gary Gutting is a professor of philosophy at Notre Dame and he attempts to rail the vast majority of college athletes and athletics.
Sadly, he is only really referring to a handful of rogue programs that jump the rails from time-to-time with major NCAA violations. But he is obviously too ignorant and inexperienced – in college athletics – to realize that. Instead, he accuses all college athletics of being, at their essence, worthless.
The truth of the situation?
Those of us who have worked within college athletics for years (it’s 7 years for me) and have taken graduate level classes in understanding how the NCAA works and how violations occur and are dealt with (yes, me again) understand how misguided his “opinion” really is.
There are numerous safety measures put in place in an attempt to keep athletics a positive experience for the student and protect them. Ask any coach how big the NCAA's volumes of rules and regulations have become over the years. In fact, sport coaches have to take and pass regular exams on NCAA regulations or else they can't coach. So, the idea that college athletics is all about money and exploitation is nonsense.
Having the opportunity to play college athletics at any level is a privilege.
College athletics teaches young adults how to balance a packed schedule in an environment where they must succeed (you’ve got to get a certain GPA to maintain the team’s good academic standing and you’ve got to contribute to the team’s successes). Upon graduation, college athletes exit their programs comfortable handling many “balls in the air” this translates well to the professional world.
Returning back to Kent, what has he already gained from athletics?
Extreme discipline as seen in his training and exceptional leadership skills. When he moves on next fall he will begin down a road that will be lined with great experiences, excellent training opportunities, and – the end goal – a higher education degree in whatever he chooses to pursue.
Good luck Kent!!!
