Over the past two to three weeks something has been crystallised to me through my own training and watching the training of others. The thing that has been made apparent to me is probably going to sound cheesy but the way someone carries themselves is probably the biggest determining factor towards their success. We can talk all we want about optimising training and transfer using this and that but If your athletes aren’t confident and training like their life is depending on it, then you may as well just hang up your boots.
I have had several conversations with fairly intelligent people who are more than willing to get into the depths of strength and conditioning theory but for all the difference that knowledge makes to your athlete’s actual performance we may as well stay quite or talk about something genuinely interesting.
One common thread runs through all of the good lifters and athletes I have ever come into contact with they all WANT to train and they all WANT to train hard as physically possible. They are the kind of people who require a herculean effort to get them to taper or go easy on an injury.
The sort of lifter or athlete who is keen to listen to the physio or keen for an easy week are the kinds of athletes who don’t progress. Too much attention is placed into pandering or nurturing athletes spending time wrapping them up in cotton wool. It should be the job of the programme to stop athletes from fucking themselves up from training too hard to provide direction for their fire.
Not treating them like patients or infantiles.
Providing an environment that forces those who lack the winning mind set to readjust their ideas and to believe in their own capability will have more positive influence than all the kiser machines in the world.