Athletic Development

Athlete Development
1

“Your shower shoes have fungus on them. You’ll never make it to the bigs with fungus on your shower shoes. Think classy, you’ll be classy. If you win 20 in the show, you can let the fungus grow back on your shower shoes and the press will think you’re colorful. Until you win 20 in the show, it means you’re a slob.” – Crash Davis, Bull Durham

This quote from the movie Bull Durham summarizes my feelings on athletes and how they handle their training and nutrition.  There are millions of athletes who make a big stink about how badly they want an athletic scholarship or how they dream of becoming a professional athlete.  And all of them talk about how hard they are willing to work to get there.  But when it comes to actually doing what it takes to get there, the number of athletes doing the work necessary to reach their “dream” is somewhere between slim and none.  And until an athlete realizes their potential and makes that dream a reality everything that he or she does that prevents them from realizing that dream just makes them a slob.
2

Alot of athletes work hard enough to make it, unfortunately most don’t work smart enough. Knowledge is the most important training element.

3

Nope Blinky, I agree wholeheartedly with speed kills.
Knowledge is important, but not as important as showing up and doing the right things.

Speedkills - great qoute from an amazing movie

4

How do you achieve anything if you don’t have any knowledge on how to train? I know tonnes of athletes who are extremely dedicated and go to the gym everyday. They spend most of their time doing isolation exercises hoping that this will make them a better athlete. Obviously, it doesn’t… but they are willing to work very hard to get better. They just don’t know how to train and that’s why they will eventually fail.

5

Part of “doing the right things” involves spending the time to educate yourself on what you need to do in order to be successful. This is very individual. It could involve learning about athletic training yourself, or it could involve find a coach to guide your through this or (likely) some combination of these and other elements. However, the key is to do a clear self assessment and put together a realistic plan on how to get there. This certainly involves showing up at the workouts, but it also involves subtle things like making connections that can give you a break and other not-so-subtle things like diet. However, all of these needs and more must be considered in your personal development plan.

Brings to mind something like “failing to plan is planning to fail” or some such pithy quote.

Work hard and smart!

6

Part of working hard is learning about your sport and your training.

7

Obviously, it doesn’t… but they are willing to work very hard to get better. They just don’t know how to train and that’s why they will eventually fail.

One, if they are not succeeding, why don’t they ask for help or educate themselves in the proper way?

I spoke over the phone awhile back with a highly respected member of this forum. In our conversation we agreed that the information on how to train properly is not available on the black market, underground or sold in some dark, back alley. Its right here!

Why don’t they seek it? Too lazy, would rather watch TV, get high, get drunk, IM their friends, hang on the corner, think they know it all, busy reading People, working to buy trinkets, drive to the gym to ride a bike, etc, etc, etc…

Trial and error may take you a lifetime. Face it, nearly every person who walks into a commercial gym thinks they know how to train him/herself. Most of them are wrong and will stay the same way for many years, quit or
yo-yo forever. That’s why those clubs stay open. Some may guess right and make gains. Most will follow the mainstream guidelines put out by BB mags, aeorbic videos, advice from family/friends, NSCA, etc…

Two, many athlete’s perception of hard work is inaccurate. Davies-like training is hard but misleading. Smith machine squats with 4 plates a side looks immpresive, but throw the same weight on a barbell and you better have a few spotters.

Three, most athletes don’t practice their sport enough. I wrote practice, not play. I know hundreds of kids that play soccer and they stink. I only know a few kids that practice soccer when they don’t have to and they are very good.

Four, most athlete’s work capacity is very low.

8

This is what I’m talking about.
The good Information is availible and in the open - but people don’t want to hear it.
They will search over hill and dale though for something that confirms what they already believe, and call this knowledge.
THATs why its more important for people to just go out and do stuff. if they did, then they’d first try just the simplest stuff, then overreach, then learn from the best in their discipline, mimick them, and eventually parse down their training to what works best for them.
that’s the process that has provided gains for me. Of course, that’s also methodical and in that sense scientific. Most people just can’t think like that outside of a chemistry class, if at all.
although trial and error take a while, the lessons stay longer than some abstract study.

9

I’ve stopped believing that you can expect an athlete to handle it for themselves. I have a small % of athletes that just eat up what I teach them and read the resources (including charliefrancis.com and formerly regenerationlab.com) I give them. The rest of them I have to take more energy and find more ways to help them find their way. It’s not always about the small % that do everything, but the large % that do nothing. To have a greater impact in this field, you have to find a way to impact everyone.

In this way it’s very much like the movie Gladiator. We have our hero Maximus (in the form of Charlie, Clemson, David W, etc.) working against the emperor and empire who would have us believe that this is the way that Rome is supposed to be. Marcus Aurelius had a vision for Rome, and this is not it!!

Currently, it’s the blind leading the blind most of the time so who’s fault is it that athletes don’t know what the hell they’re doing?

10

We should go boondocksaints on the blind leaders,
And shepards we shall be…:slight_smile: