I
am amazed at how often synchronicity seems to be at work in the
thinking, reading, watching, listening and conversing that we do.
Recently, following a bout of flu and a chest infection, I've been
trying to get my training mojo back – particularly difficult when
it's cold and dark after work, you're tired, and all you want to do
is have a sit down, a warm drink and watch Brooklyn Nine Nine or The
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on TV. But I digress....
Anyway,
when I'm trying to get some motivation I often turn to my collection
of books about training or scrapping, particularly those old
favourites that spark something off in my brain, reminding me of what
I love about training whether it's rolling around on mats, hitting
things (or more likely being hit), or picking up heavy(ish) objects
and carrying them somewhere else or just putting them down again.
Dan John is one of my favourite authors for the following reasons:- He's even older than me and he's still lifting, throwing and carrying heavy things.
- He's a world class rambler (and I'm not talking hiking).
- Unlike a lot of internet authors he's actually done stuff and achieved, and then coached others to do stuff. Successfully.
- He's got some good stories – a coach load of student athletes coming across a serious car accident. In the mountains. At night. Caused by a deer?!?! We can learn from these stories, honestly.
- His stuff works/is true/is often fun to do.
What
more could you want in a Strength and Conditioning coach? Anyhow,
the search for a motivational kick up the arse often leads to Coach
Dan's literary works and the quest resulting from my recent slump has
been no exception.
In
his article '40
years of insight' Dan talks about the value of consistency:
When
I first began throwing the discus as a 118- pound tower of terror, I
won a lot of meets. No matter what, the kids at the other school
would tell me, "If (insert name of fat kid) would've been here,
he would've beaten you." I used to believe that crap. Whenever I
win something, especially now in the Internet age, I always find out
later that "somebody else" would've won it if, of course,
they'd just shown up.
Folks,
it's a truism that should be stuck to your bathroom mirror. "Show
Up!"
There's
so much truth in this I don't know where to start. For me it's
always brought home to me when someone at the gym asks me how long
I've been training. I always hem and haw because I know that for the
length of time that I've been going down to the gym I should be a lot
better than I am. Why? Because I've been so damn inconsistent and
out of 10+ years I've missed vast chunks of time, literally years on
a couple of occasions. Had I shown up just once a week, week in,
week out I reckon that I could be..... well, much better than I am
now. Both Dan John and Jim Wendler (To quote T-Nation “If you
don't know who Jim Wendler is you're probably not very strong”)
talk about the benefits of going to the weight room when you planned
and getting the work done. You don't have to kill yourself while
you're there, just do what you planned to do, the essential stuff
that allows you to progress next time you train. Make a deal with
yourself, “I'll just go and do X, then I'll call it quits”.
Occasionally you'll probably do more than just X just because “well,
I'm here now, I might as well...”.
I
have an outstanding facility for negative self-talk, that voice in my
head that makes me question whether I really want to train, am
I not too tired, what about that little niggling injury? I
previously wrote about this in relation to making
time to train and although it continues to be something of a
problem for me I have managed to diminish it through challenging my
own thought processes – Just go, if you're hurt you can stop.
If you're tired you can go light, take breaks or just watch the
teaching part and learn. What's the worst that can happen? I
might just learn something.
Challenging negative thoughts can be quite an involved process and is a key component in forms of cognitive behavioural therapy. If you're interested in this there are some good example questions with which to challenge your thinking here.
Anyway
back to synchronicity. Speaking to Nathan, the Coach at the gym I
train at, we got talking about the practise of coming to training –
not the training itself per se, rather the act of showing up
and taking part especially when your mind is tricking you in to
thinking that you'd rather do something else, sitting on the sofa
watching American hit comedies for instance. This action can be seen
as one of the integral and key lessons of martial arts training;
self-discipline. It's probably one of those magical Mr Miyagi-esque
lessons that transfers effortlessly from the Dojo to real life –
the ability to make yourself do stuff when you don't really wanna,
when you're tired or just plain bored. You know, the kind of things
that parents want to instil in their kids so they sign them up to
Karate.
So
here endeth the lesson: When in doubt, just show up.
Of
course not showing up can easily become quitting, but that's an
article for a different day...
