I have to preface this post by saying this is for athletes who are very serious about their sport and have very high goals. If you think it’s too much, I truly understand and that’s not a slight. This level of commitment isn’t for everyone.
Now, for those that are serious, I just want to give you a glimpse into where my views and expectations grew from.
We’ve all gone to some type of sporting event or show as general admission where you pay for a ticket and just sit with the crowd. Once in a while, probably through some sort of connection, we get blessed with the VIP treatment and seats. We can all agree when you get that experience once, it completely changes your view of general admission.
That’s what happened to me early in my training career. It completely reshaped how I view training and my expectations from it.
About two years into my career, I got my first invite to Virginia to watch Justin Kavanaugh work with his pros. That one weekend turned into years of watching the all-day, everyday process of watching one of the best coaches in the world work with his Olympic and NFL athletes.
After experiencing that in-person, the game completely changed for me. I got to see what went into high-level coaching and performance and it was extensive. Every day, from morning until night, I got to see the performance process that encompassed everything from nutrition, rehab, mental, stretching and mobility, lifting, position-specific skill work, speed and agility and beyond. No stone was left unturned.
When millions of dollars are on the line, the attention to detail is always present and the focus on every rep of every movement is laser-sharp. There’s no slacking off. There’s no time for it.
Seeing all of this showed me what’s possible when everything is dialed in. It showed me what the expectations are for me as a coach and what I should expect from an athlete who is serious.
I also learned what the grind really is. You see people talking about the grind every day and I wonder how many people really understand it. The grind isn’t a post with a shaky personal record, a workout or a practice. Training and practicing with your team are the minimum requirement for someone who considers themself to be serious about athletics. I also get parents who tell me their kids are serious about sports and the effort doesn’t match what I was told.
Now, I mostly work with teenagers. They see this and say, “I can’t train all day like a pro because I have to go to school.” I understand. I’m not saying you need to workout for six hours a day. But, if you’re serious, you can adopt that mindset of a pro. That means taking care of everything you can control, while also making sure you’re keeping up with your school work and pulling solid grades.
The grind is every day and it doesn’t stop. The grind isn’t one hard workout or a long day. The grind is doing what you need to do consistently, even when you don’t want to or feel like it.
The grind is making sure you’re eating properly and doing the necessary recovery work everyday. It’s getting those stretching and mobility drills done on your own time. It’s working on your skills outside of team practices. It’s being consistent with your training and not missing sessions.
The grind is majoring in the minor details where you treat the small exercises and drills with the same focus as the big ones. It’s not skipping the smaller things because you don’t find them to be as important. It’s making sure you do everything you need to do to be the best athlete you can while maintaining good grades. You can’t use your preparation as an excuse not to work hard in class.
You’re going to have to make sacrifices and it will be hard.
People will say that’s too much. Like I said, that’s OK and this post doesn’t apply to you. But, if you have big goals, this is the price of doing business. Your effort has to match your aspirations.