The Age of the 'cop-out"

The Age of the 'cop-out"

starts with the word can't.

Personally I hate the word can't, and hate is a strong word. I hate it when I use it accidentally, when my athletes use it and especially when they are using it reference to an obstacle like a lift. It burns me up. It makes me hurt inside hearing people say they can't. It means they've shut down and given up before they even tried. It's an easy cop-out, and I hear it all the time. If they fail after they say that "they can't" do something it's not a big deal cause in their minds that couldn't do it anyway. It's much more scary to tackle an obstacle with "the best that you have" than it is to sit back and not believe you can in the first place.

In 1969 a man went to the moon. I wonder how many people said it couldn't be done. People used to say no one would be able to break past the 4 min mile mark. Roger Bannister ran a 3:59.4s mile in 1954 and many others have done it since. In fact just 46 days later John Landy broke that record with 3:57.9s. Within that year close to a dozen others would run under 4 minutes. A time that was said to be impossible. Belief is a powerful deal.

People used to say that no man will ever be able to run 100m in less than 10sec. People said the body could not withstand such a feat. As if it would just fall apart. Well, Usain Bolt just did in 9.58s, and he thinks he can break 9.5s, of which may be true. How about that?

Can't.....Such a terrible word. Such a defeated attitude. Such an easy way out. There is no victory in 'can't' because you're already done, out, beat.

The interesting thing is, I also secretly love the word can't. When other people are trying to use it against me. It drives me. I remember a few instances where I heard people say I couldn't do something and I was very young. They said "He can't....". You know what it did? It pissed me off. Looking back it's amazing the people that said these things. But it motivated me in a way that's stronger than anything I've ever felt.

You know what it led to? It lead me to find what I could and could not control and use what I had. I could control my attitude, my presence, my tenacity and I could be resilient. It lead to some great things and taught me a lot along the way. One of which is that, if you have any one of those things, then you are going to do well. You may not be the best in the game but you'll go far, and you'll be proud of it. If you attack every moment with everything that you have.

This one word is powerful. It can destroy and build great things. Be careful how you use it.

I suppose I should start this thing.

Hi, 

I am Adam Rees, Director and Head Performance Coach for High Impact Training.  Its about time this blog gets started. Soon this will be a great place to refer to for athletic development, exercise, and nutritional information.

Just to warn you I do not see myself repeatedly spell checking this or making sure everything is grammatically correct. It'll be purely content. Please keep in mind that almost everything I say is meant in the best of ways, and not to be taken offensively as many things can be with fitness and health related issues. 

To give a little background on myself, I grew up in an athletic family that valued athletics. The majority of my earliest memories are being around athletic activities. This was most likely the source of my obsession into the confines of the human body and what it is capable of. I remember being very young and having a strong desire to increase my ability, which is not uncommon, but it always amazed me how some of us were better than others at certain things. What made them better or what made me better? Just like most kids you're told it came down to who worked 'more' or 'harder'. Looking back this obviously had a ton of merit but it was not the only answer, and this became more clear as I got older. 

As a young athlete I worked very hard to make myself better. For a 9 year old to be doing 30 push ups and 100 sit-ups before bed and then a junior high kid to do over 100 pushups and sit-ups every night before bed seems a little crazy, but that was me (that went on and off over, but looking back I think "jeez, did I really do that?".  I was actually very very fortunate to have had one coach in Junior high who really made a difference in my athletic career and he was our wrestling coach. He'd even tell me then but I didn't totally understand, he say "what is your record this year?" This is after my 9th win of the year. "I'd say 9-0." He'd say whats different about you than last year and I didnt know, couldn't tell. The year before I had gone 6-5 in duals. He'd then say,"This year you believe you can wrestle. Last year you didnt believe it." My first year I wasn't that good even though Id been a fairly successful wrestler for a few years before that, its like I forgot how to wrestle. The next year I went 11-1, zero points given up in referee's position, and 13 points given up on the year (dont ask me how I still remember that), and I beat the AAU National Champ that year also. Crazy huh? But I could barely tell you my record from the year before. This was a big step in my athletic career and why I am writing this right now. 

The potential of athletes is an obsession to me. What would happen if we could unleash all the potential of an athlete at any moment in time and then on top of that train that potential to grow and be more applicable to their sport. What if your head/thoughts never got in your way, and you never had to think about what to do, you just 'did'. Wouldn't that be amazing, think of it. Think how many times you hear an athlete say "I'm just thinking way too much". This is a problem, and a very small one compared to lack of motivation and inspiration, and other issues like that. Now, how many athletes do you know that could benefit from being faster and stronger? Every single one of them no questions asked. In every single sport ever developed speed and strength will always be factors, even games like chess, xcountry, and bodybuilding. 

Usain Bolt (by the way, if you cannot see his whole body, then take a look at the foot crossing the finish line that is Usain) just killed olympic records this year in a sport that is highly developed. The training for track and field is ridiculously highly researched, we know tons about this type of training, and we've been implementing these practices for many years, so how is he all of the sudden able to just kill these records and perform feats that no one has even gotten close to before. That is the potential that is still out there that I see. Usain bolt was once just another random boy out there that showed somebody some talent one day and go lucky it was the right guy to show it too. 

Growing up I always wanted that one person to come into my life and tell me this is what you need to do today, tomorrow, next month, etc... I researched and tore through everything I could find. What I found was a bunch of misleading junk most of the time, but really I didn't do sooo bad with all things considered. It sill could've been tons and tons better. The point is that I later set out to become that guy for the other young athletes that are now the ones dreaming of becoming the best and want someone to show them the way. 

I think that is enough for today. Train hard, refer to this regularly as there is much more to come. Next time I will be answering some of the questions I get throughout the week so if you have some go ahead and ask. Till next time.

-Adam Rees

"Life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you respond to it."