When It All Comes Together

When It All Comes Together

Why do I coach Olympic weightlifting?  I ask this question to myself quite often.  I mean from the outside looking in, I might appear crazy.  There isn’t a lot of money in the sport especially the way that I do it.  Heck I pay my top athletes.  My company funds the majority of the expenses for my weightlifting team.  All of this sounds pretty bleak, but this past weekend in Overland Park, Kansas, I was reminded of the reason that I coach this amazing sport.

Weightlifting is the most complex sport that I have ever been a part of.  It’s gymnastics performed with a heavy apparatus that is moving.  It requires strength, speed, mobility, kinesthetic awareness, balance, courage, perseverance, and a tenacious work ethic.  Most athletes that think they like the sport, quit early on, when they find out what it really takes to succeed. 

This complexity is what draws me to the sport.  I am blessed to coach some of the most focused athletes in this country.  My athletes don’t have to be told to show up to the gym on holidays.  They are telling me that they need to train on holidays.  Their desire and determination is the very thing that makes this whole process so personal to me.  My athletes are focused on Team USA, and most of them have a goal of making the Olympics one day.  When an athlete trusts me with these marvelous goals, I take it very personal.  If they are going to trust me with their hopes and dream, I am going to do my very best to help them achieve these goals.

No one knows better than me, how precious these early years are to my athletes.  For most, you have until you are around 30-years-old, and for some maybe 35-years-old to make these dreams into a reality (yes there are a few outliers, so don’t get mad).  I know all to well how quickly those years will come and go.  In a blink this moment in time will vanish right before their eyes. 

I can’t promise that any of them will make it to the Olympics.  At this point in my life I know that it isn’t really about the end result.  It’s about the process and knowing that you did everything possible to make your dream a reality.  I remember the burning desire in my gut to be the best.  I know that my athletes have that same burning.  My goal is to make sure that each and everyone on my team will be able to look back at their lives and know without a doubt that they did everything possible to obtain their dream. 

The team that I coach is without a doubt the most focused team that I have ever coached.  That makes the results from Senior Nationals even more exciting.  Last weekend each member of my team accomplished something important towards his or her goal.  Tom Summa made an incredible comeback after a year off from the sport going 5 for 6 and totaling 314kg earning a Bronze Medal. Rabbit took 5^th in the Snatch and took a crack at a medal.

Hunter Elam became the athlete that we’ve all been waiting on.  She worked incredibly hard for me communicating weekly and sometimes daily to the point that we dialed her in darn near perfectly.  She took home the Bronze overall in the 69kg category, but there is so much more in the tank for her.  She is ready for something much bigger, and now I know that mentally she is more ready than ever. 

The night before Hunter competed, I was tossing and turning more than I ever did for myself when I was still banging it out on the platform.  I have known for a while that Hunter could be the best 69kg female in the country.  I just needed for her to make some lifts and get a glimpse of what she is to become, and she did.  She really did.  She competed and battled right up to the final clean & jerk. 

Man that’s why I coach weightlifting.  It’s my art to the world.  It’s my way of making this cold and dark world seem a bit brighter.  I took an athlete that has been struggling, made a few changes, and voila an improved performance.  Hunter’s performance is like a sculpture that isn’t quite complete.  There is more work to be done before it’s a masterpiece.  However just like a determined artist, I am back in my studio with a desire to compete the masterpiece.

It was the same feeling of accomplishment watching Nathan Damron battle for his first Gold Medal in the 94kg class with a hurt neck and shoulder.  He gave it his all to Clean & Jerk 190kg, while grimacing in pain.  Normally that is a warm up for Nathan, but on this day it took a tremendous amount of heart to stabilize that enormous weight overhead.  I can’t tell you how proud I am of him.  He has grown up so much in the past year.  I know that this young boy has grown into a focused man, so the world of weightlifting needs to be on the look out. 

I have to mention 32-year-old active fireman, Dan Koppenhaver, pulling off a lifetime PR Clean and Jerk of 187kg in his first National meet back from a shoulder injury.  It was the last lift of the weekend for my team, and it was the perfect ending consummating the greatest weekend of weightlifting ever for Team Mash Mafia.

Everyone walked away from the weekend with some major wins and some things to work on.  No one bombed out so that’s always a win.  This past weekend is the very reason that I coach the sport of weightlifting.  I was a small part of putting several smiles on the faces of my athletes, and there is nothing like those smiles on their faces at least for me.  Those smiles warm my heart and remind me why I do what I do. 

Now I am off to the Youth Pan American Championships in Colombia, South America being held next week.  We have three young men competing for Team USA in their first ever International Competition, so I am excited to see how they perform on the big stage.  I am confident that they will all kill it. They are prepared and ready, so we will soon find out if it all comes together one more time.

By the way we dropped our latest EBook "Squat Science", which breaks down every aspect of the back squat.  You can check it out at:  www.mashelite.com/squatscience/ !

Life of a Coach

Life of a Coach

Everyday someone says to me via email, phone call, or in person that they want to coach athletes like I do.  Now I am the first to say that I love what I do, and I love my athletes. I mean I have to love them or I would quit.  Today I want to give you the real skinny on coaching athletes.  Today I am talking about coaching great athletes, or at least athletes that want to be the best that they can be.

Right before I sat down to write this, I read a Facebook post from Greg Nuckols talking about the amount of reading that he does to stay up to date on the latest scientific literature.  The reading amounted to about two hours per day, which is a massive amount of reading.  He added that to be great at anything takes an amount of work that most people aren’t willing to do, and I believe that statement hits the nail on the head.

Let me give you a taste of working with elite athletes.  Right now, here are the situations that I am dealing with:

·      One athlete is dealing with major shoulder pain.

·      One athlete competes this weekend and is totally prepared everywhere but mentally.

·      One athlete is dealing with a major glute strain and back issues.

·      One athlete is dealing with a neck strain.

·      Three are preparing for their first International trip, and I have to make sure that they are mentally prepared.

·      Three others compete at Senior Nationals this weekend.

·      I have a new elite football and basketball high school athlete that is coming off of two ACL repairs.

·      I have three rising freshmen in high school that I have to prepare for combines because they are good enough to get recruited already by D1 schools.

·      One of my elite senior weightlifters is dealing with major back pain.

·      One of my elite junior weightlifters is coming off of a knee strain and is having trouble getting back on the horse.

·      One of my Junior weightlifters came to me with a 265kg total, and we are trying to get him to a 315kg+ total by July.  (We are already at 300kg).

These are just a few of the bigger issues to give you an idea of what it takes.  Now this is definitely more than normal, but this is the situation that I am staring at right now.  If my job were simply showing up and coaching from 2p to 6p everyday, my life would be perfect.  That’s unfortunately not the case.  I have to find time to help each of them deal with their concerns.  For some of them I am required to find an expert outside of our team to help.  For some it is necessary that I perform some research to make sure that I am doing the right thing to address their needs. 

Remember this is not really how I feed my family.  I still have to run my companies, write articles, work on new books and projects, film videos, podcast, travel to competitions/events, and keep up with social media.  It’s a lot y’all.  Let’s not forget my family is always going to be the most important thing on earth to me, so I am going to give them several hours per day.  Not to mention, I am always going to make time for God, which is the most important thing of all.

As you can see, my time is quickly erased.  This article is not to make you feel sorry for me.  I love my life.  I have chosen this life because I love coaching athletes, and I love to teach all of you through writing, podcasts, and video.  This article is to warn all of you people that want to be coached.  I don’t want to scare you away from doing what you love.  I just want you to have correct expectations.

Yeah you can coach some classes, and you can forget about each of your athletes/clients the minute they walk out of your doors.  However, you will never be great if you do that.  It’s a simple as that.  You might build a good business, but no one will remember you as a great coach.  I’m not even sure that you will build a great business like that because people in general are going to hang around coaches that care about them. 

I believe that people deserve that best of me.  When they invest on me as a coach, they deserve a coach that will forever keep learning.  I will never be satisfied with my level of knowledge, and neither should you.  If you really want to be a coach, here are a few questions that you should ask yourself:

·      Do you really love people?

·      Is it easy for you to empathize with others?

·      Are you willing to live out what you are teaching?

·      Are you willing to spend a lifetime of continued education?

·      Are you willing to put the concerns of others above your own?

These are the real questions that great coaches will easily answer ‘yes’ to all of them.  Coaching is spending a lifetime of servitude to others.  It’s not about becoming the most popular coach.  Your goal is to develop the most incredible athlete.  Once again, if your goal is to become rich and famous, you are in the wrong business.  I am not saying that can’t create a thriving business, and I am not saying that coaches can’t form varying degrees of popularity.  These things come from coaches being most concerned about their athletes.  Basically popularity and success are byproducts of becoming a skilled coach that cares more about their athletes than themselves.

I’ll end by sharing the reason why I coach.  I spent the first thirty-five years of my life totally focused on myself.  I was able to accomplish some pretty cool athletic feats, but this life of selfishness left me pretty lonely and feeling unaccomplished.  Even though I was coaching during some of that time, I wasn’t a very good coach because I was more concerned about my own performance.  God has given me an avenue to use that time of selfishness to help others, and I can say that I am 100% more fulfilled. 

Let me give you one example.  At the 2017 Youth Nationals, my then 13-year-old Godson, Morgan McCullough was put in a situation to make the Youth Pan American Team, but he had to hit an all-time PR of 140kg/308lb on his third and final attempt in the Clean & Jerk.  He had tried this lift several times in training, and simply wasn’t confident enough to stick the jerk.  You have to remember he was 13-years-old, so I can totally understand being intimidated about hoisting that incredible weight overhead. 

After his second attempt of 135kg, he wanted to go to 137kg because 135kg had felt heavy.  I shook my head no, and explained that we needed 140kg for him to have a chance at Youth Pan Ams.  I gave him a pep talk like I have never given anyone before.  At that moment that young boy took major strides in becoming a man.  He looked at me with the confidence of Michael Jordan, and shook his head ‘yes’ in agreement. 

He walked out on that stage, and he stuck that weight like a champion.  I almost ripped the steps away from the stage in celebration.  I have never felt that much joy after any of my lifts or accomplishments, not even close.  That’s the love a great coach has to have for his athletes.  This is the way you have to feel if you want to coach great athletes.  Heck I would say this is the way you have to feel if you want to coach anyone.

I hope that this is an encouragement for some of you.  I equally hope that this is a warning for the rest of you.  If you want to be the rock star, go do something in life that is focused on you.  If you want to create rock stars, then coaching is perfect. This industry means the world to me.  It’s my mission.  If you want to be a part of this great field, I suggest that you heed these words carefully.

If you want to be a part of our gym, come check us out or visit our website at www.leanfitnesssystems.com.  You can email us at leanfitnesssystems@gmail.com to receive a Free two weeks if you mention this article.  Mash Elite Performance is located within LEAN Fitness, but coaches that feel the same way as me coach our adult classes.  No matter what you do, coaches that love their athletes/members will be coaching you.  You can also check out our seminars, classes, and Free Articles.

Results or Research?

Results or Research?

I have discussed this topic with several colleagues, and I am still on the fence with my conclusion.  Here’s the full debate.  Which is better, a coach that continually produces champions or a coach loaded down with a PhD?  Here are my thoughts on the subject.

If a coach is continually helping athletes improve, then it’s hard to say that they are not equipped.  When you think about it, no one does more research than a day in and day out coach.  How many people has Louie Simmons coached?  Are you telling me that someone that has performed a couple of research studies is more of an expert?  Think how much data Louie has to prove his arguments. 

That’s why I was pumped to be a part of the new “Stronger Experts” platform.  “Stronger Experts” worked hard to bring together the top 20 strength and conditioning experts from around the world.  Now you have guys like Greg Nuckols and Zach Long that are on the cutting edge with research, and coaches like Sean Waxman and me that are constantly turning out athletes for International Competition.  (FYI go to www.mashelite.com/strongerexperts/ and use code “EARLYBIRD” to save $100)

In a perfect world, coaches are going to guys like Dr. Andy Galpin and learning about the latest discoveries in Exercise Science, and then we can go back and apply those discoveries to our athletes.  This is the way that advancements are made in our industry, and this is the way that America can compete against countries that continue to dope.  We simply have to do things better.

My biggest frustration is when people say that results doesn’t really mean that a coach is proficient.  I can’t agree with that.  They say that coaches can be good at recruiting and good at forming awesome atmospheres versus having concrete knowledge.  Here’s the thing.  If you are a coach with all the knowledge in the world with a terrible atmosphere and no good athletes to coach, then you my friend are a not so good coach.  It probably means that aren’t a really nice person to be around, and that’s a huge part of coaching.  People are drawn to positive people that can motivate others to excel. 

If someone is growing their pool of athletes, motivating those athletes to succeed, and helping the athletes reach their goals, then that’s a good coach in my book.  You should probably look at injury rate as well.  If you are hurting 20% of your athletes, then that is a problem.  Ivan Abadjiev (may he rest in peace) comes to mind.  He developed the infamous Bulgarian Training System, which was basically maxing out three times per day in the Snatch, Clean & Jerk, and Front Squat.  He produced a lot of champions.  He had some crazy unorthodox ways of motivating his athletes like sic’ing mean dogs on his athletes.  Several athletes couldn’t survive the grueling method, so only the strongest and most durable athletes in Bulgaria survived. 

So was Ivan a great coach?  Personally I don’t think so.  He had an endless supply of athletes because it was a state sponsored program leaving athletes with very few choices.  It was a survival of the fittest program.  Anyone could develop something similar, but in America we would probably get sued.  I always wonder if he hurt his best athlete, so the world might never know what could have been. 

So what’s the answer:  results or research?  The answer is both.  A good coach is normally someone who is well read, delivers a great training atmosphere, and is able to recruit athletes to his or her training facility.  Somewhere in the middle is where the sweet spot lies. 

For all of you young folks trying to come up in the industry, here are a few suggestions:

• ·      Never stop learning
• ·      Find a mentor
•      Work on your ability to motivate others
• ·      Learn to create an environment that is competitive, inspiring, encouraging, and fun.

I am surrounded with friends like Mike Israetel, Dr. Andy Galpin, Greg Nuckols, Coach Joe Kenn, and Louie Simmons, so I am always learning through my own research and conversations with my friends.  This is the best way to get in on the cutting edge as you will hear things before they are even published. 

I will say this in conclusion.  Don’t tell my athletes or me how amazing you are, if you haven’t even coached an athlete to Youth Nationals.  You need to get some skin in the game before you go around beating your own drum.  All you have is a theory that might or might not work.  Until you have coached over twenty athletes onto Team USA in Weightlifting, over 10 to the NFL, 5 to the NBA, and hundreds to Division I Collegiate Programs throughout America, keep your theoretical information to yourself.  Well unless I ask that is.  I have my go to experts that are proven in their fields.

If you are trying to improve your own tool box, check out Stronger Experts at www.mashelite.com/strongerexperts/ and use code ‘EARLYBIRD’ for $100 off yearly or $10 per month for a monthly membership.  You will get content from 20 of the world’s best strength and conditioning and nutrition experts.  I am pumped to be a part.