A Proper Response to Criticism

A Proper Response to Criticism

This past weekend at my church, Twin City Bible Church, we had an amazing conference, “The Legacy Conference”. Now don’t worry, I am not going to get preachy on you, as I am definitely not a preacher, so stay with me. The conference was focused on ‘Soli Deo Gloria’, which is the Latin term for glory to God alone. One of the speakers was Pastor Anthony Kidd, and he preached a sermon that changed my outlook on everything especially criticism that I might face within the world of strength. I’ll explain.

My mission as a strength coach and writer is to help people, and that’s it really. Of course I want to support my family, but really I just want to help people. I want to help people reach their individual goals whether those goals are the Olympics, NFL, or to learn the difficult movements of weightlifting. I also want to help people with the other aspects of life like a future career, role as a parent, role as a friend, relationships, and yes spiritually. I want my athletes to leave me as better men and women, and not just better athletes.

That’s it really. I simply want to have an impact on the strength world and the people that I come into contact with. However lately I have been aggravated with a couple of coaches, and the way that they talk about me to others. These are coaches that I hardly know, and worst part of it is they are coaches in my home state of North Carolina. They say things like that I am not a good coach, and that I am simply good at marketing.

These comments infuriate me because the data says differently. I have 20% of Team USA that’s set to compete in Turkmenistan for the 2018 IWF Senior World Championships with two men and two women. As example of one of the instances of these coaches was at the AO Series 3, where one of them tried to recruit one of my athletes telling her that he could do better job and that his athlete was set to break his personal records. That was the day before she destroyed her lifetime PR Total by 8kg while shattering the Junior American Record in the Clean & Jerk and Total. Oh and by the way his athlete went 3:6 and come nowhere near his best.

The point is that these coaches continue to make themselves look badly. My athlete and her father were disappointed in the actions of this coach. Not to mention that my athletes are continually getting better. If I were just a good marketer, then why are my athletes improving?

This isn’t meant to be a blog about me defending myself to these silly coaches. The coaches that matter believe in my abilities like Sean Waxman, Spencer Arnold, John Broz, Kevin Doherty, CJ Martin, and Kevin Simons. If one of them has an issue with something that I am doing, they tell me. Heck Sean Waxman is forever giving me advice, and I welcome it. These are coaches that I respect, and they are coaches that are producing. They are also my friends, so any criticism is out of love. I know that, and I get that.

So here’s the point. Why do I let the opinions of coaches that aren’t producing athletes of any significance get to me? This is where I have to look internally and admit some faults of my own. My pride has always been my biggest struggle. This brings me to the Legacy Conference this past weekend. Pastor Kidd explained that all Christians run the risk of:

1. Taking the position of God by setting our own rules, wanting to cast judgment, and wanting to take vengeance in our own hands.

2. Taking the praise away from God by wanting the attention of others and affirmation of others.

(Acts 12:18-23; Psalms 115:1)

All of this stems from pride. If you find yourself coaching or producing content to become famous or to make others see you as a great coach, you are in the wrong field. We are in a service industry. This is true whether you are a Christian or not. The main objective has to be helping and elevating your athletes. This is true for coaches and trainers.

As a Christian Coach, I have a chance to glorify God everyday in the way that I treat others, and in the way that I act. When I get mad at the silly coaches for badmouthing me, I am displaying pride. By getting upset this is me desiring to shine the glory deserved by God onto me. Who really cares what they say? If my priority is making all these coaches think that I am some great coach, my priorities are all jacked up.

The Legacy Conference helped to shift my focus onto my athletes and away from me. I’m not going to let the opinion of coaches that I don’t even know affect my mood in anyway. I am going to shift my concern away from glorifying myself and onto glorifying God. It’s a freeing shift as far as I am concerned. If we go through life trying to please everyone, we are doomed to live a life filled with disappointment. It’s easier to think about it in terms of the presidential election.

During the presidential election, the two most popular people in America are running against one another. That means that the most popular person in America still has half of the country that hates them. If half of the country hates the president, all of us are doomed to have people that hate them.

Personally I don’t care anymore as long as I am doing my all to help my athletes and readers. I want to see all of you reach your goals in sport and life. I hope that my actions in the way that I treat all of you and the way you see me treating my loved ones will bring God glory. I am going to mess this up enough, so I definitely don’t have time to worry about the thoughts of random people that don’t even know me.

I hope that this article helps to get you all focused on the things that matter in your life. I hope that it helps to put to bed the bad feelings that come from people that don’t even matter. If all of use put our thoughts and desires on loving others, life in general will be much brighter.

Coach Travis Mash