Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Mash Elite Mission and Future


Ways to support the nonprofit 501c3 Team Mash Elite:

1. Donate (we have several options from a simple one-time any amount donation to monthly pledges with benefits from our team)



2. Sponsor our Team (this is for businesses or individuals that specialize in philanthropy)

è Email me directly at masheliteperformance@gmail.com



Mash Elite Mission and Future



Today I want to tell all of you more about this crazy team that I’ve created. Since I created the team and formed it into a 501c3 nonprofit, I haven’t done a great job telling our story. For some of you, you might be inspired to start a nonprofit, and for some of you, you will get to know more about the team. All you normally hear about are the athletes winning National Championships and flying around the world to represent Team USA. There is so much more to know.

Like most nonprofits, I’m excited about #givingtuesday , and yes, I am hoping that some of you all see it in your heart to support our organization. However, unlike a lot of other nonprofits, I don’t want you giving blindly to Mash Elite Strength. I want you to know who we are, what our mission is, where we are in the process, and our future goals. Then if you like what you read, then and only then I want your support. Here goes!

I left MuscleDriver USA at the end of 2015. Luckily I already had a gym and team of my own, so I naturally started growing my own team. Even when I was at MDUSA, at the American Open and National Championships, I would coach the 15-17 athletes for Team MDUSA and 10-15 of my own. Man those were crazy competitions. I have no idea how I was coaching that many athletes. I don’t think that I could physically do that now. However when you love a sport so much, you’re able to get through the storm.

I left MDUSA with a vision. I wanted to create a team like we had at MDUSA that could help support the dreams of athletes in the sport of Olympic weightlifting. At MDUSA we supported mainly Senior Athletes (best of the best regardless of age) with a gym to train, coaches, programming, some sport’s medicine, and financially (monthly living stipend, meet expenses, and travel). You might not like Brad Hess (former owner of MDUSA), but he definitely put his money where his mouth was. He paid the top performers really well.

MDUSA did a great job of helping Senior Athletes, but I wanted to help Youth, Junior, and Senior athletes. I left MDUSA wanting to help my athletes in all the same ways as we did at MDUSA and more. However, I desired to bring the characters of weightlifting to life along with the sport. I desired something bigger than we were doing at MDUSA, which brings us to the present.

Feeling of Victory


My goal from day one has been to bring the characters of weightlifting to life, so the world might fall in love with our sport. The only way to grow the sport is to bring it to life. I want all the people of the United States to know the athleticism that goes into performing a heavy Snatch. I want them to see the daily struggles that go into life of a weightlifter. I don’t simply want a weightlifting team for my own enjoyment. I do love my team, do don’t get me wrong. However I have a higher purpose for my involvement in weightlifting.

Here are my goals for this team:
 
Our Facility

1. Provide a Facility- we are doing well on this one. We have a 6,000 square foot beautiful facility that is stocked with all the bumpers and bars that one could want thanks to Intek Strength and USA Weightlifting. We have all the best accessory equipment Westside Barbell Belt Squat, Reverse Hyper, Glute Ham Raises, Hyperextension, neck machine, and so much more. We have men and women’s locker rooms with showers. We even have a hardwood rolling floor yoga room that we mainly use as a warm up and cool down room complete with all the body tempering devices. Once a Senior athlete makes it into the Top 10 at Nationals, we don’t charge them for the facility, coaching, or programming. Once a youth or junior athlete is in the Top 20 athletes in the country on the rankings provided by USA Weightlifting, we don’t charge them for the facility, coaching, or programming either.
Olympic weightlifting area and our youth


2. Provide the Best Coaching- until recently I had Coach Don McCauley as the other coach in our training room. It was amazing having two Senior International Coaches in the same room. If I couldn’t help an athlete, he would say something that would trigger the proper response and vice versa. As you might know, he is sick and battling cancer right now, so he moved home to Florida. Coach Crystal McCullough has stepped right up and is learning quickly. She’s a natural born coach, but she just needs a bit more experience. She’s getting plenty of that. I have to say that she is doing a great solo job with some of our youth athletes.

3. Help Our Top Athletes Financially- right now we are able to financially assist our Top 4 Onsite Senior Athletes financially with a monthly stipend. We also pay for the travel and meet expenses or the American Open and Senior Nationals for our Senior Athletes ranked in the Top 10. Here is the first place where funds are needed. The biggest expense is sending our coaches to all the National Events (American Open, Senior Nationals, AO1,2, and 3 Series, Youth Nationals, and Junior Nationals. I’ll talk more about that later. I would like to assist our Junior and Youth athletes more as well especially travel expenses and meet registration. The Youth and Junior athletes are the future of the sport. Housing is the other component of the financial goal.

4. Assist with Education- this is one of my biggest goals for several reasons. First I want my athletes to have a life after weightlifting. Yes I want them to win the Olympics one day, but I also want them to be able to support a family later in life. I want them to have a career that they love. Not to mention if we ever want to grow the sport to the level of football and basketball in America, we have to show parents and athletes that there is a future with this sport. My hat is off to the folks at USA Weightlifting for releasing the College Scholarship fund for the Top youth and junior athletes in the country. I am working with two colleges right now on starting a program, but now I have a much better plan. My goal is to raise money for a scholarship fund for my athletes to use at whichever school they choose modeling USA Weightlifting’s Scholarship. That way, it could be used at whichever school fits the athlete the most. For example, one of my athletes wants to go to a welding school. Awesome, that’s a solid career. We just need folks like you donating to our cause.

5. At Risk Program- this is the program that I want to grow the most. We define at risk as any child that is at risk of going down the wrong path. This could be:

·      Single Parent Children struggling
·      Children in a violent home
·      Children in an unstable home ex. Parents fighting all the time
·      Children into drugs
·      Fighting at school
·      Orphans
·      Neglect
·      Poverty

Anything that endangers a child’s future is classified as ‘at risk’ by our program. The problem is that we need a full-time person to kick this program off the ground. We need someone to make contacts with other youth programs and schools in the area. We need someone to arrange transportation or provide transportation to and from the gym.

We want to use weightlifting to teach the children all the lessons that the sport of weightlifting provides like: work ethic, goal setting, perseverance, and dedication. Then we want the ‘at risk’ director to teach them how to apply those lessons to life in a ‘Life Skills’ course. We desperately need the funds for this position.
Support the Team by Clicking Link


We’ve done a great job of recruiting and coaching the best weightlifting athletes in America. This year, we had four (two men and two women) Senior Athletes on the Senior World Team, which is 20% of the entire team. That’s our greatest International accomplishment to date. We also had three athletes on the Youth Pan American Team with 14-year-old Morgan McCullough winning the Gold Medal. We have two athletes locked on the Youth World Team for next year, and three sitting on Junior Teams for next year. We have three other athletes that should make Youth or Junior Teams and two athletes that might make Senior Teams. So no matter what we are going to have between 7-15 athletes on Team USA next year.
Support the Team by Clicking Link


That’s a pretty good start for a small program in Lewisville, NC. However, we have a mission that with your help we will continue to pursue. Here’s our driving mission in all of this:

We want to help grow the sport of weightlifting in America. We want to recruit, coach, and support athletes all the way to Olympic Gold. To do that we have to continue to grow and improve our youth and junior squads as they are the future. We also have to provide the necessary tools and financial assistance to help our athletes reach their goals and to build their future adult lives (college and trade schools). We want to use our success in the sport to help our local community with the best ‘at risk’ program in the United States. We want to teach our Team USA athletes to give back by assisting with the ‘at risk’ program.


It’s a big goal. I know that, but with your help we can do it together. We’ve already accomplished more anyone believed that we would. 2019 is going to be the best year yet. We have an incredible group of people that love our team and what we are doing. We also have some amazing parents that have agreed to volunteer their time to get the program off the ground. Thank God for these amazing people.

Here is what we need most urgently:

·      Money for travel- next year is going to have our athletes traveling all around the United States and the world. USA Weightlifting pays of most International Travel for the athletes, but not for the coaches. With our athletes qualifying for meets in Fiji and Cuba, our coaches are left with forking out thousands of dollars for travel.
·      At Risk Program- we need a full-time person to really kick off this program, and we need a small bus or van to transport the youth.
·      College Fund- I’m excited to start this fund for our top men and women to build their futures while training to be the best athlete in the world. I love the thought of allowing the athlete to choose the University or trade school that fits their needs the best. Along with USA Weightlifting’s fund, we could really make a difference in the lives of these young athletes.


Anything above and beyond these urgent goals would go directly towards the support of the athletes (‘at risk’ included in this). If we want to recruit the best athletes in America, we have to provide them with a future in the sport. Imagine if you could go to a parent and say:

“Hello Mrs. Jones, we can provide a college scholarship to your daughter, provide housing, and pay her a $2,500 per month with all expenses of the sport covered. Plus she can travel the world representing Team USA for free, and receive a stipend, bonuses, scholarship, sports psych, nutrition, recovery, and more from USA Weightlifting.”

When we make statements like this, we can recruit the best athletes in America. Then we can start dominating the sport of weightlifting Internationally like America already does in sports like track and field and swimming. USA Weightlifting under the guidance of Phil Andrews has already made massive strides in what they provide to athletes. Now it’s up to the clubs to do their part. I am trying.

Anyway, this is who we are, what we want to accomplish, and where we plan on going. I want to provide more and more free content to all of you to educate you more about the sport in hopes that you will grow the sport in your own area. We plan on producing more videos and podcasts with our athletes, so you all can get to know them. I want you to feel a part of the team because you are. I can’t do this alone. We already have four amazing sponsors that have helped us get this far:

Premier Sponsors
·      Intek Strength Best Bumper Plates and Bars  (www.IntekStrength.com)
·      Harbinger Fitness Belts, Straps, and Wraps https://harbingerfitness.implus.com/ )
·      Mash Elite Performance ( www.mashelite.com )
Sponsors
·      MG12 Magnesium Recovery Products ( www.mg12.com )
·      WOD Fitters Bands and Recovery Tools ( www.wodfitters.com) 

We couldn’t survive without these amazing companies. If we are to grow further, we need all of you to join the team. If you feel led to help, you can:

1. Donate (we have several options from a simple one-time any amount donation to monthly pledges with benefits from our team)


2. Sponsor our Team (this is for businesses or individuals that specialize in philanthropy)

è Email me directly at masheliteperformance@gmail.com

I want to thank all of you for following this team. We appreciate you all so much. If you have purchased anything from Mash Elite Performance, you are making the dreams of our athletes come true with 12% of all gross profits going to our team. We’ve already accomplished more than anyone thought that we could. Now we know that we can help USA Weightlifting take this beautiful sport to the next level.

All my thanks,

Coach Travis Mash 
Head Coach Mash Elite
USA Weightlifting Senior International Coach






Friday, November 23, 2018

Do You Really Want Success?


Do You Really Want Success?




Do you really want success? Man this is a question that I have pondered a lot lately. Before we tackle this question, let’s define success. Really this is where most people differ. I have come to know success as the pinnacle in one’s field. It comes in steps though:

Weightlifter Example

·      Beginner to Qualifying Nationally
·      Qualifying Nationally to Top 10
·      Top 10 to Podium
·      Podium to making an International Team
·      International Team to becoming an Olympian
·      Olympian to Medalist
·      Medalist to Gold


Football Player

·      Middle School to JV
·      JV to Varsity in High School
·      High School to College Football
·      College Football to earning playing time
·      Earning Playing Time to becoming a Starter
·      Starter to All-Conference
·      All-Conference to All-American
·      All-American to NFL
·      NFL to Starter
·      Starter to All-Pro


Politician Example

·      College Student to Law School or MBA
·      Law School/MBA to Practicing law or Growing a successful business
·      Practicing Law/Successful Business to Involvement in local politics and groups
·      Involvement in local politics to being elected for a city/county office
·      City/County Office to House of Rep
·      House of Rep to Senate or Governor
·      Senate or Governor to President of the United States


You get the picture. I know a lot of people that begin such steps for various fields, but rarely do I meet someone who completes a pathway. Each step requires a more focus, dedication, and commitment. With each step more and more people drop off until only the cream is left. Let’s take a look at weightlifters to understand this a bit better.

Over the last four years, I’ve witnessed well over one hundred athletes come to my gym or MuscleDriver USA and start working on their dream of making a World Team and the Olympics. Now remember a lot of these people were already Nationally Ranked lifters, so most of these one hundred athletes had already passed step one. A lot of them made it to that Top 10 spot. However it was that Top 10 to podium stage that lost several of them. That’s a big step to take. Normally the top three are significantly higher than the rest of the pack. Maybe a few of you can take this step without a lot of attention to detail, but a lot of you will need to start putting in the work on the mundane things like:

·      Recovery
·      Nutrition
·      Mobility
·      Extra sessions for technique work
·      Dialed in accessory work to address muscular weaknesses and imbalances
·      Quality sleep and extra sleep

You will probably need to make a few decisions that are against the grain. You’ll skip a few parties, or at least go home a bit earlier than normal. Your friends will start to notice the changes, but hopefully they’re supportive.

Here’s where it can get a bit hard for some people because your actions and decisions will be a bit different than other people. I’ve had so many people come to me and say that they want to be an Olympian, but all I hear now is blah, blah, blah. The proof is in the actions of the athlete. It’s funny because I have watched groups of men and women start with me around the same time and slowly people drop off each stage along the road. The saddest part is when athletes unwilling to make those hard choices get mad at athletes that are doing exactly what it takes to be successful.

This is the feeling that makes it all worth it!


Look I get it. It’s hard man. That’s why I don’t get mad at athletes when they sway from the path. It’s hard to put your whole life on hold for a dream that might never happen. I remember ruining a relationship forever because I decided to skip a funeral because it interfered with my training for the World Championships. It wasn’t anything personal. I was simply trying to be the best powerlifter in the world.

Hunter Elam is a great example of someone that has taken several of these steps. She started working with me early this year. At that point, she had never medaled at a Senior National competition. She started making better decisions with her nutrition and recovery, and boom; she earned her first medal at Senior Nationals. That’s all it took for her to go all in.

We made a decision to drop down a weight class and work harder than ever to hopefully earn a spot on the World Team. Most of her teammates on our own team doubted her and were quite vocal about it. Well Hunter dialed in her nutrition, perfected her recovery, worked on her mental game, started sleeping ten hours per night, dialed in her technique, and worked harder than anyone I’ve ever seen.

The result was shocking the weightlifting world with a 5kg Lifetime Total PR in a weight class down. It shocked everyone on our team as well as the weightlifting community around the country. Her story spread throughout the world. So did she chill out and take it easy? Hahahaha, nope!



Now she is more committed than ever. A lot of her friends are having a hard time with her lifestyle. She’s absolutely unwilling to deviate one-inch from her daily routine. She goes to bed at the same time each day. She gets up at the same time each day. She now trains nine times per week.

I get it. To some it might seem that she isn’t being a good friend because she isn’t willing to vary from her schedule. However as her coach she is doing exactly what it takes. Look I am going to say this once, and I want all of you that want to do something great to listen to me:

“Every decision that you make either gets you closer to your goals or not.”

The people that will never be great will also never understand that statement. I believe that they hear me saying that, but they must believe that it’s just lip service. Guys that statement is real. You can either go to bed and get 10 hours sleep, or you can go to a party. You can either stay on your diet, or you can go to that restaurant. You can work on mobility first thing in the morning, or you can sit on the couch. You can either live way below your means to work the least so you can focus on training, or you can buy new cars, go out to eat a lot, and go on vacations requiring you to work a full-time job killing your training time.

This is for all of you weightlifters out there right now that think you want to message me about joining our team. Look, don’t lie to me! Don’t tell me that you want to make the Olympic Team, and then move here and start partying every week. Your actions aren’t matching your lip service. However, if you want to do pretty well, then sure do whatever you want. I hope that athletes on my team read this article because so many of them are wasting their time right now.

If you aren’t going to go all in, then I recommend getting a job, going to school, or doing something that will improve you as a person for the future. If you’re putting school on hold or a career on hold for your dream of the Olympics, you owe it to yourself to go all in. Hunter is doing just that.

Several of my athletes are working lots of hours, studying for college, learning a trade, and focusing on other aspects of their life. They’re still training because they love being strong, and they love weightlifting. I think that this is awesome as well. A lot of my former athletes have gone on to do amazing things outside of weightlifting like Adee Zukier, Hayden Bowe, Jared Enderton, Jon North, and Greg Nuckols. I am just as proud of them as I am of my World Team Members.

This blog is simply to clarify exactly what it takes. For all of you out there right now that are dreaming that Olympic Dream, this is what it takes. So either train for fun while working on yourself as a person, or go all in. It’s your choice! Let’s just support one another no matter what we each decide to do. I look at my athletes as family. Therefore none of them have to think or act like me for me to love them.

So one last time, if you want to be an Olympian:

1. Obviously you have to train harder than everyone else.
2. You have to be a true master of the mundane. (Nutrition, recovery, sleep, mobility, accessory work, muscular balance, work capacity, and extra technique work).
3. Every decision that you make will either bring you closer to your goal or not, so make your decisions carefully.

From now on, if you want to join my team, this blog is required reading!


If you enjoy my articles and my team, you can donate to our 501c3 nonprofit team. Our mission is to provide our athletes with everything that they need to reach their Olympic Dreams, and to affect our local community by providing a positive outlet for the at risk youth. You can make a tax-deductible donation at:



Or