Boy it’s good to be back. We just finished up an INTENSE summer! We’re just now trying to catch our breath. Every day the gym was pumping as we experienced our busiest summer in our history with over 100 athletes! Day in and day out we got after it. I’m very proud of the group of athletes we had- all of them were dedicated to the program and striving to improve- this stuff isn’t easy! Plenty of sacrifices were made and zero excuses were murmured. After the dust settled and the progress was made, I know for a fact that these athletes earned themselves a huge advantage over their competition!  I love it when hard work gets rewarded and I’m not the only one looking forward to watching them play this year.

As I reflected over the last few months I quickly comprised a short list of 10 random facts that stood out the most during the long, hot days in the gym.

1. Talk is cheap. Some people want it and make it happen BY ANY MEANS. Others talk about it and don’t do anything about it and make excuse after excuse. Athletes, parents, and coaches are all guilty of this. One of the biggest factors that set our athletes and parents apart from the norm is that they don’t make excuses but rather make IT happen.

2.  Don’t wait to try and gain weight in the summertime. While it can be done it’s not optimal with all the extra conditioning, practices, camps, combines, etc. Especially for multisport athletes-who usually have multiple sports/team camps throughout the summer. Train smart and don’t have conflicting goals. This being said we did have a few athletes still accomplish some solid weight gain- these guys were dedicated freaks who made their goals a lifestyle.

3.  Getting high school athletes to sleep enough, eat enough, and do extra flexibility/mobility work is a constant struggle. The ones that do it explode in the gym and in their sport. The ones that don’t….well, I’m just not going to deal with them anymore. If I want them to succeed more than they do then it’s not going to work for anyone.

4. Having an organized system of training programs and training progressions allows for multiple athletes of various training ages to be able to train alongside one another without any interference. Take a little extra time to teach a new athlete great technique and how things work in your gym right from the start and they’ll make your life easier down the road and their training experience will be enhanced.

5. Your training environment is a huge factor. You can be stronger, tougher, and more confident just by surrounding yourself with the right people in the right place and consistently working hard.

6. With all the crap middle school and high school kids are exposed to these days it’s even more important to get them involved in a quality training program early on. Not merely for the athletic gains, but more importantly, it helps them develop a work ethic. To help them understand that you have to work hard for what you want and most of the time it isn’t going to be easy. They have to learn that you can’t quit when times get hard…too much leniency in today’s world about this stuff and it needs to stop.

7. Female athletes are awesome to train- they’re great listeners, usually have better body awareness, and always come ready to work.

8. Getting an athlete stronger, faster, more explosive, more mobile, more flexible, tougher, more confident, and more responsible WILL transfer to their sport no matter what sport it is. Don’t be fooled with “sport-specific” word usage. Just ask any of our wide variety of athletes- football, basketball, hockey, baseball, volleyball, lacrosse, rugby, gymnastics, water polo, softball, and soccer- they’ll tell you this holds true.

9. If you don’t have the ability to listen and apply what you’re being told then why bother asking the ‘expert’ or seek out coaching? Ask questions, listen, comprehend, remember, and apply- otherwise re-evaluate as you walk out of the gym from your last session ever.

10. Leadership is influence. We’ve discussed this at length during our PowerLead meetings with our athletes. It doesn’t matter if you’re a freshman or a senior. If what you do and what you say influences just one person and they choose to continue to seek you out- you’re a leader as you have attracted a follower. It’s up to you (based off of the people who have influenced you) to decide if you want your influence to be positive or negative.

This isn’t a groundbreaking list but they were made apparent to me as we concluded a great summer. Hopefully you could take away at least one thing. Our goal is to keep pumping content now that we have some breathing room so be sure to check back soon!

-Mark