Being a Coach - Reap what you Sow:

I am not a conventional coach. I am a good coach, I know how to teach, I know how to correct faults. I know how to program to ensure an athletes progression. Yes, that I am good at.

I do, however, profess to things other coaches will scoff at. Yes, I encourage my athletes to go out and enjoy themselves with their friends after a Successful Tournament. I know how much friends, and socializing means to a 21-year-old, I was there.

 

Hell, I will be the first one to buy them and all of their friends a drink. I believe success should be rewarded. No, I do not have an issue with them drinking, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their training. This is why I give them time off after a meet, to enjoy themselves. If you take the joy out of life, and try to control every aspect of someone’s life, they will be as good as lost. 

I think that’s what makes me a good coach, that I have been in the position I put my athletes in. Not only that, I still prescribe to my own programming. You see I am still a Lifter. A Master lifter, fair enough, but I am still a lifter at heart. I still want to win medals, break records, bring back the Gold. I have lost none of the motivation that made me a successful lifter in my youth, even now that I am almost 40. On the Contrary, I think I am more motivated, driven and dedicated now than I was at 21.

 

I am also a big proponent of being able to preach what you sow. Who am I to have the right to tell an athlete what to do? If I can’t, and don’t still practice it myself. That’s why I follow my own programming that I prescribe to my athletes. I don’t want to hear how they feel; I want to know how they feel. I know when they are tired, because I am tired. I know when they are sore from a workout, because I am sore from the same workout.

I will never be a coach who simply tells an athlete what to do without being able to show them how to do it. Is my technique perfect? Not by a long shot. But I can at least show them what I am expecting of them. Are there great coaches out there whom have never competed in, nor been successful in the sport they coach? Sure there are.

It’s not just about being able to show them that I still lift. It is about showing them I am still passionate about my sport. I love lifting more than anything in this world. I still believe I can and will have much more success as a lifter. Yes, again as a Master. I have to compare myself to my contemporaries.

That being said, I CAN and WILL Qualify for the 2016 US Open in Florida. Not the Masters, the OPEN division. I want to compete against the best in this country one more time. One more time to show them that even being double their age, I am still doing what I love. I will be one of the oldest, if not the oldest competitor at the US OPEN.

It’s that passion I hope to impasse on them. The passion to never quite. To never cop out and run away from life just because it is difficult. Don’t make the same mistake’s that I did. Life is difficult, life is hard. Don’t give up.

I might have been a rather average if not mediocre International Weightlifter when I was younger. Yet I do believe I have the capability to be an even better athlete as a Master Lifter, I believe it to my core. I believe I can break world records, and I will.

 

I thought the culmination of my career as an athlete was between 21 and 30. That was nothing but a bug smear on the windshield of my life. I have barely begun to accomplish what I intend to accomplishing in my life. I saw the end of my career as an athlete, as the end of me accomplishing anything in life. How wrong I was.

I was young. I was arrogant. I was ignorant to the world. I didn’t know anything else. I didn’t love anything else, I was lost, for a long time.

I am back now, and I don’t intend on going anywhere for then next 40 to Life. What lies ahead I don’t know, but I can’t wait for it.

BRING IT!!!!