I hope you are enjoying your last few days of March as Spring starts to unfold and April comes into full swing. I am enjoying seeing the grass and flowers build strength everyday along with the other perks of March like College Basketball and the March Madness Tournaments, both Women’s and Men’s.
You see, I enjoy watching sports when there is something at stake. Most professional athletes are very good at picking their spots to ‘play really hard.’ That’s not to say these folks aren’t trying, it’s just, what other motivation do they have to play harder when they make all those millions? I certainly don’t want to see them on the sidelines injured or hurt, I want to see them play, so I get why they pick their spots.
Professional Sports and their Playoffs are always the Best, because they have something at stake and you always see everyone playing harder, because that is the spot! I’m someone who thinks they should be making a lot of money, especially when lots of money is made off of their backs. A lot more than they get back. And if you think they shouldn’t be making that money, would you turn it down if you were in the same position?
No…you wouldn’t
However, before you are a pro, most have to go to college or some other route to build there skills up to that elite level. And when you watch college sports, you see hustle and giving it everything on every play, because these kids are trying to make it to the pro’s. It’s exciting to watch competition unfold and that leads me to the point of today’s post. Dan Shaughnessy, a writer for the Boston Globe just wrote an article that basically says the University of Connecticut Women’s Basketball team is ‘Too Dominant for their Own Good.’ They beat teams by so much that it ‘isn’t fun to watch anymore’ says Shaughnessy.
I understand where Shaughnessy is coming from because it seems like UCONN is so much better than everyone else and competition is scarce. However, they aren’t playing by different rules. They recruit from the same kids, they practice their skills and they get coached hard on the basics. There is no ‘secret awesome sauce.’
I was fortunate enough to be a member of the Central Bucks West HS Football Team that went 45-0 and won 3 consecutive state championships from 1997-1999. We never lost a game when I played! And while we had some close games, including my last, a 14-13 thriller (look at the scoreboard in the picture) where we won the state title on a blocked punt for a touchdown with less than 2 minutes to play, there were many people who frowned upon our program. Some suggested we ‘recruited’, used ‘unfair advantages’, were ‘cheaters’ or used ‘performance enhancers’ and many didn’t like facing us. Plenty of fans booed us because they were ignorant and didn’t know any better…I forgive them.
The truth is…We worked harder, longer and better at the basics. (Which infuriates people, because when they find out they got outworked, it’s hard to justify their lack of effort)
Yours truly is #61
Nobody likes to ‘lose’, myself included, although it’s healthy to be able to accept temporary defeat, because it happens more often than not. I am reminded of one of the greatest quotes I’ve ever come across in regards to Championship Dominance.
‘Champions are not champions because they do anything extraordinary, They are champions because they do the ordinary better than everyone else.’
– Chuck Noll, Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach, 70’s and early 80’s, won 4 Super Bowls!
Here at Bair Knuckle Strength, we have complete beginners next to more advanced trainees and we coach the advanced just as hard on the basics as we do the new members and many times it’s harder, because they’ve been around longer and we simply dive deeper into the basics, not away from them.
This is how we can learn from UCONN’s Women’s team and apply that knowledge to your quest for strength. UCONN Women dribble better, pass better, shoot better, defend better and play harder which is truly the only difference on a level playing field.
While it is true their are outliers with artistic, creative and genetic gifts, most people become excellent at something by practicing it, repetition after repetition, until it becomes second nature with no thought required, just action.
Top accountants do their math better and are better at getting what the client needs. Top CEO’s are better at delegating and using people to their strengths better. Top Chefs use ingredients better and are better at pairing foods to create unforgettable meal experiences.
Basic Strength exercises will carry you for the rest of your life. Things like: Pushing, Pulling, Squatting, Hinging, Lunging, Locomotion etc. can be all that most people need. These are things people do not do, and so we have the highest rates of obesity and lifestyle disease (diabetes, stroke, heart disease) in history. This tells me…People don’t even know what the basics are, let alone know how to do them. So it always tickles me when someone asks to do the same program as one of these elite professional athletes whose athletic engines were built doing the basics and doing them better than everyone else.
Every year the pros come back to the weight room and they continue to progress with the basics and do so with 1 goal in mind: being available. You see, availability is the best ability. If they can’t play because they aren’t strong enough and are always injured, then they don’t get paid.
What does that mean to you, you’re not an athlete? Well, yes you are because life is now your sport and you had better be prepared with some basic strength to keep up, or you’ll miss out on playing with your kids, grand kids and friends. You won’t have the energy to be productive at work, so you won’t get that promotion, or enjoy what little time you have because it will be spent: tired, in pain, weak, afraid and on the sidelines of your own life. A spectator…Not a player.
And that sucks…the big one…
If you do not like seeing someone or something dominate or show long periods of excellence then step your game up and do the basics better than them. Level the playing field with hard work. Somebody might just be better than you, but they should NEVER outwork you. Professional and Olympic athletes have 1 advantage: they picked there parents very wisely. For the rest of us, we’re all playing the same game of life, and if you just do the basics, and do them well, you will Win!!!