Life: To my Fellow Students and the Rise of a Better Society

The school systems are designed to teach us students to be analytically dominant (in opposition of being creative) [left brain/right brain concept] because it is much easier to control an analytically dominant society in comparison to a society that is very creative. Hence why our society is designed in a way where the majority of the population is sitting at the bottom, and only a minute few are standing on top.

Think about it...

In school you are taught to sit in an alignment of desks, where you have to raise your hand before you can talk.  If you talk out of line you are reprimanded, even if what you were trying to say is creatively valid. We are told the facts and we have to live by those facts. Most educators, if creatively questioned become frustrated because the questioning causes a disruption of their jobs and what they are supposed to be doing. A creative discussion can put the class almost a whole lesson behind in some cases, which can look really bad for the educator. What their jobs are and what they are supposed to do, is defined by those few people who stand on top. If the educators do not hold up to how they are supposed to do their jobs, they will put themselves at risk to being fired. So the cycle goes around and around where creative thinking is almost discouraged, and free thinking is almost non-existent.

I once had a kid in a couple of my high school classes who would always ask questions that were way over everybody’s heads. Most of the time, the educator would get frustrated at the kid for asking a non-analytical question. He was basically the joke of the class and was treated very poorly by his surrounding classmates. It’s unfortunate because this kid had something so powerful that very few others had - he had the ability to freely and creatively think. Everybody else looked at him like he was crazy because we are all taught to be so loyal to analytical thinking. I don’t know what this kid is doing now, but I do know that he is going to make a huge discovery and impact in this world because he has something that almost no one else has. 

Unfortunately, we are caught up in this society that discourages creative thinking, and it is almost the norm to think analytically. Even more unfortunate is that until our society decides to stand up to the system, and as a whole start to think in creative manner, we will forever be stuck in a reality of the many people sitting on the bottom and the few people sitting on top.

To conclude, I’m not saying that we need to completely abandon the analytical thinking train wagon, nor am I saying that we need to think only in a creative manner. Analytical thinking is definitely something that is a necessity in building our society. Without analytical thinking, there would be no systems. Without systems, there would be complete and utter chaos. So what I am saying is that we need to somehow find more of a balance of teaching students to think analytically, and to think creatively and freely. We need to not discourage children to think creatively and freely. You may say that there is no discouraging when it comes to creative thinking. Oh no? Well then why do the students in my classes look at the one kid who thinks creatively as the laughing stock of the class? There is a discouragement of creative thinking and no one can deny it. All I am saying is that we need to find a balance.

Life: Wanted Dead or Alive

Have you ever had a dream to do something in your life, and when you tell somebody about it they tell you it is an impossible feat? They tell you that you should just quit and save yourself the frustration. They tell you that even trying to do it will be a waste of time, and the attempt could put your whole life in jeopardy.


The good news is that the people telling you this are already dead. They died as soon as they stopped believing; believing in themselves; believing in the ability to overcome the so-called impossible. These people are not living even though they are breathing and you can hear their heart beat racing. Living takes more than just a breath of the lungs and a beat of the heart; it takes a fight from within, a belief and a purpose, a determination to fight for what cannot be seen. These people are waiting for the day of when they can start living again - sadly, that day may never come.


These people are dead and if you listen to them, you to will be dead. These people are nay-sayers and haters. Who are they to tell you what you can and cannot do. You are living and they are dead; you hold something that they may never hold again. They are jealous of you and want you to fail so that they don't feel completely sheepish after you reach your dreams, and they are still stuck wondering where they went wrong.


Do yourself a favor - if anyone ever tells you that you are incapable of doing something - let it go through one ear and out the other. You hold your own destiny and the only person that can tell you that you can't do something is yourself.


Have you ever heard the saying, "those who say they can and those you say they can't, are both right." That just goes to show that there are two type of people in this world: 1. Those who BELIEVE 2. Those who don't believe. Those who don't believe will never amount to anything. Those you do believe will amount into anything they dream to be.


Dream big - only you control your destiny.

Life: The Taste of Success

I know who I am, I know what I believe in, and that's all I'll ever need to know.


Can you look yourself in the mirror saying that same exact line and honestly believe it? Be whole-heartedly honest with yourself. If your not, it will only hurt you.


If you can say those words and honestly believe in them, then good for you! All you need to do now is live who it is that you are, and follow what you believe in.


If you can't, don't be discouraged. It doesn't mean that your life will be wasted. It means that you need to take some serious time and thought into finding those answers. If you find those two answers, your determination and willingness to maintain the integrity of who you are and what you believe in will ultimately drive you to a life of greatness. Everybody in this world has an opportunity to be great. One's greatness has nothing to do with one's natural talent or ability; it has everything to do with your how far you are willing to go in order to be who you are and what you believe in. Period.


That's it.


Learn from those who are have already tasted success.


Don't know where to start?


Start here...

Will Smith, a man that was no different from you and I at one point in his life, figured out who he was and what he believed in, and he erupted in success.


Believe in yourself, and live your dreams.

Training: The Real Plyometrics

When it comes to training athletes, there is one type of training that should never be left out; plyometrics. The idea of plyometrics was created by a guy named Yuri Verkoshansky out of the Soviet Union in the 1980's. He created plyometrics as a way to mimic the movements of athletes in different sports. Although plyometrics do not completely recreate the movements that are experienced throughout different sports, they do provide the closest way to train for those explosive movements.


In order for a movement to be considered a plyometric, a few actions need to take place within the blink of an eye. Jumping and plyometrics are not interchangeable. In order for jumping to be considered a plyometric one needs to land on the ground and immediately push off the ground. If you land on the ground, allow your body to dissipate the forces, and then jump off the ground again, it is not a plyometric. A lot of people who try to dissipate the forces say that it's easier on the knees or a prevention of injury. That's great, but by dissipating the forces you are defeating the purpose of landing and quickly getting off of the ground. In sports, generally the faster you can land and get off the ground, the better the athlete you will be. The primary goal in sports is to ultimately be the best athlete you can be, is it not? I would say that if you were jumping off of a ten foot ladder you should probably allow your body to dissipate the forces, but since there are no instances in sport where you have a ten foot fall there should be no reason to worry about injury while doing plyometrics; of course that also has to do with warming up properly.


In summary, the ultimate goal to plyometrics is to teach your body how to land and get off the ground as quickly as possible. With training you would expect that period of time to become faster and faster, which will ultimately make you a better athlete. If your training program doesn't include plyometrics, I would recommend you add them in or find a new training program.


...dedicated to your desire of reaching your full potential.

Training: Poetic Spirit Training Like A Warrior

Let's throw away the Bowflex; throw away all machines. Machine weights are expensive, and are nothing more than hyped-up trash. Let's release our inner warrior, and let's get real. Let's take care of business with some tires and stones!

Let's stop making excuses about not having this, and not having that. Excuses are nothing but blocks in the road. So you don't have barbells, squat racks, or benches; let's make use of what's lying in the trenches.

Alright, enough with Dr. Seuss... I'm afraid that I wore out my welcome with that. Here's the point:

Sometimes the reality of not having the same equipment as a world-class gym can cause an individual to think that they are unable to truly become stronger. This thought is complete and utter shenanigans. You do not need to have access to a world-class gym to become a better athlete and get stronger.

I found an old tractor tire just hanging out in the woods the other day. The tractor tire was not the heaviest tire, maybe 150 to 200 pounds, but it gets the job done. Today I used it in a couple different ways including:

• deadlifting and explosively pressing the tire to the ground
• deadlifting the tire as explosively as possible so that the tire will flip without having to press it; almost as though you were trying to throw it straight up into the air
• carried the tire as if it was farmer bars

It was also garbage day out here in Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania. Someone has to bring the garbage cans up from the end of the driveway so I decided to mix it in between sets. I would do some kind of tire variation and then sprint to pick up one of the three garbage cans. I would walk it up to where it belongs while carrying it over my head. I would then sprint back to pick up the next garbage can. This time I did a variation of lifts while walking including the power snatch, overhead press, and tricep extensions. I did the same thing with the last garbage can, that I did with the first one.

The next thing I did in my workout involved finding two stones in my rock wall. One of the stones was too heavy to do anything with other than deadlift it. The other stone was light enough to do just about anything that I wanted, but still heavy enough to get results. I did three sets of five deadlifts with the really heavy stone. With the lighter stone, I power cleaned it from the ground to my chest and would explosively chest press/throw it for distance; I did this approximately 10 times. I also power cleaned this lighter stone from the ground to both of my shoulders, one at a time. I did 3 x 5 for each shoulder.

I ended the workout with six sprints that were approximately 40 yards each and I did as many pull ups that I could. Obviously, the workout truly ended with some static stretching, and started with my normal warm-up routine. The static stretching at the end, and the warm-up in the beginning of the workout, are both key in preventing injury. The workout lasted about one hour overall.

I'm going to go off topic a little, but I promise that what I am about to say correlates to this topic perfectly.

Okay so everyone has dreams, but very few actually chase them. Most people dream their lives, but very few actually live their dreams; let's live our dreams. You need to take action in order to live your dreams. Your dreams will not just happen, you have to go get them; attack them with everything that you have, and don't let anything stand in your way. Everybody runs into blocks in the road when chasing their dreams, but only a few actually hurdle these road blocks. A lot of times when one reaches a road block they put their head down and quit everything that they had been working for. Not having the same equipment as a world class gym is just one example of running into a road block. However, instead of quitting, find alternative ways of getting stronger and be creative all at the same time. You will be amazed at how much of a workout you will receive in return. I'm not saying to never pick up a barbell again, or that lifting stones and flipping tires is the jack of all lifting, but I truly believe that you can become an elite athlete with doing so.

The real message here is covered within that idea of not quitting when you run into a wall; get back up and find another way. As Zach Even-Esh always puts it... 'there is more to training than just getting stronger or more athletic, you are training for life as well.'

Life: If it sounds to good to be true...

I started this summer with the notion that I will have my usual job where I spent my last two summers working. Unfortunately, with the federal school cuts that took place, my job was taken away from me.

I found another job where I loaded and unloaded trucks all day at a warehouse. Sadly, it only lasted one day. The only word to truly describe this job and it's surrounding atmosphere starts with an h and ends with an ell. I'll leave that one up to you! I know all of you who read my posts have such a broad range of intelligence, so I have not the slightest worry that you guys won't figure it out.

Alright, so I am left jobless for a short period of time.

 I start looking through newspaper's, craigslist, and all of those job search engines you can find online.......................................... and all of a sudden, BAM! I run into a gold mine. Oh! I am so excited! I found a job! It is an unbelievable find. What I have to do... and what I will be getting paid... it was almost too good to be true!



Okay so this company advertises for Coca Cola, Pepsi and Red Bull. The type of people this company were looking for needed to be 18 years or older, have a drivers license, and drive a vehicle. Check, check and check! If accepted they would pay you $300 a week, plus a $600 signing bonus! What's not to love about that? Job description: Red Bull, Coca cola and Pepsi seeks people -- regular citizens, not professional drivers -- to go about their normal routine as they usually do, only with an advert of any of the companies we are advertising their product pasted on your car. This program will last for 3 months and the minimum period you can participate is 1 month. Like I said, what's not to love about that! It almost seem's too good to be true. The $300 per week and $600 signing bonus, will add up to $4200. All I can think about is that it will be enough to pay for my full year's rent and then some. I'm feeling on top of the world at this point.

So I spend a couple of days talking to this guy by the name of David Sandton. He seems like a pretty nice guy, just trying to hook me up with a temporary "job," at the same time of doing his own. He asks for a few personal tid-bits about myself such as my name and address, nothing major. He was always telling me to do everything with urgency, and as swiftly as possible, so that we could get started; which I can completely understand. I mean time is money when it comes to business. In his case, he had no time to waste.

Thankfully, I asked a lot of questions. He answered all of my questions in a sub-par educated manner. In other words, the answers almost had zero relevance to the actual question being asked, and his sentence structuring was not very professional. I'm not saying that I am a perfect angel when it comes to sentence structuring; but when I tell you his was not very good, I mean it was not very good.

Anyway...

The process involves him sending me a check, which I would then cash in. I was asked to deduct $600 for myself and then send the rest to some girl named Maria. Maria is supposedly the girl who is expected to be putting the decals on my car, and taking them off. Wonderful! Her address is in Illinois... What? I live in Pennsylvania, she lives in Illinois. I asked the question why would you send someone from Illinois to put a new decal on my car every week for the long run of three months. Once again this moronic fool did not answer my question. Instead he decided to give me some line about how his company cares about the clients and blah blah blah. I never said anything regarding what he cried to me about. I basically responded by saying that he needed to take a couple steps back and CHILL!

Today, I received the check in the mail. It was approximately $3,300! I was like woah! Now that's a lot of money. By the time I received the check it was too late to go to the bank and cash it in. I was so irritated, to say the least. Like I said, this guy was all about doing everything in a swift and urgent manner. I never thought I would say this, but I would like to send a huge thank you out to the banks for having such bogus service hours. The bogus hours of the banks saved me from getting scammed, and losing a hefty amount of money.

Here is how the whole scam thing works:

I would have went to the bank, cashed the check, and received $3,300 in cash. I would have kept $600 for myself, and sent approximately $2,700 to that Maria chick. When my bank would have asked for money from the banking account that gave the $3,300 check to me, my bank would realize that there is no such account. In other words, my bank would come attack me for the money, while Maria would have been jumping into the pool of money that I sent to her. And that is how people scam other people.

To David and Maria... if that even is your real names... I hate you!

Lesson of the Day:

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

Life: Lose the Battle, Win the War

Let's take a trip through history class real quick. It seems as though every corner you turn in history you can find a war. War involves fighting a string of battles until one side is forced to surrender. Within these battles, one side has to win and the other side has to lose; it's just how it is. However, just because the one side wins the battle doesn't necessarily mean that they will consequently win the war, and vice versa.


Interestingly enough, this ideology can hold true when war is interchanged with life. Life also has its battles that must be faced. "You win some, you lose some" is the saying that I always hear. There are times in your life when you win, and there are also times in your life when you lose.


The key to this thought is not the idea of winning or losing. Rather, it is a matter of how you react to the win or loss.


Some people become so satisfied with a win that they become complacent. They figure that since they won, improvements are no longer necessary. Eventually, this thinking will come back to bite them where it hurts them the most and a losing pattern will start to set in.


Similarly, some people get knocked down, and they sit there and cry about it. They think of themselves as worthless, and in other negative ways. What happens after this is a never-ending trip down failure lane. That is until they stand up, and overcome. Which for some people, that time never comes. They sit there, and whither away their lives.


When you choose the paths of complacency or cry-baby lane, the war will be lost no matter which way you decide to look at it. This leaves me to believe that the only way to truly "win the war" is to have a mindset to continually get better. Strive to be the best that you can be. You can win the war of life by never accepting mediocrity, following your dreams, attacking your goals, and fulfilling your aspirations.

Life: H-e-double-the-hockey-stick

Man, my emotions are running high and I'm just going to let my emotions do all of the talking. As a warning, I speak from the heart and I do not hide who it is that I am. Either take it or leave it... the choice is up to you. Some may disapprove of my choices in words, which is fine. Understand though, that I'd rather you know the true me, than fake something that I am not.


As most of you know from either reading my posts or knowing me personally, I am always looking to push the limits of what I can do both physically and mentally. I also am an extremely hard worker. I don't like doing any kind of job that requires me to sit on my ass! Period. I want to be down in the trenches, working like a mad man. A mad man, I tell ya!


Okay well let me cut to the chase...


Today was my very first day at my new job as a loader/unloader at a warehouse. At first, I loved it! It was everything that I could ask for in a job. I was picking stuff up and putting 'em down, just like ole' Arnold. I was busting my ass and putting out every effort that I had, because that is the way that I do work. It ended up being a 10 hour day from 7 am to 5:30 pm, with only three breaks: two 15 minute breaks, and one 30 minute lunch break. Have you ever done something at full intensity over a two hour plus time span? No stops, no breaks, no water. Well let me tell you, it is definitely not fun, but it makes you feel like you can accomplish anything! However, add another four of those and it can sum up to be a walk through hell.


I came to the point today where I would rather die than spend another day working at that place again. Before today, I didn't think there was any hell-ish experience that an individual could go through, to rather choose death over reliving a certain experience. Nothing! Man, did this experience change that reality of mine.


Here's the deal though...


There were people who were so-called "supervisors" who did nothing all day. They sat there watching as my co-workers and I busted our asses. I felt like I was in hell. Literally. I felt that I was a slave to these people. Seriously, no exaggeration. These people made me feel powerless, almost as if they owned me. They made it seem like they controlled my every move. I felt like I was a helpless character in a video game, while they were the evil kid running me through a big ball of flaming, hot fire. It seemed that they had complete control of my life. I don't understand how people like this can sit back and watch human beings struggle, and not do anything about it. They almost seemed entertained by what they were watching. It felt like they were watching my every move waiting for me to slip just once, so that they could lash at me with a whip. Obviously, they would never physically abuse their workers with their own hands, but I still felt that it was a serious cause for concern.


This all made me start thinking of the slavery that took place in the United States not too long ago. It provided me with a greater appreciation of what these slaves had to go through. Not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. No human being should ever have to go through a hell-ish experience like that. In the end, no matter what color, race, or gender, a human is a human, and should be treated accordingly.


Seriously.


Sometimes all it takes is one experience to attain a better understanding of what others in history have dealt with. It was an experience for me that I would never give back in a million years. What I learned about myself, and what I learned about life in general was completely worth it.


I would like to conclude by saying that the experience that I went through today will only ever be one experience. In other words, you can keep your nine dollars per hour, and shove it up your ass. I am a human being, and no amount of money is worth being treated like anything less. I QUIT!

Life: For What It's Worth, B... U...

If there is one thing that I have learned in my life, it is that you have to be yourself. Be who you are and nobody else. I recommend that you learn and adapt from those who once held similar dreams to the dreams that you have now, those who are now living those dreams to the fullest, and those who have already created success for themselves. However, that doesn't mean that you should do everything that these people do. In case you haven't caught on yet, I am referring to your role model(s). Just because your role model does one thing, doesn't necessarily mean that you should always follow that same action. In the end, your success is significantly dependent on how well you stay on track of who you are.


Let me explain further...


There are basic principles that you follow on a daily basis, and that you have adapted to over time based on certain experiences. All of the experiences that you have been through as a person is the most prominent shaping factor that makes you different from everyone else in the world. Let's face it, nobody else in the world has been through the same exact experiences that you have, just like you haven't been through the same exact experiences that other people have. What happens with some people is that they cripple the reality of who they are by desiring to be somebody else so badly, that they lose sight of who they really are in the process. In prevention to this, I recommend having multiple role models to learn from. Take away a few things that you feel represent you, and dump anything that doesn't represent you. Never implement something into your life that you feel is not a good representation of who you are. It is my guess that this is where the whole idea of 'only implementing one thought that you read out of a book, and leaving the rest' comes from. It allows you to experience more than just one person's thoughts, and prevents you from becoming somebody that you're not.


When all is said and done, stay the path to who you are.


Those who stray away from the path will have nothing left.

Training/Throwing: Strength Gains ASAP

Athlete's are always looking to make strength gains in the weight room, right? They are always looking to make these strength gains as quickly as possible, right? Well, then how come so many athlete's are never consistent when it comes to training in the weight room? Why do I continually hear stories about athletes spending over 2 hours in the weight room? It is my opinion that as an athlete, you should spend no more than one hour in the weight room. One hour? Yea! Let me say it again. One hour! Those who spend any longer than one hour in the weight room are either:

• Spending too much time BS-ing with their friends,
• Not being consistent with their rest periods,
• Or training at too low of an intensity.

As far as I know, there are three ways to increase the intensity of a workout:

1. Increase the frequency/overall repetitions
2. Add more weight
3. Decrease the rest or recovery period

I am personally not a big believer in the first method of increasing the intensity of a workout, especially as a thrower. As a thrower, all you have is one time, one rep to get your furthest distance possible. This involves combining maximal forces into one single motion. You can almost think of a throw as a one repetition max; one shot, one opportunity, maximal domination! On the other hand, increasing the frequency/overall repetitions means that you are almost forced to decrease the weight lifted. Consequently, you are decreasing the amount of force required to move the weight. This being the sole reason why I do not believe in doing high repetitions of anything.


Some of you may be saying that by doing low reps, everything is going to be slow. As an athlete, you want to be explosive, right? It seems that I am contradicting myself, but I assure you that I am not. In order to get that explosive nature that you want as an athlete, I use a method that involves the action of doing plyometrics on the days that I do not lift. I will do any jump and any sprint that you can possibly imagine. I do explosive back squat jumps with 135 pounds. If I had a tire I would flip it and move it as fast as I possibly could. Also, anytime you do an olympic lift, you need to be explosive in order to complete the lift; and I don't care how much weight you have on the bar, you need to be explosive. My thought is that you should never do more than 5 repetitions per set. Unless of course you are a beginner. I would then take a different approach. I believe that high intensity, low repetition lifting is the optimal method to gaining optimal strength. High intensity, low repetition could also mean adding more weight. By increasing the weight, you increase the intensity of your workout.


The last and most important way to increase the intensity of your workout involves the rest or recovery period. Listen very carefully... keeping a consistent rest or recovery period is the key to getting stronger. I am a big believer in keeping record of my lifts, as well as the weight lifted and the reps/sets performed in a training journal. Have you ever heard of the saying, "you need to know where you've been, before you can know where you're going?" This saying is absolutely true. I implement this saying by increasing the weight that I lift every week. I look back in my journal to see what I lifted the previous week, and then I try to lift heavier the next week. Here's the deal though... Anyone can continually increase the weight lifted each week if the rest period is inconsistent. Think of it this way:

If I was to do back squat one week and I did a 5 rep by 5 set workout starting at 205 lbs. I would plan to go up by twenty pound increments so that it would look like this: 205, 225, 245, 265, & 285. Between each set I would have a two minute rest period. Next week, I would do the same 5 x 5 workout, but this time I would start at 210 lbs and increase by 20 lbs each set, so it would look like this: 210, 230, 250, 270, & 290. This week instead of having a two minute rest period between each set, I would have a two minute, three minute, four minute, and five minute rest periods. This inconsistency completely defeats the purpose of increasing the weight! You cannot possibly measure whether or not you were able to complete the workout based on strength gains or if it was the extra rest time. Do you see where I am going with this?


What consistent recovery period should I have between sets? Most sources as far as I know, usually recommend two to three minutes. I personally do one minute recovery periods. I'm not going to lie to you... it sucks real bad, and it is enough to beat the hell out of you. The reason why I do one minute instead of two or three, is because I like to mentally push the limits, and I also don't like spending any more time in the weight room than I need too. The amount of time that you choose, is really up to your discretion. But as long as it's consistent, it is golden in my eyes.


Having a consistent recovery period can be compared to the control group of an experiment. A control group protects your experiment from having any underlying variables, and gives you a more accurate measurement of what you're testing. Further, a consistent recovery period prevents you from having any underlying variables, and gives you a more accurate measurement of your workout. In other words, consistent recovery periods and control groups are interchangeable.


I never implemented the use of recovery periods until recently. Before the implementation of recovery periods, I would walk out of the weight room feeling as though I hardly did anything. Now, I walk out of the weight room wondering if I am going to be able to make it back to my house. I mean I am exhausted, both physically and mentally, dripping down puddles of sweat! I personally love this feeling. It makes me feel as though I did not waste my time in the weight room.


Back in the day when the big thing was "Call of Duty," my brother actually would get a set of lifting in, play a game of team death match or something like that, and then he would get another set in. Talk about inconsistent recovery times. No wonder why his strength gains were minimal at that.


I know of other people who go to the weight room, and then socialize for different periods of time in between sets. They end up spending two plus hours in the weight room. If that's not a waste of time, I don't know what is. The weight room is for moving heavy shit around, not for socializing. You want to socialize, go take a hike! End of story.

Life/Throwing: Confidence

Last night I was involved in my first type of competition since maybe February. I was playing volleyball with my team at Bangor park for the first night of summer league volleyball. I was so AMPED to get back into it. It has been way too long since I had any competition-related experiences. My adrenaline started pumping, my heart started racing, and it was just awesome! My arm was not hurting, everything was right on point. WOW!

There was a few people who could no longer be on the team due to various reasons, so we had to find ourselves a replacement. I never exactly met this kid, but from what I knew he listened, he was a competitor, and he could jump. What more could you ask for really?

I took a sport psychology class last semester and it really opened up my eyes into the mental game of sports. If you go to any competition, make sure you take a look at how different people carry themselves. Those who win probably act on a more confident basis. Those who lose are probably lacking confidence.

We are kind of jumping around here, but let's get back to the team's replacement. The only volleyball he has ever played is gym class volleyball. In other words, his volleyball IQ was lacking. However, his athleticism makes up for some of his minimal volleyball IQ. We started playing our first couple of games, and he made a few key errors right in a row. All of a sudden you could see his confidence drop all the way to the ground. He then started to make even more errors. I was starting to get the vibe that this kid is hopeless, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. We ended up losing our first four games to pretty good teams. During our last two games something changed. Good things started to happen, we started playing as a team, and everyone's confidence went through the roof; especially the replacements. He started being aggressive, he realized he had a team around him who would have his back if he made a mistake, and his play improved significantly.

You see this confidence phenomenon all of the time in Major League Baseball. Hitters get into really big slumps every once in a while, and I really think it is nothing more than a mental thing. They end up getting into tough outs, they start to think that they're doing something wrong, they start chasing bad pitches, and then they dig their own grave. Instead of doing what they do best, they change their approach and make matters worse. Their confidence gets run over by a mac truck, and then they find themselves strolling along a long and bumpy road.

The point is that in anything you do, do it with confidence. If you find yourself in a position where you feel yourself getting into a slump, maybe just go back to the basics. In other words, go back to what made you into the person or athlete that you are today. The way that you carry yourself mentally could possibly be the difference between you coming in first place and you coming in fifth place.

Be mentally strong,

Be confident,

Be you!

Throwing: Glory Days

Have you ever had a day of throwing when nothing seemed to go right? You start trying harder, and consequently start tensing your muscles. When you think it couldn't get worse, it actually does. You then start thinking to yourself that you're terrible, and you should just quit all together. Mixed emotions start to build up, and outside pressures seem to be attacking from all angles. You start worrying yourself about not being ready for a meet, not being able to reach your goals, or even not attaining the collegiate scholarship that you have always dreamed of.


Regardless of how you're throwing, throwing is still throwing. Throwing is simply just a sport. It is something that you grew up doing because you loved to throw; you had a passion to constantly throw. Am I right?


Eventually, you get to a point where throwing becomes something more than just the sport that you love. It becomes the one thing that you have to rely on in order to get a college scholarship. The implement that you grew up loving reforms into a stabbing blade of pressure. All that it seems to do is create unwanted stress.


Sometimes you need to just take a step back; take a ride on the time machine that brings you back to the glory days of when throwing was fun. If a sport reaches a point where it turns into a personal emotion of hatred, you need to take a step back and just take the day to enjoy it.

Go back to the glory days. Relive it.

Training/Throwing: John Hopkins Medicine, Overuse Injuries

I just watched a webinar given by John Hopkins Medicine on the topic of overuse injuries.

The most important concepts that I took out of it, mostly involved the prevention of overuse injuries. Most overuse injuries can be prevented by taking the proper precautions. I have said this before, and I will say it again, listen to your body! Trust it! Believe it!

If you are starting to feel discomfort or pain coming on, you must stop doing what you are doing. You then need to consult either your athletic trainer or a trusted doctor of yours. Trust me when I say that you do not want to experience the wrath of overuse injuries at their worst. Overuse injuries can be the most frustrating experience that you ever have.

The medical doctor that was speaking mentioned the thought that you should take at least 3 months off from your given sport per year. I don't exactly know how this concept is supposed to work for a thrower, but I would assume that it is something to give serious consideration.

She also mentioned that you want to have at least 2 off days per week for your given sport. Rest is very important as an athlete. You may feel that taking 2 days off per week is going to limit your progress. However, if you decide to ignore the 2 days of rest per week and end up with an overuse injury that holds you out for month after month, does your progress really matter?

DGTT/Throwing: Struggle, Passion, and Commitment

Throwers! I have not directed a post toward you all in quite some time now. However, in all that I write, it can easily apply to you. This post is going to be specially directed toward the throwers, so gear yourself up and enjoy!

Throughout my seven years being a part of this awesome sport, I have unfortunately made plenty of mistakes. However, I don't think anyone could ever doubt the amount of effort that I have put into all of this time throwing. In high school, I would always be the last one throwing. I would throw until it was too dark to throw. I carried that same mentality into college as well. John Powell's logic of throwing 10,000 repetitions per year was not something that I took all that lightly. I never actually counted how many times I threw each year, but I always went into practice with a mindset of throwing until I could not physically throw anymore. Most people would think that it would be boring to do the same thing over and over again, day in and day out, night after night. For me, the emotion that I felt, and still do feel for throwing, is located on the complete opposite end of the spectrum of boring. It never failed to take me away from the daily struggles of life. I know the older population are probably saying, "Dude, you don't even know what struggle is!" I understand your point, but even as teenagers, the youngins get stressed every once in a while too. Throwing just has a way of relieving all of the stresses that you have in your life. Most of you reading this could probably agree with that statement. Even on a day where nothing seems to be going right, it just plants a seed of passion and excitement.




Last year during an outdoor season practice nothing seemed to be going right. Everything that was working for me in previous weeks was no longer working out for me. It started to pour down buckets of rain in a fast and explosive manner, kind of how I wished the shot put was flying out of my hand. It was freezing all at the same time. There I was in my shorts and my tee-shirt living it up! I refused to stop throwing until I got it right. Eventually, I did get it right. Everything started to click for me! The determination I had that night to get back on track is something that will stick with me for the rest of my life.

As I am spending this time to talk about my own experiences and the passion that I have for this sport, I want to diverge onto the real reason of why I am stating all of this in the first place. I was talking about how I have made plenty of mistakes throughout my throwing career. I have mentioned before that I always refused to lift when I was in high school. That would be one of my mistakes. As I have mentioned in previous posts, you need to lift. Most of the other mistakes involved my mindset of throwing until I could not throw anymore. You're probably saying to yourself, "What does that even mean?" Yea, I get it. I always talk about how much I believe in taking countless repetitions when throwing.

Here's the deal, there is a right way to train as a thrower, and a wrong way. Now, I don't claim to be an expert or anything, I am speaking purely from experience. The point that I am at now as thrower did not come easy and it was not a short fix. It was something that I struggled with, and something that took me a long time to get to where I am at now. I still believe whole-heartedly in the idea that repetition is key to the success of a thrower. I also want to back up the fact that transitioning into a successful thrower requires a lot of hard work and commitment. The bottom-line is this; I took the wrong path to get to where I am now. Obviously, I am out of commission right now due to this tendinitis injury in my right arm. That tells you I didn't do something right. Yet, it's not all about this injury in my arm. What I am talking about is the fact that I was not taught the "right way" when I first started throwing. I developed a lot of bad habits, and it took me a long time to break a lot of these bad habits. For instance:

• My left side carried me through the circle rather than my right side.

• I lead with my knee rather than the inside of my right thigh.

• My arms were all over the place.

• I never, ever turned my right foot.

These are just a few of the basics that I did not do as a high schooler. The list could become real nasty, real quick, if I spent the time really thinking about it. Yet, I was able to manage average numbers as a high school thrower. I honestly think that repetition, hard work and commitment had a lot to do with this. I became real good at what I did. Unfortunately, what I did was not real good. I also had more guidance than most high school throwers do around this area. I was fortunate in those regards. However, I lacked the basics needed to be the thrower that I always dreamed of being. Obviously, once this arm gets all doctored up, I'll be back at it again. Yet, I always wonder to myself what is it that I could have been? What could I have achieved as a thrower in high school if I had that basic guidance from the beginning? When I say basic guidance, I mean everything from training, mental preparation, and technique.

I really think that the struggles that I had to go through is one of the biggest driving factors for me wanting to help out throwers who may be in a similar position to that of what I went through. Since throwing is something that I am so passionate about and knowing that I put all of the hard work in that I did, to now being able to see a clear path that I could have taken if there was the opportunity of someone being there to direct me to that right path; really gives me no other choice but to reach out and help you guys and girls. I see myself work so hard at this for so long, and realize that I have been underachieving for all of these years, because I didn't have the proper guidance from the beginning. I am sitting here wondering what could have been, what could I have accomplished if I had that ever-so important guidance; the experience that is so vital to being the absolute best that you can be. 

I now have this mindset about life where I never want to open a new door to my life and wish that I would have done more. I didn't always have this mindset. I gained it through investing in others. Investing in others helped me realize who I really am, and I think that it is so important to find out who you really are. Some people spend their whole lives trying to figure out who they are. If you ask me, I think that is a waste of your life. Do not let yourself sink into the same hole that I did. The kind of hole where you sit all day and wonder what you could have been if you had the proper guidance. I am putting myself out there to provide that guidance to you high school throwers in the area. Before me, there was no one in the area who could provide what it is that I desire to provide.

I was watching an interview on Zach Even-Esh last night, and he asked the simple question along the lines of, "what is your purpose to be put on this Earth?"

I had a dream last night, where I was walking through a place where I used to hang out as a kid. As I was walking, I looked up and noticed my best friend walking by me. My friend went off to the military so it is always rare occasion when I do see him. It was an exciting moment to say the least. We ended up walking to the movie theatre. As I imagined him to be loaded with cash, he whipped out a hundred dollar bill and bought around 5 tickets for the surrounding people, including myself. We end up getting into the movie theatre, sit there for a little while, and the movie starts. Maybe five minutes into the movie, the movie suddenly stops. Someone starts typing on the screen, listing her accomplishments. Under this list she writes, "thank you Greg Pearson, you saved my life." If you could cry in your sleep, I think that would have been the moment for me. It is not because I am a cry-baby or anything like that. It is because I am so passionate about affecting other's lives in the utmost positive manner through what I do. I want to be the reason why a lost and befuddled teenager, finds their path to success. 

There are so many high schoolers these days who are athletes, that have tremendous abilities, but they don't know who they are. They run around to all of these different groups, they get caught up with drugs, and basically throw their lives out of the window. I see it time and time again. It is this reason why I want to create a family of training and success. A place where these teenagers can always fall back on and know that they always have a place of acceptance built around respect, hard work, and commitment. I feel that as I have grown, this is the major purpose to why I have been put on this Earth. To provide my experience in a way that allows the younger generation to find a successful path.

This is who I am. This is my purpose to live. You're either with me, or you're against me. If you're with me, great! Give me a call. If you're against me, even better. I only want to deal with those who have a desire to the best that they can be.

Before we close this down, I would like to mention that I am perfectly happy about where I am now. I know I spent a lot of time talking about how I wish this and how I wish that. The truth is that without the experiences that I went through, I wouldn't be the person I am today. I wouldn't be here looking to share my experiences with all of you.

Let's Make It Happen.

Learn From Those Who Have Already Experienced.

Save Yourself The Trouble.

Training: Like A Jog In The Park

As an athlete, you want to be explosive. If you are not explosive, you're probably not an athlete; or you're not all that good. You can be as strong as you dream to be, but if you're not explosive, that strength is useless. I have seen many powerlifter/bodybuilder types that are not athlete material. Yes, they are muscular. Yes, they are really strong. Unfortunately, they have trained their muscles to be slow. Not all, but most. Especially in today's day of age, it is rare to see a bodybuilder with the true, brute strength that it takes to be an athlete. I have seen powerlifters who are strong as hell, not be able to throw a shot put worth a damn. It's because they train their body's to be slow and non-explosive. As a shot putter you need to be explosive!


I am not a big believer in training anything that can be considered long distance and slow moving. I feel that it defeats the purpose of attaining utmost explosiveness as an athlete. You train your body to be explosive, but then you break down all that you've worked for to take a mile or two mile run? I find that silly.


You may question, "If you are telling me that running one, two or even more miles is silly, then how do I become enduranced for my sport?" It's simple. Running long and slow distances is not the only way to achieve muscular endurance. Have you ever done sprints and then you were gasping for air? Yea, that would be endurance. Those sprints will keep you fast and explosive, at the same time as increasing your endurance. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Do beware though, doing these sprints will take a little more effort and stronger mentality. I don't know about you, but when I take a really slow run, I become extremely bored; really, really fast. You might be brutally exhausted after doing the sprints, but at least you won't fall into a pit of never-ending boredom. If prevention of boredom, increases in endurance, and increases in explosiveness are not enough to convince you, let me add that you will also be saving some time. It can take you anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes to run 2 miles. It may only take you 10 to 15 minutes for a good, explosive, muscular endurance workout. Time is a valuable thing!


Sprints are not the only workouts you can do either. You can do anything that is explosive! Make a circuit if you want too. Circuits can be a real good way to train, and have some fun all at the same time. You can flip tires, pull sleds, and jump everyway that you can think of. They are all explosive, and will build up your endurance mightily if you do it for an extended period of time.


Let's say you were on a basketball team, and your team didn't do any conditioning what-so-ever. You started the season, had your first game and your whole team was gasping for air. Each player had to be subbed in for every so often. You end up losing the game. You actually end up losing a lot of games. However, you start to get to the end of the season and you notice that your endurance is almost in tip-top shape. How can this be? We never did any conditioning work... The answer to this question is that playing basketball was actually your conditioning. There is nothing slow about basketball. It is one of the most explosive sports that you can play. Okay so, playing basketball is explosive and it is a type of conditioning? Get outta here! I hope you see where I am going with this. I am not telling you in order to increase your muscular endurance you need to play full court, 5-on-5 basketball. What I am telling you is that you can work on your muscular endurance by doing explosive activities for a certain period of time. As I said earlier, you can kill two birds with one stone; maintain your explosiveness, at the same time as increasing your muscular endurance.


I believe I have proved my point as to why I do not believe in doing anything slow and long distance.

Life: My Philosophy

One's life is nothing more than a timeline. I say timeline, but I don't mean the timeline on Facebook. Just want to clear that up first. The timeline of your life is a little more true. It's not something that you can fake or make look a certain way to leave an impression. Throughout your life, you have these periods of time that you venture through. You are born, you start school, you graduate from different levels of school, you're involved in sports, you go through puberty, you get your first job, you graduate from high school, you choose the college that you want to attend, you graduate from college, you start your career, you decide to start a family, etc ... all the way up until the day that you die. You are who you are.


As each period of time comes and goes, you open a door to a new period of your life, and close the door on another. The way I look at life, is that when I am opening a new door to my life, I don't want to be sitting there with any regrets of something that I did or did not do. I don't want to be saying to myself, "well, I wish I would have done things differently. I wish I would have taken available opportunities when they were there." Why do people think these things when they get ready to walk through a new door to their life? It's because they don't live. They don't live every day with a purpose. They don't attack what it is that they desire most. They see something they want, whether it be something physical or a dream, and they just sit back and hope that it comes to them. It is so easy to sit down on your ass, and watch your life flash before your eyes. Living an aggressive life takes effort. You cannot live your life expecting everything to just happen for you, because it will never happen. You have to live life aggressively and go get it. Go get what you desire most; attain your wildest dreams. Make it happen! Do not let it happen, but make it happen! In the end, your life is what you make of it. It doesn't matter how old you are either. It is never too late to start living the life that you want; the life that you desire most.


When I finish up my college throwing career, I don't want to look back and realize that I could have done more. I don't want to look back and see my life flash before my eyes. In fact, I won't let it happen. I have a mindset of making what I want, mine. Under no costs, will I let the things that I want most in my life slip out of my reach. The same holds true to any period of my life that I open. I don't want to open the door to starting a family, wishing I would have done more. Regretting that I didn't achieve what I wanted to achieve. Most importantly, I don't want to be in my death bed and wishing that I would have done things differently. Wishing that I would have went sky diving, bungee jumping or spending more time with my family, for example. You only have one life... why not make the most of it.


What's it going to be?

Training: Where to go?

Last night, I was doing a lot of thinking. While I was thinking, I decided to take a gander at the nearby training centers around my area. As an athlete, I have noticed that there is not really all that much to choose from as far as training centers are concerned. There are plenty of gyms in the area. However, the majority of these gyms either have a strong focus in powerlifting or they are "skinny gyms" (as I like to call them). My intent here is not to knock those who take part in either type of gym that is, if your passion matches up with the results that you will receive at these gyms.

 
Let's take a look at both types of gyms...


We'll go in order here and start with the gyms that focus on powerlifting first. These gyms are fantastic if your goals involve competing as a powerlifter. However, if you are an athlete whose goals resemble getting the most out of your athletic ability, then these powerlifting gyms are not what you want. As a powerlifter, you want to be able to move as much weight in the big 3 lifts that you can, no matter what path it takes to get there. These big 3 lifts include the bench, the squat, and the deadlift. Don't get me wrong, these people are real strong, but it is my belief that the strength that they maintain is not "true strength." Let me expand further on this thought.

 
Dan John likes to use the idea of Dads having "Dad strength." In more cases than not, no matter how much you lift, it always seems that your Dad has an edge on you in the strength department. This guy hasn't picked up a weight in like 20 years, yet he has no problem lifting that car engine up out of the vehicle. How can this happen? I'll tell you how... manual labor. Digging holes, moving rocks, cutting down trees and stacking them, carrying 80 pound pipes, cutting logs with an axe, hammering stakes in the ground, moving furniture, picking up tires, etc. You see big dudes doing this kind of stuff in strongman competitions. They are lifting atlas stones and carrying them for time, flipping logs end over end for time, pulling massive trucks for time, farmer walking a car for time, throwing kegs over a wall for time, etc. These are examples of "true strength." These people are straight up athletes! Put them in any sport and I guarantee you they can hold their own. You cannot take any ole' powerlifter or bodybuilder, and have them win a strongman competition, or compete in an athletic sport for that matter.


The athletic key in strongman competitions is that they move heavy stuff for time. Through doing this, you are exerting maximal force throughout your whole body. Is that not what you want to do as an athlete? You want your whole body working in congruency. This includes your muscles, joints, and even neural functioning. Most people forget about the importance of neural functioning as an athlete. When your focus is bench, squat, and deadlift, your body doesn't know how to react to anything other than bench, squat, and deadlift. In other words, your body cannot work in congruency; your body cannot work as one unit. By doing plyometrics, flexibility, speed work, olympic lifting, strongman training, bodyweight training, and powerlifting your body gets a little bit of everything. Your body is able to handle any situation that you put it through, due to training a variety of ways.


Let's move onto the second type of gym; the "skinny gym" or "bodybuilder's gym" ...


Again, I want to remind you that I am not knocking these gyms or the people who attend them, that is if the result that they are getting is what they truly want to get. It is not in the athlete's desire to attend these gyms. Why? Well because everything that takes place in these gyms are slow and drawn out. As an athlete, you want to be fast and explosive. These "skinny gyms" that I am talking about are filled with mostly machines, ellipticals, and maybe a rack of dumbbells. These gyms most likely have an insane number of rules including:

• do not use chalk
  

• do not make any loud noises
  

• do not drop weights
  

• no loud music
  

• please, do not sweat on the equipment, because then I have to clean it!
  

Do you catch my drift? You cannot attend these gyms as an athlete and expect to get athletic results. You may look good in the mirror, but if you try to exert yourself you will probably get banned. They would almost be doing you a favor by kicking you out. Anyway, my point is that these "skinny gyms" are not cut out for athletes. Isolation movements and aerobic exercise is not going to help you reach your full potential as an athlete.


As you can see, there are "slim pickins" when it comes to training gyms for athletes in our area. If you are looking for one in the area, you're almost better off looking for ways to train at home. You can make yourself a sandbag, and mimic lifts that you do with barbells... squats, presses, cleans, carries for distance, etc. Find a place to pick up a big tractor tire... flip it, carry it, move it! Get a rope and pull the tire. Find a big rock and carry it for distance. Use the rock the same way you would a barbell or sandbag. Throw the rock. Find a tree and do pull-ups, chin-ups, leg raises, etc. Do sprints and jumps. Jump for distance, jump for height, continuously jump, jump laterally, jump over stuff, jump rope, etc. Do this stuff enough to push yourself to a point where you are really exerting yourself. Push yourself mentally, as well as physically.


A lot of times athletes get so caught up with not having any place to train that they forget that they have a pot of gold in their back yard. Just get out there and do it! Do not question it and talk about the Jones' having all of this workout equipment. The truth is, THEY PROBABLY DON'T EVEN USE IT! The key is to just do it.


Tim Tebow has this quote saying, "somewhere he is out there, training while I am not. One day when we meet, he will win." If you read Tebow's book, he talks about how he lived on a farm growing up. He was always doing that manual labor that you would expect a farmer to do. This stuff got him big and strong. He just did it! He just picked up that bale of hay and moved it. Obviously, there was a lot more to his success than that, but it created a foundation for him. He is a phenomenal athlete, and it wasn't just natural ability. It involved hard work and commitment.
As an athlete, you need to stop worrying about where you should go to train, and just do the work! Hard work and commitment... sounds like the key to success!


Let's Make It Happen!

Training/Throwing: There's More To It!

There was a time in my life where I played all of the normal sports such as football, basketball and baseball. In 7th grade, I came down with a really bad case of lymes disease in my spinal cord, and it stopped me dead in my tracks. Damn ticks!... Anyway, the lymes disease basically had me bed-ridden for months on end. I actually missed the majority of the school year because of it. Since I was no longer able to play the sports that I grew up and loved playing as a youngster, I was never really introduced to the whole theory of lifting and training that most high school athletes encounter.


In some sports such as football, you don't really have any other choice but to lift. Football players are taught that lifting is good and is actually essential in order to excel as an athlete. Rightly so! When I was in high school, I noticed that the large majority of throwers that I competed against played either football, basketball, or both. These athletes had a good idea of how to lift. It was almost in their nature to lift. It was obvious that they had a good grasp on lifting just by looking at them. You could see it in their muscle mass and size.

 
In high school, I had a "no lift/no train" mindset. The only lifting I ever did was overhead squats (Dan John's theory), dumbbell cheat curls (Al Oerter theory), dumbbell tricep extensions (without triceps you cannot throw), and every once in a while I would bench (honestly, who didn't bench?). I never did any other lift because I simply didn't know how. I thought that the only thing that truly mattered was technique.


Here is where this no lift/no train mindset came from:

 
I started competing in track meets, and I noticed that everybody was double my size. Unfortunately, their technique was horrendous. I started throwing further than a lot of these people, and so I was convinced that technique was the key. However, although technique is extremely important as a thrower, it is not everything. Without lifting, and without training, you cannot reach the highest levels of throwing that you are capable of. It is a pretty simple concept; as a thrower, you must lift!


I have heard stories of a high school coach in Pennsylvania, who doesn't even let their throwers pick up an implement until they have two years of lifting under their belt. My intent is not to agree or disagree with his method, but to give an example of how important lifting is as a thrower. This coach knows how important lifting is to the overall make up of a thrower. You cannot have a "no lift/no train" mindset and expect to achieve greatness. Unless of course, you are blessed with a inhumane natural ability to throw. Even so, the vast (and by vast, I mean VAST!) majority  of people reading this do not have these types of natural abilities. Even more so, if you were one of the really (and by really, I mean REALLY!) lucky ones with this natural ability, you would not be living up to your potential. You would be greatly underachieving. You would be basing your performance off of your opponent's performance.  As I said in my previous post, this type of action is a no-no!

 
Nuggets to take away:

• Although technique is important, it is not everything.
  

• Lifting/training is essential to a thrower.
  

• You need to have a good balance between learning the technique of throwing and getting stronger, more explosive, and athletic through lifting/training.
  

• ... Stay away from ticks!
  

Thanks for reading! Until next time, see ya!

Life/Throwing: Satisfied? I hope not.

Have you ever won anything? Whether it be as a team, or individually? I am sure you have won at least one thing in your life. It doesn't have to be magnificent such as a championship. It could be something as simple as winning a game. The majority of the people reading this have won before, and therefore know what it feels like to win. Winning feels good... Right? Winning is something you should be proud of... Right? It should make you feel happy... Right? However... NEVER, ever, EVER, should you EVER be satisfied with winning. At least this is my philosophy, and I will explain where I am coming from.

In my mind, the only true win involves accomplishing one's full potential. Have you accomplished your full potential in the sport that you have a passion for? ... I am going to answer this question for you... No you haven't.


Reaching one's full potential in my mind is something that I believe to be impossible. Yes, I said it. The word impossible. The one word that as an athlete, and as a person, should be thrown out of the human vocabulary. I believe that reaching one's full potential is the only thing in an individual's life that is actually impossible (except for a few laws of nature).


Let me indulge further into this impossible concept. You might say, "Why is it impossible to reach my full potential?" Here is the reason. As a human being, up until the day that you die, you have the ability to become better. If you were to reach your full potential, that pretty much means you have no room for improvement. My belief is that there is always room for improvement. Therefore, it is impossible to reach one's full potential.


Then you might say, "Well what about aging? I know as a thrower, eventually my muscle mass will start to deteriorate. Naturally, I will not be able to throw as far." ...You are missing the whole point! There is more to reaching your full potential than throwing a personal record. It is about getting the most out of what you are given. Your right though, naturally your body will start to go downhill with age, but that doesn't mean you stop trying to be the best that you can possibly be! If anything, it should mean that you try harder. Just take a gander at Dan John!


You're probably wondering to yourself, "well, if reaching my full potential is impossible, what is the point in trying?" The answer to this question is that the attempt to reach your full potential is a way to live. Actually, it is the ONLY way to live. Let me put it this way... If you are living a life that does not include making every last attempt to reach your full potential, you are not truly living. Period. End of story. You are merely a tree stump waiting to deteriorate. It is something that will take a good long while, but before you know it your gone. POOF! Then your sitting there wondering what the hell happened to your life. Do not let this happen to you.


Pretty blunt, right? ... Good.


Speaking of impossible... The name of this whole shah-bang I got going here, "Defying Gravity," is also an impossible concept. No matter how hard you try, gravity will always overcome. Gravity will always win. Sucks, huh? But it is the fight to continuously try to defy gravity that will in the end prevail you to being the best that you can be. It will unleash you from the life of underachieving into a new world of achieving greatness. This is exactly the meaning of attempting to reach your full potential, it gives you a reason to fight day in and day out. Although you will never reach it, you will always have something to fight for. It's like adrenaline, the fight-or-flight response. Pretty simple, you're either in or you're out. What's it going to be?


Here's the deal. Winning involves beating an opponent. Your opponent could be really, really good; or your opponent could be really, really bad. Either way, if you are basing your satisfaction off of a win, you are actually basing your satisfaction on the skill level of your opponent. You are basing your LIFE off of other people's lives! This is a problem people! Let's say your opponent is really, really bad. You then beat your opponent, and you are satisfied with the win. What more do you have to live for after this? Even so, we could say that your opponent is really, really good. You then beat your opponent. Who says that your performance couldn't be better? It is my belief that as a person, you can always continue to get better one way or another.

I also believe that never should you ever compare yourself to other people. I know back in high school everybody wanted to be normal, myself included. If you are in high school, I am sure you are going through this same kind of thing. The truth is that those who are normal never do anything with their lives. Obviously they do something, but it is not extraordinary. From my viewpoint, if you don't have the mindset of wanting to do something extraordinary, then what's the point? I don't know. We'll leave that topic for another time. Anyway, why would you want to be normal? Live life to be different! Stop trying to fit in with the crew. I have mentioned this in one of my previous posts that only 5% of the world's population is successful. That leaves 95% of the world's population that are unsuccessful. Guess what? You can call those 95% the crew. What will it be? Do you want to be different or do you want to be part of the crew? It's your decision.


My goal in writing this little rant is to try to prevent you from falling victim to becoming satisfied with winning against an opponent. Unfortunately, I see this situation happen in more cases than I would like to see it. I challenge you to always strive to be the best that you can be. Live your life in a way that you are always trying to reach your full potential. It's actually magnificent how many connections you can make with life and throwing. You can actually make these same connections with life and any other sport for that matter. Anyway, be different. Being part of the crew is a waste of your time and your life. You only have one life, so make it count!


As always, I am open to any thoughts and opinions that you may have. Later!

Training/Throwing: Listen!

It is truly amazing how athletes, and anyone involved in fitness for that matter, get so caught up in only training areas that give you those visible results. As a thrower, this so happens to be a HUGE problem. You hear all of these promotions including "call now and get six-pack abs in four weeks," or "order now, and see your biceps and chest blow up ten times larger." The way the fitness world attacks consumers, is simply idiotic. It really is sad, because so many of these fitness gurus do not care. All they care about is the money in their back pocket. Many people forget how important the tricep and back muscles are when throwing (I am not even going to get started on the legs). Why work the triceps, when you can do a million bicep curls and flash those so-called "guns" off at the beach? You laugh, but this concept is so true.


Many people, including myself, put tricep extensions and dumbbell rows on the back burner simply because you do not see those visible results. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not the type of person who sits in the gym and attempts to find every muscle that I can possibly isolate. I am a big believer in performing lifts that get the whole body involved, and that test your mind. Let's be honest, anyone can do tricep extensions or dumbbell rows. You actually have to maintain a passion to lift in order to do whole body lifts. But that is not my point. The point is that there are two areas that are highly overlooked; triceps and back.


Okay. Let's get to where your back/shoulders come into play as a thrower. The continuous throwing motion that a thrower frequently endures throughout the season will cause the shoulders to almost slouch inward. You can see this pattern in the majority of throwers. The constant contraction of the chest area and extension of the back area is what causes this inward slouch. Ideally, you would want an equal stretch between the two muscles. This is why any kind of rows are so important as a supplemental exercise in any throwers workout. Rows allow the muscles to get back to a normal anatomical position. You want to counteract the contraction of the chest area when throwing, with the contraction of the back area when doing rows.


The triceps are a whole different story altogether. The amount of force that the triceps have to go through when throwing the shot put or discus is tremendous. It is actually amazing that our bodies are able to handle all the stress caused by throwing. If you are not aware, I ran into an injury this season which involves that wonderful little beast called tendonitis. It is one of those things that just sticks around and never wants to go away. I have been dealing with it for a little over 5 months now, and it has kept me from throwing over that period of time. Here's the deal. I was talking about how it is amazing that our bodies are able to handle the stress and the force that is put on it with throwing. Just like anything else though, our bodies have a threshold. A threshold where it can only take so much microscopic tearing until injury starts to set in and symptoms start to occur. As you throw over and over and over again, your arm starts to break down. It does heal, but it heals as scar tissue. This scar tissue is much weaker, and is layed in a scattered, unorganized fashion. Eventually this scar tissue builds up, and the muscle becomes weaker; weak to the point where it cannot be used anymore. So how do you fix this? Well, you need to break up this scar tissue, and allow it to re-lay in an organized fashion to form new tissue. This can be done through massage therapy.


The real question is, how do you prevent an injury like this from happening? Basically, it requires the right training and proper precaution. Quality over quantity. I am a HUGE believer in repetition when it comes to learning the rotational technique in throwing. I have always been one to throw countless number of throws per day, day in and day out. I have never dealt with any problems from this method, until this year. Unfortunately, my arm reached a threshold of how much stress it could take. As a thrower, I am still a HUGE believer in repetition. I think repetition is key, but I think there are other ways of getting that repetition. Instead of using a discus, throw a little ball into the cage. Not only will it save you some stress on your arm, but you will be able to get even more repetition since you do not have to chase the implements. Instead of using a shot put, maybe use a softball and throw it into a wall. I have found that this also saves the arm a lot of stress. Also, sometimes when you are throwing and you have an actual implement in the hand, you tend to disregard the technique and key in on how far the implement is going. When using a softball or just a ball, it doesn't matter how far it goes. It allows you to focus solely on the technique. This is probably my favorite perk of throwing these alternative implements. Smart training, rather than dumb training. Let's do it!


One last very important concept on preventing these overuse injuries, is that you have to learn how to listen to your body. When the tendonitis slowly started to build, I could feel quite a bit of discomfort. However, this discomfort was minor enough that it allowed me to continue throwing. Due to my stubbornness, the discomfort that I was feeling was not enough to make me stop doing the one thing that I loved to do. Slowly enough, my arm started to get weaker. I started to get greatly irritated because the distance continued to decrease. This only made me want to throw more. My body was telling me to stop, but my mind told me to suck it up and keep going. The moral of the story is that you have to listen to your body and trust what it tells you. It could save you months of agitation. TRUST ME! I know.


My brother is actually suffering from the same tendonitis issue right now. Fortunately, he caught it before it reached my level of not being able to do anything. He is going through that same mind-body battle that I went through. His body is telling him he needs to stop, but his mind is telling him to suck it up and throw. Luckily, through my experience, I can help guide him to take the path that I wish I would have taken. I hope as you are reading this, my experience has also helped you find the right path. Listen to your body! Overuse injuries are no joke!


Comments? Questions? Hit me up!

DGTT: Summer Ending Concerns

I have been hearing concerns regarding what is going to happen when I go back to college in the Fall.


First of all, I would like everyone to know that my goal is to provide the basic information needed in order to succeed in the rotational technique. This basic information is exactly what most high school throwers are missing. However, with this knowledge that I provide to you, it will be sufficient enough to help you find the trail of success in throwing throughout the school year and track season. I will also provide you with key details that will help you improve personally as a thrower, based on your strengths and weaknesses as an athlete. I would like to remind you that when I am away, I will always be open to video analysis to help keep you on track.


Those who want to continue receiving one-on-one guidance, can always call up coach Glenn Thompson in Carlisle and see if he has any space for you. It would be an excellent opportunity for anyone to receive coaching services from him. He will offer a different perspective, and maybe help piece together some loose ties. However, I know coach Glenn has many people coming to him for help, so there is a possibility that he may not have room for you. Either way, the pieces that I provide to you will help you dramatically improve as a thrower, and will be sufficient enough to allow you to be successful.


As a college student, I also have long holiday/school breaks such as winter and spring break. If needed, we could always meet up during that time span.


One final reminder; the throwing services provided during this summer, will also be provided next summer. Eventually, I would like to open a business that incorporates strength training for all athletes in the area, but specializing in throwers. If all works out as planned, my services will be provided for years and years to come!


Any further questions? Be sure to drop me a message! I hope this has cleared up any concerns that you may have had.