Mantra

Tomorrow begins the first day of actual classes with actual teaching and in my case actual weightlifting. It’s a pretty cool feeling for me to know that tomorrow I get the opportunity to completely revamp and create the King’s Ridge strength and conditioning program from the ground up. While I am excited about the opportunity and the incredible amount of potential that will walk in those doors tomorrow morning, there is a huge responsibility that comes with my task.
I have a key principle that I am having to remind myself of on a regular basis as I draw up the program and prepare for this week.
Begin with the end in mind and remember you’re at the beginning.
It’s important for me to remember that everything I’m doing and having the athletes perform is for a specific end. That end being strength, power, movement, and skill. I am a firm believer that the Olympic lifts are the best and most efficient developers of those things. Therefore the end is to create athletes who perform the lifts with precision and efficiency while applying their developed power and strength to the bar. That’s the goal.
However just as with the goal of a baby is to have them walking talking and ultimately developed into a normal grown adult, they start with crawling. It would be unwise of me and also unsafe of me to try to get my little girl to perform task normally performed at much later phases in her life. How dumb would I look if I were trying to get my five-month-old little girl to read a magazine with me or carry-on an intelligent conversation. The same is true with the athletes in the weight room. They have never snatched or cleaned or jerked or even really completed a squat program with movement and efficiency in mind. It would be unrealistic and likely dangerous to ask them to be good at the Olympic lifts tomorrow morning. It’s important to begin with the end in mind but tomorrow and throughout this process I’m going to have to remember that we are in fact at the beginning. Proper overhead position, proper squat depth, proper mobility requirements, and proper grip is on the task sheet for tomorrow. Furthermore, we will be progressing forward only at the skill level at which they are able to move with safety and perfection.
Tomorrow is a big day for me and for the strength conditioning department at King’s Ridge Christian School. The Lord has been gracious ton place in my life a lot of really massive influences that I think have created a very well-rounded outlook for creating athletes in the weight room. Tomorrow we get started. Lord willing one year from now I’ll be writing about kids who are setting new personal records in their snatch and competing on the National level.