With the "Open Season" concluded and the field of competitors narrowed from thousands to only the cream of the crop, many of you face a new challenge. Either you're facing down a Regional challenge that only gets tougher and tougher and shows no sign of slowing down OR you're looking at an off-season trying to decide what your next move is. Those of you in the weightlifting world are either looking down the final two weeks of training before the National Championships and Olympic Trials OR you’re looking ahead to a year of hitting those ever-increasing qualifying totals.
For those of you facing Regionals or Nationals, your nose is to the ground, grinding through the toughest training of the year. With only a few weeks left there is no greater time to remember that hard work is the catalyst to growth. Pain is part of the process. Sore muscles, long hours in the gym, and repetition of weaknesses are the difference in 5th and 15th, 1st and 20th. If there were ever a time to remember the words, "The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly," now is that time. Keep working!
For those of you who have just finished a season well fought marked by growth, success, failure, and a job well done, you're looking at what to do next. The off-season for a Crossfit athlete can be the longest stretch of time for any athlete in any sport. In the sport of Crossfit your entire year of training can all come down to 5 workouts and for some of you who were so close, maybe just 1 muffed attempt. That's a hard pill to swallow and even harder goal to train for. 365 days of work all comes down to one competition. It takes real guts and real courage to get back in the gym, back under the bar, back pounding the pavement, and back to the grind after that kind of perseverance and maybe disappointment. With 0ff-season training beginning for most of you remember that, "The credit belongs to the person… who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends oneself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he or she fails, at least fails while daring greatly."
Our team at Power and Grace has grown immensely in a year. We've added some of the best coaches and best athletes the sports world has to offer. We've seen some crazy successes both in Crossfit and in Weightlifting. We've also learned a lot and failed our fair share. However, the year ahead looks to be a big one. As a staff we wanted to put a mantra around our hopes and dreams for our athletes. The athlete, at least at Power and Grace, will always come first. They are our end game so to speak and their success is always our goal. We will never make an athlete or their success a means to another goal. They are always the end goal.
With that stated we stumbled on a speech given in 1910 at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France by then retired President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. The occasion for the speech was simple. Titled "Citizenship in a Republic: The Man In The Arena," President Roosevelt meant to inspire the hard working men and women of the world to continue in their efforts. He meant to convey the truth that the strongest countries and governments are those built on the hard work, perseverance, and sustained effort of the people. He blistered the men and women of the world bent on cynicism and encouraged those who worked hard every day to make the world a better place. In part of this speech he said the following words:
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those timid spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
This is our desire for the next year of work and for those you with your nose to the ground still working. That we would be a coaching staff and group of athletes marked by refusal to sit on the sidelines and criticize. Marked by both enjoying much and suffering much. We would know victory. Learn from defeat when it comes. That we would not, for fear of losing or failing, refuse to DARE MIGHTY THINGS!
We hope you'll join us.
Full text of speech here.