Excuses

There are a couple things that I had forgotten about working with high school students. First, the difference between 9th grade and 12th grade is immense. There’s a lot of development and growth that happens in those four years. It’s crazy the difference in my interactions with a 12th grade class versus a freshman class. Incredible.
Secondly, I was amazed to see how many kids stepped in the weight room today with mobility and flexibility issues that I’m used to seeing in 65 and 75 year-old men. I would love to look back on what our weight room look like and what the athletes look like when I was in high school. I wonder if our culture has created some of the. Body development issues or if the mobility and flexibility constraints of always been a part of the high school weight room.
However one of the biggest common threads all day long was how frequent and quick high school kids are to make excuses. It didn’t matter the reason, or the class, or the repercussions, the folks in my classes today managed to accrue a massive number of excuses. A great example is the number of students who did not bring athletic clothing for the weightlifting class. The excuse was they did not know they would have to dress out on the first day. It is a weightlifting class… That excuse doesn’t even make sense. Another excuse I heard all day was, “I can’t go lower” or “that is just the best I can do.” These type of excuses make me more frustrated I think then the dress out excuses. Dress-out excuses are just forgetfulness and negligence. The excuses surrounding their inability to squat to depth is a matter of laziness and a lack of trust. The reality is however that the same excuses have often come out of my own brain and invaded my own thoughts.
We all love to make excuses in our training. What’s more is that we figure super creative and perfectly logical reasons for why we should do should not do something. While we may be able to communicate a good reason for our lack of effort, the reality is that we are just lazy and don’t want to do the work that sits before us. I make excuses all the time as to why I did not need to do that last set or complete that last rep. “It’s just one rep” or “it was better for my body to not grind through these final reps.”
I can clearly see the excuses made by the kids in my classes today and those excuses are frustrating. However, I often ignore the reality that we all make excuses. We all try to find the easier or “more efficient” way. The truth is that hard work, consistency, and time are the three guaranteed elements to create results. There is no excuse and no replacement for hard work. My plan is to teach and require this truth of those in my classes and as I prepare for this next competition make that my mantra in my own training. Excuses create loss and failure. Hard work and strengthen amidst adversity creates triumph.