Shut the Hell Up and Listen
The Nine Great Secrets of Training Success — The Final
Four
by Dave Tate
A couple of days ago, I laid out five of
what I consider the nine great secrets of training success, based on
over ten thousand hours I've spent under the bar, and from the experience
of my coaches and peers.
Here are the final four secrets. I should warn you, though. If
you get queasy easily, you might not want to look at a few of the
pictures in this article.
6. You Have Better Things to Do than Talk Shit
Many of you here know Matt Kroczaleski. If you're not involved
in powerlifting, then you probably know him as the guy who did the
225-pound dumbbell rows.
Matt "Kroc" Kroczaleski
Well, back in 2005, when he was getting ready for the APF
Wolverine Open, Matt learned the hard way about talking shit when
you ought to be thinking about training.
There was another lifter in Michigan who had just set the new
all-time state total record. Matt started talking shit on a couple
of the forums, and the two of them started talking shit back and
forth, albeit in a civilized and good-natured way. Matt put a lot
of effort into participating in the forums, keeping up the banter,
and crowing about what he was going to do at the upcoming
meet.
On the day of the meet, we were all sitting around bullshitting,
when all of a sudden the doors burst wide open. In struts Matt,
grinning, laughing, shaking hands, waving. It was like the grand
entrance of some pro wrestling star.
It was about 11:00 AM when he arrived, and he was scheduled to
lift at 2:00 PM. The whole time, he just giggled, laughed,
and goofed around with everyone, without eating or drinking
anything. Finally, as if he just remembered why he was there, he
said, "Oh, yeah, I have to lift!"
You can probably guess what happened next.
He got under the bar for his first squat attempt, which was
loaded to about 848. He stood up, then squirted out from under it
and dumped the bar. It came crashing down and bent the monolift.
His next two were high and he bombed out.
The other guy from Michigan, the other shit talker, also bombed
on the squats.
This was a big turning point for Matt. He had never realized
until then how much of a distraction and dissipation bragging and
talking shit can be. Now he hardly ever reads the forums, and
generally never talks shit outside a small circle of
friends.
7. Fanatically Believe You Can
If you want to do anything of value, in or out of the gym, you
must believe fanatically in your own ability to overcome and
succeed. Here's one of the best examples I can think of, and it
also stars Matt Kroczaleski.
Just a few weeks out from the Arnold Classic, Matt noticed that
his knee was hurting. Hurting pretty badly, and it just kept
getting worse.
"I think I need to take it light today," he said on Monday. "My
knee is sore and bothers me."
"Man, something really feels funny inside my knee," he said on
Tuesday, "it almost feels swollen."
On Wednesday it was no better. "You guys aren't going to believe
this," he said, "but I had to sit down at work today and talk to
patients from a chair. My knee hurts so bad I can't put pressure on
it. I haven't been able to train, and I'm starting to get a bit
concerned. I have no idea what's wrong."
By Thursday it was even worse. "This is unbelievable," he
grimaced. "I can't walk today and had to go get crutches. My knee
is swollen and hurts to the touch. I can hardly bend it. I'm very
concerned I might have some sort of infection or something. I can't
train and the pain is unbearable."
That Friday, he was practically beside himself. "I went to the
doctor today and they don't know what's wrong," he told us, still
hobbling on crutches. The Arnold was only two weeks away, and to
say he was frustrated would be an understatement. "I've trained my
ass off for this," he growled. "All the work's done. I can't
believe I'm dealing with this right now. And I don't even know what
the hell's wrong!"
Then he answered the question none of us had the heart to ask
him. "You bet your ass I'm still gonna compete, though" he said,
the fire building in him. "I'm going to
will this knee
better, and convince myself that it's healed. I won't let this
defeat me, and I'm going to do everything humanly possibly to step
onto the platform and
win."
The winner has already won before he even steps onto the
platform.
At the Arnold, despite the fact that he literally was unable to
walk only two weeks earlier, Matt ended up squatting 970, and won
his first World Championship. That, friends, is the power of
belief.
8. Stay Focused
This is the most important secret of the bunch. Lock yourself
onto your destination and eliminate any possibility of not getting
there. Make your goal the core essence of your existence. Fix your
focus 100% onto your desired outcome and the process of achieving
it.
Let nothing stop you from training toward your goal, short of a
crippling injury or major life trauma. And as you'll see below, not
even
that is enough to stop some highly motivated
individuals.
A lot of people are afraid of making this kind of commitment.
They don't fear failure so much as they're simply unwilling to
sacrifice certain parts of their lives. This isn't a bad thing as
such, and anyway, most of you reading this probably don't have the
kind of aspirations that demand heavy sacrifices. Nothing wrong
with that. If everyone was exceptional, no one would
be.
For those few, however, who do aspire to the highest level of
sport, you need to understand that greatness comes at a high price.
The price is the time and energy that you can't devote to the other
aspects of your life.
We all have the same 24 hours, and the choice of where to focus
our attention. There's no way you can focus on your work, family,
church, personal development, friends,
and on your training.
Yes you
can achieve balance, and as I said, this isn't a
bad goal. All I'm saying is that you can either be balanced, or you
can be great. You shouldn't expect both at the same
time.
I can already hear the murmurs of dissent from the peanut
gallery.
"Dave, you have to keep a balance in your life to move ahead.
How can you say balanced people can't be great?"
My response is, show me
one great person who
achieved balance at the time of their greatness. To be in the top
10% of anything requires a selfish, fanatical drive that most
people will never understand, let alone possess.
Maybe there's someone somewhere who can be great at everything, but I
haven't seen it.
What I
have seen are people who would give their right
nut to be the best at the
one thing they're pursuing, at the
expense of everything else. No way are they attaining anything
close to balance in their lives.
Okay, here's a story that ought to illustrate my point. It's a
little harsh in places, so if you're a pansy, maybe you should
leave the room for a while.
Jason Pegg is an aspiring powerlifter, and a until a few years
ago he was a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne, out of Fort Bragg,
North Carolina. On Memorial Day, 2005, in a little shithole town
about 10 kilometers southwest of Khowst, in eastern Afghanistan,
Sgt. Jason Pegg and other members of his team were hit by a
roadside bomb. Fragments from the exploding 107 mm rockets ripped
through Jason's elbow, tearing away a good part of his
forearm.
An x-ray of Jason Pegg's left arm gives only a hint of the
grave damage done.
Accueil 
