PUSHING YOUR BODY AND MIND

http://youtu.be/MTn1v5TGK_w


Why Train?

What you know does not matter - what you do matters. Physical training produces physical memories - not simply muscle memory but a psychophysical imprint, knowledge that is instinctual rather than intellectual. This is useful knowledge. Automatic (instinctive) action and reaction is always faster and more energy efficient than intellectually induced action or reaction. There's already plenty to think about in confrontational situations so any response that does not require conscious thought spares intellectual energy for decisions and actions that do demand it. Train yourself to the point that particular, common actions and responses may be executed automatically.
Any deficiency in physical fitness affects confidence. When an individual realizes he does not have the fitness or skill to accomplish a particular task, or that he cannot use his tools to their utmost self-doubt weakens both intellectual and physical abilities. Flagging confidence limits flexibility, preventing appropriate adaptation to various situations. Confidence allows the audacity of original thought. Again, train such a variety of energy systems (types of fitness) that confidence in the face of any challenge is reflexive.
Strength + Confidence + Flexibility = Strategy (the ability to use it).
Physical fitness relative to the FOOTBALL environment or to any situation (physical and psychological) can have positive or negative effects on the individual, his teammates, and the overall strategy chosen to accomplish a particular goal. Get fit and stay fit to accomplish a variety of tasks. The goal of physical training can be summed up in one phrase, "to make yourself as indestructible as possible." The harder a man is to kill, the longer he will remain effective, as a climber, a soldier, or A FOOTBALL PLAYER.

"YOU vs YOU"

http://youtu.be/Aw6G2e5rS0Q

The next artice is one I took from Crossfit "Again Faster" and translated it to football terms.

Enjoy:    Coach Mac
"I've Always Been Crazy, But it Helps Me From Going Insane"

EFFORT and PAIN = SUCCESS

You think you know pain, but you have no idea.  The heart thumping, chest expanding, lactic acid burn of your last workout was a walk through the meadow.

Somewhere, there’s a guy at Laurier who hoisted more weight or did it faster than you. He suffered.  Plasma forced its way into his lungs, causing him to hack on repeat.  He choked down bile halfway through, and ended on his back, pupils dilated to the size of dimes.

While you were walking around, telling your friends how hardcore your workout was, the player from Queens was still collapsed, the prospect of driving home as daunting as climbing K2 during a snowstorm.

When he finally stood up, he didn’t say a word.

Football is a decidedly masochistic pursuit.  To be any good at it, you have to enjoy the pain.  You have to push back the threshold day after day, until last year’s traumas feel like an hour-long rubdown at the Canyon Ranch.  One day, you find a threshold that takes the whole thing just a little too far, and you get scared to go back.

What differentiates individuals is not a gift, but an unreasonable desire to push self-imposed EFFORT beyond its logical limits.  What comes out the other side becomes legendary.

Like any human pursuit, we seek ways around the hard part.  Limited range of motion and new techniques.  Dropping the deadlift from the top, bouncing it off the floor.  Squatting above parallel and not standing up all the way.  Stopping the sprint just before the finish line.

We want the reward (SUCCESS) without the sacrifice (PAIN).

This is not conscious cowardice.  It’s pure out-and-out rationalism.  At somepoint, the next threshold is the one that takes it too far, leaving us in an exercise-induced hallucination that lasts a few moments too long.  Our hearts bounce around our insides for one beat too many, and our lungs beg to explode for an unwanted extra second.  Every exhalation coincides with a constriction of vision, and the cold taste of copper.

No sane human being would enjoy such a feeling.

Still, the glory beckons.  Surely, with enough training and the right supplements, there’s a way around the Hard Part.  Enough sleep and enough vitamin B will get you the sub-whatever time without the attendant pain.  There’s no need to redline your heart rate or pop capillaries.  No need to ache so badly at night that you can’t sleep.  Surely, there are ways around this.

Fortunately, the steroids are a no-go, and the exercises are done correctly or not at all.  The only way to legend is through ever-mounting piles of pain.  The meadow has to tilt at 45-degrees, and the rubdown at the Ranch must be done with Brillo Pads.  If you can talk, you’re not trying hard enough.  If your nerves aren’t frayed and ready to rebel, you’ll never get there.

Do yourself a favor, and realize that there’s no technique in the world that will save you.  There are no pills, no secrets, no passwords on the path to greatness.  You’ve got to embrace the pain, push the threshold, and feel the suck, and then you’ve got to muster the courage to go back six times a week.

After all, the world is a lot brighter when your pupils are the size of dimes, and massaging your sternum with your heart starts to feel good after a while.  The plasma finds its way out of your lungs, and eventually you’ll be able to drive. 

Sometimes, lying on the floor is its own reward.

TOUGHNESS!!!

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TURN UP THE VOLUME




This is a great article that I took (stole),  from Mountain Climber and author Mark Twight, who I happen to be a big fan of.

PRIVATE

Private Does Not Mean Closed
BY MARK TWIGHT

The outcome of sports competition, actual combat and life itself is decided largely by one's attitude. Superior firepower, whether physical or technical is a contributing factor but "heart" governs the application of resources. Spirit is the most powerful force on the field.
Acquiring the spirit necessary to win, which includes a positive acceptance of pain, is difficult in a society where comfort is more highly regarded than capacity. When genuine physical fitness is the norm for so few it is hard to avoid being dragged into the morass. You become what you do. How and what you become depends on environmental influence so you become who you hang around. Raise the standard your peers must meet and you'll raise your expectations of yourself. If your environment is not making you better, change it. We did.
We surround ourselves with people like ourselves, and with those whom we admire and want to become. Instead of proscribing discomfort we prescribe it. When we exercise we also exorcise. We value horsepower ahead of appearance not vice-versa. We control our environment to produce the results we seek.
The Lancer Football Program and the Defence in particular is private. Rules and standards separate it from the norm. Private implies control, which means it is not open to everyone. However, private does not mean closed.