09/04/2026
IRON SHARPENING IRON! (Long 😬).
I wanted to share THE BEST THING I SAW YESTERDAY…and get in my feelings a moment….
NOTHING fires me up, like watching athletes in here CHALLENGE, COMPETE & ultimately LIFT UP each other’s performance. Whether Skill or Physical Development, you can usually look around and see someone more Advanced than you, and someone not as Advanced as you. It is very easy in here to see WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE. It’s an unspoken, non-advertised, but ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL thread in the fabric of this business. While teaching, I will often tell the hitter to look at another cage where a hitter is executing exactly what we may be trying to work on. It helps. It works….
Fast forward to last night. EXPLOSIVE THURSDAY. We were baseline testing our High School Guys in a number of areas. Vert Mats, Lasers, Bar Speed, Tape measures, body comp scales etc etc etc. OBJECTIVE MEASUREMENTS. LOTTA Alpha Behavior. Lotta Testosterone. Lotta Competing. A debate on speed broke out. In the SPIRIT OF CHASING BETTER, I may or may not have purposely provoked things. Next thing you know, two of the best players in our area/two of the best athletes in our building/two of the best competitors in our building, had ripped off their shirts and headed out to the sidewalk to settle it in a 60. They raced twice, with ALOTTA peers watching, in 100 degree weather, where we already had a full menu of work for them….and even though it disrupted our session, I freaking loved it!!
Not any of us coaches, no training plan, no nothing coulda heightened the ENERGY, DESIRE & COMPETITIVE SPIRIT within them, the way that the two of them pushing each other did. We got every bit of them in those two runs. Neither kid afraid of failing. Neither afraid of losing. Let’s just go COMPETE & settle it!!!!!!
IRON SHARPENING IRON!
I really hope no one ever takes that piece of things for granted in here. Cause no matter the age, there is great value in the membership setup, class setup, even lesson setup, where it is very easy to look around and see WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE!
I woke up this morning thinking about that race and how I get to see guys compete every Thursday. With the bar. With the stopwatch. With the laser. With the Vert Mat. With the plan we give them. With themselves.
But most especially, WITH EACH OTHER. THAT’S how ATHLETIC MONSTERS are built! And I’m very Proud of & Grateful for that.
IRON SHARPENING IRON!!!!
