If you can read, then you should be reading www.theironsamurai.com . The iron samurai is Nick Horton. he happens to be my BWFF- best weightlifting friend forever.
First, Nick is an excellent writer , and he has a math degree- proving you can be good with numbers and write well. I also agree with about 98% of his posts ( hey, I said we were BWFFs, not clones or fraternal twins). And, his posts involve thinking, reflection, he cites other thinkers( never trust a "guru" who doesn't cite others, because not reading other people's work is a sign of ignorance). In short, most of the blogs (and even many News articles) I come across a dribble, ranting mental diarrhea , or just restating heresay of others- Nick ,on the other hand ,is original and does analytical thinking, so you'll walk away learning something from his articles.
Here are a few recent gems:
You Are Not A Unique Flower – You Are A Snowflake – Boring & Ordinary
Although the title makes me think, "dammit, I might be a snowflake, but I'm unique as hell", then stop reading, reading-on lead me to some thoughts I didn't already have. I took a little ride down the river of unknown unknowns ( yes, " unknown unknowns " is a real engineer term) and discovered something. Sometimes the things we think are weaknesses aren't really that important at all, so augment your strengths. This isn't true for everyone, though I have seen a lot of people come to my gym complaining about some silly little thing that some ass-clown drilled into their head that didn't even matter. Seek truth. For more advanced lifters, your workouts might need to be focused on boring and ordinary things like an s-ton of repetitions in snatch and clean and jerk.
Coaches: Don’t Let Your Athletes Bite Children
This gem was also thought altering. He makes an analogy between violence reduction in society and coaching -- it's better than an analogy you'll find in a Freakonomics book. Here's my favorite part on "why coaches fail":
"YOUR job is to enforce the structure that makes it all possible.
- If your athletes have shitty form — that’s your fault.
If your athletes can’t do a single chin up — instead, they flail around kipping their shoulders off the bone — that’s your fault.
If your athletes end up at a contest pressing out all their snatches — that’s your fault.
If your gym atmosphere is negative — that’s your fault
If your athletes consistently fail to get better — that’s your fault."
Yeah, so , this post is very Kaftka-you know read stuff that " wounds and stabs us". His hard words force the reader to look reflectively at themselves. Although pop gyms want to make working out fun, it's our jobs as the guardians of elite weightlifting to enforce structure and get results. ie Discipline. It's also why places like Asheville Strength and Risto Sports aren't like the set of the biggest loser, it's the athletes requirement to come in with intrinsic motivation and to follow the structures, to be willing to be disciplined.
Real Coaches Don’t Make You Shit On Yourself, OR, Safety Is For Pussies?
This one Segways to my last note on come to the gym with intrinsic motivation. Nick also shouts out to Ivan Rojas, coach of Risto Sports. Athletes who are successful don't rely on a coach to yell at them, constantly. In my case, I had to accept that my coach was not going to constantly tell me how much he believed in me- I just needed to believe in myself. And, when you fully believe in yourself, everyone believes in you.
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