Will-power
Have you ever looked up the meaning of your name? My nephew was doing a project for a sociology class and was required to look up the meaning of his name. His name is Nicholas, victory, and my name is William, willful one. Will power is a must in athletics. We must remain steadfast with regard to our goals. I like to remember the scene from “A Night’s Tale” when the main character, William, is heading toward his opponent in a jousting match and screams W-I-L-L-I-A-M!!! He won the match and was knighted contrary to his position in society. He was willful.

Willpower is a culmination of physical, psychological, and emotional forces. All forces must work in concert for something amazing to occur. This is will.

Practice is boring. Anyone telling you differently is a fraud. We have to make the movement automatic and this requires long years of practice. Training takes years; decades even. It is a short-term achievement if it takes place in weeks. The lasting effects of training take long-term goal attainment. Luck is involved. We create our own luck through preparation.

Set goals. Work on those goals. If something is not working change it. There is a science to training the human body. It is not arguable. If there is an exact science it is weightlifting. There is one correct way for you to do a squat. There is one correct way for me to do a squat. There is no other way. There are different kinds of squats, high bar, low bar, overhead, front, zercher, dumbbell, goblet (not a real squat too small a weight don’t kid yourself or anyone else)… Squats are necessary for one to call the activity training. If I have longer legs than you my stance will be wider than yours doing squats. If my hips are more narrow than yours my stance will be closer than yours. None of this is arguable. All the wide stance squatters are having hips replaced. I don’t care if you squatted 1000 lbs if you can’t squat below parallel first of all, secondly if you drop down to a 50% weight, as your limit, because you were doing something wrong, you suck, get out of my sport.

But anyway, goals, set them with your coach. Set sub-goals and adjust if you do not meet one.

Look up the meaning of your name. It will change the way you train. If you are a William, you may be stubborn. If you are a Nicholas or Nicole, may you be victorious.

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