“How many more reps Coach?” Years ago, we were heavy into a takedown session, fatigue was starting to set in, and my athletes were looking for relief. “Just one more,” I said. Before absolute jubilation could set in, I said “one more rep... 25 x.” Of course, the room was instantly flooded with a sea of grunts, groans, and maybe some colorful language, but they got the job done. Now, even though I’m sure that some people in that room that day probably would disagree, my response wasn’t meant to be arrogant, to come off like a jerk, or intentionally deceive my athletes. It was to illustrate a point. The most important rep is the one that you’re on.
A lot of times, people start training and immediately they are hooked from their very first practice. Soon they start to think things like how can I get better quicker? Or if they have been training a little longer, when am I going to get my next belt? Or when am I going to start tapping higher belts? As a coach, this is a double-edged sword. On one hand, I love it because it shows a developing passion and a desire to get better. On the other hand, it could actually be detrimental to my athletes' progress. Let me explain.
It’s great to have big goals and high standards. If you go through the previous blogs on here, I’ve written a bunch about my vision and standards for No Limits Grappling Academy. But putting heavy focus on questions that are based in the future sometimes does more harm than good. Even if you have a crystal ball and make your living $1.19 a minute on 3 AM infomercials, nobody can predict the future with 100% accuracy. We can work, suffer, and sacrifice as much as we possibly can and there’s still no concrete guarantee that what we are striving towards will actually happen. That uncertainty is what derails progress.
See, anxiety lives in the future. What if I start this and I suck? What if I get hurt? What if I get embarrassed? What if so and so gets promoted before me? What if I put in all this work and it doesn’t work out? We get ourselves so nervous, so worked up that either we feel frozen or paralyzed with fear, or we give up on our goals completely because our mind retreats to a place of safety or comfort, which sounds great, but if you always operate from a place of safety and comfort, you miss out on one important thing: growth.
Sometimes you need struggle to facilitate growth and get better, but when you pile a lot of hypothetical outcomes on top of it, things get worse. So instead of focusing on the "What if," instead focus on "What is" in grappling and life:
- Your next move
- Your next breath
- Your next meal (if weight loss is the goal)
- Your next practice
- Your next interaction with someone
No matter what the goal, you’re always going to have one more rep.