Some Good, Some Bad, and Some Amazing
As the year slows to its end we shouldn’t forget all that we have achieved over the last 12 months.
Some Good
For myself, it has been the slow recovery from a serious illness. One which unbeknown to me had been causing me problems since my teens! One of the strange effects of this was that I had difficulty controlling my weight, this got worse as I got older. Eventually, during the end of 2016, I put on some 9 Kg in a matter of 3 months and couldn’t control it. Finally, after all those years the doctors believed I really had something medically wrong. I wasn’t making up my extensive diet plans and heavy training regime. None of which ever made any great difference to my weight levels! The weight gain plus other symptoms, which I had always assumed were me being me, were brought together, a diagnosis made. Thankfully my life is now in a much better place and I can move forward again. Well, that’s all about myself, what about those who I coach or work with?
Some Bad
Unfortunately, we have had some casualties along the way, nothing to do with injuries I might add! Some of these had great potential to become leading athletes or top coaches. But they all lacked four things – Desire, Motivation, Effort, Belief! The desire to actually want to succeed and not just talk about it! The motivation to actually train every training session, get up early to train, stay up late to train, miss out on social events to train, give up everything to train! The effort required to push to the limit, to fail and then improve, it’s all too easy to get sidelined and just mess about with your mates, even at the climbing gym! The belief that they could make the grade, that they were actually very good, the ability to lose their ego’s and to train and fail in front of their peers!
Some amazing
The casualties are a small percentage of those who are coached and are in the Jurassic Team. All of whom have the Desire, Motivation, Effort and, Belief to succeed and hit their goals whatever they may be. Some want to just climb better, some to hit a particular grade, some to start competing and rise up the leaderboard. Others have their sights set on joining the GB Team, some competing in the Olympics. But everyone to a man/woman/boy/girl has succeeded. What more can a coach ask for!
But I’d like to tell you about two athletes in particular. Who continue to amaze me every day and for completely different reasons.
The First
A young lad who came to me for coaching with a top list of goals. Although already climbing hard he wanted to improve. To that end, he needed a coach who could see where the improvements were needed, could draw up a long-term plan and could further oversee the training of the plan. However its the young lads desire to succeed and what he has done for himself that has amazed me. He is so motivated that he never misses a training session or rest period. He puts in the maximum effort and then some at each and every training session. But mostly he has the belief in himself that he can make and hit his goals. I have truly never seen such a force in an athlete and only 9 years of age, amazing!
The Second
I also have the great pleasure of coaching a lady who is such an inspiration but at the same time is so modest. We met by chance at a climbing gym while I was training between coaching clients. She was trying to find herself and hoping that climbing would be a way forward. She had obviously been suffering from terrible ill health but I was so impressed by her willpower to get better and succeed that I started helping her with her climbing.
When we met she could only just get up a VB or V0 boulder problem. She worked hard on what I had shown her and soon began to improve. That was 3 months ago and now she books regular coaching sessions with me, is flashing V3 and sending V4. She still has a long way to go with her health improvement, but for her amazing determination, I can only applaud her very, very loudly.
Take Inspiration
To everyone out there whatever your goals, your failures, your past. Take inspiration from those above and get inspired, you can do it, make your life great!
That’s it for today as I’m off to an afternoon rave at a 4-year-olds birthday party!