"People Don't Know How to Fight Anymore"I've been fighting some kind of bug this past week, so I've spent most of my time at home consuming as much Mucinex as I felt safe to. In light of this I've spent a ton of time, probably too much, surfing all the social medias. This morning I came across a something Dave Tate had reposted. It was a video of an interview(you can find here) that Tim Grover had done, talking about why there are great athletes but few true Icons in sport. In it he says, "People don't know how to fight anymore", now he's not talking about fist fights but grinding, struggling, earning it. Whatever their "It" is.
This really hit home for me, as it's been a conversation I had just the other day with Ortmayer. I had been helping an athlete in the gym, who is a great person, but during their workouts there was inevitably a set that they would quit early on. Could be the 2nd, or the last for this or for that, but they'd quit. It was something I honestly couldn't comprehend. There was no fight in them. You gotta have fight in you if you want to survive this sport. It's why I'm a fan of doing my last working sets to failure, it keeps that instinct alive, to keep pushing no matter what. That instinct, that flip of the switch to approach the weight and say fuck it, I'm standing up with this or you can bury me under the platform is one of the most important skills that novice lifters need to learn and one they most often neglect. The growth of strength sports like strongman and powerlifting is an amazing thing to see. USA Powerlifting Nationals has almost 1,200 athletes competing in three weeks time. Gracie V has the US Open where the best of the best compete for some serious money, things the sport has not seen before at this level. Consequentially from this growth, the mind set of the athletes competing has shifted. It's shifted drastically even from where it was 5 or 6 years ago. It was a sport of winners, people that knew there was no money, nothing to win but pride. That this sport is pain and the tolerance of that pain and the stubbornness to work through that pain. It's moved from a truly niche sport to a more mainstream culture. We now have fancy shoes, and food related slogans galore. I don't dislike any of these things, honestly they're good for the sport in the long run but it's all "pop-culture" lifting. "Let me post this RPE 9.death squat, in my new Romaleos, with my bacon socks and donut shorts #beast #poopedmyself" They care more about being Insta-famous than being a winner. Now of course people have the right to do what they will and I salute them, but one thing cannot be forgotten. In this sport you're in a fight every rep against gravity. And brother, gravity is undefeated.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDan Lopes. Professional Adidas stylist Archives |