The Mentality

December 04, 2009

 The Mentality

Will you become stronger if you train here? Yes. Will you get bigger? Without question.  More athletic? Absolutely.  Are those physical benefits the number one benefit of our  program? Nope. “Wait a minute, you might be saying to yourself, what could be better than all of those gains?” Your mind. You will become both physically AND mentally tougher. There are plenty of strength coaches out there who SOLELY look at the physical gains that their athletes make, and think that that is enough. This is such a terrible mistake to make. At PTS, we turn our clients into beasts who have no barriers. Aside from being physically conditioned, they are mentally conditioned as well. If they have done the “Prowler Mile” then suddenly 2-A-Days in August aren’t quite as bad.  It is pretty amazing how this mentality always transcends itself from the weight room to the playing field or any other component of life.

When speaking of this mentality, one client of ours comes to mind, Vinny Planz of LaSalle Institute. Vinny, along with many of his teammates, dedicated his summer to training with us at the gym. He brought a “hardhat and lunchpail” mentality everytime he came to train, never complained, and experienced some great gains. Vinny would have pushed the Prowler 50 times if Brian or I had told him to. Vinny is TOUGH. Note, he is not a “TOUGH GUY” (he is actually probably one of the nicest kids Brian and I have ever met). He does not walk around with his arms puffed out to his sides thinking he can beat everyone up. Far from it. Vinny is tough because he is fearless in the gym and on the football field. He commits himself fully to each and every lift, and each and every hit.  There were two hits in particular this year at the LaSalle games that made the crowd go “Ooooo”. You know, decleaters. They were both made by starting left cornerback Vinny Planz.  Vinny  is 5’7 and 155 pounds (145 at the start of the summer).  In both hits, the victim of Vinny’s ferocity was well over 200 pounds, but you can be assured that both kids though they were run over by a truck. Vinny has “The Mentality.”

Vinny Planz (#24) 

A lot of strength coaches and trainers think it is terrible to make their athletes throw up. They gasp at the thought of training to fatigue, and base all of their programming because of the “science” that they read about it a book. There is no science to becoming a beast. Just the sweat, blood, tears, and yes, sometimes vomit that comes from pushing yourself to the edge. I don’t care if the “expert” coaches out there say this isn’t good for you, because I have seen countless cases of high school football players , that had no business even being on the football field,  laying guys out who were much larger because they were tough enough, and confident enough to believe in themselves. This doesn’t just have to be football. Basketball players, wrestlers, regular guys, etc, have ALL benefited from “The Mentality” of giving all that they have, and never quitting.

Stop backing down from challenges in the gym, and the challenges of life will not appear so daunting after all. Even if you experience the same physical gains as the guys in our gym (which is doubtful), you will never realize your potential until you have “The Mentality”.

 

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