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Starting at Third Base


I spoke yesterday at Fitness Millions in NJ for Pat Rigsby, Nick Berry and Jim Labadie. Great guys and great attendees. One of our readers asked if I could share what I talked about, so here goes. Over the next few weeks I’ll pull out some ideas from my talk to share on this blog.

The first thing that came to mind was the concept of “starting on third base”. Every budding coach or trainer wants to start on third and run home. I can’t tell you how often I get people saying something like “Can I help you train your pro athletes?” My answer is always the same. “No, but you can help me train my 12-15 year olds then, if you show me you can coach, you might get better high school kids. Then if you do a really good job you might get to work with the pros”.

The key lesson is that if you want to climb a ladder, don’t try to skip rungs. Be willing to start at the bottom and climb one rung at a time.

This entry was posted on May 30, 2009 at 6:07 am and is filed under Random Thoughts, Seminars, Training, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

8 Responses to “Starting at Third Base”

  1. mboyle1959 Says:
    May 31, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    I won’t do one like this for a while. It was a unique opportunity. I will continue to post excerpts and am going to turn the talk into a PTU article.
    I’m speaking on Sports hernia at Northeastern this coming weekend
    http://www.bsmpg.com
    and then at the Perform Better Summits in Chicago and RI
    http://www.performbetter.com and click on seminars.
    In addition I’ll be at Community Rowing in Cambridge on Tue June 9th speaking on Training Rowers for Strength and Power.

  2. Rob Taylor Says:
    May 31, 2009 at 3:43 pm

    What has happened to rolling up your sleeves and learning before asking/demanding higher profile clients/athletes. Are they forgetting to teach that the majority of our popluation is over-weight and under-exercised? Interns and new people to the industry should take great pride in helping someone change their lifestyles with sound nutritional, exercise, and mental guidelines. We can create champions on and off the field everyday. Just look around. There are millions of diamonds in the rough. It just takes time to polish them to see each of their brillance. Great blog again Mike. I’m bummed I missed your presentation. Where else are you speaking?

  3. mboyle1959 Says:
    May 31, 2009 at 10:01 am

    Thanks Brad. I tried to be honest about how difficult it really is to make “fitness millions”

  4. brad leshinske Says:
    May 31, 2009 at 9:38 am

    The presentation was great. We all need to get a base knowledge and mentors to help shape that knowledge. We have to always stay learning and perfect the craft of coaching. Again great presentation

  5. John Izzo Says:
    May 31, 2009 at 5:26 am

    I just wish more would heed this advice….but “fast-track” up the ladder, right?

  6. Neal Says:
    May 31, 2009 at 4:38 am

    Great post, can’t be further from true. I’ve learnt so much through working with high school kids.

  7. mboyle1959 Says:
    May 30, 2009 at 9:57 am

    It’s true Joe. Hope the new job is going well.

  8. Joe Bonyai Says:
    May 30, 2009 at 8:38 am

    I wasn’t at fasttrack, but I heard this on twitter and I think it was from your presentation, “If you want to make fitness millions, you better be ready to make fitness huundreds.” I don’t think it can be said any better

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