Wednesday 3.25.15
ARTICLE: What the Marines Know About Discipline That Will Make You a Better Athlete
Think about all of the people throughout the course of the Open who have tried to do something new - something they didn't know whether or not they could do - and succeeded. Last week Leann and Elijah both got their first handstand push-ups. Each one of them did ONE successful rep in practice, and then decided to see what would happen if they attempted 15.4 as RX. Others made their very first attempts at HSPU and were not successful. Even fewer were brave enough to try the workout at RX in an attempt to get their first rep during the WOD. Either way, each group learned something about themselves and about the movement. They became more educated about the movement, discovered where their weaknesses lie in completing that movement, and learned what to work on moving forward.....all of which lead to being a BETTER ATHLETE. NOT BEING AFRAID TO FAIL MAKES YOU A BETTER ATHLETE. Now some of us weren't ready in terms of upper body strength to make the HSPU attempt, and that's ok! But hopefully you were able to complete some progressions towards the movement, and find that point where you couldn't move on in the progression. The same lessons are learned, because you had to find that failure point and learn from it! The article referenced above makes some great points about us as adults when it comes to failure and learning:
"Learning to fail is easier for youth because as a kid you pretty much fail every day in some capacity. But somewhere along the way, we find a degree of success in our own lives and we forget it came about through failure. With success comes greater confidence, but also greater comfort and therefore a tendency to get complacent."
Are you willing to get out of your comfort zone for 15.5?