If they move the needle in the gym, but not in life beyond my walls, I’ve failed.
“Most want to tell you how many D1 Athletes they’ve “created”.
Not me.
I want to tell you about how well my athletes treat their parents & peers.
I want to tell you about how they learned the value of delayed gratification.
I want you to SEE how they’ve improved as people.”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
I’m playing a different game than most in the Sports Performance Industry.
It’s not because I’m not gung-ho about improving performance, I truly am.
After all, performance enchantment is my craft and without delivering on my promises of enhancing athletic qualities, I don’t even get to play the game I am playing with my athletes.
As they say, “the main thing, must remain the main thing.”
I will always prioritize delivering on the performance promises I’ve made. I can’t guarantee perfect performance, but I can guarantee improved performance. If you hold up to your end of the bargain with consistency and effort and you DON’T improve, I’ll give you all your money back, with apologetic interest on top of it, too.
I try to be as realistic as I can possibly be. I have huge goals and aspirations not only for myself, but for the athletes I work with as well. I’m all for reaching for the stars just so long as those stars are actually in reach for the specific individual (me included).
If I know that dramatically less than 1% of human beings on earth will make a living playing sports, wouldn’t it be unwise of me to sell out on the notion of “performance training over everything!” if I know that even the most maximized levels of performance aren’t going to put 99.9999% of kid’s in the “I make a living playing my sport” category?
Again, this doesn’t make performance enhancing training trivial, not in the slightest, but the game I am playing is more focused on harnessing the valuable lessons that are developed through training.
The lessons that have the ability to transfer to life beyond the lines. So while everybody else is hyper-focused on improving 10, 40, & 60 Yard Dash times, (trust me, I know how to improve those as well, and I do) I’m more focused on the mentorship side. Who are these kids behind the jersey? The jersey that will come off for good in a few short years.
Can my program provide them with lessons that stand the test of time in the real world?
How do they treat their friends? Their parents? Can I lead by example and help influence that? That’s more important to me than “D1”.
Do they understand the concept of delayed gratification in a world that is teaching them to crave instant gratification? Can I help them with that?
Have they improved as people? No, seriously, have they? Do they walk with confidence? Do they look folks in the eye? Has their self-worth increased?
If I improve every sprint time under the sun, but don’t contribute to positive spikes in the questions presented above, I’ve failed.
