Get Thrashed - Get Better

My buddy Jason took me surfing yesterday at Playa Hermosa. He gave me the necessary fundamentals and threw me to the wolves. The result - I got absolutely thrashed by the ocean. I am stubborn as shit so I stayed out there until my arms couldn’t move anymore and in that time I pretty much only caught three waves. But when I paddled my little face off and felt the wave crash behind me I felt the possibilities. I could feel what it was like to harness that power and in that instant I got crushed.

The experience reminded me of the time and effort it takes to get good at something. Not kind of good but masterful – fucking holy shit good. I have encountered a lot of people who want to be unbelievable perfect at the Olympic Lifts in their first session or even their first few years. They become frustrated that they can’t fix some aspect of their technique or that the weight won’t budge. Sorry, but this is the journey. I have been consistently Olympic Lifting for 6 years and have lived in a weight room since I saw my first mustache hair. In the beginning, everything was new and I was fanatical about fixing every little problem. I got fairly good fairly fast and Snatched 215 in about 2 years. Then shit hit the fan and I had a year where nothing happened, but this is when I really settled into the practice of lifting. I realized that I didn’t love PRs or all the yelling, I loved the feel of the barbell and the constant feedback it gave me about my life, my recovery, and my ability to focus at any given moment.

I coached myself for the first few years and analyzed every lift, it made me a better coach, better lifter, and earned me the mobility/stability that many people find un-American. But after a while my over-analyzing didn’t help and I had to seek outside help and I knew it. I had to stop trying to do everything at once and focus. I asked Coach Davis if he would program for me and critique my lifts. This took the pressure off and allowed me just to lift. To do what was needed every single day. To took me a few months to truly give into the programming and stop trying to grab control, but once I just started communicating and we started tweaking things together everything popped and the drought subsided. I wish I could pinpoint it to one moment or one cue that Coach Davis picked up that I never thought of, but I can’t because that is not how this game works. It works by continually walking out into the waves and taking on what’s next. The oceans we enter are different at particular points in our journey. It may be letting go of control. It may be the challenge of subtracting rather than adding. It may be going back to the fundamentals or trying something completely new. Either way we are bound to get thrashed and that beating, physical or psychological can either make us remarkably better or scare us back into the waters that are comfortable, cozy, and well known. Your choice. I’ll take a little bit of both because right now my neck is killing me.

By: Ben House