Tag Archives: boot camp boston

Preparing the Child for the Path

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The below article is a guest post written by and reprinted here with permission by one of my mentors, Mike Boyle, arguably 1 of the top strength & conditioning coaches in the world, the current Boston Red Sox Strength & Conditioning Consultant, owner of a Men’s Health Top 100 Gyms in America, Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning in Woburn, MA; former S&C coach the BU Men’s Hockey national champions, former Boston Bruins S&C coach, former Women’s Olympic Gold Medal Ice Hockey S&C coach, current S&C coach to middle school, high school, college, amateur, Olympic and professional athletes; internationally renowned speaker, author, fellow athletic trainer and fellow Springfield College alumni (biased #1 sports science school in the country).

Take it away Mike.

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I have a favorite quote that is particularly applicable when it comes to training kids.

“prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child”

The reality is that you will not always be there to pave the way for your child, fix things, argue with coaches etc. etc. Kids will grow into adults and experience grumpy co-workers and mean bosses. Constantly insulating kids from difficult situations and consistently cleaning up the mess they create defeats the purpose of sport.

Sport is about learning to succeed and to fail, not just to succeed. Sports should primarily provide life lessons. If the life lesson learned from sport is that Mom and Dad can and will fix everything, later life will be difficult. If the lesson is that school is something you have to do but sports are what is really important than, be prepared for some really big problems down the road.

Youth sports has become all about success and scholarships instead of about learning and sportsmanship. I have some bad news for all the parents out there. Your child more than likely won’t get a scholarship. If he or she does get a scholarship, they probably won’t make the pros. I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade, I’m just a realist.

I have more bad news. Those parents who consistently prepare the path for the child by confronting teachers and coaches, changing teams, changing leagues and changing schools are making life-long losers out of their children.

Remember the purpose of sport is to teach kids about success and about failure. The failure lessons may in fact be more important than the successes. Everyone wants their child to succeed, it’s universal, it’s part of being a parent. However, it is when we attempt to alter the normal path that we screw things up. Protecting your child from difficult situations only delays lessons that are very necessary. Failures experienced at twenty one are far more painful than those experienced at ten or twelve. You don’t do your child a service by protecting them, you do them a disservice.

Remember you are a parent. You are not a friend, a manager, or an agent. Your job is to help create a competent, capable adult, not a dysfunctional child.

My mother had a wonderful saying on our wall when I was a child. It said “Children learn What they Live”. The same one hangs in my kitchen now. If you consistently prepare the path for the child you postpone the inevitable. The key is value education. Teach your children what is really important. Teach hard work, commitment, loyalty and dedication.

The next time you make a decision involving your child’s sport or sports, ask yourself “Am I preparing the child for the path or the path for the child”. This simple step will guide your decision making every time.

Mike Boyle
strengthcoach.com

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80-20 Principle Applied to Training Environments

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Change Your Body Boot Camps, Newton’s 1st Body Transformation Boot Camp that guarantees results for busy people, has released its 2012 Training Calendar. Click here to view.

Hello and good day to you!

One of the great things about your local Newton Boot Camp is the training environment. You see, the reason CYBBC has so many clients with success stories is because it has developed a system for yielding results and one of those systems is it’s training environment.

Have you ever heard of the 80 / 20 Principle. The 80 / 20 Principle, made famous by the Italian Economist, Vilfredo Pareto, and paraphrased here from Tim Ferris’ book, The 4-Hour Workweek, showed that 20% of Pareto’s Peapods yielded 80% of his peas or that 20% of the population yielded 80% of the wealth. The unique thing about this Principle is it can be applied to many contexts including training environments.

Here are some examples showing how training environment can lead to improved health, body transformations & performance.

• membership based gyms:

80% of members who do show up, don’t train on a plan, 20% do train on a plan.

• gym based, group exercise classes:

80% of group exercise classes are NOT programs, just workouts of the day. 20% are programs.

• general vs. custom programming


 

80% of programs are general and do not address imbalances or injury history, are not flexible, are not periodized or progressive and do not guarantee results. 20% of programs are customized to address imbalances & injuries, are flexible, periodized, progressive and guarantee results.

• gym equipment based workouts vs. do anywhere workouts



80% of programs are built around equipment found at a gym. 20% of programs are designed to be done anywhere you find yourself, with most any equipment available or even none at all.

• personal training studios



80% of PT Studios train 1 person at a time leaving the support & motivation soleley up to the coach. 20% of PT Studios train semi-privately using the collective support & motivation of the group to motivate the individual.

• membership boot camps



80% of boot camps accept anyone who can afford training to join. 20% of boot camps accept only the right people they want to train.

• short term results vs. long term sustainable results



80% of premium programs base their results on quick fixes (think “jumpstart” diet programs) to yield immediate results without consideration of the long term health, body composition and performance costs related to these sabotaging habits. 20% of premium programs yield both short & long term results by teaching sustainable habits to overcome the highs & lows of life.

• Good vs. Great



80% of coaches just want a paycheck and a place to go each day. 20% of coaches want to be the best they can be, the best in their area and the best in their niche.

• Fun



80% of training environments are low energy, no fun, filled with complaining people leaning on equipment, walking around aimlessly, watching tv or reading where people don’t really want to be. 20% of training environments will be high energy, exciting, motivating & fun places you want to be.

The Lucky 20%



Basically 20% of the people who set 2012 Health, Body Composition and Performance related goals will yield 80% of the results. These people are most likely to train in a high energy & fun environment where everyone is on a flexible and customized, long term sustainable, results-oriented, do anywhere program, that is not dependent on gym based equipment, which uses the motivation of a highly selective group of motivated people who are ready & committed to train, who are not complainers or whiners and are led by a coach who will accept nothing but the best for his/her clients, his/her program and his/herself.

The Unlucky 80%



The other 80% of people who set 2012 Health, Body Composition and Peformance related goals will yield 20% of the results if any. These people will go through the motions when they show up because they don’t have a plan, their accountability isn’t strong enough, they’ll most likely get hurt trying to train too hard in a workout that is not progressive or from having low energy from following a “jumpstart” nutrition plan. They’ll watch too much tv instead of watching the sweat slalom off their nose. They’ll lose momentum becaues their program is not fun, it’s not flexible, it’s dependent on gym based equipment and they’ll grow tired of being surrounded by negative nelly’s and coaches who don’t care.

In closing, Change Your Body Boot Camps has a system for delivering sustainable results in a safe manner and part of that system is its training environment. Phase 1 begins, Sunday, January 1 at 8am with Measurements & Orientation. The 1st day of training begins, Monday, January 2. You can learn more about our 2 convenient locations and flexible training times by visiting our website, bootcampboston.com.

Happy New Year!

Yours changing lives,

Mike Alves

Newton Personal Trainer
Newton Boot Camp

p.s. here’s the link for the schedule.
p.p.s. here’s the link to try us out.