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| 1001 THINGS THAT I DON’T KNOW |
| Wednesday, 04 November 2009 16:38 | |
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1001 THINGS THAT I DON’T KNOW BY JOHN RAHME. It’s 1.17pm on a Sunday afternoon, preparing my two little sons for their afternoon nap, my nine year old son is living his dream of being the world heavyweight wrestling champion playing a game on his Play Station 2. He is the King of the world in his wrestling game. The two little boys are now asleep, my nine year old son asks me to sit and watch him play his wrestling game. I reluctantly accept, it’s not what I really want to do right now however to put a smile on his face I agree. However, what I really want to do is immerse myself in the wealth of information that Ashley Jones has given to me. Once again I have sent off a question by email to Ashley and as always he has kindly responded but has done what a true teacher would do, instead of giving me all the answers or the answers that he has come to believe himself are true and correct. He responds with only half the answers to my questions and has included attachments so that I can research the answers and form my own opinion on this subject. As I continue to sit and watch my son hit, get hit and be thrown around the ring, throwing his opponent around the ring from one side to the other and I get this feeling that he is delaying winning just to keep me there longer to watch him play, only natural for a young child wanting attention from his father. This move is called the “choke slam dad” he yells, as he shows me how he is destroying his opponents and continues to scream out all these wonderful and colourful names which are his beloved wrestling moves. His euphoria reaching new heights all due to the reason dad is watching him. He pins down his opponent after doing his tombstone move. My son throws his hands in the air and is crowned once again the worlds “heavy weight world wrestling champion”. Finally I can do some reading now and then he asks “Dad can you play” What you want me to have a go? Son ! But! But! Ok give me the remote, really how hard could this be, I wasn’t too bad at pac-man in my day. Not to bore you with my Play Station talent but I can honestly say that I have never been hit, picked up, thrown, jumped on and slammed to the canvas like I did in this match. My son looked at me in sheer disgust, took the remote off me and said “Dad, you have a lot learn”. I quickly left the room just in case my son wanted me to watch him play another game when it occurred to me what my sons comment was: “YOU HAVE A LOT TO LEARN”. I stopped in my tracks and was deep in thought about my whole life and at that instant, what is it that I don’t know and how much do I not know? My mind then bounced from place to place from different scenarios in the field of strength and conditioning and through that moment of pause, I counted 1001 things I don’t know. My son brought this wrestling game close to a week ago, he has given it all his attention when he is allowed to play as I only give him limited play time on his Play Station. In his allocated time he has studied, put into practice and learnt new and in his eyes great things. There is no difference between what I am about to do and what he has done. I turn my computer on and go into my training folder and look at all of the information I have accumulated from people, down loads and purchased material. Quickly I skim over all the titles and each title brings back a moment where I learnt something new. I decided a long time ago or I came to the realisation a long time ago that I will never and would never know everything in the field of strength and conditioning. I will not live for a thousand years so I could never know all there is to know. To think that you know it all will only close your mind to new suggestions, opinions and to me the most enjoyable part is the part where I finish reading or doing something new and reach that feeling of achievement, self growth and that I am constantly learning and becoming a more knowledgeable person. The following is my way of dealing with 1001 things that I don’t know. Instead of been negative about not knowing information on a certain subject or training style, I get excited about the fact that I don’t know anything about it. This leads me down the war path to ask questions, research articles by those who have the answers, those who have put it in practise and those that contradict or try to prove the method wrong. From looking at the for and against I can then and only then make an educated decision about what I believe is to be true. Personally, I need to read an article over and over again and even read it out loud to myself as if I am lecturing myself in order to fully understand what has been written. I find that if you read it a couple of times over you learn or may interpret something differently or you may have missed something the first time you read it. I sometimes even do a roll play and hold the article in my hand and walk around as if it was a paper that I had written and I that I am giving a lecture on it. I find myself making notes and highlighting important area’s. To put it simply! Read and understand what the person is trying to say to you. Do not make any judgements and disregard the whole paper based on one sentence that you may not agree on. If you close your mind due to one sentence in the whole paper then you close your mind potentially to the rest of the paper in which there may be valuable information. If you disagree – why? Is it because you don’t like what has been said, or what has been said by a certain individual. Have you tried it? Have you read something else which contradicts what you are reading? Be careful when this happens as you do not want rejection of information to happen based on a personal disliking of the author or personal disliking to the style of training. Your job is to create the best program for the athlete, not for you! Challenge the information! But with facts and science. Always remember that it may not work with what you are doing now but may work for a different athlete in a different sport. Once you read an article or paper, go back and revise a program that you have designed. You can now look at the program with a different outlook as you are a different person from when you first wrote the program. Your knowledge has grown. Would you change the program? I have found that I have done this plenty of times and have not dwelled on the fact that I did know this back then. However I have thought I cannot wait to put this into place and action. Follow and learn from the greats. What they have discovered and found is set in stone and will always be set in stone but there is no teacher or master of any sort or kind that would not love to see his student excel past what he knows or has achieved. Do not assume that you understand what you have read, if unsure ask. Ask the question. In the article or paper you may find little bits and pieces of knowledge that you do not quite understand, do not put this aside but retain this information for future references which can be utilised or referred to in the future.
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