my Arte Suave

Paying the price

Everything has a price tag. What does being good, great, the best in the world mean to you? What price would you put on that? The following excerpts are the most most motivating reads. The bar is set so high. Check it out,

An excerpt from Wrestling Tough by Mike Chapman.

“I can pay the price” to be great, say millions of athletes. What they really mean to say is, “I can pay a certain price, but don’t ask me to go beyond what I think I am capable of doing.” Ninety-nine percent of athletes will come up toa line in the sand and halt. Once a person has entered into the pain threshold of severe training, he or she, naturally tends to shut down.

“OK, that’s it,” is what most of us tell ourselves. “I’m hurting, I’ve worked hard enough and put in enough hours. I’ve paid the price.” At that point, however we are just knocking on the door of paying the price.

Its hard to even begin to quantify the words Paying the Price. But for me it means, I am not working as hard I can everyday. I am beaten up in sparring, beating myself up in the gym 4 times a week. Drilling almost everyday (or when I can). Is that enough? Is waking up at 8am to get to Next Level to do S&C then straight to BJJ right after, then another bjj session at night, is that enough? I don’t feel it is enough at all. Keep reading.

“Coaches would always come to Iowa to try and figure out what Gable did differently, what his secret to success was. It was hard work,” said Troy Steiner, NCAA champion and four-time All-American during his Hawkeye days. “But, like Gable always said, most people do not know what hard work is.”

“Most people do not know what hard work is.” To answer my own question. Do I really know what hard work is? 

My favorite story so far from Wrestling Tough. 

One athlete who does [understand what paying the price] is Ed Banach.[…] After a red shirt year, Ed captured two straight NCAA titles at 177 pounds. Going for a third, he was defeated by Mark Shultz of Oklahoma in one of the greatest showdowns in American wrestling history. In his senior year, 1983, Banach moved up to 190 pounds and ran into Mike Mann of Iowa State, a tough and talented three time All-American who was determined to claim his first NCAA championship in his final shot. In their first two meetings of their final season, Mann scored decisive victories over Banach. It looked to some  as if Ed was destined to close out his career with straight misses after claiming national crowns as a freshman and sophomore.

“It was after I lost to Mann in the dual meet in January by a 13-8 score,” recounted Banach in 2004. “I went up to Gable and said, ’ Coach, what do I need to do to win nationals?’ I was willing to do about anything. […] The Hawkeyes were already holding two punishing workouts per day leading up to the NCAA championships. What gable proposed to Banach was a third grueling workout. Banach’s first thought was natural: “When?” The Hawkeyes were already working out at 7 in the morning and in the late afternon, and recovery time was required for such taxing workouts. Gable’s answer was to meet in the wrestling room at 5 a.m.!

[…] “Gable wanted me in the room at 5 a.m., dressed and ready to go,” said Banach. “We did it three times a week. After it was over, I would go to a small trainer’s room at the back of the wrestling room and take a nap before the 7 a.m. practice.”

[…] While most of the city of Iowa was fast asleep, a small and determined band of wrestlers was paying a huge extra price to try to achieve their lofty goals.

[…] It was an incredible commitment by coach and athlete; how many other coaches and athletes would be willing to pay such a price? When the NCAA tournament rolled around in Oklahoma City, Ed Banach and Mike Mann both made it to the finals. Then, in an incredibly tense, hard-fought battle, Banach scored the only takedown of the championship match […] for a stunning 4-3 triumph and his third NCAA title.

We can all learn to be just even .05% tougher, just by taking something like this in. I am still learning and know and I feel I am still unsure of what true hard work is. But I will continue to kill myself in training to find out what that is.

This is what I want to emulate in my training. I am not going to be wrestler boy, but in my training, in my mental training, I will try to be even harder.

Like the theme goes: ”Most people do not know what hard work is.” I have much to find out.

I want to be a Purple Belt World Champion in 2011!

Now I’m off to move a mountain. Happy training!