So I will get right to it..

Sunday night I noticed an update on an ex-client and good friends Facebook Wall. He plays D3                volleyball.

It read: “I Quit” is one sentence that isn’t in my vocabulary…..this weekend will haunt me for a long time”

As a friend, this concerned me. So I emailed him to see if all is OK and if he needs to chat he can get in touch with me.

He IM’d (instant messaged) me immediately.

Long story short this is what happened:

HIS COACH THREW IN THE WHITE FLAG THIS PAST WEEKEND!

You read that right.

His team was playing a Top 10 team and were down 0-2. Before the start of the 3rd, she said: ‘I QUIT’.

Not quit coaching…..Quit playing!

No pep talk…

No ‘we can still win!’ chat with the team.

Simply gave up.

This young man is devastated! He (team captain) is NOT a quitter and he pleaded with her not to give up. He told her they can still do it.

She did not listen. She said: ‘I Quit’

What does this show? MANY things. One, that winning and losing is ALL about HER. She said, ‘I Quit’. HER..ME

Is this really what coaching is all about?

Obviously, she was taking the ‘loss’ personally. Which is wrong in so many ways.

Other than that she also embarrassed and disgraced her team, her school, the opposing team and the host of the tourney.

How on earth does she ever expect to gain respect from her players? How does she expect them to come to practice and give 100%? What if they said, ‘I quit’?

Would her answer be: ‘Oh, OK!’

Out of all the years I have been involved in sports this has never happened at any level. I am sure there is a place for it, especially when there can be possible injuries when young athletes are playing an aggressive sport and the coach looks out for the safety of the athletes, but ‘giving up’ for the sake of lack of confidence in your team at the D3 level?

Not good as far as I am concerned.

PLEASE comment below and respond how YOU as a coach have handled this situation. I know almost every volleyball coach has faced this situation and has come back and won the next 3 games.

How did you do it?

Help your fellow coaches and athletes. They will greatly appreciate it.

In the meantime, I think this D3 coach should pack it in! TODAY! In my opinion

REMINDER!

Drills N Kills is scheduled to be released next Tuesday!! Volleyball drills, volleyball training from the top peeps in their profession. IF you are not aware what it is and want to be THE FIRST to find out when it is available, please head over and see what all the hoopla is about: Drills N Kills!

volleyball drills | drills for volleyball | volleyball training

Choices when it comes to preparing practices..

This past weekend we Mike Roussell come in and speak at our gym

and one thing he said made me think of ALL the coaches I work with

and who are on my email list.

It is as follows:

'When you make a choice to do one thing, you are making a choice NOT to do another'.

Hmmmmm....

Well, Mike is a nutritionist and he was talking about when you choose to

have a bowl of sugary cereal for breakfast you are choosing NOT to

have oats, or a shake or peanut butter and toast with a banana etc

I immediately thought, 'WOW, this is SO true with my  peeps'!

What I hear over and over from coaches and assistant coaches is this:

'I just don't have time to train'. We NEED to work on ___________'

Which is understandable, BUT you are choosing to leave one of the most

important parts of sports performance out of the equation and that is

adding some sort of training to at least 2-3 practices a week.

(If you are including the training throughout the season, please ignore me

and pat yourself on the back! Thanks for your time so far..:) ) 

STOP YELLING AT ME!

I know what you are thinking, but please know that so many of your

counterparts all over the world are training in season and it is not

effecting their game. In fact, it is helping.

Coaches can easily set up a quick circuit or super sets to do for just 10-15 minutes,                                                                                2-3 times a week and see fabulous results.

Please give yourself and your team the opportunity to maximize their sports

performance by training in season. You will be happy you CHOSE to do so  

Thanks for your time and have an awesome day!

volleyball training | volleyball workouts | circuit training 

Why?

WE have been failed yet one more time by our ‘doctors’ and ‘gym teachers’.

How?

First, the doctors..

My client showed me her food journal this morning after I requested to see it after the last session. I was completely shocked! ‘What the heck you’re not freaking eating!’ I said…she yelled back, ‘yes, I am and THEY said I am eating too much’. (yes, we yell at each other )

Who is ‘they’ I ask. ‘My doctors’..hmmmmmmm….

Well, I didn’t know this but she has been going to a MEDICAL CENTER to try and lose weight. I looked them up and they are General Practitioners. I won’t get into how pissed I was because of not knowing and ME always hearing ‘why I am not losing weight’ and I am suppose to help when I had no knowledge of her going there for months now, but I will tell you what they are having her do.

Breakfast: 1 hard boiled egg and an orange

Lunch: NOTTA!

Dinner: High protein ‘meal’. A piece of fish or chicken and a starch

Ready? 10 am - a DIET PILL - SPEED!

3 pm - SPEED AGAIN!

She went yesterday and they said she must be eating too much and not exercising enough. When I ask what they consider exercise she said their answer was ‘just start exercising and make lifestyle changes’!

This concerns me in so many ways. First, it is just not right. It is unsafe and unhealthy.

Second, this is happening with severely overweight and out of shape individuals. My client is NOT severely overweight and out of shape. The risk we put ourselves at to lose weight is terrifying.

PLEASE! If you have a family member who needs help and is struggling, DO NOT send them to a place like this. Oh, no worries..I WILL be mentioning who they are!

We as family and friends should be a support system for our peeps who are looking to change their life around. If you hear of something like this happening to a loved one, STOP THEM and do not encourage them. Another sad thing about this is that my client has friends who are doing this crap and they all encourage each other to do it.

Why?

Because it’s ALL about one thing..WEIGHT LOSS!

We need to STOP thinking about weight loss as the number one reason to improve our lives. The bottom line is….

Those who put weight loss as their number one priority are never truly happy deep down. This is where we need to help them.

NOW..Onto our gym teachers!

So, this same client was also pissed off about what her daughter came home and told her yesterday.

Her 14 year old, 115 pound daughter was suppose to BENCH PRESS 105 pounds today or…

FAIL THE TEST!

YUP!

Her ‘gym teacher’ has some kind of calculation and test telling her what the students should be able to bench press.

WOW! FREAKING WOW!

This boils my blood big time!

Is this teacher not smart enough to say, ‘this is crazy! Why would I do that? I am a health teacher. I know better’

NOPE!

Guess how the girl warmed up?

She didn’t…not one bit!

Her teacher put 105 pounds on a barbell and told her to bench it.

YUP!

YUP that is what I said…

Hopefully, you are on the same page with me here with my immediate thought:

‘What about the kids taking gym that are not athletes (this girl is) and have no physical activity other than this gym class?

‘What about the poor kids who are suffering from obesity?’

Sadly there are 200 pound obese boys and girls out there. Are they suppose to bench 170 pounds?

This is ALL happening right now world and you need to be aware of it.

There is NO justification to this.

It is OLD SCHOOL mentality and it is sad.

Sad that we put trust into these individuals and they fail us…

They fail you and your family.

REACH OUT!

I told my client she has to get information and go to the school board with this problem. Yes, I feel it is a problem and very strongly I may add.

Bench Press is for one type of individual only: Power Lifters…that is what they want to do..so let them. Have a blast! But, don’t try to convince the general public that the all mighty bench press is something good, cause it is not.

Read for yourself: Big Bench - Bad Shoulders

Time to make some calls…;)

Thanks for your time

Why did I say this is a ‘MUST READ’?

PLUS, I coach business owners from all over the world how to seize opportunity everywhere they

go as well as how to ‘get noticed online’.

Very humbling I must add

Well, not today but in the next few weeks

PS - If you are a local gym owner, personal trainer etc….NICE TRY, but you just may not be invited

But better luck next time!

PSS - THIS IS WHAT I TAKE EVERYWHERE AND USE TO CREATE MY PRODUCTS!

OK…

The reason I am posting this is because there are so many Farmville FANATICS out there. Honestly, I have no clue what all the talk or the game is about..zip, zippo..notta!

As I was talking with my friend last night he was going on and on about how his girlfriend is, in his own words, ‘Kicking BUTT in Farmville’..

I was like..’WHOO WHOOOO!’..lol

But he kept insisting it is addicting and FUN..Still no clue from me. I do not download any apps from Facebook.

Anyway, cause I know so many people who play I thought I would share with you what she apparently used to ‘dominate’….dominate what!?!? LMAO

She ‘dominated’ with some kind of farmville secrets she found.

IF you are into Farmville you may want to check it out or tell a crazy Farmville friend that is a fanatic.

Here ya go: HELP WITH FARMVILLE

OK..that’s enough for now since I have no clue what the heck I am talking about when it comes to Farmville! hahahaha

Have an awesome day

Please check out the great info Marc Dagenais has for you

Thanks for watching!

Handy dandy camera I NEVER leave home without!

Barry Lovelace - Strength Training for Baseball

What an AWESOME day with a bunch of fabulous girls..ATHLETES filming my next athlete training video for softball players.

They gave it their all in the pouring rain and cold. Good stuff!

So yes, it rained for the last workout and part way through the second..PLUS it was cold. Marc from Softball Performance toughed it out as well as Dalton Ruer, the very generous dude who was brave enough to let us stay at his house and be shown in public with us for 4 days

Stay tuned in a few weeks for the new softball training product!

Have an awesome day!

Core Training in Hawaii - Barry Lovelace

Below is my video response to a very good question by a fellow fitness professional who ask:

core training for baseball | baseball workouts | core exercises baseball

There are many reasons why they will fail. Ridiculous advertisements promising unrealistic results is at the top of the list as well as an old philosophy that one has to workout 2 hours a day and eat less to reach their goals.

For all the resolution seekers out there it is time to take a deep breath, relax and know that you can achieve your goals by following these three simple tips.

Tip #1 - Do NOT set unrealistic goals

The majority of goal setters have never worked our or have not worked out for quite some time and when they set their New Years Resolution goals of ‘losing weight’ and ‘getting in shape’ they set their goals to high.

Setting a goal of ‘working out 5 days a week’ or ‘going to lose 20 pounds by February’ are not realistic, especially for someone who has not worked out in years. When we set goals like this from the start we are only setting ourselves up for failure.

Start slow and work your way up to four or five days. I suggest getting to the gym 3 days a week for 20 minutes a day. Doesn’t that sound realistic? Isn’t that much more than what the goal setters were doing previously?

Tip #2 - Do NOT just ‘hit the weights’

Although I am a firm believer in resistance training for everyone I highly recommend that you do not head to the gym and do a typical body builders workout routine. Meaning, chest and back on Monday, legs on Tuesday, shoulders Wednesday etc.

This is not only boring, but also the the kind of workout that you will not look forward to. Total Body workouts are the most effective workouts that take less of your precious time and are very enjoyable.

In an effort to have fun while you workout, at any age, I highly suggest you participate in classes at your local gym. Look for the following types of classes: ‘basic training’, ‘total body workout’, ‘boot camp’ and  yoga or pilates. If you do not have the time available to attend the classes then I suggest finding a ‘20-30 minute’ total body workout DVD that you can do at home or in the gym.

Rest is good as well. Monday, Wednesday and Friday is a good way to start if that fits your lifestyle. When you get to 4-5 days per week I suggest the following: Workout days are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Rest days are Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.

You can do some form of ‘active rest’ on Saturday and or Sunday. This is in the form of hiking, walking, tennis, golf etc

Tp #3 - Do NOT diet

This is a biggie and one that makes you go, ‘hmmmm?’ First, the word ‘diet’ is one we associate with eating less to lose weight. The real and more simplistic way to describe diet is that is is ‘nutrition intake’ which more simplistically means, eating.

There are way too many diet books out there with all kinds of tricks and gadgets to lose weight. Your body is the most sophisticated machine on this planet and it does not like to be tricked. Treat it right and it will treat you right. Provide it the foods and fuels it needs and you will be very happy with your results.

Here are a few recommendations to help you on your way to achieving goals and creating tons of energy throughout your day:
- Eat your carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are you number one source of energy. Now that you are working out your body needs that fuel to get you through your day and your workout. The goal would be to eliminate ‘white carbohydrates’. White rice, white breads, white pastas etc. Replace with the ‘browns’. Brown rice, whole grain/whole wheat bread, whole wheat pastas, yams, oats etc.
Please take note in the above: ‘replace’ not ‘eliminate’
You will see a drastic change in energy by simply replacing, NOT eliminating these foods.

- Eat less protein. Unfortunately, we all grow up hearing that we need to eat more protein. Where has that taken us? To a country with the highest obesity rate on the planet.
Plane and simple: The more active you are the LESS protein you need, the less active you are the MORE protein you need.
This all goes back to the carbohydrates. If you have too much protein and not enough carbohydrates your body will use protein as an energy source. This is not what you want. You need protein to serve its main purpose: repair and build muscle in turn increasing your metabolism so that you can burn fat and calories at rest.
The goal: Raise your metabolism

- Drink plenty of water throughout your day. Eliminate the sugary drinks and replace with good old H2o. One reason to eliminate sugary foods is that sugar creates hunger. If you are drinking sugary drinks throughout the day you will eventually have a starvation feeling. When this happens you will look for the junk foods which include more sugary foods.
Here are a few more reasons to crank up your water intake:
Water serves as a lubricant, forms the base for saliva, forms the fluids that surround our joints and regulates our body temperature as the cooling and heating is distributed through perspiration.
Water also helps to alleviate constipation by moving food through the intestinal tract and thereby eliminating waste- the best detox agent. Water also regulates metabolism

There you have it. Follow these 3 simple steps and you will be on the right path to success. Remember you are not eliminating anything, just replacing.

Set realistic goals, have fun with your workouts and DO NOT ‘diet’.

‘Your Body is a Temple, please be sure to treat it like one’

new years resolution goals | losing weight resolution