What I plan to do different
Bruce Toups, one of my mother’s main sponsors during her judo career, told me something extremely intelligent today (though it came out in a slow paced southern accent, I was patient enough to listen to the whole thing)
First you get into a routine,
Next you get into a rut.
Then you start to resent,
And last you begin to withdrawal.
Any serious athlete knows there are some periods you go through where you’re just sick and tired of being sore and tired. You could have superhuman motivation, but some days your fatigue (and not just physical, mostly mental I think) outweighs your self-discipline, and the last thing you want to do is ANYTHING that requires effort. A good song to some up that feeling is “Burritos” by Sublime.
So what I’d like to different this time around - and I don’t know if Big Jim will be down for this - but you know how gyms give you a guest card with 5 or so passes on it to bring your friends? Well I wanna see if he’ll give me a “Screw practice today” card with, I dunno, 7 credits or so on it. So if it’s one of those days when I’d rather lick the handrails in a New York subway than go to practice, I can whip out the card and bail. If I could get one of those cards a year… I would do a little dance! Fortunately Big Jim has no idea what the internet is, and most likely still communicates by carrier pigeon – so I know he won’t read this. If anyone has any good ideas on how to break this concept to him, please let me know.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Loren // Aug 21, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Apparently Big Jim signed up at the JudoForum, so he might carouse over here…
I like the idea of a screw practice card. I hope it works out for you! It was a delight to watch you at Beijing and I can’t hardly wait to watch you get your gold in London!
2 Tony // Aug 29, 2009 at 11:55 am
Go for the lesser of two evils approach, ” How about one week a month I just relax and let my body heal , I know I would be better motivated then!” Pause to allow cursing and the fire to blow over then suggest your reasonable card trick have witnesses and perhaps an escape plan ready!
Always ask any man anything AFTER they have had a great meal=50% boost in chance of success…my wife does it to me all the time.
Just like any good technique timing is key!
3 your mom // Aug 30, 2009 at 3:23 am
Your best bet is right after you win something big. Ask for something like, can you have a pony at the house to keep Mochi company. When he says HELL, NO! Say, well, what about one screw practice card. After something really big, like the worlds, ask for two or three of them. It should add up to seven. It used to work with me until I caught on to you. That is why you never got a monkey.
4 ronda // Sep 1, 2009 at 10:18 pm
hahahaha just you watch, if i win the olympic you’ll be shopping online and trying to decide wether a howler monkey will be too loud to keep in the house
5 ronda // Sep 1, 2009 at 10:19 pm
hahahaha just you watch, if i win the olympics you’ll be shopping online and trying to decide whether a howler monkey will be too loud to keep in the house
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