Week 1 Days 1-5 of Prep Steps™

Welcome to week 1 of the Women’s Strength and Conditioning Book Club.  This week we will discuss days 1-5 of Prep Steps™, so join the conversation.  Feel free to answer one question or all questions below, but you have a voice here.  Use it!

Day 1:

For those of you who are up for a challenge, you can take the “Values” exercise from Day 1 to another level.  Print the list of 400+ Values found here:  http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles/list-of-values.htm.  Then narrow the list to 20 words that represent your most important values.  From the 20 words, narrow to 10.  From the 10 remaining words, choose 5 values that matter most to you right now.  The third round is challenging since there are no wrong answers and many beneficial options available.  You can do it, though; be decisive!  This exercise is all about you.  Once you have determined your top 5 words, write them in a place that is visible to you daily.  Take several days to process how well your ideal values and your current reality align.  This is a very personal exercise, so feel free to share as much or as little as you wish about your insights.  Did anything surprise you?  What stands out to you from the challenge?

Day 2:

Determining our 3 P’s will hopefully inspire big dreams and aspirations.  Dreaming big, however, can be surprisingly painful and disappointing because we will inevitably encounter failure.  If we reach every goal we ever set and never experience a letdown, then we are not dreaming big enough!  We are not pushing hard enough.

What do your athletes fear?  What boundaries are they timidly approaching, rather than fearlessly attacking?  What is standing between them and greatness?  How do we, as coaches, help them squash their doubts and exceed even their own expectations?

Day 3:

According to ESPN the magazine (referring to high profile athletes), “The more unusual the skill and the harder it is to replace, the higher its price will be.”  High profile athletes are paid mega money because they are experts in one area.  They are not pretty good at many different skills or sports; they are the best in a very specific-niche area. 

In the world of athletics, why then, do we tend to spend more time improving our weaknesses than building upon our strengths? Would it be more efficient to spend greater energy developing strengths rather than correcting weaknesses?  Strengths produce the expert-type niches, those that are unusual and hard to replace.  On the other hand, you are all thinking that balanced strength is crucial for training purposes, and the quote from Michael Jordan (maybe the most high profile athlete of all time) seems to fly in the face of the above argument.

So, as a strength and conditioning coach, what is your opinion?  Should coaches focus more on athletes’ strengths or weaknesses? 

Day 4:

True success requires discipline and balance across all aspects of life.  We see “successful,” but miserable, athletes in headlines almost daily.  All the accolades and money in the world are empty without depth in other areas.  How can we help our athletes find or maintain a balance in all areas of school, sports and life? 

Day 5:

We will revisit goals next week, but are there any other ideas or elements not discussed in days 1-4 that would help your athletes in setting good goals?  Do you have any goal setting exercises or tips that you use with them?