Lessons from Eileen Gu & Henry Rollins

Between a very busy couple of weeks and some incredible interactions with clients and SocMed, I don't have an email cued up and ready send out.

Instead I'm sat here with music playing and the coffee brewing wondering if I should write about:

Eileen Gu

Adductors & Knee Pain

What I've been doing in the shed

Sensible progressions through the weights

Uncertainty and why that is power

Why losing in Combat Sports is different to losing in any other sport

I've drafted each of these in my head while walking the dog.

I have to say though, Eileen Gu, the freeskier who tore up the Winter Olympics, then gave an incredibly eloquent interview afterwards has me fascinated.

I've been watching clips of her interviews and cannot believe she is only 22, the wisdom she has in astounding.

I especially enjoyed the idea she put forward about sport being honest:

“Sports are really honest, because you can’t lie to yourself. You know when you stayed late. You know when you showed up early. You know when you gave 100% day after day.” - Eileen Gu

This sentiment echoes the classic article "Iron and the Soul" by Henry Rollins which closes with this paragraph:

"The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds."

Gu talks sport, Rollins, lifting.

Both are the saying the same thing. Both are saying that only the work that gets done matters.

It's not your thoughts, your feeling, your confidence, your doubts,

It's not talking about doing it

It's not being sure

It's about the results on the day.

In Rollins world, the barbell doesn't care, it is honest. You can either lift or you can not.

In Gu's world, the skill, the trick, they only happen after hours and hours of repetition, endless crashes and falls, breaking down and analysing the skill, but ultimately getting out there and putting in the reps

This is it.

This is all you need to know.

There are professional athletes out there turning up and going through shitty rehab protocols and terrible S&C plans, but the fact they're turning up and getting after it is why they're a pro athlete

You don't need the "perfect" plan, you just need A plan. and the willingness to follow that plan with consistent effort and frequent assessment.

It's simple, but simple does not mean easy.

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Regards

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net