He slowly walked into my facility accompanied by his mother.
Tall, pipe cleaner-thin, lanky arms and a tuft of blond hair topped him off. He was a ball player. Baseball. High School ball. He wanted to get stronger for the upcoming season.
Get in line, son. We all want the rewards. Will you perform the work?
He was in the right place. We were the facilitators.
Similar to the way Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding sized-up Andy Dufrense in The Shawshank Redemption, I didn’t think he’d last long.
Like Red, I was wrong.
We initiated the training session with a full dynamic warmup.
The Box
The Beast has jerk boxes that double as jump boxes. No padding, no frills; just heavy four-by-four construction. Unforgiving edges made for supporting heavy impacts and shearing shin meat.
I remember when the lanky kid missed a jump. Blood ran down his damaged shins as nine other athletes awaited his reaction. How would he handle the adversity?
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“Hit it again. You need to hit five jumps at this height.”
He did. He completed all the repetitions.
Box Jumps — Begin with an eighteen-inch box and continue to increase the height slowly for sets of five; we utilize a reasonable progression during the early sessions but eventually the athletes become anxious to test themselves.
Training Inner City
I remember the one time he couldn’t make his normal training session. He had a conflict and wanted to make it up on a Saturday. We had him come in and train with the inner-city high school kids. The rough high school kids. The football players. He was able to hold his own. He showed he had grit.
The football coach cheered for the lanky white kid. Watching from the sidelines, he laughed with him when he failed and rejoiced for him when he triumphed. Races, black and white alike, could’ve learned a lot during that session. Hopefully some did. I know it affected me. It was about coming together and doing the work.
Heidens — Lateral hops (particularly applicable to baseball and the push-off associated with throwing); three solid sets logging ten repetitions with each leg.
Academics
One night his mom pulled me aside. The lanky kid had logged a solid five weeks of training and didn’t seem quite as lanky.
“He’s doing much better in school since he started training here,” she said. “He’s much more focused and he’s easier to get along with at home.”
“He is? That’s great,” I said. “Thanks for sharing that information. I’m really glad to hear it.”
“How’s he doing here?” She asked. “I think he looks thicker but I see him every day so it’s hard to tell.”
“Well,” I said. “He’s doing well.”
She smiled.
Deadlifts — We warm up to four sets of six repetitions starting with a reasonable progression and building to a max test after the first three weeks of training; we’ll utilize the updated max in our programming schemes.
Afterward
He shook my hand vigorously when he swaggered out of the facility for the last time. More confident now than when he initially walked in.
I thanked him for his efforts and told him we were really pleased with his progress. We knew he did the work to earn a great baseball season. He smiled a broad smile. No longer quite as lanky but the tuft of disheveled blonde hair remained intact.
The kid’s one of a hundred Beast stories. Feel good stories. We tell our athletes that in order to be truly successful, they have to be willing to do things others aren't willing to do. They have to endure the pain.
The lanky blonde set the tone and he was a better young man for his efforts.
Front Squat Finisher — Two solid sets of 10 repetitions with moderate weight.
Dynamic Effort Hybrid Summary
Full Dynamic Warmup
Box Jumps – Begin with an eighteen-inch box and continue to increase the height slowly for sets of five; we utilize a reasonable progression during the early sessions but eventually the athletes become anxious to test themselves.
Heidens – Lateral hops (particularly applicable to baseball and the push-off associated with throwing); three solid sets logging ten repetitions with each leg.
Front Squat Finisher – Two solid sets of 10 repetitions with moderate weight.
