Time: The Great Teacher

  Since buying some equipment, a pair of discus shoes and 2 discs later, I’ve gone out to throw twice. There are a lot of amazing reasons to throw. Seeing that discus fly when you’ve made a decent throw is such a peaceful event (even if I might be yelling at the disc). So many things had to work well together and a good throw literally makes you feel as if you are, even for the slightest moment, touching all of the universe. Making horrible throws can throw your mind in to contemplation. Then from there you fill your heart with ways you think you can improve. Then boom, there goes another good throw...and around we go again. A great thing about becoming a better athlete is how you might be able to transfer what you learn to another aspect of your life...say like...if you’re a musician...

  This time around, some ten years later, my mind seems to be thinking a little more clearly. I know it’s only 2 sessions in but I’ve found myself at these practices talking to the 23 year old discus throwing version of myself. Pretty much coaching that kid back in the day. That guy was full of passion and thought energy was a finite force. It kinda worked out for him...It Kinda didn’t. What have I told him?

-First off, perfection doesn’t win meets or get you further marks. So quit expecting it. Throwing far wins meets and gets your further marks...

Ok, but doesn’t pursuing perfection lend itself to throwing farther? Yes and no. It can when you use the pursuit of perfection to improve. But when perfection becomes the destination is when it can get weird. It’s odd but sometimes “perfection” can get in the way of executing other essential parts of performance like the competitive fire that can often lead to elevated performance. You can get so caught up in yourself that you forget to react to the environment and be engaged in the “game” so to speak. You don’t have to be perfect to win or to engage in the game. And most importantly, you shouldn’t wait for the moment to come when you feel worthy due to some perceived perfection. No one is perfect, not even the top athletes in the world. 

-Your results WILL vary day to day. You’re human. Your body can’t have peak performance every day. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t have excellent practice. The mind must always be on even when accepting small defeats. 

-It just isn’t smart to throw so much that you get negative returns. Know when to stop and to reflect. To think. To regenerate. Or simply, to shut down. Pushing yourself aimlessly thinking that you’re “digging deep” rarely has any reward and is quite an antiquated training method. 

-always keep in mind the basics. There’s no merit to over thinking. Sure, sometimes you will need to add to the throw but only if you find that it is productive. Just because it works for someone else doesn’t mean it has to work for you. 

  The most important thing out of these is the first I listed. Sometimes we spend way too much time waiting to feel like we’ve reached perfection...or are coming close to it. As if you are waiting to feel worthy of opportunity or worthy of believing in yourself. Not that it’s wrong to want to be perfect but how many times has the fear of not being perfect diminished the progress we can make. Has it discouraged us to train or to practice. Creating a wave of people who take no action. How many times has the fear of non-perfection kept us from failure? Failure that breaks us down and is often essential to rebuilding back into a stronger form? I think sometimes we use this idea of perfection as a defense mechanism. We want to spend so much time convincing ourselves that we are so familiar with perfection and that we will only exist in perfection. It is being proven time and time again that “doing” while trying to be perfect is the way to go and not sitting around listening to the click of time. Time that that leaves us relentlessly. Time that can go quicker than we would like. 

A Lotta Meat

  So lately, the past month or so, I’ve embarked upon a little adjustment in my diet. 

I just woke up one morning and decided, you know what, maybe I shouldn’t flood my blood stream with so many low quality nutrients...stuff that will come from things like bread, tortillas, chips, sugars...etc. Now, let’s be clear. I haven’t taken an “elimination” approach. More so, I’ve just kind of done some slight subtraction by addition...of meat. I mean, I’m still gonna eat the foods I love (ie whataburger/chipotle and similar foods) but the frequency is down just a tad. 

  I’ve always consumed enough protein, imo, but it’s often accompanied by a huge amount of carbs and what the hell ever chemicals that come with them. It’s been argued for a long time that active people need carbs...so guess what, I ate (still kinda of eat) a lot of carbs. So lately I’ve just simply took out the “need” of carbs in my mind lately and I only consume them when I’m in a post work out state, enjoying an occasional piece of cake or maybe having a slice of pizza...but no longer cramming them into me like it’s my job. My daily consumption has been highly meat centric. For most of the recent decades, it’s been a little bit of a taboo in the US to be a high consumer of meat. Do we need a lot of meat? A lot say no. A lot say yes. Furthermore, beyond the subject of needing it, does it enhance us? Is it what made us human? There are pages and pages of scholarly (and not so scholarly) opinions on this coming from several directions arguing for either side. Any subject when it comes to human health is always going to be an eternal enigma...the only winner in these arguments is time. There are some who won’t eat meat simply because of their concerns in the treatment of animals...well, there’s no argument there. I see the point. But this is my personal account of recent events. 

  So, after about of a month of this change here’s what I’m noticing...a high animal protein diet, an “enough” veggies/fruits regimen, and reduced consumption of carbohydrates/sugars...

• on days when I am particularly able to achieve a high meat diet with some produce in there my energy level is UP. Like WIRED. 
• My joints don’t feel nearly as stiff. In fact, when I do eat something like a burrito, bread, or sugary food I feel the stiffness come back almost instantly. 
• Most of my breakfasts these days only involve a little bit of carbs (just the turbinado i use in coffee) and sometimes produce, and it feels great. Usually eggs, sausage, avocados...maybe an apple.
• After I eat, my energy is up...not down.
• Beef seems to be the most craved and effective meat in this lifestyle (but i do mix in chicken and pork)
• Diet soda might help you avoid sugars but they still make you feel like shit.
• Your body becomes very sensitive to the consumption of low quality carbs and I can actually feel my body saying WTF to those foods. 
• Energy is up...I’ve already mentioned that but it’s worth noting again.
• Focus is up (especially in the gym)
• The mind seems more active
• Just a few pieces of High cocoa level dark chocolate is very effective in helping me fight off dessert cravings.
• Body is very sensitive to alcohol
• Some parts of you feel like you’re 20 again...
• Some meals all you might eat is meat...and that’s ok. 
• I’ve felt eating a few pieces of meat to be more energy upping than a cup of coffee

  I’m sure I am leaving out a few more details but I also have to note that I’ve also kept myself open to the fact that I’m going to eat some junk food on a regular basis...

I’m gonna drink alcohol...i mean, yeah. 

Maybe some Mexican food after a night of drinking

Maybe a nice double chee from whataburger

Maybe there comes the time for a nice milk shake

Sometimes you gotta feed the soul....

I live with it as long as I know that I am spending the majority of my week feeding my self in an optimal way. 

Overall, I am a fan. 

Later,

The Korean Stallion

In case you don’t know, that’s me. 

Jokes.

This post will be a quick training note that’s been flying around in my head since I’ve toyed with the notion of training to throw the discus again. I don’t think I’ll be able to touch on all aspects of my training but maybe offer a little blurb...

I’ve come to the realization that my physical prime is likely behind me. As in, the time when my body had an amazing ability to gain whatever the hell it was that I wanted to gain and at the same time have rapid recovery. Back in college we were doing crazy shit. Not only lifting heavy but then also repping the hell out of it just because the hell of it. We wanted to work “hard”. We had plenty of ambition, energy, fire...what the hell ever. We always “dug deep”. Though our intentions were great, looking back it was kind of a pile of shit....at least in terms of our sport, which was power centric and way less about raw strength or stamina. 

So at the age of 33, I’ve got some ideas floating I’m pretty optimistic about. One of them being my mindset in the gym (training away from the discus). Who knows if I’ll be right. I think it’s healthy for athletes to always have a mindset of speculation as opposed to thinking in absolutes. We gotta be fluid and stay open to growth. So anyways...

-don’t rush the warm up. If you don’t feel warmed up before hitting it, then you’re probably right. Some days take longer than others. It’s the life at age 33.

-keep the mindset of acceleration and applying force to an implement. No stiff lifts. Always look for speed and performance. 

-you wanna lift heavy....but only if you can be productive. We lift heavy to improve performance, not just for the sake of lifting a certain number.

-have a focus and purpose for every set. Why am I doing this? How should I do this? 

-Personal records are not as important as productivity. 

-no matter the lift or the exercise, always have in mind “why am I here? How does the help me? How can I maximize productivity?”. Productivity is not always a personal record....it doesn’t have to be. The discus is only 2.2 KG,. 

-your training efforts exist to benefit athleticism outside of the gym. Don’t think of the weights as the destination...more so just merely a facilitator. So use the equipment or the venue...don’t let it be your end. 

Later.

James.

Throw That Damn Discus Boy

Well, here we are again. 

I’ve bought some discus throw shoes and hopefully soon I will be buying some discus’ to throw! As mentioned above, I have been here before...

Many of you might know that until the age of 23 I was quite an enthusiastic discus thrower. That enthusiasm helped me earn a walk-on spot to the University of Houston track and field team and I eventually earned a scholarship. During that time I was able to win a few conference championships, rank within the top 25 of all Division 1 NCAA discus throwers, and also become the 5th best discus thrower in school history! Sorry to toot my own horn there...but I’m pretty proud of it. 

I did indeed throw for another year after college in an attempt to qualify for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Obviously, I did not make it but I made a pretty valiant effort. I threw an Olympic “B” standard qualifying mark that year and was again in the top 25 throwers nationwide this time having been ranked against post-collegiate athletes. After that year, I suppose it was a time to quit and maybe decide to be better at trombone, my desired career path! Years later I decided to start throwing again...but never really got the ball rolling. As lame as it is, the generic excuse can be inserted here: “life got in the way”. And it is truly a lame excuse.

Well...here we are again...I’m wanting to throw! This time I took it at least one step further than my last attempt and actually bought some shoes! 

I’ll have to be honest here (especially with myself) and check my expectations. Sure, it MIGHT be possible to become world-class but I need to hold on to the reality that I have a very time/energy consuming career path that I am currently very much in the thick of. It’s most important to me that I am simply spending time participating in the act of throwing the discus. It is such a life-affirming act and I’ve missed it every time I’ve thought about it since my hard days of training as a younger man. Sure I was always training to be world-class back then but I still remember why I ever started throwing in the first place; because I truly loved it. I have a finite amount of time in this life and discus (along with music) needs to occupy a lot of it. The thought of failing myself, in regards to how much time I have spent throwing in my life, truly scares the shit out of me. I will try to find a few meets to compete in. And if i can’t do them all, no biggie. I’ll still throw. I’ll still learn about myself in my practice. I’ll still watch that disc fly and let it tell me about my life. I’m telling you, the discus is a spiritual experience. I’ll throw, at a meet or on a practice ring, because my soul has craved it since the day I first picked it up at the age of ten. 

So, I’m older now. I know a few more things. I might not get as fast as I used to be...As strong as I used to be. But...I still might have a chance of being a better thrower than that handsome stallion of a Korean man ten years ago. Looking back I see a lot of inefficiencies in my training. I definitely worked hard but was it producing optimal results? In fact, was I starting to promote negative results? The discus is a sport in which you are engaging only seconds at a time. You have to keep that in mind as you train...Something I didn’t think a lot about when I was a young man. I was never one to shy away from hard work but I also didn’t think that it could also hurt me when channeled in the wrong direction. Maybe I can devote another post to what kind of training ideas I will have going forward...

It is a bit of a challenge being a professional musician. I mean, we work....but work doesn’t stop when rehearsal is over or after we are done teaching. At this point we go in to our own practice or we might spend some time in thought about or craft and do things like listen to music or study scores/parts etc...it’s unlike most professions. It’s always been a challenge to me to know the dynamics of being competitive in a highly competitive field yet trying to maintain excellence in another unrelated competitive field. One will inevitably take from the other. I’ve accepted that. Has throwing ever taken away from my trombone practice/improvement? It sure has, without a doubt. The discus takes your heart and soul and so does music. Even if you were to have an extraordinary ability to provide tremendous amounts of energy to both simultaneously you are always going to deprive either side of your full capacity of energy. I’ve decided that it’s ok. Music is important to me...and so is throwing...and I should do both as long as I can while I still can. Then the day comes....when I look back on life...and what realizations can I make about how I’ve spent my life?