“Get comfortable with the uncomfortable”
“Everyone will hit a wall, but not everyone will keep moving until they find a way to get over, under, around or through the wall.”
If you’ve trained, you know that feeling where your chest gets tight, your legs being to burn, and you doubt your ability to continue going. Those moments are very difficult to work through if we never anticipate them. However, a prepared athlete that knows something is coming will be able to work through something better than not.
Therefore, it is important to prepare the athlete and give them the tools or techniques (just like we would do with the physical component of technique) to work through adversity and difficult situations. The quotes from above are a few phrases I share with our athletes at El Dorado Hills Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. We all get uncomfortable when we hold a good stance to shoot a takedown, or if we do speed drills faster than we have ever done them. Athlete’s need to understand that it’s normal to hit a wall. Everyone hits a wall, but what we can control is how we react to the situation. How we bounce back and continue moving.
This way of thinking doesn’t just apply to our training on the mat. Everyone should know and understand that it applies to what we face in life. Graduating from high school or college is exciting, but there is also this uncomfortable feeling of going into something, or finding something, that is not school anymore. Working with a new boss or colleague is uncomfortable, but we figure it out and get comfortable with each other. The sooner we understand that discomfort is just a small phase that allows us to reach new limits, to sooner we learn to thrive with the uncomfortable.
The same goes with hitting a wall…. Ouch! There is nothing more uncomfortable than hitting a wall. But if we choose to challenge ourself and try to push our limits, without a doubt we will run into something. When we do, we need to make a decision to continue moving. Moving to get over the wall. To find a crack and get through the wall. To get under the wall, around the wall. It doesn’t matter what path we create to the other side, we just need to continue moving until we are there. The easiest thing to do is to stop, and we need to resist the urge to stop. Keep moving.
Think Strong Be Strong
Eliot Kelly