A term you hear occasionally is “What’s your WHY?” It’s often used by motivational speakers (even if you’re Matt Foley living in a van down by the river). I’d like to pose a different question in today’s brief post: What’s YOUR Olympics?
The Olympics are a celebration. Human potential. Competition. Sportsmanship. National pride. Worldwide community. The current, 33rd Olympiad, is going full bore. The modern Games are unique in that, with today’s technology, you can access all kinds of programming and watch your favorite sports/athletes quite conveniently. You also tend to catch some events and human interest stories you didn’t plan on seeing, but that you enjoy nonetheless.
One could argue that these days, the Olympics have too many sports. Or that some events are not really a sport. Or that a lot of professional sports have their seasons extended into the Games. Some might say the Olympics are too diverse and no longer quite as “pure.” Whatever that means.
I’m not going to be critical of the modern Olympics because I love the concept of celebrating athleticism across myriad sports and body types. That’s TLA stuff. Every person has unique gifts and talents and everyone is an athlete (or certainly can be). No matter what you’re into, you can find something to identify with in the Olympics. And the beauty in that is inspiration. You can be inspired to consider “What’s YOUR Olympics?”
In our TLA model, we appreciate human performance with regard to the 5 Capacities of Athleticism. You’ll recognize those as strength, speed, power, agility, and endurance. And you’ll see an amazing variety of the highest levels of those capacities in Olympians. In the true spirit of celebration, and the intended purpose of the Olympics, this is an opportunity to admire, and to some extent, embody Olympic qualities.
As opposed to feeling bad about ourselves because our best output in any given sport may only be a fraction of what the Olympians do, I’ve got 2 suggestions:
- Applaud and respect the impressive performance, skill, hard work, and talent that Olympians bring to the Games.
- Use their examples, where safe to do so, to try a bit harder and get a little better in our chosen athletic pursuit.
This is parallel play and comparison without judgment. The goal is to model some Olympian movement and behavior, and benefit by becoming just a little more capable in whatever we do. I don’t have a specific recommendation here. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. Have some fun and explore your attributes and limitations with an open mind. This could be in a workout, a competition you’re involved in, or even a festival of athletics you put together with your peeps (like the annual FitComps we do in our Training Tribe).
So far I’ve come up with a number of ideas as I’ve enjoyed the Olympic programming. I’ll share several examples. If you choose one, make sure it’s appropriate for your body.
- Look at the poundages (kilos) that a weightlifter in your class can do in the clean and jerk. There is a huge amount of skill in Olympic lifting, and honestly, you need to be experienced before ever attempting anything near a max lift. That stated, most Lifetime Athletes (but certainly not all and I’m one of them these days) can perform a passable clean and jerk with some instruction and practice. Stay on the “light” side and just see what you can do in relation to your bodyweight peer. It’s truly staggering to see the amount of weight these athletes put overhead.
- A very popular “test” has been to observe the average pace of the elite marathoners (42km or 26.2 miles). Then see if you can run 1 lap of the track at that pace. Consider that they run the equivalent of 105 back to back laps at that velocity.
- Another locomotive journey is to simply run the 100 meters (with some baseline training and comprehensive warmup of course). Compare your time to that of Noah Lyles or Sha’Carri Richardson.
- If you’ve never played beach volleyball, certainly give it a try. Trying to move quickly and jump off the ground in soft sand is incredibly humbling.
- Olympic gymnasts display mind-boggling agility. When was the last time you explored getting down on the ground, rolling around and maybe even doing a little tumbling, and then getting up easily and gracefully? Or how about vaulting over a fence?
- Swimming at the elite level is all about huge outputs. This depends on many factors, but efficient technique is paramount. Get in the water and try to improve your feel for aquatic propulsion.
- Quick feet and change of direction abilities are requirements in so many sports. Next time you’re playing table tennis, pickleball, rugby, soccer, basketball, tennis, volleyball (this list is long so please add in your favorite)…see if you can move more like the proverbial cat.
- Coordination is everywhere in the Games, just like every other ability. Can you move like a springboard diver out on the dance floor at your niece’s wedding?
- Visual acuity, breath control, and the hand-eye coordination aspect of any shooting sport such as archery, handguns, rifles, and shotguns are incredible. Give it a shot (pun intended).
- Let’s say you frequently go out for a bike ride (like me). But when was the last time you really put the power to the pedals? A personal time trial may be in order. Or if you are an experienced mountain biker (with a lower crash risk), can you manage that type of effort while negotiating obstacles and challenging terrain.
- If you enjoy getting out in a canoe, kayak, or rowboat perhaps you can ponder how your mind propels your body to apply the paddle or oar to move the craft nimbly and explosively in the water.
This list could go on and on and I’m sure you can come up with a bunch of fantastic immersions into Olympic possibilities. I feel like my message has been delivered reasonably well. Use the Olympics as a launching pad for your own training and performance. This is such a wonderful time to celebrate sports and athletes of all types. Try a bit of parallel play, test yourself, and use this as motivation moving forward. Establish new goals. Refine or possibly redesign your program. Let the Olympics propel you toward a higher level of lifetime athleticism. Cheers!