ENDURE: March 18, 2013

You Can Learn A Lot From Your "Students" 

For the last ten years, I've invested a great deal of my professional time into working with and training athletes to be their very best on their "field of play".  With the help of my colleagues (physical therapists, trainers, and coaches), we've continually done our best to break down the biomechanics of each sport into simple, functional movements that have helped us develop a sport-specific component to our training programs and systems.  It's been an enjoyable challenge, and we've been very fortunate and humbled to work with some of the most focused and dedicated athletes around, many of whom have achieved success at the local, regional, state, national, and even global (Olympic) level.  But having spent the bulk of my personal athletic career focused on the sport of wrestling, one could probably make a decent argument that there's a little bias there.  So when two of our most dedicated wrestlers asked me to train them throughout their competitive season (typically our athletes don't train with us "in-season" as they are with their teams), I agreed to come in on Sunday nights, help push them forward, and open it up to a select few other athletes who shared their drive.

In full disclosure, getting myself into "work" on a Sunday night was not always the easiest, but then again...I'm sure it wasn't exactly a walk in the park for our athletes to "bring it" after long weeks of school, competition, training sessions, weight management, etc.....so in the moment, I was thankful for the opportunity to work with this very focused group of athletes.  But what I didn't realize in the moment, is that while I was giving all I had to help them prepare for their competitive endeavors....they'd soon give back (although probably unknowingly) by reinforcing a lesson of their own.

This past weekend, both Ryan Pomrinca (top 12) and Mike Pongracz (5th place) completed their 2013 high school wrestling season a step or two shy of their NJ State Title goals.  Ryan, after knocking off TWO returning state medalists in regional competition the weekend prior, suffered a broken hand in the second round of the state tournament.  But instead of bailing out of competition, Ryan persisted (with the ok of medical professionals) in quest of his goals, and continued to battle in one of the state's toughest weight classes.  Mike, after stringing together an unbeaten senior campaign, lost his first bout of the season in the state championship quarterfinals, something that may have derailed most competitors in their senior season with an eye on a championship... but rather than giving up, instead buckled down and battled back to win three of his next four matches, and claimed a spot on the podium for his third consecutive year! 

It's clear to me, and anyone who knows Ryan and Mike, that the outcomes of this weekend were not exactly what they had envisioned for themselves, but what they ACHIEVED....and demonstrated to this "Old Dog" (all things are relative)....is something so far superior than a State Title, and the mark of true champions - the ability to ENDURE!  Thanks Ryan and Mike for reinforcing a lesson we can all continue to learn from!

-Eric E.