It’s actually relatively easy to train hard. The question you have to be asking yourself is: are you training smart? Training smart can cover a vast variety of areas from recovery, proper technique, focus, and many others. However this article is to emphasize the importance of allocating training time to working on new things.
For example, coming from the wrestler’s mentality of giving your 100% every single workout, I wouldn’t be satisfied with my training unless I was completely exhausted at the end. It’s the mindset many wrestlers share. We take pride in it. Yet, this mindset led to my training being one dimensional at times. Which would lead to my wrestling often times being one dimensional.
I favored solely training that I was comfortable with; I pushed myself 100% at training I was familiar with as I believed the time to learn and train at something new would be too great of a sacrifice and prevent hard training. Whether it was a new type of training such as swimming or flexibility or even new techniques, I turned away from them all. While I had strength, explosion, and a pretty slick sweep single, any novice wrestler could tell you that’s not enough to reach the tip of the spear.
Often times I was stiff, unable to efficiently make use of my fast twitch muscles led to fatigue, and my bottom was pretty atrocious. Refusing to train smart means failure to adapt in a match. You can have the best take down, turn, or escape. But if that’s all you rely on, the moment your opponent figures you out, you’ll be in a world of hurt. Possibly quite literally. Of course we don’t mean to not train what you’re good at and forget all about your best techniques or training methods. We do encourage taking the time to learn. To adapt. To evolve. In aspect of life, those who learn, win.
So we challenge you to take a little extra time to start working on something new, in an area you need to develop. And if the fact you’re not tired or sweating after that workout bothers you so much, simply get another workout in later that day. Just remember: adapt.
-Brock Morgan