Here is why I place a MASSIVE emphasis on effort in my program:
“The longer I’ve been training kids (3k+, 14yrs) the less I care about ability and the more I care about effort.
Why?
I’ve learned training is as much an attitude as it is a construct.
The amount of high effort kids I’ve trained & then watched go on to fail in the real world:
0.”
-Ray Zingler on X
I’ve been doing this a long time.
I officially started 3 days after I graduated High School in 2009 at the ripe old age of 18 and then incorporated a few years after that.
It’s the only “job” I’ve ever had, though I prefer to call it a calling.
I am more obsessed with it today than I have ever been, and I’m humbled to say that because I recognize most people don’t make it to where I am at today.
Not because they lack ability or skill, but because of the unreasonable effort it takes to devote your life to something for tens of thousands of hours, every single day, with immense, unending tradeoffs & sacrifice.
Most people move on to something different because they get burnt out or chase money in greener pastures because that’s the “rational” thing to do.
I share this not to toot my own horn, but to paint the picture of how truly important relentless effort really is.
I’m not where I am at today because I am smarter than the next guy. I’m not a trust fund kid. I don’t have an MBA, either.
I was a regular Joe who bet on himself and put an immense amount of blood, sweat, and tears into my craft and luck happened to find me.
And I’ve noticed over the years with the workers in my program, the “Hammers” if you will..
Luck happens to find them as well.
I view training as much as an attitude as a I do a construct.
I care less about skills, strength, sport potential, etc. and care a whole hell of a lot more about effort.
And it’s because effort is what the real-world cares about.
There is something different about those pit bulls who just show up every single day and work their asses off.
They may never squat 500 pounds.
They may never run a 4.4, 40.
They may never play for the Atlanta Braves, either.
But one thing they will do is take their work ethic with them into the real world and be damn successful.
I’ve worked with over 3,000 kids for 14 years, and when it comes to my Hammers success rate in the real world…
I’m batting 1000.
