The Recipe or the Cook

I will use a cooking analogy to illustrate the training process. I can take a recipe from one of the finest chefs in the world and try to make an elaborate thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately no matter how hard I try, even with the exact ingredients my meal will not be the same, probably not five star quality. Why? Very simple if it was just about the recipe. I could obtain a book with champions workouts go out to the field, track or weight room, give the workout and magic instant champion’s! It's not that simple.The secret is not in the recipe it is in the chef. In our world the coach is the key, we all have our own recipes, I can give you my recipe book, in fact I have on my web site, but I doubt if the results will be exactly the same. For me the coach is the key – the feeling, the intuition of when to push, when to cut back, that is not written in the recipe. You acquire that by practice, by watching and learning. It is almost a sixth sense that you develop. Each individual and each team is different. You must start with a good recipe, but you must have the highest quality ingredients, the oven at the correct temperature, you must cook it for the exact amount of time, you must stand over the stove and pay close attention to what you are doing. Building an athlete is not a microwave meal.