Have you ever said something you didn’t mean? Or how about something you wished you could take back instantly?

Yeah, me too. In fact, I’m pretty sure everyone’s been in that situation at some point in their life.

But why does that happen?

Because whether you realize it or not, the words you use act as a delivery vehicle for your current mental state and personality. That’s why people who are always negative, usually end up saying the wrong things at the wrong time.

Margaret Thatcher summed this concept up nicely when she said:

“Watch your thoughts for they become words.
Watch your words for they become actions.
Watch your actions for they become habits.
Watch your habits for they become your character.
And watch your character for it becomes your destiny.”

As an athlete, the words you use during training aren’t something to be messed around with. As an example, keep telling yourself, “I suck” and soon enough you will actually begin to believe it as truth; it will show in your stunts, in your jumps and in your tumbling.

Fortunately, words can also heal, motivate and inspire. Words have given men hope during wars and changed the course of history.

There’s a reason I bolded the line “watch your words, for they become actions” in the quote above. This is why I want to reveal the 7 phrases you should eliminate from your vocabulary instantly, for their negative consequences could end up defining your destiny.

1. “I can’t”

I put this first since it’s the biggest offender, and consequently, the absolute best way to become a very mediocre athlete. Now I understand that you’re no superhero, and that you have limits. Fair enough. But this phrase doesn’t stem from physical limitations, it stems from a weak mentality.

Saying that you can’t before you’ve even tried something is the attitude of a quitter. It’s a great way to stay behind on your skills while everyone marches forward. In a team sport, quitters are a huge red flag. The last thing a coach of a competitive team wants, is someone will call it quits when it matters most – on competition day.

This is why eliminating this phrase from your personal vocabulary is such a big deal. It lowers your Coachability Index.

If you truly are unable to do something, just say “Ok, I’ll try my absolute best.” That is your worst case scenario. It’s ok to fail, but make sure you try first. I’m not too worried when stunts come down or tumbling doesn’t land – as long as I can see that the athlete tried to make it work to the best of their ability.

Because as long as their level of effort is at a 100%, technique can always be taught, changed or fixed.

But what makes me absolutely livid, is when I know certain athletes can do something, and then decide to put in 50% effort.  In fact, in our gym, girls get pushups for saying the word “can’t” – I suggest you adopt this rule as well 🙂

“Always saying that you ‘can’t’ is the absolute best way to become a very mediocre athlete.” (Tweet This)

2. “I know”

Actually, no you don’t.

Because if you knew, you’d be doing it right the first time.

So either you’re deliberately choosing to do it wrong, or you actually don’t know.

When you’re on the practice mat, the only person that knows is your coach. Now let me address a quick caveat here – coaches aren’t saints, and it’s true that we don’t know everything. In fact, any coach that says they know it all probably doesn’t know very much.

We’re human, and we make mistakes just like everybody else.

However, as an athlete it is your job to understand that while coaches aren’t perfect, they do mean well. They want the best for the team and probably have more years in sheer experience than you’ve been alive. This means you need to treat their corrections and suggestions as gold.

There are times I’ll get some of my athletes to try really “out of the box” corrections and drills. The reasons behind it are many; It could be because I want to eliminate a bad habit, or scramble their brain a little to get them out of a rut and divert their focus elsewhere. Or it could be that I’m trying out a completely new drill I thought of, and I need to test it.

Just remember that as an athlete, you may be asked to do things that may not make logical sense. Don’t worry, just go with it. If it doesn’t work, you can always try something else.

“Any coach that says they know it all probably doesn’t know very much” (Tweet This)

3. “Sorry I’m late”

If you’re a teenager, getting to the gym on time is your responsibility, not your parents. For example, if know that your dad drives like grandma behind the wheel, leave 20 minutes earlier. Just say practice now starts at X time instead of Y time.

If you’re old enough to use public transit, then figure out the most efficient route to the gym, and get going.

If you have no ride, plan in advance so that you can carpool with someone. If traffic is a problem, check Google Maps an hour before you leave – it will calculate  the fastest route to your gym and will spit out and approximate time. This can be done on your phone too, by the way.

In this day and age, having surprise traffic is hardly ever an excuse anymore, so do what it takes to get there on time.

Oh and most important of all, do not make yourself deliberately late in order to skip warm up or conditioning. I don’t know about other coaches but if I even get a hint of something like this, that athlete will have some serious rope climbs to do.

When you skip warm up, you increase your chances of injury. And when you’re injured, you’re practically useless to the team until you’ve recovered. Same goes with conditioning – if you’re not strong enough to hold up flyers and perform the tumbling you need to perform, you coach will find someone who is. I think you get the point 🙂

“But coach, there really was a legit reason that I’m late…”

Yes I know, life does happen. Things do go wrong. Flat tires, accidents, cops pulling you over, blackouts, construction diggers blocking your driveway etc. I’ve been through every single one of these scenarios. But they didn’t happen back to back.

“When you skip warm up, you increase your chances of injury. And when you’re injured, you’re practically useless to the team.” (Tweet This)

4. “I’m too tired”

A good friend of mine from Sweden (who also happens to be a doctor) did a crazy experiment on himself known as the Insanely Low Calorie Diet. Basically, he ate just the bare minimum to stay alive for an entire week, while keeping everything else in his life the same (including his gym workouts).

As you can imagine, there were days where the last thing he wanted to do was lift heavy weights. Yet once he got himself into the gym, the workouts went along just fine. In fact, in some exercises he even thrived and hit new personal records. When I asked him about this, he told me, “Sahil, the way you feel is a lie.”

Sounds like something you’d put on a motivational poster, but it’s absolutely true. Some of my best workouts and training sessions have come when I was feeling the worst, but I just told myself, “the way I feel is lie” and got my butt into the gym.

It always works.

Just get yourself going. Once you push yourself past the warm up, I promise you will magically find energy that you never had before.

5. “I just ate, so I can’t do XYZ right now…”

If you’re someone that has been doing cheer for at least six months, you should absolutely know better than to eat a big meal right before training.

You’re throwing other people in the air, running around, going upside down and dancing your poof off.

If you came to practice with a full stomach, not only are you putting your flyers at risk (or if you’re a flyer, then you’re putting your bases at risk) but there’s a very good chance your BLT sandwich and caramel frappuccino will end up on the floor.

And those mats aren’t cheap.

So let me save you the embarrassment of showcasing to everyone what you had for dinner. I’m about to give you the crash course on how to eat like an athlete to help improve training performance. This dietary advice is also what I give to my Powerlifters and those that do MMA.

First, figure out what you’ll be eating or have access to. Different foods have different rates of digestion and absorption. As an example, something like a bowl of Coco Puff’s (contains simple sugars) would be digested within an hour or so and will turn into useable fuel for your muscles. So if practice starts at 6pm, having a bowl of cereal, or fruits, or smoothies, or even pancakes at 4:30 to 5pm is not a bad idea.

On the other hand, eating this stuff at lunch or at 2pm is a guaranteed way to have a huge sugar crash by the time you hit the gym. If you’re someone that doesn’t have time to eat closer to training, go for foods that have a slow rate of digestion such as meats, brown rice, whole wheat anything, foods with lots of fibre etc.

And finally, don’t forget the golden rule of athletic nutrition (at least for tumbling purposes):

Never eat within 30 minutes of training time.

If you do this, you will feel miserable and bloated until you’ve finished practice.

Why?

Because the digestion process needs blood flow.

But when you’re working out and doing sports, the body prioritizes blood flow to the muscles. So if your gut isn’t getting optimal blood flow it needs,  food will just sit there. And when food is not absorbed, you have no useable fuel. I think you’ll agree that’s not a smart way to train. Also don’t forget to check out The Cheer Diet – inside you’ll get even more info on how to eat properly, have near unlimited energy to get you through practices, and recipes that will help reduce soreness.

6. “I can’t come to practice today because…”

Unless you’re coughing up a storm, have a family emergency or something highly contagious like Ebola (too soon?) you need to get yourself to practice. This is a team sport, and whether you know it or not, you’re an important piece of the puzzle that others rely on.

Now, am I saying that you should train hardcore like you normally do? Of course not.

Just show up and participate in the smallest ways that you can; walk through the routine while everyone does it full out; hop around and get your jump timing down; run through your tumbling section; go to the side and practice your dance in slow motion till it’s perfect.

It doesn’t matter what you do, show up. Not only will you prove to be a great role model for other cheerleaders on your team, but if there are changes made to the routine, the coach will appreciate you knowing your spot, instead of having to re-teach it to you.

Over the years I’ve found that there are very few legitimate reasons why an athlete cannot make it to the gym. Parents, if you’re reading this then please don’t coddle your child into staying home. It’s totally OK to come into practice and explain to the coach, “Suzy is not feeling well for XYZ reasons, can she participate doing the bare minimum?”

Personally I’d be totally ok with that. In fact, just last year one of our girls (who’s a solid tumbler and flyer) somehow hurt her elbow while warming up her back handspring. A seemingly simple skill for someone so talented. Long story short, her arm ended up in a cast and she had to sit out during the very first competition of the year.

It was quite a blow to the team. While we adapted, made changes and did well at the competition, do you know what this little champ was doing?

EVERYTHING ELSE that she possibly could. We worked aerials, front tucks, flyer positions, jumps, and spent some serious time on conditioning. She didn’t let what she couldn’t do, stop her from doing what she could do.

The end result? When she came back she was better than ever.

“This is a team sport, and whether you know it or not, you’re an important piece of the puzzle that others rely on.” (Tweet This)

7. “This is boring, can’t we work on something else?”

Yes I get it, the basics aren’t exciting. Working handstands is not as sexy as doing a full. Doubles are more exciting than back handsprings. Working whips gives  you a bigger rush than doing endless round off drills.

Also, why spend an entire hour on two things? Why not just spend like, fifteen minutes working a little bit of everything so that you can have the ultimate specialty pass with whips, arabians, step outs and the whole nine yards?

Seems more fun right?

But there’s a problem. When you spend only a little bit of time on everything, you become good at almost nothing. To really illustrate this point, allow me to share a story with you.

A man once invited a Shaolin Monk to live with him for a few years. This Monk was straight from China, didn’t speak any English and so a translator was needed every time the spoke. While this generous man didn’t ask for any financial compensation from the Monk, the man did ask to be taught the Shaolin martial arts secrets.

The Monk agreed.

During their first day of practice, the man asked his translator to tell the Monk that he was already well educated on the basics, and just wants to learn the advanced techniques.

The Monk became a little curious, and asked him how many strikes he knew. The man assumed this was the perfect time to brag and show that he really knew all the basics.

So he started naming every different strike, kick, elbow and throw that he ever tried, thinking the Monk will be impressed.

After listening to his laundry list of techniques, The Monk simply told the man that he’d like teach him how to throw a punch.

Thinking there was an error in communication, the man asks the translator to make it clear that he already knows how to throw a punch, he wants to learn the more advanced techniques.

Of course, there was no error.

The Monk had already sensed that the man’s Coachability Index was really low and instead of talking further, decided to demonstrate his point instead.

The Monk lit a candle and asked the man to throw a punch that would stop right before the flame. The man assumed this was a simple power/control exercise and threw a snapping vertical punch, stopping about an inch before the flame. The Monk said that it was technically a very good strike, but would now like the opportunity to show him his punch.

Thinking it couldn’t be any better than his own display of power and control, the man shrugged and agreed.

The Monk settled into his fighting stance, and a calm look washed over his face. Then suddenly, in the blink of an eye, delivered a lightning quick punch that stopped about a foot before the candle.

And the candle flame went out!

Needless to say, the man was very eager to learn what he had just witnessed. Before the man could even speak, the Monk smiled and said, “You see my friend, I am not afraid of the 10,000 strikes you’ve practiced only once. But I’m deathly afraid, of the one strike you’ve practiced 10,000 times.”

That quote is jam-packed with wisdom.

When you’re competing, no judge is going to be impressed with the fifty different skills you’ve practiced a few times; they’ve already seen layouts that look more like pikes, tucks that are too open for their own good, and fulls that should never have been thrown in the first place.

But they’ll be floored when they see that one skill you spent months or years, practicing to perfection.

This is what separates the pros from the amateurs. You want to know why Tye Hill’s backhandsprings look so sharp and crisp? He’s simply done more quality reps than you have.

Believe me, when someone has achieved mastery, even the most “basic” skill can look absolutely breathtaking.

“When you spend only a little bit of time on everything, you become good at almost nothing” (Tweet This)

I hope you now realize the power of the words you choose. They really can define you both in a good or bad way. If you drop these 7 phrases from your vocabulary, you (and your coaches) will see a night and day difference in your mood, attitude, progress.

Train hard and tumble on!

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