Improving your running time

Last month we talked about some aches and pains that come with running and how usually it can be an easy fix by just asking your muscles to do some different movements.  Running is very repetitive and that can bring on some aches, which may lead to injuries if not taken care of.  You can read that article HERE.  This month, we're talking about improving your running times.

This write up is based on the workout Run Faster. Be Better! you can download for free by clicking HERE or the link at the bottom of the page.  The workout is based on improving your time in just 4 weeks.  It starts in week one with a timed mile and three mile pace.  Even if you are just starting out and those are recorded walking paces, that's just fine, you have to start somewhere!  If you're an experienced runner, then you will know exactly what you're trying to get as your goal times.  If you are a beginner, then be sure to set reasonable goals.  If you start out walking three miles, don't expect to be running three miles in under 30 minutes in just four weeks.  You can absolutely get there, but keep in mind, running improvements take time, so any improvement is a success and you keep building on that.

To improve time, we are going to use the small magic of rest.  Yes, resting.  The body makes the most improvements while you rest, so this routine is meant to push you hard and fully recover before the next phase.  Also known as interval training.  It's also only designed to be used once per week, so again, using the rest time to let the body adapt.  The workout is free to download and comes with instructions and videos.  The video page will always remain up so there's no need to stress, you can always come back to it for a reference.  Have fun and here's to your success!!

Removing aches and pains with running could be a simple solution!

Running is great!  It is a total body movement, it can be of varying intensity at any moment, it gets your heart pumping and makes you sweat.  There’s an emotional satisfaction and “pat on the back” feeling every time you finish a quality run.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a training day or race day, if you made it to your finish line, that’s an accomplishment!

My intent is not to make you stop running, but rather enhance your technique, improve your endurance, and reduce pain.  I like to help people learn why they are in pain and how fixing faulty movement patterns can change your training world for the better!

The motion of running only happens in the sagittal plane, or in simple terms, straight front to back motions.  In the world we live in, there are also frontal plane movements and transverse movements.  These motions take you side to side, twisting, and rotating.  Running is not the only workout that lives in one plane of motion.  Cycling, CrossFit, and basic weightlifting are others.  Many times, active adults are doing a combination of these things for their workouts, which means they are only compounding any movement problems.  They may be in great shape and loving their workouts, but they may be wondering why they have a constant nagging pain.  As long as you catch the pain soon enough, the answer is usually very simple.

Let’s focus on running.  Let’s pick apart the problems, so that we may find a solution.  The biggest problem is usually lack of core strength.  Yes, runners typically have weak core muscles.  This doesn’t just mean your six pack abs, I’m talking every muscle from your ribs to your hips, both front and back; that is your core.  A casual endurance runner doesn’t have to use many core muscles to get from start to finish, so the body says we don’t need that, we’re not going to strengthen it.  A weak core causes a whole mess of problems.  We can touch on that on during another post.

Almost everyone I train has a lack of rotation.  Many clients call this, “having no coordination,” when really their body has no mobility to rotate, which can make you feel uncoordinated.  Running does in fact require small amounts of rotation, but the majority of runners I see and train, don’t have correct technique.  They actually have no clue how to rotate their body.  When they run, they resist the natural technique to rotate.  This will cause shoulder problems, back problems, knee problems, and ankle problems.  Your body is looking to rotate, that’s how we move.  Walking requires rotation with opposite arm and leg swinging together to take a step.  It’s small, but it’s rotation.  Running is no different, so when you don’t rotate, that energy is absorbed into joints and it starts grinding away your joint stability, or in the case of your spine, it causes disc herniations.   When you do rotate and move with correct form, that energy goes into the muscles, which are made to move and accept forces.  Joints are there to keep those muscles moving, they are not made to accept rotation forces.

Running is a repetitive motion in the sagittal plane.  If you don’t allow your body to move in other ways, that repetition will quickly wear down your body.  To prevent injury, you need to allow days off running where you move differently.  Your warm ups need to be about moving in all directions, not just a quad and hamstring stretch.  When you do this, those joints will become more stable and your muscles will become stronger.  When the body knows it is stable and strong, it works harder.  When you can run pain free, you don’t hold back, you push to beat your goals.  I encourage you strongly to step out of the sagittal plane every once in a while, there is a much bigger training world out there and your body will love you for it!  Check out the TNT YouTube channel for new training ideas!

Let's be honest, we can all improve our nutritional habits

It can be tough to admit it's time to make changes in your eating habits.  It's vital that active kids know how to eat healthy and the whole family can work together to make smart choices.  I know nutrition is extremely complicated and there never seems to be matching evidence for the best solution.  Part of that, is because there is NOT one great solution.  Everybody will be unique to their needs and how one person digests and absorbs food can be very different from the next person.  The diagram above shows the most basic outline for a healthy lifestyle.  Today, let's just learn what each bubble means and how it relates to your life.

Not every day will be a perfect eating day, (and that's totally ok!) but this is what a balanced day would look like.  There are six major components, that when balanced correctly, will have you feeling your best.  They are listed in importance, moving clockwise.  Hydration is the most important variable, followed by a balanced and varied diet.  From there, energy intake, then nutrient timing and meal frequency go together, as you try to decide when to eat and how many meals you will consume in the day.  Supplements are optional and listed as least important because you should only be supplementing what you are not receiving in your diet.  Don't take supplements, "just to take them."

Use the bubbles to help guide you in your decisions.  There are many details that will apply to your family and not your teammates, but this gives a good general start to finding the weak spots that need attention.  Please contact us to speak to our Registered Dietitian about further questions you have!  Visit www.tntsportsperformance.com and in the Contact Us section, click the "Ask the Dietitian" button!

The Formula For Getting Lucky

I'm a big advocate and believer in knowing that having the right mindset through life creates the opportunities that come before you.  You create your life.  While there's room to argue that we don't ask for terrible things to happen to us, and yet they can and do, this mindset is about seeing the world in a positive, optimistic way.  Do you blame others that they are luckier than you?  Do you see everyone else getting what they want and not you?  Do you take full responsibility for your actions or find ways to point fingers and place blame?

Here's one of my favorite quotes from the book The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy.  If you've never read it, change that and find a copy of this book.  It's well worth the read!

The (Complete) Formula For Getting Lucky:
Preparation (personal growth) + Attitude (belief/mindset) + Opportunity (a good thing coming your way) + Action (doing something about it) =  LUCK

And one more great quote from the book:
"You cannot see what you don't look for, and you cannot look for what you don't believe in."

In keeping it short on this topic, let the above quotes sink in.  Having the right mindset can take you right to your goals.  And it's no coincidence the harder you work, the luckier you get.  So keep that in mind next time you think someone "has on the luck."  Maybe they are just working their butts off and being rewarded for it!

Why Weightlifting Is Good For Kids

I came across an article that explains this topic that can still be a sensitive one for parents.  At Top-Notch Training we focus on technique and implementation, not huge amounts of weight, and we see a great improvement in kids' coordination and overall body strength and awareness,  Instead of re-writing the facts, I'm simply going to copy and paste and then highlight the important parts.  The original article can be found on barbend.com, written by Samantha Poeth  (https://barbend.com/why-weightlifting-is-good-for-kids-and-why-it-wont-stunt-their-growth/)

Stereotypes have a way of creeping into many different areas of sport. It’s seems that grade school never ends, because jealousy and the need to degrade one sport in order to lift up another comes through by spreading nasty little rumors. Ideas such as “only rednecks watch NASCAR”, “Europeans are only good at playing soccer”, and my personal favorite, “lifting weights will stunt kids’ growth.” By that logic, does playing basketball make you tall? In all seriousness, let’s look at the science.

In an article published by Lon Kilgore, PhD., “Misconceptions about Training Youth,” Kilgore looked at the idea that weight training causes epiphyseal plate (growth plate) fractures which can stunt growth in children. Kilgore states that, “Damage to these plates induced by weight training is frequently cited as a reason for avoiding weight training in children. The existing medical and scientific data do not support this as a valid contradiction.”

Kilgore looked at 29 different studies, published between 1979 and 1983, related to weightlifting in preadolescents. Of those studies, Kilgore found only one instance of reported epiphyseal fracture. Five publications reported instances of fractures related to weight training, but that the major of the injuries occurred from using improper technique and the focus being placed on the amount lifted versus the correct application of the movement. Kilgore concluded the argument with, “Proper diagnosis and treatment of this rare injury resulted in no detrimental effect on growth.”

Having a certified and knowledgeable coach can help prevent injuries from occurring in the weight room. Accredited coaches understand that given the training age of these children, the amount lifted is irrelevant to improvement. (Note that training age can be defined as the amount of time an athlete has spent training for a particular sport or activity, not the actual age of the athlete. For example, I am 29 years old and have been competing in Olympic Weightlifting for 13 years, therefore, my training age is 13.)

The amount of force a prepubescent athlete can produce is generally not enough to even lift a bar equivalent to their body weight. Therefore, the amount of force placed on these joints would be less than a gymnast learning to tumble, as gymnasts force their joints support their entire body weight. You rarely hear of a parent worried about the injuries that could be encountered from learning gymnastics at an early age. In fact, early development is encouraged. The same should be true for lifting weights. Done properly, under the supervision of a qualified coach, children will greatly benefit from learning technique early.

Focusing on proper technique as opposed to the amount of weight during early training does wonders for an athlete. First, it teaches proper movement patterns without the need for excessive weight. Second, it gives the athlete confidence because they don’t have to work to the point of failure. Lastly, it builds a base for the athlete as they transition into the next phase of competitive sport.

And yet, there are still articles (and parents) who continue to insist that kids who weight lift won’t improve before hitting puberty.

They’re probably right. They should just sit on the couch and play video games to improve hand-eye coordination and their likelihood of developing childhood obesity. (I probably wouldn’t say this out loud, but would definitely be thinking it.)

According to an article published in The New York Times titled, “Phys Ed: The Benefits of Weight Training for Children”, researchers with the Institute of Training Science and Sports Informatics in Cologne, Germany, looked at 60 years worth of studies on children and weightlifting, specifically focusing on boys and girls from age 6 to 18. The studies found that “Youths do not add as much or sometimes any obvious muscle mass as a result of strength training, which is one of the reasons many people thought they did not grow stronger.”

(Oh, so you’re saying they get stronger and stay in their weight classes? Makes them perfect for weightlifting!)

The article continues, “Their strength gains seem generally to involve ‘neuromuscular’ changes” and the benefits come when the nervous system and the muscles start firing correctly and efficiently.

The findings actually bust one of the “most pervasive myths about resistance training for youths — that they won’t actually get stronger. We’ve worked with athletes as young as kindergarten age using ’balloons and dowels’ as strength training tools, and found that they developed strength increases.”  

(Yes, Kindergarten! Lifting at this age did not stunt growth or cause injury. It was fun for them, all while developing the central nervous system recruitment.)

Another article published by the National Strength and Conditioning Association says, “If a kid sits in a class or in front of a screen for hours and then you throw them out onto the soccer field or basketball court, they don’t have the tissue strength to withstand the forces involved in their sports. That can contribute to injury.”

Every great coach understands that an athlete needs a certain level of strength and coordination before they can be asked to perform at a higher level. Great CrossFit coaches develop different progressions for teaching muscle ups for the same reasons that baseball starts in T-Ball, then coach pitch, before moving on to live play. Skipping steps in this process can lead to injury, while starting early can reinforce proper mechanics and provide a base level of strength for the next phase of the athlete’s career.

The article concludes while weightlifting “will not stunt your growth or lead to growth-plate injuries. That doesn’t mean young people should be allowed to go down into the basement and lift Dad’s weights by themselves. That’s when you see accidents.” They report that the most common injuries they find in kids are from dropping weights on their fingers and toes.

In Russia, the kids compete in weightlifting technique contest taking the emphasis off of the amount being lifted. Eventually, I hope the sport of Olympic Weightlifting in the United States implements the same idea for young kids. I believe with the continued growth of the sport, through the efforts of USA Weightlifting education courses and CrossFit kids, the fears associated with early training will begin to dissolve and then disperse to lifting weights for other sports as well.

(It also doesn’t hurt that we just crowned our first World Record holder since 1970— 16 year old CJ Cummings!)

Editors note: This article is an op-ed. The views expressed herein are the authors and don’t necessarily reflect the views of BarBend. Claims, assertions, opinions, and quotes have been sourced exclusively by the author.

The Importance of Good Habits

So this fun video demonstrates how habits get ingrained into our subconscious, every day life.  Once the brain learns how to move, and recognizes it needs to remember a specific pattern, it creates neurological pathways to become more efficient.  Like riding a bike, for example.  Kids fall over again and again until their brain learns how to balance the bike, then it creates a neurological pathway to remember that pattern so each time the kid gets back on the bike, the body knows how to balance.  As the video shows, changing those ingrained patterns can be very difficult.  The man took over 8 months to learn how to ride the backwards bike, while his young son only took a couple weeks.  It's true kids brains are easier to mold, but even the young boy took a long time to change his movement pattern to adapt to this new bike.  This didn't happen in one day or only a few tries.  Even with the young, eager to learn brain, many attempts at defeating failure had to be done over and over again.  As we get older, it only takes longer and longer to break the old habit and learn a new one.

How does this relate to sports performance?  The body knows how to run and move, but it doesn't always know how to properly do everything it should.  For example, the motion of a squat can be accomplished in many ways, but few people or kids can do them correctly.  An improper squat pattern can mean you never reach for full strength potential, or worse, create injuries.  So we must break bad habits and ingrain new ones.  This takes time and many trials of repeated effort.  Supplemental sports performance training helps the body learn the best movement patterns and helps the brain build those correct neurological pathways.  This gives young athletes a huge advantage over their peers that are not doing anything to correct bad habits.  Those that are working to better their movement patterns will only learn skills faster, perform better in competition, and decrease their chance of injury.

10 Movement Skills Young Athletes Need to Master

The last post talked about 10 drills that every young athlete should be able to do.  They are based on strength and coordination.  Here's the follow up to that post that explains the 10 movement skills every young athlete should know how to complete with ease!

1.  Walking with balance
While taking big steps forward, the athlete should be able to step and pause with good balance on each step.  They should be able to step in control, keep their knee bent, and not step because they lose their balance.  Work this by taking big steps and having the athlete pause for 2-3 seconds before the next step.

2.  Shuffle with arm swing
A tall shuffle position with the arms swinging overhead in coordination with the shuffle will challenge the athlete to move sideways while integrating upper body rhythm.

3.  Low shuffle
Similar to the shuffle with arm swing, this drill has the athlete stay low in an athletic position with their knees bent and chest and eyes up.  The arms do not move and the athlete has to generate power and control while moving sideways.  The toes should not turn out.

4.  Carioca
Also known as the grapevine, this drill challenges the athlete to cross the midline of their body with rotation.  The upper body should not rotate, the lower body should rotate through the hips to step in front then behind the lead leg while moving sideways.  A common fault is the athlete doesn't turn the hips and has to hop to get the leg behind the body.

5.  Crawling
The athlete should have the strength and coordination to crawl without their knees touching the ground.  There should not be much rotation or wiggle as they crawl forward.  Simply work opposite arm and leg to push and reach and propel the body forward.  The toes should stay straight, a common fault is bringing the knees up too far and turning the toes out.

6.  Walking / Jogging backwards
A very important skill that is so commonly overlooked is the backward walking and running skills.  An athlete should be able to walk backwards while maintaining good body control.  They should be able to take large walking steps backwards without falling side to side.  When running backwards, they should be able to keep a forward lean and push backwards- most athletes lean backwards and quickly fall over.

7.  Jumping
This means pushing off two feet and landing on two feet.  It can be a vertical, horizontal, side to side, or rotating jump.  All jumping drills should be taught to land in a good athletic position.  This will teach the athlete to be strong and help prevent injuries.

8.  Hopping
This means starting on one foot and landing on the same one foot.  Like jumping, it can be vertical, horizontal, side to side, or rotating.  The athlete will not generate the same power as a two foot jump, but to understand the movement and have control is vital for athletes becoming strong, powerful, and safe during competition.

9.  Skipping
Usually a skill learned in elementary school, the basic skip is essential to being a good sprinter and strong athlete.  Maintaining good posture and coordinating opposite arm and leg action is key for a good skip.

10.  High knee running
The athlete should be able to maintain an upright posture when performing this drill.  A common fault is to round the back or lean back to appear that the knees are coming up.  This strengthens the leg muscles and ingrains good mechanics for top end speed running.  The athlete should be able to get their leg to 90 degrees and contact on the ball of their foot, not heels or toes.

Top 10 Drills for Young Athletes to Master

Young athletes are growing every day and their bodies are so eager to learn new skills!  Here's ten drills that all young athletes should be able to master.  Understanding and correcting these drills will boost their coordination, enhance their ability to learn more complicated skills, and help prevent them from injury.  Let's get right down to it:

1.  Squat

This is a basic skill all athletes should become very good at executing.   It requires total body coordination and strength.  Points of focus:  Heels stay flat on the ground, knees never fall together at center, chest needs to stay up, and they do not support their weight by resting their arms on the thighs.

2.  Split lunge with arms overhead

This is a lunge where the feet stay in the split position.  This will test their balance, strength, and coordination.  Points of focus:  Maintain foot placement as they go through the lunge motion- the feet should not move around to keep balanced, keep the arms overhead at all times- the arms should not drop to assist in the movement, and keep the torso in a vertical position- there should me minimal leaning forward as the knee drops to the ground.

3.  Regular lunge

To progress from the split lunge is the regular stepping forward lunge and return to center.  There are many variations of a lunge, but for this list, the basic lunge must first be mastered before adding more complex variations.  Points of focus:  Step out to a distance where the shin angles are vertical, drop the knee to the ground or almost touching, torso should stay upright and the arms should not assist the movement.

4.  Dead bug

A coordination drill that challenges them to move the right and left sides of their body simultaneously.   Points of focus:  Lay completely flat with head resting on the ground, both arms and both legs stay up to the ceiling while the opposite sides drop in sync (for example- right arm, left leg).  They should be able to switch between sides without losing the rhythm. 

5.  Bird dog

Much like the dead bug, the bird dog (or "live bugs" as they are called at TNT), challenge coordination and add a component of crossing midline which is so important to motor pattern growth.  Points of focus:  On all fours, reach out the opposite arm and leg to full extension, return to center tapping knee to elbow.  They should be able to maintain balance with full extension and with a touch at center. 

6.  Tall march

Keeping with the opposite sides of the body challenge, this tall march requires them to do the same coordination while standing.  Points of focus:  Stand tall, raise one arm overhead with the opposite knee lifting up, continually switch while maintaining balance.  Turn this into a forward walking position for added difficulty.  They should be able to fully extend the arms.

7.  Crawling

A great skill everyone hopefully learns as a baby, offers many benefits to keeping this skill in our memory.  Having the ability and strength to crawl challenges every muscle in the body along with coordination.  Points of focus:  Start on all fours, lift the knees off the ground and crawl forward moving the opposite arm with the opposite leg (are you sensing an important pattern here).  Do not rock the body side to side.

8.  Bridges

A simple drill that strengths the back side of the body.  This is very important to keeping the body balanced and preventing injury.  Point of focus:  Laying on their back, knees bent, feet flat on the floor, press hips up to the ceiling.  Must keep feet flat, do not raise up on toes.  Press hips up as high as possible and control them back to the floor.

9.  Plank
Well of course the plank is on the list.  While everyone knows what this is, so many people perform it incorrectly.  Points of focus:  Elbows under shoulders, toes straight and body in a straight line.  They should be able to hold that position for at least 30 seconds without sinking in the middle or lifting the hips too high.

10.  Mountain climbers
Also a classic drill commonly performed incorrectly.  Kids must first be able to hold a push up position (similar to the plank, but arms straight).  Points of focus:  In a strong push up position, bring one knee in and quickly switch feet jumping them in without bouncing the hips up and down.  The body should stay in a straight line with minimal movement while the legs switch back and forth.

Give them a try and keep practicing the ones that are challenging!  Once you master these, you can add more fun and challenging drills to push you to be the best athlete you can be!

Let's Talk About Early Sports Specialization

To expand on the last post about an athlete being proficient in their ABC's- Agility, Balance, Coordination, and Speed- let's separate learning sports skills from specializing in one sport at an early age.  This is a very popular topic that we could go into great depth on, but let's keep it simple today.

Myths of Sports Specialization*

• Most college athletes specialized in one sport as a child
• The only way for my child to be "good enough" is for him/her to focus specifically on one sport early in life
• Children need to play their sport year-round to avoid getting out of shape
• Kids who spend their time learning one sport as a child are more likely to stay active through their lives
• The only way to develop skills in a sport is to adopt that sport early and spend time training to be better in that specific sport
• The only way to love a sport is to learn to specialize early and focus on getting better in that sport

Just to be clear, those points listed above are all MYTHS!  Alright, for starters, did you know that you absolutely can NOT early specialize boys.  Girls mature faster than boys and will do better with early specialization.  If you do this to boys, you can destroy them.  With any young athlete that gets forced to specialize, there are three major problems that can arise:

• Injuries due to overuse which may need surgery
• Burnout and low motivation
• Higher inactivity lifestyle as an adult

We talked in the last post about kids needing a good foundation of fundamental skills like running, jumping, skipping, and crawling and object control skills like throwing, kicking, dribbling, and rolling.  These skills may not be able to develop if a kid is only exposed to certain movement patterns dictated by single sport demands.   There are sports that do better with early specialization which include gymnastics, diving, and ice skating.  With these sports it's better to focus on that sport and become an athlete with more diverse skills later.  With sports like golf, baseball, and basketball you need to develop as an athlete first before focusing on sports specific skills only.

To help balance the early specialization faults and decrease the chances of the problems listed above, here's what you can do:

• Make sure to take off at least 1 full day during the week from all organized sports activity
• Make sure 1 sporting activity is not done more than 5 days in a week
• Take time off from a sport- don't train year-round.  Take 2 - 3 months off and change up the activity or get involved in a strength and conditioning program

The myths listed above came directly out of a great article that can be read in detail here

References:
FMS 2014 Summit talk on Movement Screening for Juniors by Dr. Greg Rose (Co-founder of the Titlist Performance Institute)
Artice on the Myths of Sport Specialization http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-sailor/myths-of-sports-specializ_b_8972126.html

Is your athlete proficient in their ABC's?

As young athletes, school takes up a huge part of their lives and it should take priority.  It's so important that kids focus on being good in school, but for our focus of this article, I'm referring to the ABC's of athletics.  Is your young athlete proficient in Agility, Balance, Coordination, and Speed?  These are the components that create a solid base of athleticism.  It's so important that young athletes get introduced to a wide variety of movements, both in general movement patterns and in sport skills.  Movement stimulates brain development!  Let's dig in a bit more to explain this.

Gross motor skills and fundamental movement patterns have to be learned before fine motor skills and sport specific skills can be truly comprehended by the body.  That's not to say you cannot teach your kid sport specific movements if they don't know other basic skills.  It just means that if their body cannot understand fundamental movements, they will never truly excel in sport specific patterns.  It's becoming a trend now to become the best at one sport as soon as you can and forcing kids to learn and perfect a single sport's skill and ignoring many other vital skills needed in the big picture of athleticism.  The topic of early specialization is another talk all together and I will follow up this article with more details on that.  Right now, let's focus on the best way to accomplish physical literacy.  What is physical literacy?  This means being incredible in both movement and sport- this is the ideal goal every coach should have for their kids.

So what are fundamental movement skills?
(Side note:  This is what TNT's program is focused on!)

• Locomotion - run, skip, hop, jump, gallop, shuffle, crawl
• Stability- agility, balance, coordination, speed, and posture
• Object Manipulation- throw, catch, hit, dribble, kick, roll

What are fundamental sport skills?

This does not mean early specialization.  This means playing lots of sports.  Learning the many different skills needed and the different demands each sports has on the body.  Some sports require more running and endurance while others more skill and body control.  Basketball and soccer both require an athlete to be strong in running skills, but one requires fine motor control of the upper body while the other is lower body.  Baseball and golf do not involve much running (none in golf if you respect the course), but have a very high attention to total body coordination and control.

When a young athlete can practice on the fundamental movement skills and have a wide variety of sports skills, this will most definitely make them excel in physical literacy.  This will enhance their proficiency in the ability to master their athletic ABC's!

Resource:  Information for this blog was taken from a talk by Dr. Greg Rose (co-founder of Titlist Performance Institute) during the FMS 2014 summit series talk on "Movement Screening for Juniors"

Mindset

We can talk, educate, and debate the facts on exercise technique and nutrition another day.  Today I want to talk about mindset.  This is something that is not debatable.  This has been such a huge focus for me over the last year and more specifically, the last 4-5 months.  It's so powerful and if you are not tuned into the right mindset, you are cutting yourself short.  Mostly working with kids, I hear their lack of self-confidence and how they put down others and never give themselves enough credit for the skills they currently have.  They are young and when in school, they are molded by peers as it's easier to correlate with a group than figure out who they are as an individual.  As adult you can make the choice to have a strong mindset, you can decide what you want, who you want to be friends with, what job you want, and what dreams and goals you will set for yourself.  I highly encourage you to envelope yourself in a positive mindset and surround yourself with people and resources that lift you up and push you to be better.  The next two paragraphs are words spoken by people that explained it so well, I will simply copy and paste.

"There is nothing as powerful as a changed mind.  You can change you hair, your clothing, your address, your spouse, your friends, your residence, your church... but if you don't change your mind, the same experience with perpetuate itself over and over again because everything outwardly changed, but nothing inwardly changed."  Statement from TD Jakes

"Your brain is like a circuit switch, once you believe you are something, you actually embody it, and you embody that feeling. If you were god forbid in a coma and you woke up and you really didn’t have a memory and you were told that you used to be a Navy Seal and they want you back once you’re healthy. Do you think you’d act differently and hold yourself differently and conduct yourself different and have a different self-concept of who you are, than if you were told you were a piano instructor. Being successful in life is all about having the proper believe system and who you are, truly believing that you are something unique, that you are something special in that field....  Our brain is like a circuit and so if we introduce it with the proper wiring, you’re gonna go straight to your target. But if you are unsure about who you are, then your dreams, your goals, they will never become a reality. Everyone has mental doubts in life, internal conflicts, even the most successful people that you look up to, but they don’t live there.  It’s how you handle those negative thoughts in that exact moment and overwhelm them with positive ACTION and that comes with the up most confidence in yourself that you can handle the situation, trust in yourself that you are better than the normal."

That's a speech from Jaret Grossman.  It's so very true and if you make the choice to make a change in your life or are reaching for a big goal, then you have to constantly work on mindset.  Like everything we do, if you don't practice and do it often, that skill or knowledge will be lost.  You don't just have a positive mindset every day- life happens, we have ups and downs- but with the right attitude you can make it through the lows and continue to reach even higher highs.  Make a goal, big or small, write it down and then commit to achieving it!  Even if it doesn't happen immediately, keep working and believe in yourself that you can achieve it.  It's important to me that as I teach kids how to be better athletes, they also learn to believe in themselves and encourage others so that our training environment is one that gives the greatest chance of success.  Hard work only takes you so far- you have to have the right mindset to get to the top!