You can follow me on Twitter @creatorvilla. My perception is that a lot more people today are training neck than ever before. This has a lot to do with recent research that has come out on the benefits of a stronger neck. It also has to do with advances in training equipment. The neck, of course, is a group of core stabilizing muscles that support the head, and is a factor in virtually every strength training movement. However, there are a number of reasons why people especially target this area for maximum impact. In this article, I present 4 of the most common reasons people train neck: 1-) to treat / prevent neck pain; 2-) to reduce the risk of concussions / brain injury; 3-) because bigger necks are more attractive; and 4-) to strengthen the voice. This month also marks a year since I started training my neck. I’ve included some progress pics and a one-year update of my experience at the bottom of the article.

Disclaimer: You should consult your doctor before undertaking any strength training program, as there are risks involved, especially with a sensitive area like the neck.

4 Reasons People Train Neck Muscles

1. To Treat / Prevent Neck Pain

Conventional wisdom has it that a stronger muscle is less likely to get injured, and that strength training is an important part of recovery. When people get injured, physical therapy is one of the first things the doctor recommends. Neck pain, in fact, is quite common and can be debilitating. According to this source, “In the course of 3 months, about 15% of U.S. adults have neck pain that lasts at least one full day.” The expression, “pain in the neck” is a common idiom to represent a very annoying or cumbersome situation. The human muscular system is highly connected, and so a strong neck can also support other muscle groups, like the shoulders and back.

In one study, “Neck muscle training in the treatment of chronic neck pain: a three-year follow-up study,” 118 women with “nonspecific chronic neck pain” undertook a successful one-year strength-training regiment. The study revealed that after a three-year follow-up, improvements in pain and range of motion were largely maintained, despite the fact that adherence to the program faltered. The researchers concluded, “Since a 12-month exercise programme shows a long-term effect, exercise may not need to be performed regularly for the remainder of the subject’s life.”

2. To Reduce The Risk Of Concussions / Brain Injury

The potential here is extremely important for people who play contact sports, like football, wrestling, and mixed martial arts (and even soccer, where heading the ball is quite common). Approximately 4 million concussions occur in the US alone ever year (source). Repeat brain injury has been linked to a host of medical issues, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) (See NFL safety changes). A number of studies have identified a relationship between neck strength and the incidence of concussions.

This study, for example, found that “overall neck strength” was a significant predictor of concussions. For every 1 pound increase in neck strength, the odds of a concussion decreased by 5%. The researchers concluded that “identifying differences in overall neck strength may be useful in developing a screening tool to determine which high school athletes are at higher risk of concussion. Once identified, these athletes could be targeted for concussion prevention programs.”

One literature review, published in October of 2018, concluded that the results were “inconclusive on whether neck musculature strength prevents concussions,” and that more research was needed. However, researchers at the Rutgers School of Health Professionals wrote in a paper published in February of 2019, “We have identified neck strength, size and posture as potential factors that reduce risk [of concussions] by lessening the magnitude of force upon impact. Thus, increasing neck strength and possibly size could substantially reduce risk or severity of injury or outcomes” (source).

Another team of researchers in the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health at the University of Illinois wrote in a March, 2019, perspective article that “The sports medicine literature has shown that decreased neck strength and slower neck muscle activation are significant predictors for sports-related concussion.” (source).

Overall, the evidence seems to be mounting that neck strength is, in fact, a risk factor for concussions in sports, and all their associated ills. Neck strength may also provide extra support if someone, God forbid, experienced a fall or were in a car accident.

3. Because Bigger Necks Are More Attractive

The tremendous strength in Leviathan’s neck strikes terror wherever it goes.

Job 41:22, NLT

The neck is one of the most visible muscles in the body. Unlike arms, legs, etc., the neck is exposed nearly all of the time. A thicker neck is typically associated with overall physical strength and dominance. People who bodybuild for aesthetics may want to take a look at these before and afters.

4. To Strengthen The Voice

The neck muscles are heavily involved in eating, drinking, speaking, singing, and so on. Pain/tension in the neck area can impair any of the aforementioned activities. I’ve read articles on neck exercises recommended for singers and heavy voice users. Stronger neck muscles mean greater control, and they can ease the daily burden of supporting the head and speaking apparatus. It stands to reason that a stronger, healthier neck is in the interest of people who use their voice a lot.

My One-Year Update

About a year ago, I started training my neck. I used to suffer from chronic neck pain, and so this was my way of taking action against that. I focused primarily on neck curls, while lying down on my bed, head extended off the edge, or on the floor as pictured in Figure 1. (You can watch a YouTube video on proper form). I also bought a harness, which I would use from time to time, but I found that I could increase resistance simply by pressing on my forehead. A harness can be especially helpful for training the back of the neck, since after a certain point it’s hard to get enough pressure with your hands to really give those muscles a good workout. I also did a lot of isometric movements where I would hold my neck in a pressure position for a few minutes at a time (see Figure 1).

In sum, I did a combination of neck curls / isometric movements on my back, and sometimes neck extensions while on my stomach (to work the back of the neck), for an average of maybe 4-5 times a week for around 20 minutes each session. My average rep range was anywhere from 20 to 100+, depending on the level of resistance. The first time I experienced soreness in my neck, it felt weird. I even wondered if I had hurt myself. They say this is common since we aren’t accustomed to that feeling in the neck, and it is a very sensitive area. Fortunately, the pain went away within a couple days and I didn’t have any real issues after that.

Here are some short clips / images I took at different points in the process. Note that I weighed anywhere from 145-150 lbs. This year I focused on cardio, and my overall weight was at an all-time low. Overall weight is probably the biggest thing that affects neck thickness. However, training neck makes the neck stronger and thicker and more shredded at any level. I also did not take any supplements aside from an occasional protein shake because this experiment was more of a peripheral thing for me.

3 Month Mark (02.2021)

Most people cannot flex their neck, even some people who been strength training for a long time. As you can see in the videos, by the three-month mark I was slowly gaining the ability to flex my neck. That’s a lot of work for a very subtle effect.

7 Month Mark (06.2021)

Here you can see the muscle start to coalesce. Flexing is a lot easier at this point.

10 Month Mark (09.2021)

Now I have enough muscle mass where I can flex either side of my neck with relative ease. After the 10-month mark, I have continued to work the neck, but I have not noticed any real improvement. I imagine I would need to increase volume/resistance, maybe go up in weight, or start taking supplements to see much progress after this. I was really consistent with few exceptions for 10 months, which is a long time to focus on a single muscle group. Gains after that point are a lot harder to come by.

Ask any NFL or fantasy football fan, and they will tell you that injuries are still a routine part of the game. The NFL’s most prolific player, Derrick Henry, was recently placed on injured reserve with a broken foot, and Christian McCaffrey has missed the majority of the season with a leg injury of his own. Football is a violent sport, and violence necessarily leads to injuries, especially at the highest level of competition. In 2005, Doctor Bennet Omaul is credited with discovering Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in former football players, a degenerative brain disease attributed to repeat head trauma. The 2015 film Concussion, starring Will Smith, raised awareness on the issue, as did lab results that found the presence of CTE in the brains of former NFL players who committed suicide (e.g. Junior Seau and Aaron Hernandez). In recent years, the NFL has implemented a number of changes to make the game less dangerous and safeguard football’s status as America’s favorite sport. While there is still a lot we don’t know, it is abundantly clear that minimizing impact to the head is one surefire way to achieve this goal.

Some people hate the new, “softer” NFL (relatively to an exceptionally brutal previously era), but the new rules are here to stay, and more changes are likely to follow as data trickles in. To be sure, I’m not suggesting that football is now safe, nor am I saying that anyone should play it or watch it. What I am presenting are 7 more or less objective reasons why the NFL might be safer today than at any other point in the past. Without further ado. . .

7 Reasons The NFL Today Is Safer Than Ever

#1. Contact Rule Changes In Practice

There are now 17 games in an NFL season, not counting the playoffs. Practice, however, happens year-round. Players used to routinely hit each other hard in practice in order to prepare for in-game competition. After all, how do you get better at tackling without tackling? NFL practices today are more a simulation of in-game contact. They use tackling dummies and work on skills that translate to the game, but hard hitting is typically reserved for the game itself. I put this one as #1 for a reason. I think contact rule changes in practice is the single biggest change that has made the NFL safer due to the sheer volume of practice repetitions.

#2. Expansion Of Concussion Protocol

A few years ago, the NFL implemented concussion protocol to keep players who had just suffered a concussion off the field. The NFL hired professionals on the sideline at each game whose job is to identify potential head trauma and ensure that affected players go through proper health protocols, whether or not they want to voluntarily leave the game. Concussions in the past were referred to as “stingers,” or a “player getting his bell rung.” Oftentimes, players would re-enter the game or practice before their injury had time to heal. This put them at a much higher risk of getting a second concussion and suffering permanent brain damage.

“Second impact syndrome” is the most extreme example of this risk, upon which multiple concussions in a row can lead to death or severe brain damage. Concussion protocol is far from perfect, but keeping concussed players off the field in order to heal has been a huge step in the right direction.

#3. Advances In Helmet Technology

The NFL is constantly researching padding technology to reduce the incidence and severity of all injuries, with head injuries being foremost on the agenda. In 2018, the NFL and NFL Player’s Association agreed to ban 10 helmet models that yielded poor results in safety studies that simulated in-game impact. According to NFL.com (here), 200 players in 2017 wore helmets that are now banned, and so this measure has been another big step toward greater player safety.

#4. Contact Rule Changes In The Game

#4 has likely generated the most controversy. Replay has eliminated a lot of the human error in NFL officiating, but some fans are unhappy with the frequency of unnecessary roughness and helmet-to-helmet penalties that have been called in recent years. These changes have come as a part of the NFL’s overall effort to reduce the incidence of head trauma.

For example, you can’t lower the head to initiate helmet-to-helmet contact, a tactic that was commonplace in the old NFL. You can’t blow up defenseless players without the ball haplessly making their way down the field. You can’t tackle quarterbacks low, throw your weight on them too hard, or otherwise use force that is deemed unnecessary. Players have largely made the adjustment, and the quantity of hits like these has decreased substantially. However, there is still not an NFL game in which multiple players do not violate these rules, which goes to show just how much awareness and caution is necessary to comply.

#5. An Increased Percentage Of Touchbacks On Kickoffs

Kickoffs relatively account for more concussions than any other play in football. According to WebMD, one college study in 2015 found that kick-offs accounted for 21% of concussions, but only made up 6% of plays. The NFL did its own study, WebMD reports, which found that concussions were five times more likely to occur on kick-offs than on any other play. This is hardly surprising. On the kick-off, you have 11 grown men sprinting into 11 other grown men, all with malicious intentions.

The NFL has since changed kick-off rules in the interest of player safety. Kickers now kick-off 5 yards closer to the opposing end-zone to allow for more touchbacks, where no return is made and the receiving team starts their possession from a predetermined position on the field. The NFL also moved the predetermined position up 5 yards, which further disadvantages return teams from taking the ball out of the end zone. In addition, players on the kicking team no longer get a running start, and kicking teams cannot use bunch packages designed to isolate (and, effectively endanger) returners.

In 2003, 7.3% kick-offs ended in a touchback, whereas the record-setting figure in 2020 was 61.2% (source), evidencing that this routine aspect of the game is a lot less a problem than before. Kick-offs, which take place at the beginning of halves and after points are scored, are now largely ceremonial.

#6. A Reduction In Design Run Plays

Running plays, I reason, are somewhat more dangerous than passing plays. On a design run play, you have 11 guys collapsing on 11 guys to bring a ball carrier to the ground. Everyone on the field is engaged in physicality. On a pass play, in contrast, there are typically four or five receivers, including the running back and tight end. Many pass plays end without receivers and defenders in the secondary experiencing any contact at all (it’s illegal to make too much contact with a receiver down the field). On completed passes, the receiver is typically brought down quickly by one or two defenders, runs out of bounds, or dives to the ground, in order to avoid a major hit.

Running is still important for tactical reasons and short yardage situations, but passing has become a much more efficient way to move the ball. As a result, NFL has witnessed a steady decline in the % of run plays over the last several years. Passing plays currently average around 7 yards per attempt, whereas run plays clock in at a little above 4 yards per carry. In the early 2000s, the median % of pass plays per team was around 55%; now it is closer to 60% (source). However, the difference is much larger if you take into account “design run plays,” versus “design pass plays.” There are way more quarterbacks today who scramble than there were in past years. A lot of the “run plays” in the statistics were actually design pass plays on which the quarterback ended up taking off. Quarterbacks, physically weaker, more fragile, and more important to the team’s success than running backs, are notorious for sliding or running out of bounds to avoid contact. Unlike the average design run play, there is often no impact on quarterback scrambles.

#6 doesn’t get talked about a lot, but I think it has made measurable impact on the safety of the game.

7. New NFL Cultural Sensitivity To Head Trauma

The NFL is a fraternity. With a few notable outliers (Vontaze Burfict?), players have each others back. As ruthlessly competitive as they are, most players do not wish to physically injure their opponent. Players also know that the NFL is an iterated game. That means that you play teams more than once over the course of a career, and sometimes more than once in the same season. What goes around comes around, and how you treat others is typically how they are going to treat you.

As a result, I think you’re seeing players take more measures to protect heads, as much as possible. That means not lowering your head to tackle the opponent, which protects both the offensive and defensive party. I also see a lot of ball carriers going out of bounds or diving forward instead of absorbing contact. I don’t remember exactly how it was in the past, but it seems that players today are a lot quicker to shun contact, especially when they can achieve a similar result by giving themselves up early.

Getting tackled can also be a tactical disadvantage, because it makes a ball carrier a lot more likely to fumble. It’s often not worth absorbing a big blow just to gain a yard or two, unless the end zone or first down is within reach. . .

That’s all I got for this one! Let me know what I left out in the comments.

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There’s a fascinating story hot right now in the sports world. For those who aren’t clued in, Kwame Brown was drafted #1 overall by Michael Jordan’s Washington’s Wizards in the 2001 NBA Draft. He was the first athlete from high school to ever achieve that distinction, and was only 18 years-old at the time. Kwame ended up playing 13 seasons in the NBA with 8 different teams, grossing $64 million in salary before taxes. He averaged ~7 points and 6 rebounds in ~22 minutes per game.

Despite his long and lucrative career, Kwame was frequently labeled a “bust” for not living up to the expectations of the first overall pick. ESPN’s Stephen A Smith was his most vocal critic, and routinely referred to him as a “bonafide scrub,” and intentionally mispronounced his name as Kwamé (It’s KwamÄ“). After keeping quiet for two decades that spanned his entire career and several years post-retirement, the now-retired Kwame recently sounded off against his critics. His YouTube channel has grown to nearly 240,000 followers as of the time of this writing, in one of the most meteoric rises of any social media personality.

I’m not going to get into the individual beefs Kwame has with a wide variety of personalities. You can Google that on your own time. I will outline 4 factors that I think explain Kwame Brown’s extreme popularity, and what my main takeaways are from this dramatic saga.

1. Comic relief

Kwame Brown is funny, even while addressing very serious topics. His “Momma’s cooking,” and “with seasoning” are among his favorite lines that have become a kind of trademark. “Momma’s cooking”–I think–is a reference to the values and character he was raised with. He uses this line often while addressing or roasting his critics. In this context, you can guess what “with seasoning” signifies.

2. Humble beginnings

Kwame overcame great odds to play in the NBA for more than a decade. In one of his live streams, he referenced how he started taking care of his family from age 14 and was a part of the free lunch program at his school. This makes him a more relatable and likable personality.

3. Outspoken character

For someone who was maligned and ridiculed for as long as he was to now forcefully stand up for himself is pretty much universally appealing. Kwame got a number of critics to apologize to him in a way that I have never seen before, while others have kept quiet in uncharacteristic fashion. Kwame does not have much of a filter, nor does he seem to care what people think about his opinions, whether that’s sports, politics, or society. Outspokenness is a personality trait that people widely admire.

4. Social consciousness

In Kwame’s live streams, he frequently addresses the charity work he is involved in. Kwame has talked about building community centers and giving back, especially in the areas that need it the most. He has also addressed some issues with the modern school system, even ideas that I’ve mentioned in the past on this blog (e.g. how much little kinetic energy there is.) Kwame has also been critical of how the media uses their platforms to trash, slander, and tear down people in an effort to get ratings and make money. I think a lot of people agree with him and are tired of how superficial and click-baity so much modern media has become.

Whatever you think of the man, Kwame now has a pretty big platform that only seems to be getting bigger by the day. Hopefully, he decides to use his newfound popularity for the betterment of society and to pursue some of the philanthropic goals he has talked about.

One thing this story calls to mind is the importance of watching what comes out of my mouth. This is ancient wisdom that seems to have been lost in modern times, especially with the anonymity afforded by social media. When we get loose with our words, especially as they relate to other people, we invite chaos and drama into our lives.

Here are a few Biblical proverbs that I was reminded off while witnessing the fallout from this drama.

He who guards his mouth protects his life, but the one who opens his lips invites his own ruin.

Proverbs 13:3

A fool’s lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating.

Proverbs 18:6

Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble.

Proverbs 21:23

Note: This post isn’t going to change your life, but it may entertain you. Baseball, “America’s favorite pastime” has fallen on hard times. While leagues like the NFL and NBA have taken measures to make the game more entertaining and appealing, especially to young people, change in baseball has evolved at a snail’s pace. Just this week, Chicago White Sox Manager Tony La Russa chided rookie slugger, Yermin Mercedes–get this–for hitting a homerun. Yes, a homerun on a 3-0 pitch while his team had a big lead in the 9th inning, but a homerun no less. Most people agree that baseball’s “unwritten rules” are just plain awful. Take a look at the fan response to this Tweet, for example.

Fans want MORE homeruns, and LESS salty pitchers plunking opposing batters for “showing them up.” Fans simply don’t care about the ego of pitchers, who make the game unwatchable with their unhittable fastballs and “sweet stuff.” The chart below tells you everything you need to know. As you can see, viewership of baseball’s flagship World Series event is on the decline, and it gets even worse the further you go back in time.

If you are waiting for the MLB to change, you will probably be waiting until the next pandemic, hence why I hereby propose an alternative XLB league designed with the fans in mind. Kind of like Vince McMahon’s XFL experiment minus the CTE. Here are the rules of the road!

XLB Rules:

• 6 inning games because 9 innings are three too many. No game should last longer than a motion picture.
• 2 strikes you’re out, and 3 balls and you walk. People will think of new idioms for life.
• A flat mound. Let’s not make it even harder to hit a 90 MPH fastball.
• Mic’ing up of players. Trash talk encouraged in-between pitches. And showboating.
• 8 players on the field, and no more than 2 outfielders. Groundballs are for T-ball.
• Corked backs not only allowed, but encouraged.
• Parks are 300 feet so you can let it fly. (See previous two rules.)
• No extra innings. A homer off instead, where 3 chosen power hitters get 3 pitches a piece from a pitcher on their team.

Note: Some of these suggestions were crowdsourced from my brothers and friends, but that’s OK, because it doesn’t take a genius to put this together.

Tag your bored billionaire friend! And let me know in the comments what XLB Rules we missed and/or got wrong.

OHH, and there’s this video for added inspiration. . . (NSFW!! Turn the volume off if foul language offends you.)

The pandemic spawned a surge in the stay-at-home economy. People cooped up inside spent more time cooking, renovating, and shopping online than ever before. The pandemic also created an explosion to the upside for another notable industry: online gaming and streaming. For many people during the last year, gaming has been an outlet and a source of connection with others. (Remember when wallstreetbets investors and nostalgic gamers sent the stock of GameStop skyrocketing.) Recently in the US, the spread of vaccines and an increase in herd immunity has led more and more places to relax restrictions. As aspects of the stay-at-home home economy are falling apart, the legacy of social change brought about by the pandemic remains intact.

Today, I brought in an old friend and social media personality, Futvictor, to offer a window into the world of online gaming. Futvictor is a 24-year old graduate from Ohio University, with a bachelor’s degree in Pre-Law. When he’s not working his full-time job as a manager for an e-commerce company, there’s a good chance you can catch him live on Twitch, streaming FIFA, Grand Theft Auto, or whatever game fancies his interest in the moment. Futvictor’s fast-growing Twitch following currently stands at 4,100 followers+ and a few hundred paid subscribers. Futvictor attributes his success in this growing industry to his passion for sports and gaming, and the support he has gotten from people around the world. You can catch him on Twitch @futvictor, Twitter @FUTVictor_, and on Instagram @princekaati.

Tell the people a little bit about yourself.

Hello. My name is Victor. I’m a Twitch streamer. I’ve been streaming on Twitch for a little over two years now. I mainly stream FIFA but would call myself a variety streamer where I stream a variety of games. I would not call myself a professional gamer. I’m more of an entertainer, meaning that while I do play FIFA at a decently high level, people tune into my streams more for the entertainment value. I also work for an Amazon-affiliated company specializing in ethnic hair and beauty products. I manage the warehouse, 9-5, Monday through Friday.

Streaming for me is like a second job. Typically, I stream as soon as I get off work. I try to stream at least three hours a day. Obviously, life happens. I have a lot going on between my family, friends, and girlfriend. There are days that I miss. My Twitch Chat calls me a part-time streamer, and they’re not exactly wrong. Hopefully, that won’t always be the case, but right now I have my Twitch life and I have my regular life.

As far as hobbies, I enjoy golf. I’m very bad at it, but I’ve been going more often. I like spending time with my girlfriend’s cat, Mena. I don’t really do much else outside of that. After work, I’m either streaming or doing something related to the stream.

How did you first get into streaming?

It started with my friends and people close to me, particularly my college roommates and girlfriend. They watched me play FIFA in real life and saw how I would scream and yell at the TV, both happily and angrily. They thought it was entertaining and told me I should start my own stream. I guess they saw how passionate I was about it and figured as much time as I already spend on it, I might as well make it official and try to make a few bucks.

At the time, I didn’t know anything about Twitch. One of the first streamers I came across was a guy named Nick. There are people who teach about the stock market, and there are people who teach about the FIFA market. Nick streamed FIFA and traded coins and taught people how to make coins without spending real life money on the game. I greatly enjoyed his content and he introduced me to the world of online streaming.

In sum, I didn’t just wake up one day and say, “Today I’m going to turn my camera on and start streaming.” It was a combination of factors, and I think the two main ones were me discovering Twitch and the encouragement of people around me.

You mentioned Twitch as a kind of second job. Do you get compensated for your streams?

I get compensated through a variety of methods, the main one being subscribing. People can subscribe for $5 a month. Subscription grants people special badges and privileges, the most important being the removal of ads during the stream. Twitch periodically will put up ads whether they’re chosen by the streamer or not. I personally choose not to place ads because I don’t want to take away from the stream and I’m not an official Twitch partner yet.

People also sometimes send you donations. Bit is Twitch currency. A hundred bits is worth ~$1.40. I have gotten donations in the past anywhere from 100 bits to a thousand bits. I also accept donations via PayPal. I would say my biggest revenue source is subscription and bits. I put this money back into the stream by investing in the latest technology and through other giveaways and promotions. Because I’m only an affiliate and not an official partner, I get about half of the $5 subscription fee. When I become a partner, I get a bigger cut of subscriptions and can potentially monetize ads and other sources of revenue.

When you become a Twitch partner, you get an official check mark, like Twitter’s, but purple and white instead of blue and white. My Twitch Chat and other streamers are circulating the partner push hashtag for me, so shout out to all of them. I think they can tell by our numbers that we’re getting close and everybody wants to help push us over the edge.

What makes a popular streamer?

First, I would not consider myself popular yet. I have a growing audience, but there are streamers who average tens of thousands of views. The two main factors, in my opinion–you either have to be very good at the game or very entertaining while playing the game. There are streamers who are unbelievably good at certain video games but extremely boring to watch, and people only watch them because they play the game at a world class level that very few people can match.

In my case, like I said, I’m knowledgeable and I play the game at a decently high level just because of how long I’ve been doing this. I’m familiar with various technics and strategies. But, overall, I would say people watch me for who I am first, and for what I know, second.

Your Twitch description reads “I’m probably not the strangest streamer on Twitch, but I’m definitely top 5.” What is so strange about Futvictor?

What’s funny is I wrote that description when I first started streaming. In the FIFA community there weren’t many personalities quite as eccentric as mine. I’m willing to toe the line between funny and going too far and people, I think, appreciate that about me—the fact that I don’t really have a filter. But, on the opposite end, the more I stream and the more I discover Twitch, there are far stranger streamers than I am, that do wild things that maybe should not even be allowed on Twitch considering it’s a website for children. I may be eccentric, but I don’t compare to them at all.

I’ve always been high-energy about the things I’m passionate about. People who know me in real life know I’m not just over-the-top about everything. It takes a certain something to get my juices flowing, whether that’s FIFA, American or world football, basketball, sports in general, and music. I’m very passionate about these things. And that passion turns into energy—screaming and jumping and yelling. I rarely watch sporting events when I just sit there with my eyes on the TV. If it involves a club I support, I’m probably going to be jumping up and down screaming just because I’m so passionate about it.

At the end of the day, I’m an entertainer, and people tune in to be entertained. It’s rare on my stream when the energy is low. People come in expecting to get the screaming and the shouting and the passion that I’m known for.

You now know have close to 5,000 followers on Twitch. I imagine a lot of these people like getting touch in with you. How available do you make yourself to your fans?

I try to be as available as I can. It’s obviously difficult because I have a busy life, but at the same time, I do know that people value my friendship or opinion or outlook on a certain subject. When someone takes the time to reach out to me, I want to honor that by trying my best to communicate with them. They support me so it’s obvious they appreciate who I am. Obviously, it will get to a certain point where I can’t talk to everyone. I’m not that big of a streamer yet, so it’s definitely manageable right now.  

There are a lot of people who watch me, and as soon as I’m offline, that’s the end of their interaction with me. They just tune in for 3 hours when I’m live, or however long, and wait until the next time I go live again. But there are dozens and dozens of friendships I’ve made with people around the world, and we talk every day. I’m sure these initial friendships will last even if I blow up on Twitch. At that point, it will just be harder for me to make new ones.

You’ve been playing FIFA since 2007. Do you ever get tired of it?

Over the years, specifically the past three or so FIFAs, they’ve been getting exponentially worse, and it can be a frustrating game to play at times. But at the same time, it’s the only game I play on a regular basis, and now it’s become a source of income for me, and so I don’t envision myself not playing FIFA for the foreseeable future.

What about other games?

Recently, Grand Theft Auto (GTA) has had a resurgence on Twitch for whatever reason, despite the game being 6 or 7 years old. But I’ve actually gained viewers and followers from playing GTA, and a lot of the FIFA community has stayed and enjoys watching those streams. I know of streamers whose viewership dipped after they stopped playing FIFA and started playing something else. What often happens is a lot of the FIFA community will leave, and the community from the new game will stay. I don’t know if the FIFA community has an affinity to GTA, but I have a lot of the same guys watching both FIFA and GTA streams.

What are your goals for the channel for the rest of 2021?

My main goal is to get partnered. If I’m not partnered by the end of the year, I will feel massively disappointed because I feel I’m already so close. Obviously, we’ve reached a lot of milestones this year. We hit 4,000 followers. Now we’re well over that mark. We’ve got 200 subscriptions. I think partner right now is the biggest thing. I’d trade all those subscriptions right now for a partner check.

On your profile, you wrote, “I will be streaming FIFA (except for the times I rage quit and play Apex or Fortnite instead).” How often do you get triggered?

Not as often as I used to. I think the more I play these newer editions of FIFA, the more I understand that these games just stink. And there’s nothing I can do to make them not stink. Don’t get me wrong, there are still times when I lose it because this is a billion dollar corporation giving us a piece of sh*t game. And I’m thinking, Why? Why is this game so bad? But I definitely don’t rage as much as I did in the past.

What are your biggest critiques of the game?

I literally could do a 90-minute interview right now on the gameplay fails of FIFA 19, FIFA 20 and FIFA 21. If you’re interested, there are hourlong videos on YouTube detailing the failure of EA Sports in regards to their most popular franchises. I won’t bore you with those details.

Have you thought about quitting your job and streaming full time?

I’m not at a point right now here I feel comfortable quitting my job and doing this full time. What I make from Twitch doesn’t come anywhere near what I’m making in e-commerce. I have bills and I hope to get married within a few years. For me, to quit my job and just stream full time would not be smart. I have to handle my real-life responsibilities first and hope this Twitch stuff ends up working out.

In order for it to ever happen, I would need to grow my audience substantially. My focus right now is on growth and exposure. Dedicating more time to grow my presence on other social media platforms, whether that be Twitter, YouTube, or TikTok, and using them to increase my following on Twitch. I’m also trying to dedicate more time to streaming, which is hard to do with a full-time job.

During the pandemic, gaming gained in popularity with people spending more time at home, and gaming companies like Take-Two Interactive ($TTWO) and EA Sports ($EA) did very well. How do you foresee online gaming in the post-pandemic world?

Before the pandemic, online gaming was an exploding industry that big-time corporations and big-time people were getting involved in. In my opinion, the pandemic sort of accelerated that trend. People were at home having absolutely nothing to do.

Post-pandemic, I see nothing but growth for the industry. Kids that are my cousin’s age want to grow up and be like Ninja. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Ninja. He’s one of the pioneers of online streaming who got famous for playing Fortnite. He signed a deal worth $50 million with Mixer, a Twitch rival, and got many other endorsements.

You also see celebrities investing in Esports [professional gaming]. Drake bought into one called 100 Thieves. I believe he has a small ownership stake in the group. And former NBA player Rick Fox has an Esports team that he either founded or bought into. These are just a few examples of famous people trying to get in early on a booming market, although I don’t know if you can call it early at this point.  

Online streaming is a very saturated market. That means there is more interest in what I do, which is good for everyone. In my opinion, there is room for everyone to eat and do well, but I’d be lying if I said there isn’t a bit of competition involved. Everyone wants to be a partner, but not everyone can get partnered. Now it’s both easier and harder.

What’s next for you in life?

My girlfriend is moving to my city. She currently lives in Cleveland. In a couple weeks, she will be moving within ten minutes of where I live. Once she moves here, the next big thing is preparing to get married. That includes finding a place to live, hopefully buying a house, and just getting ready to have our lives intertwined.

As far as work, taking on a bigger leadership role within the warehouse. Continuing to take on more responsibility, so my bosses have less, and eventually won’t ever need to show up.

On Twitch, after I get partnered–because you have to speak those things into existence–it’s about taking it to the next level and seeing where I can go with it. Time will tell if I can turn this into a real full-time gig.   

To billions of fans around the world, soccer is better known as “The Beautiful Game” (O Jogo Bonito, in Portuguese). This phrase was popularized by the legendary footballer Pelé, who won three world cups with the Brazilian national team in the late 50s and early 60s. Today, soccer universally garners respect as the world’s most popular sport. No other game inspires and captivates more youth, and no event brings people together quite like the World Cup.

This week, I had the privilege of interviewing my good friend, Alioune Tandiang, about his passion for the sport. Ali played Center Back in college and is the founder of H-Town, a semi-pro soccer team based out of Columbus, Ohio, currently in its 8th year of operation. The following is a lively account of a 90-minute conversation in which Ali details the positive effect the game has had on his life and in the community. I initially thought this was going to be a chill article on soccer, but it turned out be a lot more biographical and insightful than I envisioned. l hope you have half as much fun reading it as I had putting it together. FYI, you can catch Ali outside on Instagram @A_Tandiang.

Tell the people about yourself.

My name is Alioune Tandiang, and I go by Ali. My family is originally from Dakar, Senegal. I was born in Kuwait City and moved to the states when I was 7 years old. I am a graduate of Cincinnati Christian University with a degree in Business. I currently work at Nationwide as a Life Solutions Analyst.

I played basketball and football my whole life, and first made the transition to soccer when I was 17 years old because I thought I wasn’t good enough to play football. This was back during my junior year at Harvest Prep.

When did you know you had a passion for the game?

My senior year of high school, so I would say it took about a year. Practice was one thing, but playing in the game was the best feeling in the world. I had the desire to continue playing in college, but I didn’t think I was good enough. I figured I would be going up against kids who had played their entire life. It wasn’t going to happen until my friend Devin, who was a freshman on the team at Ohio Christian University, got in my ear and egged me on to try out. Long story short, I ended up trying out, and I made the team.

That first year was pretty rough. I didn’t play much at all outside of garbage time. What’s worse is I had to drop out of school at the end of the year due to financial hardship. After I got enough money to ­go back two years later, assuming I would be on scholarship, I was informed by the coach that they could not offer me financial aid. “Ali, it hurts me to tell you, but we don’t have a spot for you.”

I thought my college soccer career was over, but I decided I wasn’t going to give up. I looked around for schools in the area that were offering athletic scholarships when an opportunity at Cincinnati Christian University caught my eye. I reached out to the coach, who offered me a tryout, and I made the team. However, I was told, since I hadn’t been in school for two years, I would have to sit out my first year. There I was this 23-year old freshman on scholarship but unable to see the field.

In my first year of eligibility, I earned a starting spot at Center Back. I can tell you I was glad when I saw OCU on our schedule, the team that said they didn’t have a spot for me. I started against them, and we ended up winning 1-0. It was an amazing feeling. That year, we set a record for conference and regular season wins since CCU made the transition to the more competitive NAIA Division. I played soccer every year while I was there and graduated with a degree in Business Management.

A few years ago, you founded an amateur league team called H-Town. What inspired you?

I started H-Town in 2013 a year after I graduated high school and a few months before I made the team at OCU. I still wanted to play organized soccer, like I said, I just didn’t think I was good enough. I also loved playing and competing with my brothers and friends. That was the biggest thing for me, and to give others that same opportunity. There are a lot of people who can’t afford to play in college or aren’t good enough.

H-Town stuck around even after I enrolled in school. The games were every Sunday in Columbus, which is where most of my family and friends lived. College games are usually Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. When I was at CCU, I came home every single weekend just to play and compete. My coach didn’t know it, or I probably would have got in trouble.

H-Town also became a thing on social media. We made a Kik group back when the app was popular, and I and a few buddies would communicate on a daily basis. After it got bigger, we moved to Snapchat and Instagram. H-Town is like a brotherhood, and I got close to a lot of guys I knew in high school. In the beginning, we talked about soccer almost 24/7. We would debate who was better, Ronaldo or Messi, what color jerseys we would get, and what we could do better on the field. Now we talk about more grown up things, like career changes, real estate, and stocks. I think the change reflects our growth and maturity as people in different areas.

Getting people to sign up for the team and show up on game day are probably the biggest challenge for organizers of team sports. How do you make it happen year after year?

For us, the problem isn’t so much people showing up, but people showing up on time. It’s an amateur Sunday league, and people don’t have to compete for spots. They pretty much know they are going to get playing time. To me, it’s a sign of disrespect. A lot of times, I’m using my own money to fund the team, so if I’m asking you to show up 15 minutes early, it’s the least you can do. The first year, it was really bad, but the only way I could get people to show up on time was by taking playing time away. I never want to be that guy, but we want to be able to field a full team and compete every week.

The makeup of the team is different every single year. People get injured. In 2018, I had fasciotomy surgery on my left leg and had to miss some time. I would give my teammates at CCU a ride to Columbus on Saturday to compete for H-Town on Sunday, and I would chauffer them back home Sunday evening. It took some hustle, but I always made sure H-Town was in good hands.

H-Town has its core, which consists of me, my brothers, my cousin Demba, and a few other OGs, including people from Harvest Prep—Corey, Devin, Trenton. There are also guys I know from the community or met playing pick-up soccer.

A lot of people analogize sports with life. Can you identify any lessons or truths from the game that have application in real life? 

I would say success doesn’t happen overnight. That’s my biggest lesson from H-Town and just life in general. When we first started, I thought it would be a cakewalk. I played high school soccer, my brothers and I are somewhat athletic. We were playing against a lot of older guys. I thought we would dominate. What I learned fast is that it takes a while to develop the camaraderie of success. In fact, we didn’t have success initially. We had the talent, but we lacked the chemistry. I made mistakes. I recruited really good players who didn’t fit in with what we were trying to accomplish. It could be that they lacked discipline or were disrespectful. Success isn’t about having the best players, it’s about having chemistry. It’s about having people who work well as a team.

In H-Town’s first year competing in the Columbus Premier League back in 2014, we lost every game but one. Mind you, this was the B Division. Before the season started, I asked the commissioner to be placed in the A Division. I told him we dominated in the Westerville League. We’re winning by 9-10 goals. The B Division is too easy. The commissioner told me, “It’s not going to be like that. You’re going to struggle.” I literally laughed. I told my friends and they laughed with me.

Our first game in the CPL, we lost 4-0. It was a rude awakening. The rest of the season didn’t go much different. We kept losing, and we kept arguing. I even got into a few confrontations with players on our team. In hindsight, it was something that needed to happen. The next two or three years in the CPL, we were unable to advance to the A Division, but we made a lot of progress.

H-Town’s last season, before Covid hit, we were one game away from finally qualifying for the first division. If we would have won or tied that game, we would have gotten promoted. Every year, the top two teams of the B Division get promoted to the A Division, and the bottom two teams of the A Division get relegated to the B Division. And so we’ve gotten a lot better, and we’ve learned that success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes hard work and it takes time, and that’s true for both H-Town and life.

What is your dream job? 

To be a college soccer coach at a Power Five school. That’s NCAA, Division One. I want to help people with the knowledge I have, and I think the best way I can relate to others is through the game. It’s my passion. I love soccer, and I love helping people, and coaching brings all of that together.

This isn’t a goal I’m actively pursuing, as my focus right now is in the business world. I’m trying to obtain my Series 6 license, which will enable me to give professional financial advice. Things like what kind of life insurance policy to enroll in. I also have financial goals I want to meet—get an apartment, pay off student loans, things of that nature. But my dream job is to coach college soccer, and I hope one day to achieve it.

You have a pretty famous habit of collecting soccer cleats. How many pairs do you currently own? 

I own about 9 pairs. Some are old. Some are pairs I bought just for the hec of it. I got a pair of New Balance cleats when I was working at Dicks Sporting Goods. A New Balance rep came to me. He said, “I know you play soccer. I’ll give you a gift card. You can order any New Balance cleat you want. I want you to play in it, and give us feedback on how we can improve our product.” I pretty much became a test dummy for New Balance cleats. They gave me their most expensive pair, the New Balance Furon, that retailed for around $210. New Balance was trying to make a comeback with soccer cleats to compete with elite brands like Nike and Adidas.

I’ve collected other ones just for the memory. I got the white and pink Nike Mercurial, one of the most famous cleats ever designed. These were the Euro Cup 2012 edition, worn by Ronaldo, who was one of my favorite players at the time. The damage on those was around $220 before tax. I also bought the Cristiano Ronaldo Galaxy Edition. I own both the indoor and the outdoor version.

Each cleat I own has a story. Every time I wear a cleat, it reminds me of a time and season of life.  

Can you describe the feeling of getting a new pair of cleats for someone who may not understand the appeal? 

You’re always excited to play, but when you get a new pair of cleats, it’s a whole ‘nother level. Is it comfortable? How is the touch? It’s like getting a fresh outfit for school. You’re excited to try it on and show it off, and you know that everyone is going to comment.

I know you used to play a lot of FIFA with your friends and teammates at CCU and compete in various tournaments. Is that something you still do?  

FIFA was a phase I grew out of. I did used to compete in a lot of tournaments with H-Town and at CCU. Let me tell you a story. For CCU tournaments, you would get three random draws when selecting your team. If you went for a fourth draw, you were stuck with whatever team came up, so it was a risky choice. During one school tournament on international mode, I wasn’t happy with my first three options, and I ended up getting stuck with India, literally the worst team in FIFA. Their overall was like 69, which is trash. It doesn’t matter how good you are, you typically won’t win with India.

I knew I was good enough to beat certain people, but not my friend and teammate Jaylen. He was the best FIFA player I have ever competed against. In the tournament, I won my first two games, and the third game was the championship. It was me against Jaylen. He had Ivory Coast, which was solid. Their overall was like 82. So I was playing against a better player with literally the worst team in the game, and the odds were against me.

The tournament was golden goal, which means the first team to score wins. All of my teammates were there, and there were about 40-50 people watching in the lobby. Everyone was rooting for me because you got to root for the underdog. The game started out really competitive, until I connected on a through ball and scored and won the tournament. The lobby went crazy. We were also competing for a $25 Canes gift card, which was nice. I played the best game of my life and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Everyone called me FIFA king for the rest of the year.

I stopped playing because of work. I work like crazy, and I’m in a committed relationship, so I don’t have time to play video games.

With so many top-notch leagues around the world from La Liga to the Premier League to Serie A, and more local ones like La Liga Mx and the MLS, the menu of professional soccer can be overwhelming. Which leagues or teams do you follow the most?

The leagues I follow the most are La Liga and the English Premier League. La Liga has my favorite team, Real Madrid, and they have one of the best teams ever in Barcelona, and one of the best players ever in Messi. I also like the EPL because that’s where Sadio Mané plays, the most famous player from Senegal.

These two leagues are the best in the world, and I like to watch the highest level competition. The winner of the Champions League tournament, where all the best teams around the world compete, is almost always from La Liga or the EPL. I also watch a bit of MLS and the German Bundesliga, but that’s about it.

A lot of American fans are unhappy with the state of soccer in the US. The US men’s national team failed to qualify for the World Cup in Russia in 2018. What do you think is the biggest thing holding the US back from dominating CONCACAF, let alone competing with world powers like Argentina, Germany, Brazil?

I’ll tell you what holds the US back from competing with the rest of the world. First of all, they have a clear system in other countries. I’m talking about the Brazils and Spains and Argentinas of the world. The guys who go pro typically start playing competitively from like age 6, and work their way up the ranks. The infrastructure there is also different. There is no college soccer. And if there is, the best players don’t go there. What they do have are soccer academies. From a young age, kids will go to these academies where you take regular classes like math and science, but train soccer all the time. The expectation is that many of these kids will go on to play professionally. Look at Messi, who is from Argentina. Barcelona brough him to Spain as a kid to go through their academy, and he became the best ever.

In the states, we have soccer academies, but nobody lives there. And to attend, you have to be really rich. We have a system in the US called pay to play. If you’re parents aren’t rich, you aren’t going to academy, and if you do, it’s going to be a cheaper one. That’s the biggest problem. Not many people can afford to put down five or six grand so their kids can go to academy. If this system was in place in other countries, we would never have got Messi, Neymar, and Ronaldo because they all grew up dirt poor.

In the US, our top athletes play football or basketball or even baseball. At smaller schools and colleges, many people who play soccer aren’t athletic to begin with. Like I said earlier, I started playing because I couldn’t make it at those other sports. My friend Devin started playing to get in shape for football.

Americans also think soccer games are boring, so culture plays a role. Games sometimes only have one or two goals and can end in a tie. In high school and CCU, we always struggled to get people in the stands. Professional athletes also make way more money in these other sports, so there’s an economic dimension, but the culture comes first.

Your family is originally from Senegal, where a lot of kids grow up playing the game and idolizing the likes of Sadio Mané. Why do you think soccer has such great appeal in Senegal and around the world?

It’s the simplicity of the game. You don’t need pads. You don’t need a hoop. You just need a ball. And oftentimes, you don’t even need that. You hear stories of kids who play the game with water bottles. Soccer is really cheap and it brings people together.

Do you have a favorite footballer? What is it you like about him? 

Right now it’s Sadio Mané. Obviously, I’m biased. He’s from Senegal, and he’s one of the best players in the world. My favorite player used to be Cristiano Ronaldo, but Mané relates to me better. It’s not Mané’s talent because I’m not that good, but him being a guy who grew up in Senegal and continues to stay humble. You won’t see him flashing cars or jewelry. There are a lot of professional soccer players who are not humble, but as you get older you realize being humble is the way to go.

This interview would be incomplete if I didn’t ask you the million-dollar question. Who are you taking, Messi or Ronaldo? 

I grew up being a Ronaldo fan, and I used to argue that he is the best in the world. Now that I’m wiser and older, I realize that Messi is a better player. That said, I would prefer to have Ronaldo on my team because he is more clutch. I think he shows up in bigger games, but talent-wise, Messi is the best player I’ve ever seen. And he does it so effortlessly. Oftentimes, I’ll be watching the game and it looks like Messi is tired or doesn’t care, and he’ll come out of no where and score the best goal you’ve ever seen.

What’s next for you and H-Town? 

Our current season has been postponed due to the pandemic. It’s been a year and a half now since we took the field. The next season is set to start in April of this year. We have a championship game left from last year that we are still scheduled to play. If we win, we get promoted to Division A for the first time. I’ve started to reach out to guys that have played previously to see if they want to play again. Some people have already opted out. They are old now, have families, and don’t want to risk injury. We also have to see how the pandemic plays out, how many people get vaccinated. Things right now are very much up in the air.

I give you the last word. 

I’m not naturally outgoing. In high school and college, I had a reputation for being a quiet guy. At school and now work, people may think, “Ali is a really quiet guy,” but H-Town knows better. H-Town will tell you I’m a vocal guy who likes to yell and hype his team up. Soccer is my getaway. It’s a place for me to be me and get all of my energy out.

Soccer also kindled a lot of the relationships I now have. I probably would never have met people like you, Devin, and Jeff if it weren’t for the game. Even the job I now work. After graduating college, I could not find a job anywhere. They tell you friends and networking is important. The reason I have this job at Nationwide is a friend I met through soccer. His name is Dave Blamo. So soccer has been a real blessing to my life.

There’s a famous segment on SportsCenter entitled “Why We Love Sports.” It consists of inspiring and memorable highlights like an incredible catch, a big come-from-behind victory, or an athlete making the wish of his #1 fan come true. Today I want to address the same question–why we love sports–but from a different angle. In this post I address a reason behind the popularity of sports that may surprise you.

Over the years, I’ve cut out many activities in the interest of becoming the best version of myself, but sports is not one of them. Sometimes I’ll watch sports with my friends or in a foreign language for added benefit, but I’m not against watching sports by myself. People say that watching sports or other repetitive TV adds little measurable value to one’s life. After all, the inventory of sports is infinite–you can never “catch up” or “be ahead of the game.” It’s easy to spend an entire today absorbed in matches that quickly become irrelevant. And if you were raised around sports, you can already converse about them with little time spent actually watching the game. However, there’s a benefit to watching sports that transcends the highlight reel and the pop culture savvy, and it is has to do with human psychology.

Life is a delicate balance between order and chaos. Chaos is the natural state that everyone is born into and that exists apart from human institutions. It’s a state of discomfort, insecurity, and fear. Chaos is the absence of order. Bringing order to the world is the goal of every progressive activity. Order creates comfort, security, and confidence–order is ultimately what people are after.

Let me illustrate the difference. Chaos is sleeping outside in a tent in a predator-rich environment not knowing what your next meal is. Order is having a roof over your head with AC and a pantry full of delicious food. Chaos is the first day of a new job in a new city with unfamiliar people and technology. Order is day 250 of that same job. Order is going out with friends and family. Chaos is going out with total strangers. Order is being married to someone for 10 years. Chaos is when that someone passes away or the relationship stops working. You get the point.

Not all chaos is bad. We need a measure or chaos to progress. Too much order and you may get complacent. When someone tells you “get out of your comfort zone,” what they mean is you need a little more chaos in your life. Chaos that can stretch you and grow you into a better person. The problem is that some of us are way beyond the chaos threshold for growth. Too much chaos has become an obstacle to growth and leaves us feeling uncomfortable and insecure. What we need in life is more order.

What does any of this have to do with sports? Sports, simply, are a source of order in the world (in other cultures, family, society, and religion play an outsized role). Sports are highly predictable despite some uncertainty over the outcome. We know how much time each game lasts; we know how many players are on each team; we know how the mechanics of the game work; we know the rules and violations; we know how players are expected to perform; and we know how players and spectators are expected to behave. “Why We Love Sports” is all about chaos. But the majority of games ending in chaos, and the entirety of games ending predictably, are defined by the order of the sport itself. There is no room for chaos in sports outside the confines of the game.

Sports add order to people’s lives. Sports give people a space where their expectations about what is going to happen can be met. And the more professional the competition, the more this is so. To be sure, order isn’t the only reason people love sports. There’s community and connection; there’s the fond memories of playing the game recreationally or as a child; there’s the knowledge that “anything can happen”; there’s the big money and real life drama; and there’s the sheer amazement of seeing the product of talent and countless hours of hard work on display.

Order, however, is the one benefit that people experience but do not rationalize. And that’s the gap I’ve hoped to bridge in this article.

Today’s athletes are far better than yesterday’s athletes–you hear it all the time. It’s a common argument used in generational legacy debates (Maradona versus Messi, Lebron versus Jordan, Woods versus Nicklaus). In fact, many people today believe that we’ve made progress in every area as a society, and athletic performance is the rule not the exception. After all, aren’t athletic records broken every year? The picture, however, is slightly more nuanced than a first glance would let on.

Journalist and Colombia-graduate David Epstein has spent the great part of his professional life studying athletic performance. He is author of The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance and Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. Epstein gave a Ted Talk in which he addressed the very question posed in the previous paragraph. Epstein concludes that humans couldn’t possibly have genetically evolved in such a short period of time. Epstein attributes advances in athletic performance today to changing technology, changing genes, and changing mindsets.

Changing technologies as in synthetic track surfaces and more aerodynamic bicycles. Changing genes as in better selecting for sports based on body types (e.g. taller builds in basketball and bigger builds for football). And changing mindsets as in more people attempting great athletic feats like matching Roger Bannister’s famous 4-minute mile. I would personally add a fourth explanation: changing performance-enhancing drugs. Reality is that athletes today are not genetically superior, but modern technology and scientific methods may be partially responsible for advances in athletic performance.

I have reposted the fascinating talk with permission from Ted.

Transcript:

The Olympic motto is “Citius, Altius, Fortius.” Faster, Higher, Stronger. And athletes have fulfilled that motto rapidly. The winner of the 2012 Olympic marathon ran two hours and eight minutes. Had he been racing against the winner of the 1904 Olympic marathon, he would have won by nearly an hour and a half. Now we all have this feeling that we’re somehow just getting better as a human race, inexorably progressing, but it’s not like we’ve evolved into a new species in a century. So what’s going on here? I want to take a look at what’s really behind this march of athletic progress.

In 1936, Jesse Owens held the world record in the 100 meters. Had Jesse Owens been racing last year in the world championships of the 100 meters, when Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt finished, Owens would have still had 14 feet to go. That’s a lot in sprinter land. To give you a sense of how much it is, I want to share with you a demonstration conceived by sports scientist Ross Tucker. Now picture the stadium last year at the world championships of the 100 meters: thousands of fans waiting with baited breath to see Usain Bolt, the fastest man in history; flashbulbs popping as the nine fastest men in the world coil themselves into their blocks. And I want you to pretend that Jesse Owens is in that race. Now close your eyes for a second and picture the race. Bang! The gun goes off. An American sprinter jumps out to the front. Usain Bolt starts to catch him. Usain Bolt passes him, and as the runners come to the finish, you’ll hear a beep as each man crosses the line. (Beeps) That’s the entire finish of the race. You can open your eyes now. That first beep was Usain Bolt. That last beep was Jesse Owens. Listen to it again. (Beeps immediately after) When you think of it like that, it’s not that big a difference, is it? And then consider that Usain Bolt started by propelling himself out of blocks down a specially fabricated carpet designed to allow him to travel as fast as humanly possible. Jesse Owens, on the other hand, ran on cinders, the ash from burnt wood, and that soft surface stole far more energy from his legs as he ran. Rather than blocks, Jesse Owens had a gardening trowel that he had to use to dig holes in the cinders to start from. Biomechanical analysis of the speed of Owens’ joints shows that had been running on the same surface as Bolt, he wouldn’t have been 14 feet behind, he would have been within one stride. Rather than the last beep, Owens would have been the second beep. Listen to it again. (Beeps) That’s the difference track surface technology has made, and it’s done it throughout the running world.

Consider a longer event. In 1954, Sir Roger Bannister became the first man to run under four minutes in the mile. Nowadays, college kids do that every year. On rare occasions, a high school kid does it. As of the end of last year, 1,314 men had run under four minutes in the mile, but like Jesse Owens, Sir Roger Bannister ran on soft cinders that stole far more energy from his legs than the synthetic tracks of today. So I consulted biomechanics experts to find out how much slower it is to run on cinders than synthetic tracks, and their consensus that it’s one and a half percent slower. So if you apply a one and a half percent slowdown conversion to every man who ran his sub-four mile on a synthetic track, this is what happens. Only 530 are left. If you look at it from that perspective, fewer than ten new men per [year] have joined the sub-four mile club since Sir Roger Bannister. Now, 530 is a lot more than one, and that’s partly because there are many more people training today and they’re training more intelligently. Even college kids are professional in their training compared to Sir Roger Bannister, who trained for 45 minutes at a time while he ditched gynecology lectures in med school. And that guy who won the 1904 Olympic marathon in three in a half hours, that guy was drinking rat poison and brandy while he ran along the course. That was his idea of a performance-enhancing drug. (Laughter)

Clearly, athletes have gotten more savvy about performance-enhancing drugs as well, and that’s made a difference in some sports at some times, but technology has made a difference in all sports, from faster skis to lighter shoes. Take a look at the record for the 100-meter freestyle swim. The record is always trending downward, but it’s punctuated by these steep cliffs. This first cliff, in 1956, is the introduction of the flip turn. Rather than stopping and turning around, athletes could somersault under the water and get going right away in the opposite direction. This second cliff, the introduction of gutters on the side of the pool that allows water to splash off, rather than becoming turbulence that impedes the swimmers as they race. This final cliff, the introduction of full-body and low-friction swimsuits.

Throughout sports, technology has changed the face of performance. In 1972, Eddy Merckx set the record for the longest distance cycled in one hour at 30 miles, 3,774 feet. Now that record improved and improved as bicycles improved and became more aerodynamic all the way until 1996, when it was set at 35 miles, 1,531 feet, nearly five miles farther than Eddy Merckx cycled in 1972. But then in 2000, the International Cycling Union decreed that anyone who wanted to hold that record had to do so with essentially the same equipment that Eddy Merckx used in 1972. Where does the record stand today? 30 miles, 4,657 feet, a grand total of 883 feet farther than Eddy Merckx cycled more than four decades ago. Essentially the entire improvement in this record was due to technology.

Still, technology isn’t the only thing pushing athletes forward. While indeed we haven’t evolved into a new species in a century, the gene pool within competitive sports most certainly has changed. In the early half of the 20th century, physical education instructors and coaches had the idea that the average body type was the best for all athletic endeavors: medium height, medium weight, no matter the sport. And this showed in athletes’ bodies. In the 1920s, the average elite high-jumper and average elite shot-putter were the same exact size. But as that idea started to fade away, as sports scientists and coaches realized that rather than the average body type, you want highly specialized bodies that fit into certain athletic niches, a form of artificial selection took place, a self-sorting for bodies that fit certain sports, and athletes’ bodies became more different from one another. Today, rather than the same size as the average elite high jumper, the average elite shot-putter is two and a half inches taller and 130 pounds heavier. And this happened throughout the sports world.

In fact, if you plot on a height versus mass graph one data point for each of two dozen sports in the first half of the 20th century, it looks like this. There’s some dispersal, but it’s kind of grouped around that average body type. Then that idea started to go away, and at the same time, digital technology — first radio, then television and the Internet — gave millions, or in some cases billions, of people a ticket to consume elite sports performance. The financial incentives and fame and glory afforded elite athletes skyrocketed, and it tipped toward the tiny upper echelon of performance. It accelerated the artificial selection for specialized bodies. And if you plot a data point for these same two dozen sports today, it looks like this. The athletes’ bodies have gotten much more different from one another. And because this chart looks like the charts that show the expanding universe, with the galaxies flying away from one another, the scientists who discovered it call it “The Big Bang of Body Types.”

In sports where height is prized, like basketball, the tall athletes got taller. In 1983, the National Basketball Association signed a groundbreaking agreement making players partners in the league, entitled to shares of ticket revenues and television contracts. Suddenly, anybody who could be an NBA player wanted to be, and teams started scouring the globe for the bodies that could help them win championships. Almost overnight, the proportion of men in the NBA who are at least seven feet tall doubled to 10 percent. Today, one in 10 men in the NBA is at least seven feet tall, but a seven-foot-tall man is incredibly rare in the general population — so rare that if you know an American man between the ages of 20 and 40 who is at least seven feet tall, there’s a 17 percent chance he’s in the NBA right now. (Laughter) That is, find six honest seven footers, one is in the NBA right now. And that’s not the only way that NBA players’ bodies are unique. This is Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man,” the ideal proportions, with arm span equal to height. My arm span is exactly equal to my height. Yours is probably very nearly so. But not the average NBA player. The average NBA player is a shade under 6’7″, with arms that are seven feet long. Not only are NBA players ridiculously tall, they are ludicrously long. Had Leonardo wanted to draw the Vitruvian NBA Player, he would have needed a rectangle and an ellipse, not a circle and a square.

So in sports where large size is prized, the large athletes have gotten larger. Conversely, in sports where diminutive stature is an advantage, the small athletes got smaller. The average elite female gymnast shrunk from 5’3″ to 4’9″ on average over the last 30 years, all the better for their power-to-weight ratio and for spinning in the air. And while the large got larger and the small got smaller, the weird got weirder. The average length of the forearm of a water polo player in relation to their total arm got longer, all the better for a forceful throwing whip. And as the large got larger, small got smaller, and the weird weirder. In swimming, the ideal body type is a long torso and short legs. It’s like the long hull of a canoe for speed over the water. And the opposite is advantageous in running. You want long legs and a short torso. And this shows in athletes’ bodies today. Here you see Michael Phelps, the greatest swimmer in history, standing next to Hicham El Guerrouj, the world record holder in the mile. These men are seven inches different in height, but because of the body types advantaged in their sports, they wear the same length pants. Seven inches difference in height, these men have the same length legs.

Now in some cases, the search for bodies that could push athletic performance forward ended up introducing into the competitive world populations of people that weren’t previously competing at all, like Kenyan distance runners. We think of Kenyans as being great marathoners. Kenyans think of the Kalenjin tribe as being great marathoners. The Kalenjin make up just 12 percent of the Kenyan population but the vast majority of elite runners. And they happen, on average, to have a certain unique physiology: legs that are very long and very thin at their extremity, and this is because they have their ancestry at very low latitude in a very hot and dry climate, and an evolutionary adaptation to that is limbs that are very long and very thin at the extremity for cooling purposes. It’s the same reason that a radiator has long coils, to increase surface area compared to volume to let heat out, and because the leg is like a pendulum, the longer and thinner it is at the extremity, the more energy-efficient it is to swing. To put Kalenjin running success in perspective, consider that 17 American men in history have run faster than two hours and 10 minutes in the marathon. That’s a four-minute-and-58-second-per-mile pace. Thirty-two Kalenjin men did that last October. (Laughter) That’s from a source population the size of metropolitan Atlanta.

Still, even changing technology and the changing gene pool in sports don’t account for all of the changes in performance. Athletes have a different mindset than they once did. Have you ever seen in a movie when someone gets an electrical shock and they’re thrown across a room? There’s no explosion there. What’s happening when that happens is that the electrical impulse is causing all their muscle fibers to twitch at once, and they’re throwing themselves across the room. They’re essentially jumping. That’s the power that’s contained in the human body. But normally we can’t access nearly all of it. Our brain acts as a limiter, preventing us from accessing all of our physical resources, because we might hurt ourselves, tearing tendons or ligaments. But the more we learn about how that limiter functions, the more we learn how we can push it back just a bit, in some cases by convincing the brain that the body won’t be in mortal danger by pushing harder. Endurance and ultra-endurance sports serve as a great example. Ultra-endurance was once thought to be harmful to human health, but now we realize that we have all these traits that are perfect for ultra-endurance: no body fur and a glut of sweat glands that keep us cool while running; narrow waists and long legs compared to our frames; large surface area of joints for shock absorption. We have an arch in our foot that acts like a spring, short toes that are better for pushing off than for grasping tree limbs, and when we run, we can turn our torso and our shoulders like this while keeping our heads straight. Our primate cousins can’t do that. They have to run like this. And we have big old butt muscles that keep us upright while running. Have you ever looked at an ape’s butt? They have no buns because they don’t run upright. And as athletes have realized that we’re perfectly suited for ultra-endurance, they’ve taken on feats that would have been unthinkable before, athletes like Spanish endurance racer Kílian Jornet. Here’s Kílian running up the Matterhorn. (Laughter) With a sweatshirt there tied around his waist. It’s so steep he can’t even run here. He’s pulling up on a rope. This is a vertical ascent of more than 8,000 feet, and Kílian went up and down in under three hours. Amazing. And talented though he is, Kílian is not a physiological freak. Now that he has done this, other athletes will follow, just as other athletes followed after Sir Roger Bannister ran under four minutes in the mile.

Changing technology, changing genes, and a changing mindset. Innovation in sports, whether that’s new track surfaces or new swimming techniques, the democratization of sport, the spread to new bodies and to new populations around the world, and imagination in sport, an understanding of what the human body is truly capable of, have conspired to make athletes stronger, faster, bolder, and better than ever.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)

I’ve been a big sports fan for as long as I can remember. Sports, for me, are a source of relaxation and entertainment. They promote mindfulness in ways that few other activities can. But what I like most about sports is the real world analogy. Many of the skills and character traits that go into making successful athletes and successful teams translate into other areas of life. And so sports are a metaphor for life. They’re as entertaining as they are instructive.

Kenn Dickinson is the President of Fast Break Executive Coaching. He knows a lot about sports from his days as a professional athlete. Dickinson gave a powerful TedTalk at a local TEDxSnoIsleLibraries event in which he talked about the secrets of elite athletes. As he likes to joke, “he had a front row seat. . . at the end of the bench, watching, and observing, and learning from these world-class amazing kind of athletes.” Dickinson concluded that two primary habits were responsible for their success: visualization and deliberate practice (or what he termed specific work). The inspiring takeaway is that anyone can apply these tools to build better families, careers, businesses, relationships, and lives.

Transcript:

I want to introduce you to a friend of mine: Mr. Wilson. No, not Russell Wilson from the Seahawks. He plays with this oblong ball, and it doesn’t bounce very well. But Mr. Wilson and I have been friends for a long time. We go way back, and he’s been by my — I mean, I first met him when I was — at Christmas time. I was about four years old, and there was this big box in front of the Christmas tree, and I just dove in and opened it up, and there was this big orange ball. And he’s been by my side ever since. When I walked down the street or went to school, I always had Mr. Wilson with me. And then I went on to college and obviously played college basketball. Then I went on to play professional basketball, and he’s been actually a part of my life in my business career. So we’ve been on this journey for a long time, and it’s been an interesting journey.

And one of the things that we’ve been able to do is meet some amazing people. Those amazing people are elite athletes; not just your regular athletes but your elite athletes. Now, a lot of you are going to say, “I can’t relate to these people. “They’re superhuman, these men and women.” I’ll give you a little secret: they’re just like you and me. I actually had a front row seat. OK, I was at the end of the bench, watching, and observing, and learning from these world-class amazing kind of athletes.

But what I want to give you today is a window into that world that a lot of us don’t have an opportunity to. And a lot of us think that these amazing athletes are there because of their talent, but Mr. Wilson and I realized it’s really not. It’s about a competitive mindset. They actually see, and think, and behave so much different than we do. And that’s what I want to share with you: some two key points that we saw that maybe you could use in your daily life or in your business.

The two points are visualization and deliberate practice. Let’s start with visualization. A lot of us think that visualization is about seeing a goal ahead of us. But actually these people travel in time. They actually take their emotions, their senses – seeing, hearing, touching – and they go into the future. What they’re doing is defining their own reality, their own future, and they’re living there. And then they come back, and then they have already created an imprint, a blueprint of what success is going to be for them.

Let me give you an example. I used to be a really good shooter, and I used to shoot a lot of free throws. Before I shot a free throw, I would actually– and you can take the time if you want to follow with me –is close your eyes, and I would think about how I was holding the ball, I would think about the arc of the ball, I would think of a really good backspin, and it goes right through the net. And what was really cool to me if I could make the net flip up onto the rim. Then all I would do was open my eyes, take a couple dribbles, and I would just let it go. Nine out of ten times, I would make it, 90% of the time.
What I didn’t realize at that time was with neuroscience today when you actually visualize what I was doing, you’re actually using the same part of the brain as if you were doing it. And it’s so powerful today. Even Jordan Spieth, the number-one golfer in the world, you’ve probably heard now with technology their communication with him. Michael Geller would say to Jordan Spieth, “Paint a picture.” Well, what he’s saying is, “Look at the flight of the ball. Watch it hit the green; watch it roll onto the green. How is it going to react?” Jordan would say, “Got it,” and he says, “Make it happen,” and so he does.

One of the most powerful one of these visualizations happened with a gentleman named Colonel Nesmeth. He was an average golfer, shot around 95. But something happened in his life, tragically. He became a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. He was a prisoner for seven and a half years in a solitary confinement of a cell no more than 5 feet by 5 feet by 5 feet. What would you do if you were in that situation? Well, he didn’t want to give up hope. He wanted to overcome this, so what he did is he actually played golf. He didn’t think about golf; he was actually playing golf. He visualized it. So what he would do for four hours is play his golf course back home. He would put a tee in the ground. He would hit it, watch it go down the fairway, put the club back into the bag, and start walking down the fairway. He would hear the birds. He would hear the clippers of the mowers. He would feel the wind on his back, and he would keep on walking along. He would come up to his ball, and he would repeat it again, and he would feel the club in his hands.

At the end of seven and half years, he was finally released. But he did this every day. Now remember I said that he had a shot around a 95. That was his handicap, or his strokes. What do you think he did when he came back
after not touching a club for seven and a half years? You would think he would at least shoot a 95, but probably higher. The amazing thing is, he shot a 75, 20 strokes less than what he did, by just doing visualization. This is a more powerful tool that we can use in our daily lives. If you’re a sales rep, visualize your sales presentation. If you’re going to a job interview, visualize what’s going to happen in the job interview. How many of you want to lose weight? A lot of us want to lose weight. Visualize what you’re going to look like when you lose your weight. Put on the dress, see yourself in the mirror. Eat the food that you need to do, because when you come back, you’ve already created an imprint of what success is going to look like for you. Jack Nicklaus had a saying, “I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp in-focus picture in my head.”

The second thing I want to talk about is we all want to be successful. But nothing cripples success or performance than damaged confidence. So we see these athletes as being super confident because of their talent, right? But it’s not. There was a study in the UK that was extensive, and determined innate gifts do not determine success. So then what’s going on? It’s hard work. No, it’s not just hard work, it’s specific hard work. And that was discovered by Anders Ericsson from Florida State University. And he did a groundbreaking study determining about deliberate practice. What is deliberate practice by Anders Ericsson? “It is the activities that are explicitly intended to improve performance that reaches for objectives just beyond one’s level of competence.”

There’s four tenets that I want to share with you today. One of the tenets is: you have to make it personal, and you have to base it upon principles of fundamentals. A lot of us would practice shooting free throws by getting on the free throw line and doing it many, many times. What deliberate practice is is using something in your fundamentals to build upon. So I would actually go to the front of the rim and actually shoot straight up, because I knew arc was an important fundamental in shooting. Then it would come straight down through the hole, or the hoop. Did you know that two basketballs can fit through a hoop at the same time? That’s how big it is. So one of the tenets is basically working on something of your fundamentals and strengths.

Then the next is obviously repetition: repetition, repetition, repetition. So I would do this for 50 times, and then I would do it 100 times.
But then I would add the third tenet, which is stretch your abilities. Get out of your comfort zone. So then what I would do is then I would have to do it without the ball touching the rim. Think about how hard that could be. That is what makes deliberate practice so difficult, because it’s tedious and painful. But if you do it, you’ll be successful in what you want to accomplish.

The fourth tenet is something that we naturally should know but we don’t; that is you need feedback. How are you going to improve without beginning the feedback? A lot of us do things on our own, but guess what? Don’t these people have coaches? Don’t they have people, advisers, and people looking at them to give them the feedback that they need? So, now after you’ve seen deliberate practice, it kind of makes sense why they are so confident in what they do. Now, it’s not what they do or who they are, but it’s how they do it.

So the refresh is use visualization. That is the ability to create a new reality for yourself, determine it, live there constantly, and come back. And then your choices and your decisions are all based upon what you have just determined.

The other is deliberate practice. And deliberate practice, you have to work on fundamentals, and you have to work on the right fundamentals.
The next step after that is basically, “Am I building upon those fundamentals?” And a lot of us know what we’re supposed to do, but we don’t do it.

And the third part is: this is a journey for these people. It’s a constant progression in life. And they’re always asking one simple question, “Am I doing everything I possibly can?” Because they never stop; it’s a journey for them. So they’re always breaking down new barriers. They’re always creating new challenges for themselves. They’re always about winning. And a lot of people say, “Winning? Oh, my gosh.” No, it’s not about vanquishing an opponent. It’s about their way of ability to measure or benchmark where they are in this process, and it’s a process to them, so failure is not a killer to them. John Wooden once said, “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change can be.” So this is a journey that they’ve been on and are continually going.

Now, there’s a lady that inspired me, and it was a tremendous story. And I want to know: how many people have heard of Penny Chenery? Not very many people have. But Penny Chenery — you might know by her sidekick, Secretariat. Secretariat and Penny Chenery were on a journey. If you remember the story, Secretariat was not ever supposed to be a Triple Crown winner. It was a afterthought of a coin flip. But Penny Chenery had a vision, had visualized where her and the horse could be as a Triple Crown winner.
So they were on this journey for the years, and so they won the Kentucky Derby, they won the Preakness, but now came to the Belmont: the graveyard for horses. Here’s a horse that was overweight, was lazy, but they used deliberate practice on that last race and worked that horse in a specific way. They said it was crazy because he had no recovery time, but they challenged the horse. And if you remember, Penny Chenery walked up to Secretariat and said, “I’ve run my race, now it’s your turn to run your race.”

And boy, did Secretariat run his race. He left — most of the time when he leaves the starting gate, he’s always in the behind. But for some reason, in this race he went out in the front. And Turcotte, the jockey, didn’t do anything. He said, “I was here for a ride.” And by the quarter mile, no horse had run this fast ever, and by halfway through the race, it was only him and another horse called Sham. And everybody in the stands says, “No horse can do this. This is impossible. He’s going to kill himself.” But guess what? He kept on going. And he left Sham behind. And he said it was like a locomotive going down the back stretch and around the home curve. He won by 31 lengths. That’s unheard of in horse racing. That’s two seconds. Nobody’s even come close, not even American Pharoah this year, a Triple Crown winner. So it was an amazing feat for this journey for this lady and this horse. Did you know that in the 20th century, Secretariat was rated the 35th best athlete of all time? A horse!

Even on top of that, the Belmont was rated the second best sporting event of all time in the 20th century. The only event above that was Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points in an NBA basketball game. So this was a tremendous journey that Penny Chenery and Secretariat were on. I want to leave you with a quote that Penny Chenery had to say, “We will win if we can, and live with it if we can’t, but you never know how far you can go unless you run. You have to run your race. I don’t care how many times they say it can’t be done. I will not live the rest of my life in regret, and no matter what happens, we are going to live rejoicing every day.”

Mr. Wilson and I have been on this journey, and we want you to run your own race. And a lot of you will say, “I don’t want to be an elite athlete.” You don’t have to be. But why don’t you see how far you can go using visualization and deliberate practice? Thank you.

David Goggins may be the least lazy human being on the planet. As a former Navy SEAL, world-recorder for most pull-ups in a 24-hour period, and guy who runs super marathons in his free time (100+ miles!), Goggins is uniquely qualified to feature in this article. To be sure, this is not his first feature, nor will it be his last. In another article, I shared my summary reading notes from his best-selling autobiography Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds. David Goggins is a beast of an athlete and as old school as they come. Today I’ve transcribed a YouTube clip in which he eschews all excuses and spurs on people to get after it — especially useful if we find ourselves today in need of motivation.

The most important conversation you will ever have in your life is the one you have with yourself. You wake up with it. You walk around with it. You go to bed with it. Eventually, you’re going to act on it, whether good or bad.

David Goggins

Transcript:

If you’re not wiling to go in there and face yourself, you’re not going to find anything. You’re going to live right here on surface, man, right here on surface. So if there is an ending to this world and there is somewhere to go, and there is a judgment. You’re going to get there and you might see a chart, and that chart may tell you who the f**k you should have been. And now you get the rest of your life to think about that. Man, I could have lived a much better life if I just would have suffered a little bit more. If I just would have realized that I had so much more but fear and the 40% and living here [lower level] versus living here [higher level]–being afraid–stopped me.

Your biggest enemy–the most important conversation you will ever have in your life is the one you have with yourself. You wake up with it. You walk around with it. You go to bed with it. Eventually, you’re going to act on it, whether good or bad. That’s why the whole thing about this book I have is about you. It is about you. It is strictly about you finding who you are. So many people die, live 100 years, never f**king know who they are. Never know who they are. You have to look in that mirror and know there’s so much more in here man. Because I can literally right now be a 300-pound guy spraying for cockroaches still to this day if I did not look in this mirror and say there has to be more to this. This can’t be it. And then be willing to go into it, dive deep into it, and give all I have to find it. So that’s what all that is about.

Let’s say there’s 10 people in this room. And we’re all mediocre. But I’m the best of the mediocre people. I now think I’m great. I’m great. We surround ourselves with people that make us feel great, that tell us what we want to hear. The second we put ourselves among the uncommon people, we don’t like that feeling. That challenge and feeling of that person that’s waking up at 3:30 in the morning saying,”Hey, put your s**t on, we’re going for a run.” We don’t like that challenge. We like that person who says “Hey, I don’t feel good today.” And they say “It’s OK, brother, take the day off. We’ll get a pizza and watch the game.”

We like that. We love that feeling. Why? Because you understand, man, we’re good bro. We don’t want motherf**kers like this who say “No, get your f**king s**t on, stop being a punk.” We don’t want that person constantly challenging our weaknesses. We want that person who’s constantly making us feel nice and good and secure in ourselves. That’s the mediocrity of life. We want to be the best among the average people.

People wonder how do you stay hungry all the time? Because after I accomplish something, I don’t sit back like a lot of guys who graduate BUDS [Navy SEAL training], who graduate this, graduate that. They get comfortable. They wonder why I’m getting weak, man. I lost my edge. What’s going on? Because once you hit the top of the f**king mountain, guess what happens? “I’m good!” So you wonder why you’re falling down now because once you reach the top of the mountain, you got to build a f**king ‘nother one. That’s mediocrity. There’s a lot of people in mediocrity who have a nice resume, but they’re one-timers man. They hit a one-time deal. They busted it open, got a lot of money, but they’re good. You’re mediocre now man. What are you f**king doing today, tomorrow, the next f**king day.

That’s why I don’t listen to theorists. I don’t listen to all that bulls**t. I listen to a motherf**ker who’s like this, man: “What’s wrong man?” “I’m f**king tired, dude.” “Why are you tired?” “Because tomorrow, I get to do the f**king s**t again, man. Whatever the s**t is that made me f**king nauseous and sick to my stomach, that made me hurt. There’s no ending!” And that’s the person I listen to. That’s the person who’s gained knowledge. You gain knowledge through suffering. And on the other end of suffering is a world that very few have ever seen. It’s a beautiful world because that’s where you find yourself.

You don’t find yourself in over here. You find yourself on the other end. Like the 100-mile race I was on where I ran it for 24-hours. I found myself on the other end of that f**king race. That 19-hours, I found “Wow, this is a whole ‘nother f**king world out here that I’ve never even [seen].” The world is in your mind! And that’s what all that mediocrity is about. The mind has the tactical advantage over you at all times. At all times of your life, the mind has the tactical advantage over you. It knows what you’re afraid of. It knows your insecurities. It knows your deep, dark lies. And it starts to push you away from that. It pushes you in the direction that is comfortable. The mind controls everything.

So what I realized was that when I was growing up and I was 300 pounds and I got all fat, and I got all insecure, I realized that my mind kept taking me in this direction. When things got uncomfortable to me, when I was facing my fears, my mind says “Oh, no. We have the tactical advantage. We need to get you, separate you, from this feeling.” Your life’s all about feelings. We want the happy feeling. We don’t want the feeling of this sucks. If, in that moment, you can answer those f**ked up questions, and you are now in charge of your brain versus your brain ruling you, that’s where all that stuff comes from. So the 40% rule is all of that. You get to 40%, your brain says “We’re done. Let’s roll.” This is starting to get painful. This is uncomfortable.

So you sit down. You have to figure out ways, and every body is different. We all have these things about, you know, five steps to this, and four steps to this. There’s a lot more than that. That’s all bulls**t. It’s a practice–it’s a habit. So if you know that at 40% I’m feeling pain. At 40% I’m feeling pain, that’s where the 40% rule kicks in. Now it starts. OK, I’m feeling pain. My mind is saying all this s**t to me. It’s saying get out of here. “Run. Flee.” The fight or flight kicks in. “OK, we’re done, we’re not good enough.” It starts telling you all these things. You start to believe it because the mind controls all.

This is the time where you have to gain control back of your mind and say OK, let me see if I can go 45%. Once you start giving yourself more and more and more hope and start realizing “[This is] OK.” The mind starts to think what are you doing? We’re supposed to be going right, and we’re going left. You start then controlling your mind. You start finding more in yourself. Then it goes from 40% to a lot further than that. That’s the start of it though. Get to the spot where your mind is saying stop. Wherever that is, you got to get there first. And that’s when that s**t starts to work for you. You got to control yourself in that moment.