The Locker Room

The locker room is a place where you shower, change, and store your street clothes and other paraphernalia while exercising. At least, that is what it is to the average person. However to the small fraternity of athletes, and former athletes, it is much more. It has become a source of pride, security, and bonding. 

It is often said, What goes on in the locker room, stays in the locker room (or some variation thereof). This is the Number 1 rule of any locker room. In a locker room, any number of things may be said. Often, these words are those of passion, thus lack any bit of conscious thought prior to being said. Many times an individual will speak first, think later, when in a locker room. Subjects include, women, work, other men, sports, politics, bowel movements, jokes, and other off-color comments. Aside from the fun, some of the greatest sports speeches of all time have come out of the locker room. Whether they are from a movie or real life, think Hoosiers or Any Given Sunday, these speeches are full of passion. They are not necessarily thought out, think Vince Lombardi, but just expressed in the heat of the moment and from the heart.

Federal Government and Barry Bonds

**I justify writing the following because it is connected to Professional Athletics and the use of PEDs. I am fully against the use of illegal PEDs. While I will not go into further detail at this moment, I do believe that since certain PEDs are illegal, they should not be used. They are illegal for a reason...**

We live in a time where our country is in a depression. They want to call it a recession, but I'm calling it a depression. People are out of jobs, money is scarce, prices of everything have inflated, and our state government claims to be in the hole for more than I'll make in a lifetime. That being said, I would like to know WHY our federal government is putting so much time, effort, and man power into the Barry Bonds perjury case.

Reasons To Attack Bonds

• Arrogance - he's a prick and thought/thinks he is untouchable
• Fame - he's an international celebrity, rather popular around the world
• Diverting Attention- If they focus on this and make a really big deal about it, we might forget about other things that the government is wasting time/effort/money on.
• Professional Athlete - For some reason these fat, out of shape, unathletic politicians loathe athletes, I wonder why...
• Legality - Lied under oath, took an illegal substance

Reasons To Leave Bonds Alone

• Hall Of Fame - It is my belief that he will not be voted into the Hall of Fame, this will haunt him the rest of his life
• Reputation - His reputation has been tarnished, he will forever be labeled a cheater. For someone in the spotlight, I believe the way people perceive him will eat away at him.
• Hurt Himself - Bonds really only caused harm to one person, Barry Bonds. He did not force others to do inject themselves. He did not sell the drugs to anyone. There was no distribution on his behalf.
• Money - How much money is/has our government wasted on this Barry Bonds case? The amount of time and money the government has put into this case could have been directed elsewhere.
• MLB - Major League Baseball should be the ones going after Bonds, not the government. The problem with this however is that Bud Selig did just about everything but inject the players during Bonds's era. He turned his head and allowed baseball to be the stomping ground of all the PEDs (performance enhancing drugs).

All of these things can also be related to the Roger Clemens Trial and the entire controversy involving MLB. The government interjected because MLB was not doing anything sufficient to stop the use of PEDs. However I believe it is to a point where the Federal Government needs to save its resources for something more important. Attacking ballplayers for finding an edge in competition is not worth the resources. Worry less about the small picture and more about the big picture.

Judging... Yourself

Ask yourself, Who is your biggest critic? 
What answer did you come up with? If you're anything like me, the answer was ME. For many, our biggest critic is the person you see in the mirror.

Rightfully so! There is no one that you must impress other than yourself. The problem here is that you will judge yourself worse than anyone else you know. If you don't believe this, then you're lying to yourself. Everyone has that little bit of teenage girl inside of them who is constantly saying I'm so fat. I look gross. I hate my body.  Maybe it is not to that extreme, but I cannot think of a single person who is 100% sure of themselves in every way.

There will always be a sense of insecurity in the way you look.  Why else would you put yourself through the rigors of exercise, go shopping for clothes, get haircuts, etc. While you can try to justify these things in other manners, trust me I'm very good at that, the bottom line is you want to change something about yourself, or you do not want your body to return to a form it had once taken.

The important thing is to not let the self judging get out of control. As much a motivating factor it may become, judging yourself so relentlessly can become a hindrance.

Flip Camera

I'm in love with my Flip Camera. This thing is awesome and I am hoping to record some stuff worth posting on here in the near future.

The Participants...

Back when I was in college we discussed a lot the psyche of athletes. In regard to such topic, one of my advisors used to preach the idea that there are Athletes and then there are Participants, in sports.

• Athletes are the individuals with the desire, drive, to compete and succeed.
• Participant is the individual who is happy to just be part of the team, success in the athletic realm does not matter.

The role of an Athletic Trainer is to prevent, assess, treat, and rehabilitate injuries and illnesses of the active population. So regardless of the personal feelings towards the topic, I will always do my job to the best of my ability, but this current blog is from my viewpoint as a coach and former athlete.

Bottom line, I love athletes. I used to be one so I have 100% respect for anyone who performs to their utmost ability leaving nothing but blood, sweat, and tears on the playing field. It is the participant that I cannot wrap my head around. I can't relate to the notion of content with being a part of a team. Now in recreational, youth, or JV High School athletics I can see where someone may just want to participate. Sports are fun; why else would anyone play them? So in these low level, somewhat non-competitive leagues a participant is acceptable. The reason they are on the team does not matter because these are the skill level leagues. Children are supposed to be learning the basic skills and rules of the individual sports. However, once you get to Varsity High School and beyond, the idea of a participant bewilders me.

Now I am not discouraging kids from participating in sports, far from it actually. I believe our society is not active enough, as a whole. However, why do something you don't really want to be doing? If you do not want to practice, why are you on a team? The participant should enter a less competitive league, recreational, or just become involved in a "pick-up" type setting. It will be better for them and for the true athletes who are working towards a goal with which the participant just cannot relate.