If you watched the Olympic Games you surely noticed
that the rest of the world is catching up to the
United States in terms of athletic performance.

Why?

Because in the United States we are a bunch of
fatsos.

One out of every 3 adults in this country is
obese. Not just overweight, but OBESE.

So let’s start there.

I watch a lot of youth sports. And I can’t help
but laugh (or cry) when I see an overweight coach or
parent trying to tell athletes what to do.

First, if you’re overweight, you can’t properly
demonstrate HOW to do the drills and movements.

But on a practical level, as an athlete it’s a bit
tough to listen to a coach preach about hard work
and commitment when they can’t even look straight
down and see their feet.

Regular young athletes just can’t be properly
motivated to work hard all the time when the message
is hypocritical.

As coaches and parents, the first thing we have to
do is objectively look at ourselves. If we don’t
take care of ourselves, that sends a terrible
message to our athletes. So if you happen to fall
into that category, please make the changes that
will set a good example and keep you alive.

Now, how about the kids?

16.3% of kids age 2-19 are OBESE. And 15.6% are
overweight! (Journal of the American Medical Assn.)

Are you kidding me?

When I talk about nutrition to my athletes, they
don’t have a clue. Good carbs, bad carbs, they
have no idea.

Drink your bodyweight x .66 in water everyday? The
concept of drinking that much water each day blows
their minds.

Some fats are good for you? How can that be?

Eat breakfast everyday? You mean it’s true that
breakfast is the most important meal of the day?

Apparently noone is teaching kids about good
nutrition. Food fuels performance. Crappy food,
crappy performance.

Of course in this country, many people like to
shift the responsibility to someone else.

I might be fat, but it’s not my fault.

My kids don’t know about nutrition? Not my fault.

My kids are fat and don’t eat breakfast? Not my
fault.

So we find a scapegoat to blame. And who are the
two best scapegoats in today’s society?

A Clown and a Chief.

We blame McDonald’s and other fast food joints for
making us and our kids fat.

Ridiculous.

We blame video games for making our kids lazy.

Ridiculous.

McDonald’s and Xbox are not the reasons kids are
fat and lazy. The responsibility rests squarely
on the shoulders of the people not making healthy
dinners and allowing the Xbox to be played.

Until we each take responsibility for our
contributions to this problem, it will just keep
getting worse.

There’s a reason I give you a Sports Nutrition
manual as one of the eight bonuses that come with
the Complete Speed Training program. Because it’s
critically important.

When we set a good example for our athletes, we
get more out of them. Because believe me, they
notice.

To your success,

Latif Thomas

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 7:23 am and is filed under Speed Training . You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.