What Intangibles To All Elite Jumpers Have In Common
What's up, guys? Welcome back to the Teach Beats Trank podcast. My name is John Evans, and I specialize in helping you jump higher and get healthy knees. This is my business partner, Isaiah Rivera. He previously held the world record at 50.5 inches.
Speaker 1:Hopefully, soon he will reacquire it. We'll see. And in today's episode, we're actually gonna talk about what all athletes elite athletes, sorry, have in common and where they differ from other athletes. Before we do that, if you're interested in getting coaching, click in the link description. Click the link in the description below.
Speaker 1:You can purchase twelve months of coaching and an annual package format, which is half the price if you were to pay month to month. So Six months free. Six months free if you buy the annual plan. So do that instead of doing the month to month, and we know it takes time to get better, and we'll actually kind of dive into that today.
Speaker 2:Put your money where your mouth is.
Speaker 1:That's right. Put your money where your mouth is. So, Isaiah, let's talk about what you think what separates you from other athletes who are trained to jump higher. What's the first thing that comes to mind? I have a few ideas in my head.
Speaker 1:But
Speaker 2:First thing that comes to mind, being able to handle suffering for a very long period of time without stopping?
Speaker 1:And by long period of time, mean years. I was yeah. Consistency was, like, the very first thing that came to to mind. So for those of you that don't know this, I've worked with a handful of truly world class athletes. And when I say handful, I mean dozens.
Speaker 1:When I was at Altus, there was 40 some people there in track and field, which is a quantitatively assessed sport, you know, one of the most elite human capacity, human performances that you can possibly do. Right? Running as fast as a human body is capable of, maximum forces, maximum, you know, limb movements. And And no lying about metrics. There's no lying.
Speaker 1:Track's very objective. So I've worked in in that format, and I've seen guys that run nine eighty in a 100. I've seen guys that long jump, you know, Olympic gold medalists. I've seen guys that were national champions at the collegiate level, that were national champions in their own countries. And so I've been around a lot of a lot of guys like that.
Speaker 1:And I've also coached a handful of guys that are also national champions just and when I say coached, I mean worked with them for an extended period of time. And there's definitely some similarities with those guys that you don't necessarily see as you move down the rungs in performance. And then there's cases where you have world class guys or guys that were on the cusp, and it's, like, very apparent what made them not get to that level. And so I've seen that a handful of times too. I'm not gonna, like, use any names, but I can definitely talk about that as well.
Speaker 1:So consistency, I definitely definitely agree with. And I think another one is it's like when you talk about the ability to suffer, I think even more so, it's it's a long time is maybe the more important part because I think many people that do not get to the truly, truly elite status, they they lack buy in. They don't I don't know if it's that they don't believe they can do it or if it's not that or if it's that they were so talented so early and had to and got to that level with way less effort than other people that they think that, oh, well, I saw these other people that were worse than me put in effort, and they never got to where I was. So this must be purely genetic, and therefore, I'm not gonna put the time in because I'm already good enough, and I don't wanna put in the effort necessary to get to that next level. And I've seen that a handful of times.
Speaker 1:There was the cathlete, and this kid was probably I mean, he was high jumping over seven feet. He was vaulting 17 feet plus. He was an incredible thrower, had all of the tools necessary to be a world class decathlete. Right? And he was, like, kind of dealt with some injuries and stuff, but it was more so that he never he never gave it his all.
Speaker 1:I never saw him put his best foot forward. He kinda just I don't wanna say, like, you know, kind of just waited through life, but that's almost what it was like. He was like, I'll show up when it's convenient for me. You know, I've got some other priorities. I don't necessarily wanna make this a priority.
Speaker 1:I don't wanna give my best effort or put my best foot forward when I'm when I'm at the track. And this kid could have been yeah. I mean, he literally should have been an Olympian. And then, you know, there were other guys like Curtis Beach who, you know, I got to work with him for a while. And Curtis was someone who, you know and this is irrespective of time or anything like that.
Speaker 1:This is just one example and another example. But this athlete, you know, he was wildly focused, wild wildly dedicated, started when he was, I'm gonna say, like, 12, you know, training for the decathlon and stuck with it probably until he was forced out of the sport because of injuries. And, I mean, he ended up oh, I think he's he would maybe have the world record in the thousand indoor at one point for the decathlon, and it was very, very narrowly missed the 1,500 meter decathlon world record, which was very, very fast. And I think he actually did it. He paced Ashton Eaton when Ashton Eaton broke the world record for the decathlon.
Speaker 1:And he was a prime example of someone that you wouldn't necessarily look at Curtis and watch him shoot a basketball or watch him throw a football and think like, oh, this guy has intangibles. You know, this guy, he's got things that he's got tools that other people don't have. You know? When you hear some coaches or analysts talk about quarterbacks, they talk about that sometimes. They're like, oh, they've just got they've got the intangibles.
Speaker 1:You know? They can just throw a dart right on right on the money every single time. They can throw a ball on their knees 60 yards. Like, they've just they've got all the tools. Like, Curtis, if you were to put us in the weight room or you would have us play sports against each other, you wouldn't necessarily always identify that.
Speaker 1:But on the track, this dude was a dog. Like, his mechanics were perfect. His elasticity was insane. You'd watch him do workouts, like two, three, four hundred meter workouts, you know, at at really, really crazy paces, he would just hammer them every single time. You watch him throw the jab, and he's incredibly proficient there.
Speaker 1:You watch him high jump, and he's a beautiful speed jumper with great rotation who's jumped seven feet. But, like, you wouldn't necessarily identify that just by looking at him or or, like, watching him in a different facet. And so maybe the second thing that I would say separates them is they're focused on their goal. It's not that they're only consistent and they can handle a lot of suffering. They're they're not detracted by what Isaiah and I call shiny object syndrome.
Speaker 1:They don't see another opportunity and lean into that. They hammer exactly what they need to do consistently day in and day out even when it sucks, even when it's not fun, even even potentially when they're hurt. They will do everything they possibly can to achieve their goal, you know, in their diet and their sleep. Every single aspect is maximized for human performance. And I think when it comes to truly, truly world class guys, that's one of the things I noticed.
Speaker 1:You're not gonna see Isaiah go and pick up you know, basically try to go make a a pro team overseas or something like that in basketball. Right? Like, your passion is your passion, and you're dedicated to it, and you're gonna do it day in and day out for the rest of your life. And with those super elite guys, they all have that in common that they don't get distracted. You know?
Speaker 1:They they really keep the goal the goal. And, yeah, I would say that's I don't know if you have any thoughts on that, Isaiah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I I think I agree with all that. I think the reason some people have that naturally and other people don't is because the people that have it were reinforced. Like, I I I mean, I'm a big believer in the behavior science in general and behavior science is that. Like, anything you do, you do it because you were reinforced.
Speaker 2:And I'm thinking about there I have some family members from my wife's side. I'm thinking of of two siblings. You might you might know who who I'm talking about, Don, but their two siblings grew up together. One of them is, like, you know, doing crazy stuff with his life, likes training every day, played sports in high school. The other sibling did not.
Speaker 2:The other sibling's very, very, talented. And I was thinking about it the other day because I asked my wife if the the guy who's super talented, that doesn't go as hard. I was like, oh, does he have plans after he graduates and stuff? And she said, no. Like, he's just kinda and I was like, oh, is he just, like, kinda just floating floating along?
Speaker 2:She's like, yeah. And I was thinking about that, and I think it's just reinforcement. I think certain things happen when you're a kid and you get reinforced to work hard. Like, when I think about my experiences with training hard, it came from there was usually some kind of thing I wanted to get good at or there was some bad experience around a sport or a physical task, and it didn't feel good. Then I would go look up how to get better at the thing, work really hard at it, and I think just the first couple of times that I did it, it worked.
Speaker 2:I came back and I tried, and then I was way better and it happened very quickly. And so I was reinforced. And something with reinforcement, the speed to reinforcement enforcement matters a lot, which is why, like, things like drugs are so addicting because drugs are, like, an instant thing. Right? You you take nicotine and you instantly feel the effects, so therefore you wanna keep doing it versus, like, training.
Speaker 2:Think about how many people right now, it's the New Year's. Right now, it's probably around the time when people start quitting on their goal. The reason so many people quit is because the time to get reinforced, it's so long. Like, we were joking about this the other day, like, trying to get someone to you have to arm wrestle them to sign up for your coaching program because it's like, hey, do this thing, when you sign up, you have to train really hard, it's gonna suck, you're gonna feel a lot of pain and you're not gonna see results instantly. You're it's gonna take about a month to see results, your body's gonna be really sore.
Speaker 2:By the way, if you go out and then you eat a really bad day in the weekend, the entire week is basically wasted and all your gains are gone, like, it's like there's no reason post it,
Speaker 1:like Yeah. So There's no you have to have a deep intrinsic motivation to to wanna be good and, you know, I think to add on to what you're saying, that happens in development, and it happens through reinforcement, whether it was planned reinforcement or unplanned reinforcement. And it happens at school. It happens with your peers. It happens in competition, whether you're great at something or you're really bad at something.
Speaker 1:You know, I've I've oftentimes leaned into this. Like, the sport picks you. You don't pick the sport. And I think that's really true. If you look at Andre De Grasse, he was a basketball player, but he went out to the track one day and decided to sprint in his basketball shoes around, like, a ten five or something, the first time he ever did it.
Speaker 1:And it was like, yeah, he loved basketball, but you know when people were awestruck at him wasn't when he was shooting a free throw. It was when he went out in basketball shoes and ran a ten six. And I think that probably had a profound impact on him, like, oh, wow. You know, I could really excel in this. And, you know, I had a similar experience in high jump.
Speaker 1:I wasn't necessarily better at basketball or football or any of those sports. I was maybe better at suicides at the end of practice because I was a tryharder. I could run a mile slightly better than my peers. But it wasn't until, like, we tried to touch the rim in seventh grade, and I was like, oh, I could touch I could touch the net, and no one else could touch the net. And I was like, oh, wow.
Speaker 1:That's that's pretty impressive, John. And I was like, oh, that's pretty cool. Like, maybe I wanna get my vertical up. And then I just kinda fell in love with that that process and improving and slowly, especially during development. You know?
Speaker 1:You see so much progress. So it was like a perfect storm for me getting reinforced and improving. You know? And I'm sure you had a similar kind of story. Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Like, I think about with dunking and and jump training in general, the there were so many reinforcement loops early on. Like, I'm just thinking about, like, just stories from my childhood. Like, first time I did a dynamic warm up. Right?
Speaker 2:It was like some book. I think it was jump manual and they had, like, these, like, lead magnet guides. And it was like, oh, improve your vertical fifteen minutes, and it was just the dynamic warm up. And it was like, test your vertical before, do the dynamic warm up, test it after. And I did it.
Speaker 2:Boom, vertical's up like four inches from a warm up. So that guess what I did for years? Actually, I've never stopped. I've never not done it. It's a dynamic warm up right before I jump.
Speaker 2:I literally since the age of 14 when I did that because I got reinforced. Touching rim for the first time. Made a bet with my friend that I'd touch the rim before the end of the semester. Every day at PE class, I would try to touch it. Touched it by the end of the semester.
Speaker 2:Boom. I'm reinforced to keep trying to to touch something. My penultimate step, find out what a penultimate step is and then hitting a previous vertical. First day trying it, I hit my first windmill. I shortened my approach from, like, stutter stepping a bunch of steps.
Speaker 2:I just counted four steps, marked where I was gonna take my penultimate. Boom. Vertical goes up. Now I'm reinforced to take a big penultimate step. And then Yeah.
Speaker 2:All that was happening during development. So, like, when you're growing, you're everything you do is magnified. Like, you're gonna improve way faster in any physical facet. And I think that is why every successful elite jumper started as a kid because, like, that's probably where the strongest reinforcement is happening for that. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And I think it's like you you see that consistently or you see it it's repeatable. Bro, we have so many times with the elite the elite guys we coached. Yeah. They jump.
Speaker 1:They enjoy doing it. They got better at it over time and they just just kept getting better and better by doing the the task, and it reinforces the behavior of wanting to go out and jump more, and jumping more makes you jump higher. And that's probably another one that we see specifically with jumpers.
Speaker 2:There was, I don't know if you saw this. I posted on my story the other day. We have a we have a group chat where we share testimonials for our athletes, and there was a parent. They bought the six week challenge for their for their son. So the kid's, like, 13 or 14, something like that, And he improved six inches in those six weeks.
Speaker 2:And the parent was, like, freaking out. They're, like, yo, like, so and so did it. They've done every single workout. Like, we're mind blown. Like, we didn't think it was gonna be this good.
Speaker 2:Like, that kid is probably gonna be so good because think about how powerful.
Speaker 1:13 years old, you improve your vertical by.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Six weeks. You start doing a training program and you improve by six inches. Like, that kid's probably gonna keep training and and become a monster. Like, part of the games was because he's young and he's growing, but, like, that's the perfect time
Speaker 1:to Yeah. That's when you're like, the crop is ready. Yeah. Yeah. It's already it's it's a it's a fertile field for growth.
Speaker 1:Yep. Yep. So you gotta plant the seed.
Speaker 2:I how do you have any tips for now knowing this behavior science stuff? Do you have any tips for getting someone in the habit of doing the intangibles? Like, if someone doesn't have the habit of training or anything like that, or do you think it's just like, you have it or you don't? Or like, if the ship has sailed, like
Speaker 1:I don't because there's people I mean, you can buy a plastic, like He's a 100 pounds randomly
Speaker 2:in their, thirties.
Speaker 1:Say that again?
Speaker 2:I think about, like, obese people that, like, randomly lose a 100 pounds in their thirties and, like, change their lives. Like
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's definitely I think you probably have to have if it's not in development, you probably have to have something that you care about very, very, very strongly. You know, like in that scenario, it's probably their kids. You know?
Speaker 1:If you're someone that was overweight and you lost a 100 pounds and you kept it off, it was probably like you had heart attack or something like that. And you you can't to you can't yeah. You there had to be a why. There has to be a why. I don't think it happens by chance.
Speaker 1:I don't think it's like you wake up one day and you're like, oh, you know what? I think I want to be the best jumper in the world. Like, you know, it's something that there has to be something that happened, probably traumatic, honestly. May maybe traumatic, maybe not necessarily, but I do think that would be, like, a good
Speaker 2:Or, like, a love a love for it. Like, I think of someone like Phil. Right? Like, Phil Phil is someone, he's in his forties, jumping higher than he was when he was 18, but there was that period of time where he wasn't training to jump higher. But guess what he loved when he was in high school?
Speaker 2:He loved jumping, dunking, dunk contest, all that stuff. Yeah. It could
Speaker 1:be like a self limiting belief that you kinda shatter. Maybe you hear something and it it inspires you to you know, like, the belief that it you can do it, you know, I think is another one. Think
Speaker 2:I think that's number one, actually.
Speaker 1:Yeah. For me, one of the the things that I developed when I was probably seventh grade or eighth grade was that, the belief that I could be a division one high jumper or that I could get a scholarship for it. It wasn't it wasn't even d one. Just wanted to get a scholarship for it. And my, like, seventh grade history teacher was like, yeah.
Speaker 1:You could like, social studies teacher was like, yeah. You could definitely do this. Missus Ward was her name. And she was like, yeah. You know, you're already jumping five two.
Speaker 1:There are some people in high school that can't even do that. And I was like, what? And she's like, yeah. If you really dedicate yourself to this, you could potentially pay for school. And, like, that would be huge for you because she knew, like, my family's circumstances.
Speaker 1:And I was very much leaning into my, you know, academic focuses, but I love sports too, obviously. And I never thought I could ever get a scholarship in sports. Like, I knew it wasn't gonna happen in basketball. That belief was shattered by my uncle whenever I was, like, 10. He's like, you'll never be in the NBA.
Speaker 1:You're not athletic enough. You're not fast enough. You don't jump high enough. And I think when that teacher told me that, it shattered that self limiting belief, and then that kind of became, you know, my inspiration for for wanting to go even harder than I was and the belief that I could do it. And don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1:As I got older, it was like, oh, six feet isn't enough. Like, you know, as you learn more, you realize, like, how much it's gonna take. And then, you know, I was like, okay. Now seven foot's the new goal. Like, you know, the the goalpost moved, but I had already shattered that belief that I couldn't do it.
Speaker 1:And by seeing myself get better over time, you know, it just inspired me more and more. And then I think too, the reinforcement with that. So, you know, and and there was other pieces of that. You know, I got bullied endlessly, and people told me, you you'll you'll never dunk. And I was like, I will dunk.
Speaker 2:Like Yeah.
Speaker 1:But that was after I had already had that belief. Like, I can get better. You can get better. You can improve. So I think that elite athletes have that as well.
Speaker 1:Like, they have the belief that they can they can do it. And I think some of them, even if it's a diluted belief, if it's enough for them to be inspired and have the intrinsic motivation to continue doing something really, really hard, then maybe you'll succeed, maybe you won't, but I always say this, you'll never know unless you try. Yeah. And it's not and we said this the other day, it's not the college try. Like, you really have to go out and give it your absolute best effort.
Speaker 1:And I think one thing we haven't even talked about is genetics. Like, I think it like, it's irrespective of that. I I don't I don't know if you'll know and if you don't try. You know, there are people that I never thought when it came to their genetic gifts that they would be even close to where they're at today. Like, you look at Nathan George.
Speaker 1:He's the one that I always point at because and Corey Chisholm and Nathan George are probably the two that come to mind because I remember seeing them and thinking, there is no way in hell you're gonna be able to do anything more than a one hander. And they like, that was my belief, and they shattered that limiting belief for me that,
Speaker 2:like, really And don't know what I would say You don't know what you don't know. Yeah. What your genetic potential is until you've gave it at, like, couple years.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I mean, like, honest, honest.
Speaker 2:Years of, like, you're training six days a week, taking care of everything, like, everything around your life is geared towards optimizing that, then you would know. Because, like, you don't know. Like, what if you're a really good responder to training or plyos or, like Yeah.
Speaker 1:You're just
Speaker 2:learning to pick me very quickly. Or maybe you're taking sucks, but then, like, your force output and ability to gain strength is super like, you just literally don't know until you Yeah. You really give it a shot. Like, wow. I would have thought, bro, if I would have just jumped, I would have thought I had bad genetics.
Speaker 2:I would have been hurt all the time and then I don't respond to not lifting. Like, if you if I had only jumped because remember,
Speaker 1:you had been lifting that for a few.
Speaker 2:I there was never a period of time where I, like, only jumped. Actually, the one time I only jumped, I got worse for the entire year.
Speaker 1:Exactly. But we should do a podcast on that tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I got always lifted, but, like, I would have thought I had bad genetics. I would have thought my knees, something's wrong with them. I'm not built for this, but look where I got to. So you never know.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, this is a good place to to close this off. I hope you guys enjoyed this podcast. If you're interested in coaching and you wanna achieve your genetic potential and potentially give your, not a college try, your honest best effort at being the best version of yourself, whether that's running faster, jumping higher, or just being healthy, click the link in the description. We'll see you guys next time.
Speaker 2:Ciao. Bye bye.
