The Force Training Seminar took place at Westside Barbell in 2004. In this seminar Dave took a clear-cut approach to the concepts associated with maximal force development training. This involves a no-holds-barred approach to training information. No stone will be left unturned and no topic will be avoided. Dave does not believe in holding anything back and this seminar will leave you with a new outlook on the process of strength devel- opment. This seminar is about making gains. You will, at some time or another, run into a wall and experience a lack of progress. These are the most important times in your train- ing program. These are the times that will make or break you. Training is not always a fast process. You will have times where you have to stop and think about what you are doing and come up with a new plan of attack. If you do not plan for these issues, you could lose valuable time trying to catch up, even years! Let EliteFTS guide you through these rough patches.
View the Force Training Seminar video clips below:
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View the Passion Into Profit Seminar video clips below: Clip #1 Clip #4 Clip #7 Clip #10 Clip #13 Clip #2 Clip #5 Clip #8 Clip #11 Clip #3 Clip #6 Clip #9 Clip #12
We all have those times in life I like to call “defining moments.” These moments in time can be glorious or disastrous, but always shape the direction and path of who we become. From these moments we grow and become better or worse for it. The difference between better or worse is how the situation is perceived. If something bad happens to you, do you view it as a learning experience and move on, or do you let it tear you up? If something good happens, do you look back to ask why or write it off as luck?
What does all this have to do with strength training? It has everything to do with strength training, powerlifting, sports, and life! There are many qualities needed to succeed in the strength training game. I like to sum them all up with three very simple words: Live, Learn, and Pass On.
Live — The most important quality is to live the life you want to have, not the life you have. In other words, if you’re a bottom 100 powerlifter but want to be a top ten lifter, do you live the life of a top ten lifter or a bottom 100 lifter? Do you do the same things the top ten lifter does? Do you think the same way he does? Do you skip sessions? Are you as serious as he is? If not, then how are you ever going to get where he is?
You only go around once so you may as well make the best of your time here by living the life you really want to live! “Well, Dave, I’d like to but…” But what? Do what you gotta do! There are many people out there who live “but lives,” “I shoulda lives,” “I coulda lives,” or “if only lives.”
These people are very easy to find. They’re the ones we call critics; those who’ve become masters of the “have not” and love to spend their time telling us what we can and can’t do. They make up 90% of the people I’ve met. Avoid them! They love to pull you down. If you happen to be one, then fix it fast because it’ll affect your training and your life.
Learn — The most successful people spend their time learning from their mistakes and other people. If strength is your game then read about it, talk about it, and do everything you can to make yourself better. Talk to anyone you feel can help you. Steal from the strong and use it in your training. You can never learn too much. Your success may depend on one very small thing you could never have figured out yourself.
Pass On — Many years ago, in a dark stairway in the back of a junior high gym that smelled like sweat stained wrestling mats, was a ninth grade wrestler who’d only won one match in the last two years. This same kid wasn’t a very good athlete up to this point. He played many sports and always did okay but was never good enough to start or be a standout. As he waited for his mother to pick him up he decided to run the stairs instead of just sitting as he’d usually do. After about five minutes he was thinking he’d had enough and would call it a day and sit down to wait for his ride. About this time, the head wrestling coach walked by and asked him what he was doing. The kid replied that he was running
Everything can be taken away from man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
the stairs because he was sick of getting beat all the time. The coach then spoke one sentence that stuck in the kid’s mind for the rest of his life: “If you work hard enough you can do whatever you want to do.”
I ran the stairs for the next forty-five minutes and didn’t lose a match during the entire season. I went on to have a very successful career in sports. That one sentence taught me how to run for what I wanted and I’ve been running ever since. One kid, one sentence and a totally changed life.
Why do I do this? Why do I write these articles? Why do I spend so much time helping people for free? Why do I care so much when I know most lifters and coaches will never listen? The answer is simple. Why did my coach care so much when he knew most of his athletes would never listen? Because I listened. What would I be today if he didn’t care? I owe it to him to pass on the great gift he gave me. This is why I try so hard.
I’m sure you have the same type of story. Somewhere, some time, someone took the time to help shape your way. You owe it to them to pass on what you know. When we leave this earth, it’s not what we take with us that maters, it’s what we leave behind. There have been many people along my path and I can tell you today I’ll never forget who they were and what they did. This is the greatest success in life one can have.
Vince Lombardi once said, “I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour — his greatest
fulfillment to all he holds dear — is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle, victorious.” Do you want to lie on the