discipline

Just after midday today a small group of happy Irishmen, all with beers in their hand, broke into song. To the tune of For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow they sang their version of a Liverpool football song that goes like this:

You’re never gonna believe us,
You’re never gonna believe us.
You’re never gonna believe us,
We’re gonna win the league.

And so it was that the Vic Park Soccer Club men’s team celebrated their second win in our inaugural season. We had beaten a team well above us on the ladder and we’d done it in a way that made every one of us proud. The team played hard, tough, disciplined football where the first thought was the success of the team, not personal glory.

There were players like Gabriel Silias, who sent me a text last night saying he was too sick to play but dragged himself out of bed this morning and then went on to kick all three of our goals.

Then there was Rhys McDonald who had only 15 minutes on the pitch despite being at every training session since we joined.

And then there was Ger O’keefe who started the season as a striker, who started today on the bench, then volunteered to go into defence to shut down the opposition’s best player. He did just that.

These are the sorts of self-sacrifice that make me proud and that motivate me to give more to this club and make it better and stronger.

There’s still much work to do – I know that – but I believe we can one day go on to win the league.

Henry Day (centre) knows a thing or two about getting strong.

One of my goals for 2014 is to do 20 consecutive chin-ups. It won’t be easy.

To achieve it I’ll need to get stronger – a lot stronger.

To get some much-needed advice on doing just that, I turned to Henry Day.

If anyone knows how to get strong, it’s Henry. He owns and runs a gym that specialises in helping athletes lift insanely heavy stuff.

At The Musclepit, there are no mirrors, few machines and a noticeable lack of ego. Instead, Henry leads a group of men and women determined to redefine the limits of their own strength.

Included in that group are several past and present world powerlifting record holders. They lift huge weights. Plate after plate of iron is loaded onto bars until the bars bend in the middle, like giant metal hunting bows.

Clearly, Henry knows his stuff. So when I asked him “what’s your top 10 tips for getting strong?”, I expected an answer that involved eating properly, getting enough sleep, and lifting big weights.

Instead, Henry looked at me with a kind of that’s-a-stupid-question look.

“Ten?” he said. “I can answer that in one”

I waited.

“Discipline.”

“What? I thought you’d tell me to eat more or lift big weights.”

“Nah, all that’s good, but until you’ve got the discipline to turn up to the gym, until you’ve got the discipline to do another rep, it’s all a waste,” he explained.

And right there Henry captured the essence of peak performance.

Discipline.

The discipline to run in the rain, to lift weights in the heat, to make sales calls when you’re tired.

They all take discipline.

They take hard work.

They’re not glamorous and sexy, but they demand grunt and determination.

And they demand that someone turns up and switches on.

You’re never gonna believe us

The secret shortcut to getting strong and performing better

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