Renegade 101

The aging athlete stood in the middle of the stadium as the referee’s final whistle had blown, his team and adoring fans in celebration with an upset victory. He looked as if he was in another dimension, not overwhelmed by the events like his teammates but realizing that today was likely his last great hurrah and the final stroke of the brush in an extraordinary career.

Prior to the contest, most considered his final days in the sport were in the past. He was a great player, a legend yet, like each of us, the steadying march of “time” had finally caught up. However, in one last gleaming moment, just a shade before the clock struck midnight in his career, he managed to summon something majestic to lead his team to victory, one more time.

Standing there now in the middle of the stadium, his heart filled with the boyhood soul of the game, looked out at the adoring fans as his name reverberated off the walls.

While I have kept the individual anonymous, it is story that has been told on countless occasions, with many different players. Amongst its backdrop of sport, honouring the team you grew up playing for the sheer love of its heritage and what it means to you, it also speaks of what I call “intent and resolve”.

Though “intensity” tends to get the majority of the marketing copy within modern athletics, I tend to prefer “intent and resolve”. Intensity, or at least the smarmy, modern interpretation is near comedic now with its dumbed-down presentation of male bravado, yelling and screaming into the camera, never understanding how “weak” it truly is. While that may sell good to those who have never face the heat of competition, to be strong, successful and powerful, you must have “intent and resolve”.

Intent and resolve is the infrared vision of seeing your goals, setting them in your sights and getting the tough job done. It ignores the bellowing, or is that cooing, that is just a garden-variety dance for the onlookers and instead is the roll up your sleeves attitude that breeds success in sport, business and life. It is a country getting back to work during tough days, a family pulling together after enduring hardship or in the example noted, an aging athlete, long past his prime, placing the hopes and dreams of his team on his shoulder and leading them to victory.

Possessing “intent and resolve” says a great deal of a person and additionally of their mentors. I am pleased with how those have come through my system possess each and not only are they are successful in sport but more importantly in their families lives, careers and ultimately leading others towards this path.

Yet the other magical part of “intent and resolve” is the confidence it injects into your claret. You will succeed because you know the path and that pathway of anyway, anyhow always gets the job done. So you roll your sleeves up, you put another pot of java on because while your competitions sleeps in soft bedding, you prepare, you dig in for a fight and damn well, you know what it takes.

Ultimately, with “intent and resolve” comes with another little gleaming jewel I learned in life because the direction I am looking is the I am going. With blinders on, set your loftiest of goals, see only success and become your dream.

This is "Renegade" because while many gather around, hunting for exercise secrets into why my resume is loaded with success stories, the true story is the fortitude and character we are building with every member. To this, I tell you we are building leaders of tomorrow, today because right now, as you read this line, someone is digging in for the battle, maybe for a victory in sport, for their career or most importantly, their family. Someone is waging on against the tough fight but with honour, commitment and loyalty, they will overcome adversity and kick their way through the window of opportunity because they possess intent and resolve. This is what sport training and all exercise should be because while some fret of simply a stronger body, I will provide you a route to that but also give you the route for a better life.

See the direction you are going with a breastplate honour, loyalty and commitment and fuelled with passion, attack your loftiest goals with intent and resolve.

prepared by John Davies

photos "Pink, its the New Black" a Renegade production

The warm waters washed upon my board, under the midnight moon. Youthful fury sent me paddling out into the dark of night, in search of some solitude. Yet, little did I know that I would make one of the most startling discoveries of my life that would serve later as a genesis of much of my career.

Poised atop my board, waiting for the one wave that seems to find me every so often, the ocean stood quiet for a spell. A fluttering of ocean life around me while off in the distance it began. A slow rumble, a Coltrane beat coming in hard and fast, here it was, “that” wave in our first encounter.

Likely, beyond my abilities as the time but instead of scratching and clawing my way out, the midnight waters bathed fear from me. Fear, one of life’s deadliest foes, washed away as in my youthful glint, I paddled with all my might into this beast. Pulling into the wave, drawing up the impact zone, without a morsel of self-doubt, I shot down into what was the ride of my life at that time.

While there are boundless stories and lessons of the magic of Surfing, for this situation it is likely best to limit on how it played a role in the foundations of the Renegade theories.

All movement begins with stillness and while that seems to be a peculiar, yet obvious notation, it is often looked past. Within the calm stillness of ocean waters is a power impossible to describe in words but simply unparalleled in most settings. Yet the ocean fluctuations from stillness to booming power in a blink of an eye. In a second, the calmness is broken with life challenging power and in a further moment returns to quiet. This is true power, not the bravado laced yelling and screaming that is suggested often. With the stillness, there is a power that serves as the birthing ground to movement.

Yet the majesty of the ocean’s waves is not simply to teach the fluctuation of readiness but organic aspect of all movement. No wave is alike as all natural movement varies, is organic in nature and predictably, unpredictable. To be successful in sport as well as all training pursuits such that it carries over to real life, the organic nature of movement much be reflected.

In a final turn, the ocean waters gave clue to be powerful and efficient, you must find a level of physical and mental relaxation, where reactive movement is reflexive to rapidly changing conditions. Flowing with poise and ease between changing situations is a key attribute within all training situations yet rarely considered outside of what would develop into the Renegade theories.

Each of the these notions, eliminating fear, charging at life without doubt, movement emitting from absolute stillness, the fluctuation of intensity, management of composure and the ability to react to rapidly changing conditions are instrumental to success in the field of competition as well as life and serve as footings with Renegade Training™. This foundation is one of the reasons why "Renegade" trained individuals not only excel in sport but equally are destined for success in life and to leave great footprints for others to follow. Renegade breeds leaders of tomorrow, today.

prepared by John Davies

photos "Pink, its the New Black" a Renegade production

I would like to think I could pinpoint the precise starting point of where I developed the theories of Renegade Training™ but in-truth they likely came from a cornucopia of different experiences.

I have sat and wondered whether my early childhood memories of folk dance, steeped in my heritage, sounds of classical music that were very much a part of my formative years, an epiphany riding a wave in the middle of the night or watching wildlife in their natural habitant, are at the roots of my theories. I suspect the best way to consider it is that each has its place in forming the bedrock that eventually founded the system.

In-truth, as you understand this bedrock, you also raise a suspecting eyebrow with the question of what precisely is the balance of the modern exercise world thinking. Pushing aside ideas of building honour, commitment and loyalty through training, all exercise begins with understanding movement and managing duress.

Movement and the ability to manifest efficient movement while under duress might be the sweeping, largest notion within all of exercise and sport training.

This broad based notion is akin to a paint roller against a wall versus a fine brush as it virtually changes the entire complexion of the scene within the first glance. Once you begin the most basic, rudimentary notion of improving the efficiency of movement and then being able to do-so under duress, exercise choices and protocols change radically and in-fact will never be the same.

Each of the situations had the common denominator of efficient movement, that was both organic in nature as well as possessing a tempo and cadence, a further key element in sport development with recognition of musicology.

Movement, as we begin to understand motor patterning development, must be grafted efficiently but also in its organic, natural state. While that comment can seem obtuse, if not outright confusing, it is as simple as understanding the gross difference between, say training in a gym as opposed to playing a sport. The training, in most situations will prepare you to excel better in the gym but its overall sporting success is based upon how it convert to athletic production. The problem of pure gym training settings are they are sterile, lacking external stimuli and rarely place an individual under duress as does sport. Playing a sport, will improve the technical aspect of the sport and potentially improve production to a greater extent than the basic off-field preparation. The key for both is merging them to create a higher quality, athlete with better sport skills. While I have suggested only a sporting situation, the same applies in life where the only thing predictable, is that the unpredictable will occur.

Understanding movement in its organic, natural state recognizes the ability to flow without methodical consideration, where action is reflexive and the individual simply “does” and performs at a higher level. The examples are endless but for myself none better than dance, music and the two situations I noted, riding a wave and watching wildlife, in its fight for survival, in their natural habitant. Each is dependent upon efficient movement but organic in nature where action is constantly changing to suit rapidly evolving conditions. Clearly, for some the switch just flipped because while noted within sporting conditions, it is also a preamble for the development of a successful business leader and self-starter, being able to adjust to rapidly changing adjustments to market conditions.

Once captured, this notion of generating efficient movement and being able to do so while under duress, creating sweeping changes to every element of exercise as well as sport training, leading to its mate.

Stillness.

Like the calm before the fiercest of storms, all movement begins with stillness.

prepared by John Davies

photos per Mad Science, part four with Shawn Moody and Steve Jury

As many things are so often are, mentoring in sport came by chance. I never set out to be a coach within athletics, far from it but through a series of unpredictable events’, I found myself in precisely that situation.

I was not born what some term as a “natural athlete” and was in-fact, blessed with having to scratch and claw my way for every shred of success I have had in life and in sporting venues. Like the silver spoon I never knew, the easy road was not the one I travelled and I have shed my fair share of sweat and blood to climb the victor’s podium. However, while I was not a natural athlete, I was without a doubt a boy who loved sport, virtually any under the sun and stars as it provided me an outlet to express myself and learn, “I can”.

The brilliance of sport is not winning but of the lesson’s it teaches and how it makes society a better place. Sport echoes society but equally sport has unique ability to “turn the screw” in developing people, both good and bad. When we look out of those who cannot respond to the harsh realities that often plague our adult years, is part of the problem that they never learned “adversity is something we overcome” in sport during their youth? When we consider a society that consistently turns a blind-eye to values and ethics, is it because we have forgotten that “to win at all costs” can possibly mean, integrity has been traded and “cheating” been accepted? Each might go beyond the notion of how sporting activities are considered in the mainstream, yet each needs to be resurrected in overall athletic and sport development.

As we as society embrace the empowerment of sport, we also see other side to it, in teaching valuable lessons of preparedness and eradicating the culture of mediocrity. The culture of mediocrity and acceptance of being satisfied with modest effort is one of the great, unforeseen, plagues of the last twenty-plus years. While it naturally would be inappropriate to heap the blame solely on the sporting world, there is certainly more than a ladle full it its direction. Sporting culture, for the good of all, working hard towards your goals is a good thing. Be proud you can roll the sleeves up and that old fashioned anyway, anyhow attitude is a winning combination.

Yet there was another great lesson learned because I did come into coaching in sport by the most random of events. To this day, I consider myself, within sporting circles, as an hard-edged athlete who hangs his shingle as a coach. While the competitive juices may have been turned down low for some, I cannot make claim to such as to this day, I am always focused upon the thrill of competition, a chance to strike in the heat of battle.

In-truth, the upper echelon of sport, or at-least the hope for an elite level ended for me with injury that do this day is troublesome athletically. Little did I realise that injury was a blessing, as it set me on a path towards mentorship and helping change the world’s vision of athletic preparation. It was not an easy path because much like my early years, the hard road was the one I took as I bucked the trend, fought enormous negative commentary by peers until I noticed many years later, how the “Renegade” approach weaved through virtually every sector of sport.

Where my theories were put into granite is a difficult place to pinpoint because each major section came in the most unique of vantages. Whether it was sitting on a Surfboard under the midnight moon, watching wildlife in their natural habitat, examining the arts or considering great architects of history, each had its role in the first clear goal of physical preparation.

Function.

Each action of preparation, serves the functionality of form and movement, ultimately enhancing performance. Exercise, by understanding functionality, implicitly understands the organic, reactive nature of sport (and life) and those can only successful if it has a direct purpose.

The notion of “functionality” is a sweeping difference from the mainstream media as it eliminates notions of simply “training”, or “training to train” but instead with a square-jawed goal in mind.

With the breastplate and sword of honour, commitment and loyalty, we now possess a clear-cut path towards function and ultimately goal achievement.

Prepared by John Davies

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook , Renegade Training™’s, Google+, Renegade Training™ on Google+ as well as or Twitter.

John’s present supplement stack starts daily with the “athlete’s advantage”, Modern, Super Cissus, PowerFull and Prime, along with additional use of Recreate, Yok3d, Anabolic Pump and Pink Magic depending upon his training cycle (workout log 1, 2, 3, 4).

Disclaimer
The information provided in “Instant Training Improvement Tips”, as well as this web-site blog is intended for informational and educational purposes only and should not be interpreted as medical advice for any condition. Always consult a qualified medical professional before beginning any nutritional program or exercise program. By reading this disclaimer, you hereby agree and understand that the information provided in this column is not medical advice and relying upon it shall be done at your sole risk.

photos per Mad Science, part four with Shawn Moody and Steve Jury

As I walked in the room, I could feel their youthful eyes upon me. Without a second of hesitation, I knew why they truly were here so I began, not unlike many of my speeches but this time, with a slight twist.

I recall those days of youth, not the “hazy kind” I hear of but the dark, bleak world I cut my teeth on. There was no silver spoon, nor photo albums with precious memories, yet in the end, that harsh beginning as been a blessing for the lessons I have learned.

“If you allow me, I will change your life”, I began. Simple and to the point, if not far beyond what was expected I suppose. Yet in-fact it is what was needed to be said because in an era that asks so little, the youth of this world are clamouring for leadership.

While the political correctness of a world that fails to recognize the need to bathe our lives in honour, commitment and loyalty, we are void of leadership that pushes striving for excellence, particularly in the youth. In the meandering world of beautiful prizes and ribbons for finishing last-place, we have forgot the divinity of being able to improve ourselves, not for financial reward but emotional well-being and serving another.

In a microscopic view, it is the failing grade of sport training as we fail to “train” individuals for success in life and merely, if that, in the field of athletic competition. With that said, let me answer succinctly “not on my watch”.

I continued, “I know each of you are being asked for less but not today, not ever with me. I will ask for more, build you up, support you when you are down but I will also demand you ask more of yourself. There is greatness within each of you, far more than you dream or imagine but I know it yearns to come out.”

The glimmer in their eyes spoke a thousand tales. They yearned for the chance and the leadership that would cut a path, exalt them forward but make sure they never lose faith.

I never lose faith.

I suppose at that time, I could have gave them the rousing speech, rattle the sabres and bang the war drums of going off to train but I knew they needed to know where I am coming from.

I understand what it is like to pick myself off the canvas when few believe in you. I know, I did it myself and made the vow with success, I will change the course of lives of others. Starting at an early age, I cheated the darkness of death to push forward and with every goal, I faced enormous obstacles yet I was able to overcome through sandpaper grit, good old-fashioned anyway anyhow attitude and the belief of honouring my past and leaving a legacy.

I told them of my life and an interview I gave on a radio show a number of years ago. I had prepared for it well, knew my key points to mention when suddenly I was asked to summarize what my career is about.

In a blink of an eye, I told him the defining term of my career is about teaching others to dream great, to believe mountaintops are to be assailed through a bond of honour, commitment and loyalty. To carve a path for others to follow, a pathway to success, in a legacy that will last long past your years.

Finishing quickly they knew what I expected but more importantly they expect more of themselves and began each day with a different pride filled step.

This is what Renegade Training™ is about in-fact. Undoubtedly, interested parties will ask how my athletes and teams are so successful, perplexed by the commonality of trophy rooms from across the globe or sporting world but never truly understanding the broad scope of this approach. With each turn of the exercise diagram or training protocol, they seem to forget that to be truly successful it starts from the character of the person, hence why my athletes excel in sport and life.

To some this message will not resonate, it’ll be skipped over quickly without a clear-cut understanding of what it truly means but for those who “hear”, let me state, I will ask more, in-fact demand more in both effort and goals. I am a dreamer, a romantic who has cheated death, fought the toughest of battles and never will surrender.

As you begin to understand me, my life you will understand that as I honour the past, I am compelled to leave a great path and saying that, am ready to lead.

Now, if you are ready…it's time.

prepared by John Davies

photos credit Ar’Shaun Johnson arshaunjohnsonphotography.com