Coaching Issac

I will never forget my first professional athlete I ever trained. I was having great success with these young athletes who were being groomed to win high school state championships and earn college scholarships. We’re not only building great athletes, we are building leaders of people. T.E.A.M.- together everyone achieves more. You can’t win by yourself, you have to have teammates..

I am in the weight room at the University and a former player who is now going into his 6th year of the NFL comes over to chat. We knew each other. “How you doing, what are you up too?” I gave a surface answer. “Doing good, just hanging out lifting a few weights.” “No man, what are you doing with your life?” Oh, its a real question... “I pursued the track goals and now I am teaching athletes speed technique”... “Really, NFL defensive backs are catching me from behind and I don’t like it.” He was a wide receiver. “Well I can take a look at you if you’d like?” “Okay, when?” “Tomorrow, at the track, high noon.” “I’ll be there”.

I was ready to jump out of my skin. I am getting a chance to train an NFL wide receiver. My first professional athlete!!! who had been All-Pro 1 of his 5 seasons. “All-Pro” is what you are called when you are literally one of the best in the business.

When we meet, he lets me know he will be going to Houston to train with some buddies after this weekend’s mini-camp for the St. Louis Rams.“Cool deal.” It is a one session deal, no more than today’s workout. No problem, it's an honor to train someone of his caliber.

We get to work, I quickly identify why NFL Defensive backs are catching him from behind and he internalizes the technique adjustments; and in a snap of the fingers he became a different athlete.

He walks over to me after the session is over: “I like what we did. I want you to train me for the rest of the summer. Can you do that?” “Uhhhh, let me check my schedule....oh what do you know, HELL YES I CAN!!!!!”

All my efforts in pursuing the PLAN are paying off, it may not have been in the way I dreamed as a 4 year old; I’m good, maybe even great at coaching.

The last workout of the summer, summer of ‘99. It is hot, 98 degrees with suffocating humidity. “What’s on the agenda today?” “8 x 200m 2 minute recovery and you must run them in under 30 seconds.” He kind of looks at me like I am crazy and I kind of am. He’s the type of guy who has a lot of speed and doing a 200m in 30 seconds is what most people would consider jogging pace for themselves.

The first part of the workout is a breeze, no problem. Now he’s into the middle part of the workout, repetitions 5&6. “Come on..... keep yourself upright... you can do this.” I’m not giving him the “good stuff” yet. I’m saving it for the right moment….you don’t want to peak too early. Repetition #7 completed and he is bent over. He doesn’t want to get up. For me, as an athlete and a coach, every repetition is a set up for the last reps of the workout. Vince Lombardi stated “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”

When you get fatigued the real you is able to be seen. “Fatigue makes cowards of us all”. The masks we hide behind, we don’t have the energy to keep the facade. The real self is now front and present. This is exciting when we get to this point in a workout. WHY? The decisions we make within a 3 second window will determine whether we win or lose. Whether we succeed or fail. Can we deal with the stress, block it out, and think clearly?

My athlete is bent over, he is having trouble finding the champion within. And he is a champion. I am there to remind him of the champion residing in him. All the good, my knowledge in the pursuit of THE PLAN is coming to the moment I’m standing in. “Isaac”. No response. “Isaac!” No response. “ISAAC”. He lifts his head and with his penetrating eyes “Yeah”. “Isaac have you been All-Pro in this league before?” “Yes”. “Do you want to be All-Pro again?” “Yes”. If you can be All-Pro do you think you can be MVP of your team...Do you want to be MVP of your team?” “Yes”. “Wow, if you can be All-Pro, MVP of your team; do you think you can be MVP of the NFL?” “Yes”. Holy Smokes, if you can be All-Pro, MVP of your team, MVP of the NFL...how bad do you want to lead your team to a SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP!? Don’t tell me, you get on this line and you SHOW ME! HOW BAD YOU WANT TO WIN A SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP!!!”

He hops on that starting line like it’s the first rep of the day and he runs his last 200m in 25 seconds!!!!!

Like a Phoenix we will rise from the ashes

“The truth shall set you free” and it’s amazing how truth comes in the simplest of forms.

A child’s story: The Wicked Witch had put a stop to the Tin Man’s “plan”. By the time Dorothy and the Scarecrow stumbled upon the Tin Man, he was a rusted statue. Couldn’t move, he was stuck, I know what that is like. The two came along and offered a helping hand.. “Can you put some oil on my elbow?” Dorothy and the Scarecrow oiled him up and now he could move and started to get some momentum. He just needed a little generosity.

The Tin Man asks “where ya going?’ “We’re off to see the Wizard. He can grant our wish. I want to go home and the Scarecrow here wants a brain.” The Tin Man, having a brain, thinks to himself: “I could go back to chopping wood, I know where that gets me or maybe this Wizard could grant my wish. I can get a new heart”. Out of nowhere his “plan” changed. Out of nowhere he joined up with a new team.

Now 2 become 3 as they march along the Yellow Brick Road and eventually they pick up a fourth companion: A Lion; he lacks courage. He joins up with the team. Now 3 have become 4.

On their way they experienced some hurdles, such is life. The Wicked Witch “can’t let them waltz right on through”.

When the team gets to see the Wizard does he grant their wish? Does he give them the one thing they desire most? No. “In order for me to grant your wish you have to do something for me….. defeat the Wicked Witch, her army, and bring me her broom! Now Go!!!!”

You want to talk about a big hurdle to overcome! Defeat the WIcked Witch, the person they feared the most; but this team was motivated more by courage than what they feared.

As they faced the greatest hurdle of their life what did they find? This Lion; He found courage as he dove head first into an army of soldiers guarding the WIcked Witch’s castle. The Scarecrow: he found a brain. He’s the one who came up with the plan. Can’t do that if you don’t have a brain.

The Tin Man, he cared so deeply he shed a tear. You can’t do that if you don’t have a heart.

The Wizard couldn’t grant any of them their wish. What he gave them was a hurdle of immeasurable height to overcome. They lost the idea of “their plan” and came together as a T.E. A. M.- together everyone achieves more.

If they hadn’t served one another and the common goal they would have surely failed. As they lost their idea of themselves, they found what they desired most in their life.

What they desired most was already there.

My life is the story of the Wizard of Oz. I am the Lion, I am the Scarecrow, I am the Tin Man, and I am Dorothy. I have the red shoes to prove it. (Click my shoes together) “there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.” ……...I have even been the Wicked Witch.

I spent a lot of my life running from “home”.

That “rag tag” of a team thought the answers came from a source outside of themselves and like them I was looking for Oz to grant my wish; thinking my solutions resided within my achievements.

Out of my brokenness, what I saw as my greatest failure, came a great blessing.

Only as a new team found me, a new plan emerged. I got out of the way of “me” and I found the “me” in T.E.A.M.

I serve athletes. I coach teams...to be their best. These athletes and these teams have won championships and have broken records.

That client, my first professional athlete, he played for the St. Louis Rams, it’s the summer of ‘99 and the Rams lost the most games of any NFL franchise in the 90’s. When I’m asking him “do you want to win a Super Bowl Championship?” I’ll admit I’m thinking “there’s a snowball’s chance in hell the Rams are going to win”.

Who caught the game winning touchdown in the Super Bowl that season? Isaac Bruce. He outran 3 NFL defensive backs on his way to the end zone for the game winning touchdown. “NFL defensive backs are catching me from behind and I don’t like it.”

He also told me something else during that summer of training: “God came to me in a dream when I was 12 years old and told me I was going to play NFL football.” Dreams do come true.

I was there watching on TV and at that moment, I felt I was very much a part of helping someone achieve Their Plan.. I was part of a T.E.A.M.

As I competed and coached I learned something about breaking records, they are just like Generational curses….they are there to be broken. A benchmark for a new standard of how things will be done.

How?

It is assured those forgive will find peace. It is assured those who forgive will remember who they are