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Today I had a great conversation with a very good friend of mine.
"What is your specialty he asked me?"
"My specialty is high level sport specific conditioning. It is to help athletes or non-athletes to take their physiques to the highest level", I answered.
"That is too broad," he said. "You need a specialty."
I told him that this IS my specialty - this is what a good strength coach should be able to do. And I have proved it through my work with world class athletes from 7 different sports ranging from figure skating to wrestling.
A good strength coach should be able to improve ALL bio-motor abilities for any sport when these abilities are supplementary for the sport.
What do I mean by that?
I mean that I can't teach a powerlifter strength better than a good powerlifting coach or speed better than a good track coach,but I can teach the necessary amount of strength and speed in any team sport and any racquet sport and most martial arts.
So having a specialty means that there is also something that I do not do.
I do not give nutritional advice, I do not rehab injuries, I do not help people lose weight and I am not an expert in bodybuilding either.(The performance training that I take my athletes through often makes them lean and muscular though.)
The point is, that a specialty can be defined on different scales. My specialty, as mentioned above, can be considered a large scale specialty. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I have heard that as a surgeon you can choose between 7 different specialties for the heart. That would be considered a small scale specialty.
In most fields specialties on a variety of scales are needed.
On a personal level I believe it is important that we listen to our gut feelings and provide the world with OUR unique specialty, our unique gift. Whether you are a teacher, a coach, a consultant, or an athlete it is important that we ask ourselves:
"What am I really good at?"
In close connection there is an even more important question to ask:
"What do I want to be really good at?"
It can be very powerful to define ones specialty as something that is slightly outside your current capabilities.
After having asked those questions perform a "specialty check": Imagine performing whatever you have just defined as your specialty. Notice your feelings. If you feel joy, passion, purpose - if you feel FULLY ALIVE, then you have defined your specialty well.
If you feel boxed in, limited, empty or frustated go back and define your specialty again.
My friend's point was that a well defined specialty is good for marketing. "Perception is reality," he said. "People need to know what you are all about."
This can be very true as seen in the case of Paul Chek. I can't count the number of times I have heard people refer to him as "the swiss ball guy" a tool that he has worked extensively with, but at the same time is a fraction of what he does.
For example, he has studied vegetarianism extensively and you can read his article by clicking here.
Move with Passion,
Karsten Jensen
PS: I am sitting on a swiss ball as I write this. If you want to learn about how to use it for training then hurry to our products page.
PPS: If you have a specific swiss ball training question you can email me at yestostrenght@sympatico.ca and I will post a
video with the answer.
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