Ten years ago this month I started this blog. The last ten years have been a journey, a journey of growth, discovery, self-reflection and sharing. I got the idea to write this blog when I was driving across country returning home to Sarasota after a terrible experience with the Nike Oregon Project where my dream job quickly turned into a bad dream. I needed to put the back-to-back negative experiences of the Oregon Project and the New York Mets behind me. I knew I needed to find my voice again and define myself and not let those experiences define me but to learn from them and move on. I was out in the middle of the Great Plains when I came up with the idea of the Functional Path blog, I vowed that I would use it to help me focus on completing my book Athletic Development – The Art & Science of Functional Sports Training and as a means to define myself and regain my confidence. I knew I needed to dedicate myself to writing each day so I used the blog to motivate me. I am a big fan of John Steinbeck who wrote 200 to 500 words a day in a journal as a warm-up to his actual writing (Working Days –The Journal of the Grapes of Wrath), so like my literary hero Steinbeck I used the blog to get me started writing each day. I finished the book that fall and it was published in early 2007. I am trying to find the same inspiration to finish my next book – Developing Athletes. Hopefully when I get done with my travels in October I will get back to working on the book daily with the blog as a daily kick-start.
Ten years later I am still writing the blog. Sometimes it has been a catharsis, it is certainly a daily reminder to stay on task, to gather my thoughts and seize the day. As I have said several times over the years, I write the blog for myself not to gain followers, to market or sell anything. The fact the blog has attracted a certain following is flattering. I am looking forward to continuing to write the blog to share ideas and information that I have found useful in my career. As I embark on a different stage of my career with my professional focus on GAIN I will be sharing more of what is happening with GAIN and the GAIN community. I hope there are many more years of reflections on traveling the functional path.
Kevin Boyke
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. The lessons I’ve learned from you has made me a better coach. Happy 10-Year Anniversary!
Ray Reiser
In about ten years at Iowa my grandfather, the late Thos. E. Martin, had many national champions in the field events and the rifle team. He himself was big ten hammer champion, third in the high hurdles, captain of a nationak champuonship rifle team, on the cross country team (cocaptain?), and played tackle on the football team until a knee injury sidelined him.
He told me that immediately after practice a 10-20 minute nap and you should always feel better than when you arrived or you had overtrainedn
He also said that his athletes started the season invigorated from their growth and that if not held down they would work too hard and take most of the season to loosen up and get where they were at the beginning of the season.