Ignatius Smarter Stronger Faster

By Ignatius (Naat) Loubser

In the movie enter the dragon Bruce Lee is teaching a student and explains to him he needs to have “emotional content” in his kick, to which the student kicks with more aggressive anger... Very sternly he gets reprimanded by Bruce as he clearly said emotional content NOT anger. What I believe “emotional content” means is that you need to be able to move by being in the correct emotional state of mind and not a burst of uncontrolled emotion. Also to collectively use your emotions and put it into the channel you need to perform in that MOMENT.

I have also lately come to understand the whole idea of emotional content from a coaching / strength coaching / programming perspective. And what I have come to understand is that every athlete and every program that I do takes a given amount of emotional content from me. I always thought that if I had infinite amount of hours in the day I can train an infinite amount of athletes... BUT this is not true to properly perform my programming and MOST important the execution of those programs I need to put in “EMOTIONAL CONTENT” into every aspect and if I and the athletes do that and move with full emotional content within the program towards the end goal, that is when all that combined energy can be accumulated to create the end performance. I noticed this clearly when everytime i sit to design the “taper / peak” strength programs for all my athletes, it sometimes takes me 3-5 days of mulling over ideas before I actually start programming and then it takes me 3 hours to design and program the end product going back and forth checking and re-checking all the while FEELING what I have to program FEELING by putting myself into the athlete’s or teams position, the physical, mental and emotional strain the athlete or team is undergoing. Doing that is what I do to put in emotional content.

Out of all the athletes and teams I am involved with there is 1 individual that stands out thus far and it was shown last night (2012-07-29 21H05 South-African time) and confirmed to me at least, what can be done with emotional content from the athlete and coach and when I was given the privilege of doing my job without my hands tied behind my back. (With some athletes and teams my hands feel tied by sports coaches and athletes for various reasons like coaches not adhering to my advice to athletes not following proper execution or not arriving for sessions that is planned)