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AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE EXCEPTIONALISM SPORTS PAGE
By: Charles W. Boatright
Strength & Endurance of Sports for Our Faith– Sports still remains the best platform to convey the importance of strength/endurance in life. Faith is strength and endurance to perseverance through challenges conditions with confidence.
There are two books that I wrote on how I have an age-defying health and fitness at age 67 and how I developed a self-coaching system that I use in my golf game and welding shop. Both books are on KINDLE.
I know that the only way for me to build and maintain my strength and endurance especially at age 67 is to use strength and conditioning. If I want to increase my strength and conditioning, I must increase the challenges of my strength and conditioning type workout.
Maintaining my strength and endurance allows me to work in my welding shop, on my farm, and enjoy sports, like golf. Sports play a major part of our lives that we can use in other areas of our lives.
Even the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
(24) Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it (with intention). (25) Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we are imperishable (defy the aging process). (26) So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air (purpose). (27) But I discipline my body and keep it under control…..(exercise the mind and body).
Why We Look Forward to the Kickoff of the College Football Season
There is no doubt that American Football remains the most popular sport in our country and parts of the world, like we saw in Dublin, Ireland on Saturday between Georgia TECH and Florida State.
This leads up to and what we look forward to on Labor Day Weekend each year, week No. 1 of College Football Kick-Off. The origins of American Football has its roots in Rugby, but with a twist. There is nothing that can draw people from diverse backgrounds and nationalities together for a single purpose than College Football and tailgating. Sport, and particularly Football and baseball, still remains the most integrated venue across our Nation. Some people only thinks that there are only two Season, Football and Baseball.
People that might be strangers where a welder, doctor, and a lawyer, CEO’s, or engineer that share the same passion of watching perseverance, true grit, and determination play out on the gridiron or diamond. There is nothing that generates that much passion from the crowd more than a 45- yard pass completion or a 45- yard run from scrimmage with lead blocking for a touchdown.
The Faith in a Well Ran Route
Those well ran pass routes or run plays are no accident or just pure luck but coordinated effort of 11- players with precise assignments. To consider these plays as pure luck is to negate the hard physical and mental training, conditioning over long hours of preparation by players and coaching staff put into their commitment.
This is an important part of sports that develops those intangibles like motivation and momentum as a significant part of a player’s strength and endurance depicting the player’s soul to keep pressing forward and never quitting.
Motivation, inspiration, or momentum to perform are only possible by the hard true grit work of preparation and long hours of practice with strength and conditioning put in at the gym and on the practice field. Perseverance of the team is based on repetition and establishing a routine to develop the athletes instincts.
Get Involved in Sports as a Spectator or Athlete
There are significant benefits for us to be evolved in sports even as a spectator for our physical and mental health. Because of my age, I workout in my gym and play golf where I walk the course with my 45 pound bag.
Being a low handicap golfer, I know all too well of the long hours of physical and mental practice with strength and conditioning it takes to hit fairways and green in regulation.
I was asked to demonstrate my Palmer-Pro Golf Swing Technique on Saturday, June 03rd, 2022 when a sports show with a local TV Station, WJTV-12 in Jackson, MS, contacted me to ask me if they could film a demonstration of my golf swing technique. To get more people involved in sports, I was happy to allow the camera crew to film me demonstrating my Palmer-Pro Golf Swing Technique, in the promo video shown below:
If you want pressure, have a television camera crew and sports director film you making five (5) consecutive 295- yard Tee-Shots to hit within 15- feet of a Home Depot Orange Bucket.
This filming is the sheer definition of pressure where you have to rely totally on your instinctive motor skills where thinking only freezes your abilities and causes stress in your performance. There is no substitute for confidence in front of a camera crew where the video will be aired on Sunday on WJTV-12 Sports Zone Show.
The following is how I train in my sport of golf and in my hobbies that include welding that is now my second career after retiring.
Techniques on How I Practice, Train, and Condition Myself
There are both mental and physical techniques involved in any sports and any other other performance or skill that affects both my golf game, as well as, my welding. I totally enjoy working in my welding shop. If you want to start a hobby that you will enjoy, I would suggest taking up welding so that you can lose all track of time doing it.
You will find that sports, a trade profession, or even a hobby is just as much a mental technique as it is a physical technique. Believe me, your mental techniques will lead your physical techniques.
I’m specifically training my subconscious mind, the heart of my instinctive efforts based on muscle memory. If you are thinking, it is like negating all of your natural ability that you have developed time in doing. There are four (4) techniques that we in aviation use called Situational Awareness that are essential in perfecting your skills in any other area. I learned these in aviation, that I also use in my golf game and in my welding listed below:
1. Develop a Natural and Repetitive Routine tasks.
2. Practice Perception of performing under actual conditions that must exist in both.
3. Rely on a high degree of comprehension for relaxation, confidence, and muscle memory.
4. Allow the Subconscious mind to project and visualize the process in order to be IN THE ZONE.
Perseverance the Basis of your Confidence (Faith)
We all recognize the importance of perseverance in sports when the game isn’t going our way that you had expected it to go; but to QUIT (a four letter word we don’t use) is not an option.
The word perseverance helps us understand one of the Bible’s most important verses that applies to sports, job, hobby, and in life highlighted by the Apostle James, in James 2:18. Perseverance helps us gain a better understanding of how James is describing our FAITH; take the word FAITH and WORKS and just substitute them with the words PERSEVERANCE and TRUE GRIT:
In every instance where one’s faith was tested; it was preceded by a physical commitment.
James 2:18 But someone will say, “You have perseverance and I have true grit.” Show me your perseverance apart from your true grit, and I will show you my perseverance by my true grit of never giving up. This will help you understand the word faith and work with perseverance and true grit that every athlete or spectator knows all too well. We see in too many cases that the team that never gives up but believes in their training will compete at a higher level.
Perseverance and true grit is the best definition to understand our faith. First of all, you can’t express your faith in what you think you can do; but in what you know you have done.
Like in golf you can’t fake a golf swing based on what you think you can do; but what you have actually have done and proved. This is one main reason that draws us to sports instead of politics or our media coverage of the news; because you can’t fake sports.
Referring back to Situational Awareness that is based on four (4) simple principles- Repetitive, Perception, Comprehension, and Projection. These are techniques to develop our faith of perseverance and true grit. Again, all through the Bible, the Bible expresses how our faith is expressed through a physical action and commitment first.
The following is how to apply these techniques of Situational Awareness:
TECH No. 1 REPETITIVE ROUTINE
Natural Repetitive Routine is based on one’s instincts not thinking. DO NOT THINK but ACT!
You remember what Maverick in TOPGUN: MAVERICK (Tom Cruise) told Rooster (Miles Teller)– You think up there, you’re dead.
Develop a repetitive routine where you can expect pressures that will occur on the job, field, court, or course. Don’t think that having adrenaline under actual conditions is an anomaly or detrimental to your performance. But learn to harness your adrenaline where you can hardwire your muscle memory into following your instinctive repetitiveness.
If you can expect the unexpected to occur, you’ll be able to adapt to and adjust to changes on the fly. Don’t be anxious. This is where developing experience is key to your performance. This movie 13-Hours is a great example of command and control.
Trust and focus on your repetitive routine and training; first and foremost. You don’t have to perform your entire routine in one maneuver, action, or moment; just focus on getting started for the first element in your routine. This first step will kick in your instinctive processes for a chain chemical reaction to occur that can harness your adrenaline.
The mindset is to create a simple repetitive procedure that can be repeated, over and over again without exceptions or thinking. Also, accept variances; if you don’t get the results you would like, chalk it up as experience.
Your natural instincts are based on a repetitive routine executed over and over again that is consistent and doesn’t change.
Remember: Failure develops experience; and success produces confidence or your faith in your life and in sports. This is why I encourage parents to get their children into sports to prepare for life experiences.
TECH No. 2 PERCEPTION
Develop your perception of the conditions that will occur that are key to your training and conditioning. Your Natural and Repetitive Routine and tasks under actual conditions will trigger your adrenaline to create a chemical reaction from your instincts. The more you become accustomed to your adrenaline the better you can stay in your routine and sequence.
Some people call perception superstition, but I call it a major part of establishing your routine and sequence. If it is wearing the same pair of socks that provide you confidence; guess what– that is what you do to establish your perceived confidence in your routine and sequence.
Perception will drive your performance.
TECH No. 3 COMPREHENSION
Use your comprehension, or command, to have a complete understanding of your abilities and fundamental principles that are essential (e.g., your mechanics, techniques, sequence, and instincts). To master your command and control you can’t hesitate or have gaps in your ability.
You remember the movie THE ROCK, where John Mason (Sean Connery) told Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage)- Never hesitate! This is command and control of comprehension.
Your best process to develop comprehensive, or command and control, performance is to practice under virtual simulated conditions that will exist in actual situations. This is where your mind can’t distinguish the difference between your practice sessions and your actual performance. This develops a high degree of relaxation, confidence, and muscle memory.
My golf practice sessions are where I use my Home Depot Orange Bucket Challenge where my objective is to hit 4 out of 5 golf shots within a predetermined zone around the orange bucket. If more than one golf shot hits outside the predetermined zone, I must start back over again until I achieve the challenge. This creates the adrenaline you will experience on the golf course.
TECH No. 4 PROJECTION
Use your projection for the ability to focus and to mentally visualize an outcome prior to the execution of your performance based on a well defined process. This allows you to focus on a process and avoids cognitive (thinking) overload of what is called the ‘What IF’ Factor’ situation occurring. IF stands for Instant Frustration.
Focusing will override your thinking process that will only disrupt your instinctive performance. Focusing will allow you to perform in the ZONE where distractions are eliminated. This is your ZONE of faith. Remember conditions will change that causes distractions; but your objective remains the same.
In James 1:3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. This will allow your mind to rely on your muscle memory to be confident and relax.
The more relaxed you are the better you will perform, naturally. The Bible explains this as having peace of mind. In Isaiah 26:3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. This is your rock of performance.
You follow these four (4) techniques and you will achieve what you might not have believed that you could have achieved.
Case in point– After I retired, I started my welding hobby after I had attended a welding class at a VOTECH College five years before my retirement. I ran a few practice beads with 7018 Rods on some scrap metal before I took on my first major project the next day. The major project was a 16- inch Dia. x 30- inch long x 115 Lb Smoker Gridiron Pit, shown below, that I have enjoyed smoking perfect tasting meats.
Your Health & Fitness
If you are trying to get into better shape and drop pounds and inches, this process described above can be used to achieve your health and fitness objective. It is based on THE MELIORA Health & Fitness Process. I dropped over 9- inches, 52- Lbs. in 6- months; and something else I wasn’t expecting to drop- I dropped 30- years off my appearance where on the cover of my Kindle E-Book I’m 67 years old, shown below, to purchase from Kindle, please use the book cover before to select:
The MELIORA DIET & FITNESS Program, how at age 67, I have the health, energy, and the appearance of when I was in my mid-30’s. I’m still able to model our Tiger SPORTY Cockpit Apparel and people think I’m 35- years old. The MELIORA DIET is based on WHEN I eat (between 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and WHAT I eat just by knowing how to read the Standard Nutrition Label to select my food that is a diet high in Protein, Fiber, Omega-3 Fats, Probiotic, Antioxidants, with complex Carbs, while low intake of Sugars and especially the hidden sugars, (Starches).
EXCALIBUR, Athlete;s Forged Performance that is a Faith-Based Strength Training and Conditioning for kids of all ages to get involved in a Sport and a Hobby for the Abundant Life to Defy the ravages of aging and life. This is a great coaching platform for Homeschooling students to have have a sport in their curriculum.
Both of these E-Books are on KINDLE. Using these links will take you to each of these books that you can purchase on KINDLE.