Piss Pucks in Party Town

I used to be pretty good a snowboarding. Good enough to make my paycheck by teaching kids how to ride a half pipe and giving mountain tours at Lake Louise.

How does this tie into piss pucks? What in the hell does any of it have to do with training?

I once read an interview article in a snowboarding magazine about a Canadian guy who had run the ranks of pro snowboarding and had become an action film maker. He was widely known for being a total loose cannon and his party stunts such as breaking beer bottles over his own head.

Something that stood out in that article and has always stayed with me was his piss puck analogy.

"There are two types of people, givers and takers. Givers always contribute something beneficial to others around them throughout their lives and when they die, givers go to party town to spend the rest of eternity. Takers on the other hand, never contribute and are only out to satisfy their own selfish needs. When takers die, the also go to party town. But they go as a piss puck. All the givers get to spend eternity drinking their face off and pissing on the takers"

So now, how does this tie into your training?

Well have you ever trained in a group or with a training partner?

If you have it doesn't take long to identify the givers and the takers. Givers are contributing to the improvement of the group by helping in whatever way is best suited to their individual abilities. The new guy loads plates and helps spot, the veterans are always coaching and teaching the new guys. The givers work for the best interest of the group which in the end helps them achieve success too.

Takers usually don't contribute much to a training group. They bring a poor or negative attitude, they always seem busy or in a hurry to leave when someone else needs help or it's time to clean up. And they usually don't have much good advice or coaching cues to offer the other lifters in the group. Ultimately they may benefit short term from the coaching and labour of the givers but in the end they hold back the progress of the group and themselves.

What are you contributing to the people around you?