Welcome to 2010

It’s 2010, and I’ve started the year off by making some small improvements to this site. To start with, I’ve added some new content. I have added some photo and video galleries to the site.  I’ve also changed the background and header images slightly and reconfigured the front page.  Expect a few more small changes in the coming weeks as I try to make the site more user friendly as it grows. If you subscribe to the site’s RSS feed, please take note that I’ve changed the address of the feed and you should change your settings in order to keep getting updates.

My winter break is also nearing an end.  Just to be clear, by a “break” I simply mean a chance to visit family and friends back in America.  The past few weeks have definitely not been a break from training, as I’ve scrambled to squeeze in practice whenever possible.  I had a wonderful time at Christmas visiting my girlfriend Kate’s welcoming family in scenic Mount Shasta, California.  After that, I put in some hours at work before spending New Year’s relaxing and sledding with my family at our property outside of Leavenworth, Washington.  Now I’m back again in rainy Seattle for one more week before I return to Kamloops and focus entirely on training again.

One thing I have yet to do is make any New Year’s resolutions about throwing.  It’s the new year and athletes all around me are setting their goals and making their resolutions for the coming season. But I have yet to set any goals and likely won’t. I used to be a goal setter. I used to have a long list of goals each season. But after a while I felt that goals were doing more harm than good.  I would be upset when I missed a goal and when I reached a goal I never really got to enjoy the moment.  Instead, I would react as though I had just accomplished something that was expected of me.

Since I started law school, I stopped making as many short term goals.  At the time, I didn’t know how much of my time law school would suck away from me, so I really didn’t know what to expect from the season.  I decided it would be best to just take things slowly and see where it all shook out when the spring came.  It all worked out and my first two years in law school ended up being the best two years of my career so far.

I will approach this season in much the same way.  I follow my coach’s every word and don’t need short term goals to provide me with extra motivation to train hard, do that extra rep in the weight room, or go to bed on time.  I will do what I need to do and see how things shake out.  My long-term goals are still there, keeping me focused and patient as I work towards achieving what I know I will achieve.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on goal setting and the role it plays role in training.  Please feel free to share them in the comments section.