STANDARDS

WEEK OF 11/2/2026

 

Being a coach is such a weird thing.  On one hand, you’re just a regular person.  You’re fallible, you have weird habits, you are still figuring everything out.  You know, you’re human.

On the other, you’re a specialist and responsible for driving individuals to perform.

So who am I to tell people to show up on time?  I mean, people have complicated lives, complicated motivations, and on and on.  They’re human just like me.

But a better question is this: why are the standards the standards?

The answer is simple: otherwise, you have chaos.  Otherwise everything becomes negotiable.  Otherwise we can easily give too much power to our excuses (all the while believing they are absolutely valid)!

Take showing up on time, for instance.  That’s my #1 standard.  Does it damage an athlete if they are a few minutes late?  Not really.  Is it particularly problematic if half the room strolls in after we start?  Probably not.

But how we do one thing is how we do everything.  We either can manage being accountable, or we cannot.  We can either meet standards, or we can’t.  It’s a slippery slope to allow yourself to decide what’s important, because determining whether our decision comes from a place of intelligent optimization, or a place of laziness, is nearly impossible in the moment.  And we have an uncanny ability to convince ourselves that what we “feel” in any moment is good justification for doing what we want to do.

However, in a combat sport where the losers can potentially have life altering experiences, preparation is not just about winning, it’s about survival.  Standards draw a hard line in the sand and reinforce that there are certain non-negotiable aspects to these sports.  And excusing yourself from meeting those standards can result in serious injury or worse.  Punctuality, recovery, diet, focus — these standards are all designed to mold you into an athlete capable of performing under extreme pressure.

For martial artists who are not competitors, these standards are more like suggestions I suppose.  There’s no reckoning coming down the pipeline. But I also want to ask you this question: why not meet the standard?  Aren’t we here to work hard and become the best we can be?  Why hang back and let ourselves off the hook?  Why treat our own, non-competitive goals, with less gravity than the athlete next to us?

So rather than asking “why should I meet these standards”, ask yourself “why not?”  I wonder if you’ll find a good answer!