A Guide to Ian King’s Philosophies
for Success in Physical Preparation
Extracts
Ian
has divided this book in to five sections, and it
totals approximately 55,000 words, over 200 pages,
and 44 chapters. Each section is devoted to key
philosophies as they relate to the ‘being’ or
‘thinking’ of a physical preparation coach, although
he stress these divisions are arbitrary.
If you
would like to extracts from each of
these five sections of the book, click on the link for that
chapter! When you are ready to add this book to your
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Part One – Professional Philosophies for
the Physical Preparation Coach
Here are
some examples of the content from Part 1, Professional
Philosophies:
Chapter 4 - Training Program Design Intuition is more important
than science.
This
statement shows the divergence in foundational beliefs between
my philosophies and the majority of mainstream beliefs. Western
world science is based on the ability of man to control and
measure all aspects of life, including the training process. In
promoting this view of science, it is promoted that science has
all the answers and not to trust your own intuition. My belief
is that you can, and should, learn to get in touch with and
respect the information provided by your intuition. This is more
important than the non-specific (to you) information provided by
‘science’.
Chapter 6 - Training Variables: Intensity
When
determining how intense one should train in any given training
session, I strongly suggest that doing as much as one is capable
of doing is not the optimal approach. Rather, I seek to guess
the answer to the question – how much should I do today to
ensure I improve for the next workout? This question should
guide the decision on optimal training load, not the question
‘how much can I do today’. Put another way: What should I do
today that will most likely result in improved work capacity and
performance in the next session of a similar nature?
Chapter 8 - Flexibility: Don’t take advice from people who can’t
touch their toes.
Due to
the significant absence of flexibility training in training
programs to date, most athletes, coaches and other ‘experts’
have never been involved significantly in a stretching training
program. Despite this, and despite the obvious physical
manifestations of lacking ability to demonstrate range of
movement, many form outspoken and dogmatic positions on topics
including stretching. That is their prerogative, however my
suggestion would be – don’t put too much weight on the words of
someone who cannot touch their toes, and who has never lived
with a committed to this form of training!
Chapter 9 - Strength: The athlete with the biggest muscles
doesn’t equate to the best athlete or the winner.
In
cultures where strength and size are more glorified, such as
North America, there is a misconception that the athlete with
the most developed muscularity will be the best athlete and win.
This is not so. True optimization of sporting performance
focuses on the shape of the athlete that is required by the
sport in question, and supports their unique way of playing that
sport – not on the criteria of a bodybuilding contest!
Chapter 13 - Injury Prevention & Rehabilitation: There is a
common perception in sport and society that injuries are normal,
expected and acceptable – they are none of these.
Injuries
are not normal, expected or acceptable – they are a sign that
something is wrong with the training process and needs to be
corrected. With a greater focus on injury prevention, and
greater abilities to identify injury potential, these injuries
would be minimized at worst.
Chapter 15 - Equipment: Equipment is like toys – with an
immature mind, you can be drawn into the belief that he who has
the most toys wins.
Most
equipment is like children’s toys. They can give the owner a
warm feeling of superiority. But my reality is that a child who
is brought up with less or even no toys is not necessarily
disadvantaged, and so it is with equipment. In some cases, I
believe the child with fewer toys is better off, as they learn
to develop play in their natural environment. In the same way a
physical preparation coach with fewer toys may be forced to be
more creative and gain greater insights into the achievement of
loading than a coach spoilt with all the toys.
Chapter 17 - Professional Development Education: Decide if it
your peers you are seeking to impress, or the market.
In
antiquity men studied for their own sake; nowadays men study for
the sake of impressing others.--Confucius
In making
your professional development educational decisions, decide if
it is your peers you are seeking to impress, or your clients in
the market place.
Formal
education at the upper end is extremely driven by peer-appeasing
statements such as ‘I don’t mean anything to anybody until I
have a PhD’ reinforce this. If your life goal is to appease your
industry colleagues, and that’s fine if that’s what you want to
do, go ahead and be motivated by this in your educational
decisions. Become students of those who share these beliefs.
However,
if you life goal is to bring value to the market place of your
client, understand that they care more about how you can add
value to their lives than how much you have impressed your
colleagues.
Part Two – Personal Philosophies for the
Physical Preparation Coach
Here are
some examples of the content from Part 2, Personal Philosophies:
Chapter 18 - Right and Wrong: Avoid dogma.
The
Oxford Dictionary defines dogma as ‘an article of faith or tenet
especially laid down by ecclesiastical authority, the
authoritative defining of what is to be believed, the body of
beliefs so defined’.
Dogma
involves believing one is right, so all others must be wrong. It
is the undying belief in only one way. Dogma by its nature
adheres to the tenet of right and wrong, and has no place in the
mind-set of the person who chooses to think as I have outlined
in these philosophies.
Also,
avoid or refrain from those who do chose dogma, as they have
little of value to teach. In the words of the legendary
Australian bushman, leather craftsman, entrepreneur and
ultimately philosopher, R.M. Williams (1984):
The sages
nod their heads when I speak of truth, confident that like all
men that their own beliefs are the truth. My advice is for
everyone to eliminate all dogmas and see for themselves what
remains.--R.M. Williams, 1984
Chapter 20 - The Ego: Living an ego driven life.
Whist in
the ego consciousness, we can never truly relax or find peace.
We are constantly defending, comparing, worrying and feeling
that something is missing. We never truly enjoy the moment
because we are always comparing and worrying.
The ego,
having rejected the unity and natural abundance of the universe
as a whole, seeks security by attaching itself to what it thinks
it needs to survive or to receive approval and recognition. In
doing this, we compromise our own self-belief in the belief that
we are not somebody unless we have ‘x’, or are attached to
somebody of importance. This forces our hand in how we live,
constraining us to form relationships that we don’t really want
or need, and giving us a feeling of lack in the absence of these
security or importance-giving relationships or objects.
Chapter 21 - Become a student: When the student is ready the
teacher will appear.
This is a
fantastic little saying, but it is more than just a sentiment. I
have seen the difference between situations where a person is
interested, and where a person is truly committed to being a
student. If you have a burning desire to learn, you will
ultimately find a teacher appearing. You may be surprised to
know how many potential teachers are watching you, waiting to
see you show the commitment to learning from them that warrants
or motivates them to want to avail themselves as your teacher.
Chapter 22 - Trust your intuition
It
appears that there is significant social pressure not to think
for yourself, not to trust your intuition. There was a time in
modern history where the church dominated thoughts and actions.
This dominance of how to think and act has been overtaken by
governments and regulations. In the same way those in power used
churches to regulate the people I believe that science is now
used to regulate thinking. Since science took a more dominant
role than religion in cosmology, the power shifted in the minds
of many.
Chapter 23 - Pick the fruit: On a ‘needs to know’ basis.
As a
practitioner, one of the best ways to find out what we need to
know is to do. Go and face the challenges of servicing the
athlete. Questions will be raised. Questions such as ‘what is
the best way to achieve x? Through a combination of trial and
error and research, you will find a better solution, an answer
to your question.
As time
passes you will also find you forget much of what you learnt in
your formal education. Personally, I recall a very small
percent of what I learnt in the halls for formal education. Most
of what I do in my servicing of athletes was learnt through
personal education, in pursuit of answers to the challenges I
faced.
Part Three – Business Philosophies for
the Physical Preparation Coac
Here are
some examples of the content from Part 3, Business Philosophies:
Chapter 26 - Service: It’s not about you, it’s about the client.
If you
are egocentric, or have emotional needs that are greater than
the needs of the client, this is an area which may need
refining.
For
example, during a session with a client, how often/much is the
topic of conversation about you? Hopefully very little if at
all.
How much
of what you do is driven by your needs versus the clients needs?
Are you doing what is truly best for them or what you feel like
doing or prefer to do yourself?
Chapter 28 - Your Gift and the Receiver: We are all born with a
gift.
Every one
of us is born with a gift, and perhaps more than one. The
greatest challenge a human seems to have is recognizing this
gift. If you don’t recognize it, you cannot accept it. If you
cannot accept it, you cannot use it to it’s fullest, and as a
result many potential recipients will be denied.
Perhaps
it is lack of self-belief or self-esteem. Perhaps it is a
cultural bias, for examples Australians are against the belief
that someone else in their home country could actually be better
than them at anything, or receive more than they do. We call
this the ‘tall poppy syndrome’ of Australia, and I explain it in
part as an extension of our socialist approach to government,
economy and money. For whatever reason, universally there is a
common pattern of people not believing they have a gift.
Chapter 29 - Marketing: Two different approaches to marketing –
meeting the need versus creating the need.
I
identify two major approaches to marketing. One in which you
identify a need and create the product/service and the other
where you create the product/service and then create the need.
My
preference is the first one – meeting the need. This may still
involve education of the client to optimize the service or
product, but is still distinctly different from the latter
method.
Chapter 30 - Sales: Selling is not evil!
Most of
us somewhere in our lives picked up the belief that there is
something inherently evil in selling – this is not so! I recall
a story told by well-known US financial educator Robert Kiyosaki,
who told how his father had a bad experience with a sales person
and therefore adopted the belief that selling was bad and all
sales people evil!
I have
learnt to respect salespeople and their craft, and have seen the
pride that top salespeople have in their abilities. It is one of
the least income-limited professions, in that on
commission-based income one’s income is directly proportional to
their ability to sell, not to some market perception of limit in
hourly rate.
Chapter 31 - Competition: You have no competition.
If we
fall to the temptation of focusing on what we perceive to be our
competition, we drain our creative spirit and energy in that
focus, and risk imitating our so-labeled competition.
Instead
of focusing on so-called competition, I suggest you create your
own unique marketing position, clarify what is unique about what
you offer in business, that no one else does (to your
knowledge). This may involve innovation, looking out of your
industry for ideas, leading the way in a concept.
Chapter 32 - A Balanced Life: Balance work and play, clients and
family.
As you
work in, work on, and build you business, you will have other
commitments in life. Commitments to yourself, commitments to
family, commitments to friends. And these commitments will
require time. How you balance your time between business and
these other commitments will say a lot about how your life will
look in the years to come.
There is
a saying that goes something like this: Be careful of who you
become as you pursue what you want to have
Part Four – Financial Philosophies for
the Physical Preparation Coach
Here are
some examples of the content from Part 4, Financial
Philosophies:
Chapter 33 - Money and You: Your beliefs about money will
determine how much you receive and or retain.
No matter
how much you strive for or desire a life without financial
hardships, if you have limiting beliefs about money, your
ability to create/attract income and or your ability to
effectively retain that money will be limited by these beliefs.
Ideally,
before you go and work in exchange for money or build businesses
with the intent to create income and or profit, you should
become intimate with your beliefs about money.
Chapter 34 - Money and Abundance: True abundant living can and
needs to come before money.
The most
effective path to creating more money in your life begins with
losing the feeling of lack. If you strive for money from a
position of ‘I don’t have enough’ or similar lack or scarcity
perspectives, you will always feel this way.
This lack
mentality can impede the flow of money to you, and may also
leave you in a constant search for more. When is more enough?
Abundant
living begins with recognizing that you have all you need to
have now and having gratitude for that, and seeking or striving
for more as a bonus, instead of ‘if I don’t get that I am
lacking’.
Chapter 35 - Your Service and Money: Physical preparation
coaches don’t need to be poor!
I have
sensed a belief or perception with physical preparation that
being a physical preparation coach means you need to forgo
financial success, because we are little more than a community
service. Granted the recent history of this industry has been
volunteer-based, but those days are gone.
You don’t
have to remain poor because you chose to be involved in physical
preparation as a coach!
Certainly
there are many industries where the average earning capacity is
higher. But why contribute to keeping the average income in
physical preparation low? Why not contribute to raising it by
valuing your own services?
Chapter 36 - Financial Offence and Types of Income: If you seek
financial independence, your goal should be to have enough
passive income to support your living costs
Let’s’
now get very clear on the meaning of financial independence. For
me it means you can chose to work if you want, where you want,
when you want and with whom you want.
The basic
premise being - ‘if you want’. In other words, if you don’t do
any work today or this week or this year, will you continue to
receive income? And for how long?
Test
yourself as you are now structured – if you were to stop working
today, how long could you support yourself for?
Chapter 37 - Financial Defense and Money Management: It not how
much you make – it’s what you do with it.
Being a
high-income earner doesn’t mean you will become wealthy enough
to retire in comfort any time in the future, no more than being
a low-income earner will prevent you from this. I have seen
high-income earners with nothing to show for it in the way of
assets, and low-income earners with a lot to show in the way of
assets.
Part Five – Spiritual Philosophies for
the Physical Preparation Coach
Here are
some examples of the content from Part 5, Spiritual
Philosophies:
Chapter 38 - Spirituality and the Physical Preparation Coach:
Spiritualism, universal laws of the universe, and the physical
preparation coach.
It has
been my experience in coaching physical preparation coaches to
greatness that has forced me to confront and better understand
the things that stand between each of us and our greatness. In
seeking to be a teacher of others, and a successful one at that,
I have encountered and learned more about stumbling blocks and
limiting beliefs in the minds of the physical preparation coach
than I had ever imagined possible!
There are
many ‘keys to success’, evidenced by the number of texts on this
topic. My goal in the following pages is to draw on aspects of
spirituality that I believe can assist in addressing some of the
common and foundational limiting beliefs and beliefs in habit in
physical preparation coaches, based on my experience in
mentoring this group of individuals to accept their greatness.
I have
seen high achievers in other endeavors use all avenues available
to them to fulfill their potential, spiritualism being one of
them. In this book I have presented five areas of personal
development, and as I would any person seeking to fulfill their
potential, I encourage you to investigate and master all of
these areas on your path to fulfillment.
Chapter 39 - Law of Potential
There is
a common theme in spiritual writings of the power within each of
us to be great. If this is so, what has happened to most of us,
who have failed to recognize and fulfill our greatness?
Somewhere between being born and a stage later in life we may
have begun to doubt our greatness. Why?
This
question was asked by Australian human potential advocate Bert
Weir in his book ‘You were born special, beautiful and wonderful
– What Happened? (1993).
In some
cases it may be our parents sharing their jaded beliefs about
life’s limitations and why we cannot do certain things. Or it
may be our cultural perception of what is possible. In some
cases it may be our circle of friends who share their negativity
about life and what can be achieved. Whatever the influence,
ultimately it is our decision to accept or reject these limiting
believes, and to embrace and fulfill our unique gifts and
talents.
If you
feel you have yet to find or fulfill your gifts and potential,
it’s time to revisit this concept.
Chapter 40 - Law of Nature: Trust the innate intelligence of the
universe.
It is
said that the universe wants to hold you up, not pull you down,
so you can trust the universe. That many of us feel that life
is ‘pulling us down’ is more to do with our own doing. You are
part of the universe – if you don’t trust the universe, you do
not trust yourself. It is the belief that ‘the world’ is
against us, or ‘people’ are against us, or even ‘we are against
ourselves’, that leads to our lack of trust. These are
ego-based fears we choose to have, not based on evidence of the
universe.
Not only
are you part of the universe, you are the center of the universe
in your world, and accept all things and beings as part of your
body.
Chapter 41 - Law of Compensation
Whether
we like it or not - every action, every thought, and every word
we take and form - are ‘karmic episodes’ (Chopra, 1994). We
will be held accountable for this, and will be rewarded or
penalized accordingly.
If you
feel wronged, the universe will sort that person out. If you
wrong someone, the universe will sort you out.
The
energy created by our actions is seen as a circle by those
influenced by the Tao philosophy, and this perspective has
common grounds with the saying ‘What goes around comes
around’. For the Taoists, when we violate an immutable natural
law of the universe, we can expect a negative return that some
may call the penalty.
The
energy aspect of karma can be related back to the energy of the
body, and ultimately the health of the body. For example,
certain violations of universal law, such as hate and negative
action taken against others, can be related to a ‘hardened
heart, which is literally interpreted as heart disease.
Chapter 42 - Law of Convergence
This
essence of this law is that if you commit fully to an idea,
concept or achievement, the universe will support you to the
extent to which you commit.
When you
formulate a quality idea and commit to its transformation into
reality, this creates a vacuum. There is a differential created
between the imagination and reality. This differential is just
as invisible as the pressure differential created by the wind on
the sail of a boat, and just as powerful.
Because
the thought does not actually have physical form, nature sets
about balancing itself by turning your idea into concrete
reality. It has to – remember, it’s just following it own
immutable laws.--Spann, P., 2001
