Whats up everyone!!  Sorry I have been somewhat quiet on the blog lately BUT to make up for it I have a killer guest post from Matt Kroczaleski.  Below is a quick bio of Matt that came from EliteFTS as he is one of their sponsored athletes.

Matt made quite a statement at the 2006 Arnold Classic. Lifting in the 220lbs class, Matt squatted 926, bench pressed 660, and deadlifted 755 and came away with the win. A cancer survivor, Matt has overcome many obstacles on his way to becoming one of the most dominant forces in powerlifting today. Matt currently trains in Michigan and has competed in the USAPL, WPO and the APF.

Enjoy his guest post below is great!

Expectations and Athletic Achievement
One of the most common questions I frequently receive is “What type of program should I be following?” or “What type of program do you follow?”  In my opinion too many athletes concern themselves far too much about what training program they are following and not enough about the other myriad of factors that are more influential in determining how far they will go in their sport.  I have argued many times that while programming is important and does play a role in athletic success it is not the determining factor in regard to what level of success an athlete an achieves. I also firmly believe that programming is not what separates the good athletes from the greatest ones.  Case in point, many athletes follow the same or similar training protocols but only a select few ever reach the top.  Also consider that when you look at the very best athletes in any sport they all follow different training protocols.  If training programs were the key to success all of the athletes at the top of their respective sports would be following virtually identical programs and as we all know this is certainly not the case.
So if the training program is not the most important aspect of athletic success than what is?   I believe it to be the psychological makeup of the individual.  Now this is comprised of many different attributes but in this article I am only going to dissect one such attribute, the expectations of the individual.  An athlete must not only strive for success he/she must expect it and be certain of their probability of achieving it.

A good example of this how this attitude affects athletic success comes from my own training and that of my training partners.  Back in 2002 my friend and training partner Chad and I were both training together for the same meet and made a friendly bet concerning our deadlifts.  The bet was that in order for me to win I had to out pull Chad by 55lbs, in order for him to win he had to pull within 45lbs of me and if I out deadlifted him by 50lbs then it would be considered a draw.  It was no coincidence that I pulled a PR that day at 716lbs to beat Chad’s PR of 661lbs which equaled exactly 55lbs.  We both pulled personal records that day but I went into that meet not only expecting to win the bet, I was 100% certain that I would.  I have no doubt that if Chad had managed to pull 700lbs that day I would have pulled 755lbs.  Recently it was Chad was the benefit of just such an attitude.  At the Orlando Barbell meet in October Chad pulled his first 800+ deadlift with an 805.  And the most important reason that Chad pulled that 805 was because another mutual friend and training partner of ours had recently pulled 804 and made it a point to mention that to Chad via text in between benches and deadlifts. I knew at that moment that Chad would pull 805 that day.  It was his mental outlook and the fact that he expected to out pull our friend that day that enabled him to achieve it.  Had the number been 795 Chad would have pulled 800 and I am a certain that if the number had been 805 Chad would have pulled 810.  That is the power of the mind.

An athlete must at all times be certain not only of the chance to achieve a certain goal but also in their own ability to attain that level of success.  Doubt will always lead to setbacks and failure and confidence to progress and success.  However even if an athlete knows that they must adopt this attitude this is of course easier said than done.  How does one go about successfully instilling this belief system in not only themselves but their training partners as well?  Well first of all success breeds success and a key component of that is the expectation of success.  More specifically this means many small victories over time will gradually lead to greater victories.  Now don’t misconstrue this to mean that one should enter a slew of low level local meets knowing that they will win easily and expect that this will somehow manifest itself into victory at the highest levels because such a strategy is actually contradictory to our goals.  An athlete that desires to reach the top of their chosen athletic endeavor should always strive to compete at the highest level of competition that they are ready for.  Competing against champions helps one to become a champion.  What I am trying to communicate to you is that achieving numerous smaller successes in the gym where the daily battles are fought and won or lost is what leads to success in competition.  If you go into the gym on a daily basis and consistently fail with maximum weights in the competition lifts how well do you think this prepares you to achieve success on the platform?  Ed Coan (in my mind the greatest powerlifter of all time) was known to purposely “leave a rep or two in the tank” during his training and as such rarely ever missed an attempt while training.  He felt that this not only helped to avoid overtraining but was also conducive to developing a psychological expectation of success when in competition.  Also it is important that goal setting be done aggressively but realistically.  If you are one of those lifters that never hit the numbers you are hoping for in a meet or worse yet you’re a lifter that bombs out as often as you total then you need sit down and evaluate what you’re doing wrong. You need to ensure you’re not allowing your ego to prognosticate numbers you’re not physically capable of at that time.  Again if you are never able to achieve any of your training goals can you really expect to achieve any of your competitive ones?

Another strategy for conditioning one’s mind to expect success and undoubtedly one of the most effective methodologies is to train on a daily basis with athletes that are at a higher level than you are.  You will not only learn invaluable lessons from training with superior athletes you will expect to achieve everything they have and possibly to exceed their achievements.  If you train everyday with a group of guys that routinely bench press in excess of 700lbs how long do you think it will be before you are also benching over 700?  My group of training partners is another perfect example of this.  In a day where competitive deadlifts in excess of 800lbs are a rarity how is it that in my small group of training partners (6-8 of us train together on a semi regular basis) four of us deadlift in excess of 800lbs? In fact only one of my training partners deadlifts under 700lbs and he’s 50 years old and competes in the 198lb class and I fully expect him to break the 700lb barrier at his next meet.  We often get asked at meets how is it that so many of us have such big deadlifts?  How do we train to achieve this?  The truth is even though we often train together we all follow different training routines.  My brother Kurt who currently leads our group with a competitive deadlift of 815lbs in the 242lb class and has pulled 855 for two singles in one training session frequently deadlifts every week in full gear, and is the only one of us that pulls sumo style.  I currently have a PR of 810lbs in the 220lb class and I almost always train my deadlift raw working up to a single in the conventional style. Josh McMillan recently pulled 804 at 275 in a meet and actually has traditionally deadlifted infrequently in training except when getting close to a meet.  Chad Walker who trained with us for many years but moved from Michigan to Florida two years ago just pulled 805 less than two months ago and although he trains much like I do we only see each other 3-4 times per year.  The important thing is that we all talk to Chad frequently and he knows exactly what our numbers are and likewise we know what his are.  So looking at the disparity in our training programs it is easy to surmise that it’s not our training protocols that have lead to our deadlifting prowess, but rather it is our mental outlook and expectations that we have.  Seeing those numbers done in front of you on a regular basis quickly desensitizes you to their significance.  You develop the attitude where you expect to lift big numbers because you see this being done on a regular basis.  You also learn to see yourself as being no different than your training partners and so you reason that there is no excuse for you not to expect to achieve the same level of success.  Kurt pulls over 800 because I do and Josh pulls over 800 because Kurt does and Chad pulls over 800 because the rest of us do.   All of us succeed because we expect to and so should you.

Thank you again to Matt for this GREAT post, I hope you all have a kick ass weekend and and stay tuned for more new videos coming next week!

Also here’s another beastly post of Matt

Dedicated to your success,
Matty Holmes
“Work hard, Play hard,
TRAIN HARDER!!”