What Does It Take To Be The Best?

I’ve written about this many times on this site, and most recently, in reference to several of our clients who are hitting the biggest numbers when it comes to lifts.

We have a Top 5 board where we can rank the best of the best amongst our clientele. We’ve had it for around 6-7 years now and it’s always interesting to see who sets their sights on cracking into it.

Coach Mike Roder, who started off as a coach working directly under me, transitioned his position here and works exclusively with youth athletes three days a week.

Throughout that time, I’ve seen his roster grow, and despite the fact that nearly all of his clients are under the age of 18, we’ve seem some really impressive feats of strength from them.

To that, Mike started a Top 5 board of his own, shortly after he made the business transition.

There was a little bit of trash talking that was happening one day between two of my clients, one of whom had the best trapbar deadlift record in the gym, Pete T., with a personal best of 565 pounds.

Pete was giving a little bit of grief to Mitch M., whose personal best in the trapbar was well south of 565.

Pete said: Hey Mitch, why don’t you let me know when your traplift hits the puberty board over there.

And the reference towards Coach Mike’s Top 5 was the fact that there were indeed some big lifts on there but no one was topping Pete’s best.

That was, until Mike started coaching a high schooler named Alex.

Alex not only beat 565, he finished with a colossal 615 pounds. This was right after Alex turned 18. He was a senior then.

And prior to Alex training with Mike, another athlete was putting up impressive numbers, his name is Billy.

Billy started with Mike when he was 10 years old and, even then, we knew that Mike had a shockingly strong kid on his hands.

Billy was putting up big numbers on squat, bench and in the trapbar, all while his classmates and friends were making their way in to train as well.

Sometimes, when Mike gets busy, if he’s short-handed, myself and my staff will help load and unload plates, and help spot lifts when necessary.

So, over the last few years, I’ve had plenty of time to lend a hand to Billy, amongst many others.

At the beginning of this school year, Billy told Mike that his goal in the trapbar was to hit 550 by time he became a freshman.

I had the opportunity to help Billy scale up and we saw very quickly that 550 was not only going to be an easy number to hit, he was actually going to make a run for the top.

In the meantime, one of my clients, Chris S., took the #1 spot away from Pete with 570×1; enough to take the throne on my board but not quite enough to topple Alex.

I asked Mike if he’d let me take Billy as far as I could.

The numbers kept climbing and one day, I asked Billy: Hey, how much do you weigh?

153, he said.

I looked at the Top 5 board and calculated where he needed to be for his next milestones and said to him: You know, when you hit 615 and tie Alex’s best, you’ll be the first person in the gym to hit a lift that’s 4 times your bodyweight.

Billy smiled and asked: Really?

Also, remind me how old you are?

13, he said.

Sure enough, Billy hit 615 at the beginning of this year to tie for first place and become the first lifter here to hit quadruple bodyweight in a lift.

And last week, he did one better: he hit 620 pounds to take over first place.

Let me remind you: He’s 13 years old, he’s just over halfway through 8th grade, and he pulled 620.

So, this is more of a brag on Billy and Coach Mike, than anyone else.

And also, to Billy’s parents, who despite the fact that genetics probably play a bit into his success, knew that he needed strength training to take him to the next level in his respective sports.

They weren’t wrong.

It’s credit to the time, effort, and care that Mike has put into his athletes to see them be the best they can be.

I train some youth athletes, but Mike has the majority of them, and being a small piece of Billy’s current success has been awe-inspiring.

And let me just say, this kid is going to be an absolute monster when he hits high school.

So, circling back to Pete, it may still be the puberty board, but those are big, big numbers.

Shout out to Billy, shout out to Coach Mike (who you can follow at mrodertraining on Instagram), and shout out to the RevFit fam, at large, who are not only witnessing greatness week in and week out, but competing in it, cheering it on, and finding ways to improve in ways that mean something to each individual who crosses through our doors.