Heroes or Role Models

Heroes or Role Models which one?

We all have heroes (don't we?). My Mum sent me a load of stuff from home that I used to have on my wall as a lad. Old photos, scrap books of my athletics achievements and some posters I made of Al Oerter (4 time Olympic discus champ). It was a real blast from the past and got me thinking of how I used to be, where I am now and where I might be going.

It struck me that as a young lad of 16 (I'm 35 now), when I was obsessed with discus throwing and being an Olympian(my car crash put paid to that), I actually wanted to be Al Oerter. Yes that's right I wanted to be somebody else.

Back then you couldn't easily get information about such people , you had to dig for it and any info you did get (books, tapes, articles, videos etc) was like pure gold.

I'd read anything about Al Oerter I could and read it over an over again until it was embedded into my head.

I tried many things that Al Oerter advocated, my favourite being hitting a towel out in the field with the discus and pushing it out further and further. Al's concept was that yor body would adapt to anything you throw at it over time (I like this).

This got me onto thinking that heroes are ok but what we really should look upto are Role Models.

There are a few people in the history of the world that achieve anything in the league of Al Oerter, it's fine to dream but be realistic and look up to some one who is a great example.

Without kissing too much butt right now my role model is Adam T Glass, he's a leader, motivator and great Strongman with some great information to pass on.

Check out my Al Oerter posters (To be the best you gotta be wild!!)