Uh oh, Coach Kevin is starting blog rants. JK. IYKYK. Is it too tiring to type all the letters to make complete thoughts and sentences? LOL!!! As usual, I digress. You will soon understand my tendencies and will be able to hopscotch with me through my mind. It is really a lot of fun. Now to the actual subject of the post. 

This week I generated the Coach Kevin Said It logo and created Instagram and Facebook pages. These were sent out and they found their way to players I used to coach. As these former players started following Coach Kevin Said It, it hit me to write my first Kevinism/Normalism (I know, I know, I need to decide on the sniglet defining these) in honor of those hard-core Nemesis football players.  I used to say this A LOT when I was coaching youth football. It might stir some good memories or horrible nightmares within those players, but I thought it would be fun to relive some of those moments.  

Let me set the stage. 187 degrees. 225% humidity. The practice field was made up of Oklahoma summertime cow pasture grass. Dry, scratchy, with ants building their version of New York City. Now, it was not nearly as rough as the practice field I grew up with, of course. If you didn’t practice on the open sparsely grass covered red ant infested field behind Foster Junior High School, you’re just a bit soft. Again, LOL! Getting back to the stage, the Nemesis 8u football players would come out to practice, and we would run them through drills that would prepare them for the upcoming season. One of my favorites is SWAMIs. Essentially, SWAMIs are leg lifts with random commands to bring your legs up, and down and spreading your legs at different intervals all the while pumping a medicine ball up and down from your chest like a bench press. I would explain to the players loud enough so they could hear me over their whimpering (no one cried, for sure, we are Nemesis) that “TO BE TOUGH, YOU HAVE TO DO TOUGH THINGS”!! Here, let The Gunny make you feel it. 

BAM!! There you go. The first Kevinism/Normalism. TO BE TOUGH, YOU HAVE TO DO TOUGH THINGS. 

This is similar to other coaching advice, for example, “iron sharpens iron”, or one that came from Kobe Bryant, “practice has to be tougher than the game”. Make the training, whatever that may be, more difficult than the real thing. You will get stronger and more resilient.  

For all of you out there working to get better at something, sports, school, relationships, life, keep grinding. We can get better. Check out this phenomenon, https://davidgoggins.com/. He might be able to help. For the Nemesis, 2-claps and a Ric Flair!! Be proud. Not everyone gets the gold one. 

Coach Kevin is off and running. Slower than when he was younger, but he is off and running. Side bar. Have you ever seen a video of a Sasquatch sighting? If in the affirmative, then you’ve seen the Coach run. Now, GO DO TOUGH THINGS!!  

If you liked this Kevinism/Normalism, leave some love (comment). If you didn’t like it, you can leave a comment. I have thick skin and a delete button. For homework until I see you on the next Coach Kevin Said It blog go watch Vision Quest. Yes, another mid 1980’s motivational movie that will fire you up to go do some tough things. Coach Kevin out. 

See you on the other side.