One of the most frustrating things you can encounter when you're a consistent fitness fanatic is overtraining. Almost everybody who works out religiously will run into this problem. Today's episode we're gonna talk about the five steps you can take to balance right back. This is a good one because we've actually been talking a lot I feel like about overtraining, overreaching and I've personally, so I don't know what this prompted this for you. But I've been getting a lot of DMs and people asking, okay, well, yeah, yeah, what do I do there? What are the best things to do if I'm one of these people? And so I think this has been needed to address this. Yeah, really the understanding around this is, one of the best ways to communicate this I think is to kind of understand the difference between what's optimal, what's tolerable and then what's beyond that, right? So optimal when it comes to exercise is the right dose that will produce the best results, okay? And this is different from person to person, but there is a perfect dose and the perfect dose will get you the best results just across the board. There's nothing you can do better with your workout than what is the optimal dose. Now beyond that is when you start to reach something called your tolerable dose, meaning your optimal's here, but I can definitely get away with doing more. Now what I'm doing is I'm taking away at the progress I can make. I'm actually reducing the results that I can get. So now my body is using more resources for healing than it is for adapting. Now if I push that too long or go beyond that, then I really go back, I start to go backwards, which is where people start to realize, uh-oh, I'm doing too much. I think we also have to address the relationship with adaptation and stress too, right? So we understand that exercise is a stress and so it's a good stress. And there's a lot of different types of stress that our body is perceiving on a daily basis. And there's a direct relationship with that and the recovery process and the adaptation process. And so it's kind of a moving target.  It could be that week and then the next week it actually could be different. So understanding that this is kind of a forever moving target and you want to learn how to be able to read these signs that your body's trying to tell you that, hey, you're overreaching. Now that you know how to read that, okay, now what do I do to correct that?  So you hit a neutral point or are you actually recovering to the point where you're adapting and progressing forward? And there's two different, those are two different mentalities and like something you need to like really ask yourself in terms of like your programming and your training, are you moving forward or are you sort of just maintaining based off of, or even declining if you're doing something? Yeah, that was the big like a hot moment for me is when I realized that healing or recovery was different than adapting. There's some crossover there, but healing and recovery is getting you back to where you were before. So if I scrape my skin, my body's gonna heal that and replace what was lost. Now, above and beyond that would be adaptation. That's where my skin then develops another layer or two to toughen itself in anticipation of it getting scraped again, right? So over time, I would develop a callus. Now what happens is if I damage or scrape my skin too often or too hard or basically if I do too much to my body, more than my body can adapt from, all it can do is worry about recovery. It's just gonna heal, heal, heal, heal. And so you end up in this, I used to call us the breakdown recovery trap, right?  Meanwhile, you're not stronger, your body's not progressing, you're using the same 20 pound dumbbells, the same barbell, everything looks the same you're just kind of staying the same. And then eventually, if you push this long enough, you start to kind of go backwards. And then what people tend to do is add more volume, more training, thinking more is the answer. When it's the exact opposite of what they need to do. I think part of the problem is some of us, the fitness leaders in this space have perpetuated this message around glorifying failure training and no days off and pushing the intensity lever on people all the time and making it with the motivation and the hype. And I mean, I fell into that as a young teenager who was starting to lift thinking that like, I wasn't trained, what's keeping me from looking like this is I've got to train harder more often and more consistent. And that's why he looks this way and I don't look that way.  And so the body is just at this hard plateau yet you're putting in all this work. And I think this happens to some degree to all people in this pursuit. Absolutely, yeah, especially if you're consistent. This is what you tend to run into where you just, you just, you slowly over time surpass what's optimal and you get into tolerable and meanwhile you're not progressing at all. And then when you get extra stress from life, all of a sudden you dip into this like negative results. And then you say to yourself, how's this possible? I was always able to do this workout before and now all of a sudden I can't do it. Now all of a sudden this is causing problems. So this is an important thing to understand if you're looking for results. Now, if you just want to go to the gym and workout then it doesn't matter. But if you're looking for results then you want to definitely listen up. The other thing too, you mentioned it our space, the fitness space. When, and I can speak to this because we're in the space, okay, in the sense that I know fitness influencers. I know people on Instagram with large followers. I know these people that have huge followings because of how amazing they look or how well they perform. And when they post their workouts, okay, they do not post their everyday workouts. They're posting the highlight reel workout. They're posting like this workout, I crushed it. PR. And that is not what their workouts normally look like. In fact, and we know this, what's crazy is we know this. You look at professional sports, right? The top, top level of physical performance. Athletes have an off season and they have a pre-season. They do not train like they, like at their hardest level all the time. If they did, they would totally break down. They don't train to compete every workout. You can't. You just can't maintain that. No. Sustainable, your body will revolt. No, and also a workout you tolerated, you know, this week because you pushed the limit and you're like, wow, I could do a lot. That starts to compound. And so this is why cycling your intensity and your volume. By the way, this doesn't mean, and this is the similar conversation that we've had in the past about resting in between sets. Like it's not because you have to rest. That's what makes strength training, strength training. That's what makes you build muscle.  You will if you keep pushing it, but really if you do this right, it'll perpetuate progress, right? You'll continue to improve. You won't hit these plateaus until you start to reach that genetic limit, which is, I mean, that would take years to get to. I can't stress how much more important consistency is over intensity. And I just don't think that's the messaging. I think the messaging has been about intensity over consistency.  And never miss. But don't miss. And that's going to pay you way more returns than you trying to go as hard as you can, as fast as you can for as long as you can, because eventually that you hit a wall and you either one get hurt or the progress stalls.  It's like, man, I'm killing myself. I'm going so hard, so consistently. And then I'm not seeing the results. Now the key, the best answer to this would be to avoid overtraining before you get there. Okay, but here's the deal. It's hard to do, right? Our egos get in the way, workouts feel good, especially if you love the workout itself like I do. And so I always cross the line before I realize, oh, I should have cycled volume down and stuff like that. So we're going to talk about what happened in this episode, what you do when you're already overtrained. But ideally speaking, you should cycle intensity. Like we have a lot of maps programs. Many of our maps programs, you should not follow over and over and over again. We've designed them so you go from one to the other so that you go through these ebbs and flows of volume and intensity and frequency, so that you avoid this. So that's the key. The key is to avoid this in the first place. But now that you're here, some of the signs that you'll probably see that relate to overtraining are obviously stalled progress. So if you were progressing, and then all of a sudden it's like the brakes were hit. And it's like, nothing's happening. I'm not moving forward. In fact, here's a real good one. You actually start to move back a little bit. So it's like, wow, I didn't get stronger for the last four weeks. I actually lost a rep or two on my lifts. Uh-oh, that's a really strong sign of overtraining. Hot and cold intolerance is another one. You'll notice that you need to wear more jackets or you feel more overheated out in the sun. All of a sudden you start to, your tolerance for hot and cold start to become worse. Your sleep is affected. In fact, this is one of the first signs. Restless nights. Yes. This is one of the first signs they find in studies is that athletes or people who train hard, all of a sudden will have trouble sleeping and they'll start to reach for more sleep aids and things to help them sleep. That's a sign, typically. A lot of those like joint pain and different like tightness and things like you'll notice. I notice all the time when I go to sleep, it exaggerates then. Yeah, more inflammation in general is a sign of overtraining. Or just general fatigue even all day. Just feeling fatigued and wore down all the time. Low libido would be another one.  Cravings. Cravings is a sign of just overtraining and over stress in general. And it's just because your body is seeking temporary comfort. And cravings are different than hunger. A craving is like, I mean I think people know this when they hear it, but it's like, man I'm really craving this specific type of food category. Like sugar. Comfort foods. Yes, like hyper palatable processed foods, which we typically crave all the time anyway. They taste good. But all of a sudden your cravings are like ravenous. Like what is wrong with me? Why am I craving these things? And it's not satisfied with like a healthy meal. It's more like I need this hyper palatable food. That's the cravings I'm talking about. I think the point too of sharing this is not that that is like this direct correlation always with that. It's that it could be these some of these signals. Obviously. You have more of one of these signs. Right, because obviously low libido could be testosterone related. Obviously cravings for certain foods can mean you have a deficiency in nutrients. So for all the trainer dorks that are sitting there going, well that doesn't necessarily mean that. It's not that. I'm glad you said that.  It's normally to me it's normally paired with stalled progress, right? So it's almost all of them that we listed is almost always paired with stalled. Not always, but most always paired with stalled progress. Because this is what sends me down the question of like or questioning my client. Like, oh, what else are you noticing? And then I start to piece it together. Like that's part of our jobs as guides for clients is to be able to gather this data and information that they're feeding you and then come to a conclusion because you're not in their body. So I have to get their feedback. And if a client's frustrated because they're not seeing results for the last, you know, three weeks in a row or what like that. And they're telling me, I've been following the diet. I'm asking these questions. And if I start noticing like, oh, we're this, we're that. We gotta define progress too, by the way. Because if your idea of progress is the scale going down, you could very well be overtraining and be losing things like muscle and weight as you're starving yourself. I like strength because everything else has to be going right. Like you have to have a lot of things balanced and in your favor to get strong. You just can't have these factors against you in order to get strong. It's just not gonna work. And that's why I say paired with that, right? That's normally the first red flag is that. And like what else has happened? Yeah, a client will complain to you that progress is stalled, meaning progress in the weight room, not getting any stronger or I'm potentially going backwards. And they're looking at you, what's going on? And then it's like, okay, let me ask these other questions. Then I start to compile like, oh wow, maybe we're overreaching right now. It's like your check engine light. That's if the strength is stalled or if it's going down.  Oh, I feel fine. I'm because they're happy that the scale is going down. So the progress I like to measure is performance in the gym. Is it all of a sudden, you can't do as many reps. You can't let this much weight. You're not moving as quickly. It's like you can't get through the workout that you could get through before. Like those are the signs of a stalled weight. This is true, but I do want to point out that stalled fat loss is also part of this category. Right. Because imagine like for us in order for us to maintain strength and lose body fat, we ought to have a lot of things really in balance. And if you start to lose or you don't see yourself losing any fat anymore, there's a good chance sometimes that you could be overtraining. And the body is just, it's trying to defend itself because like, oh my God, they're starving me. They're overstressing me. They're overtraining me. Like and it's so it's going to conserve energy and hold on. And a lot of times that is one of the signs that, oh wow, we're not seeing the result. Such a good point. And you're talking pure body fat. It's such a good point because body fat is one of your body's number one insurance mechanisms against the dangers of the world. Like if right now there was a major calamity and all of a sudden there was no food available, like obese people would outlive people who were super lean because they'd have all this stored energy, right? So that's that high too much stress on the body, your inability to recover from it and adapt is telling your body, you're in danger and we don't want to burn body. And what it'll actually do is it'll actually organize its hormones in a way towards fat storage in order to make that happen. And of course it'll change your behaviors and all that. Today's giveaway is maps aesthetic. To enter to win, leave a comment below this video in the first 24 hours that we drop it. Subscribe to this channel and then turn on notifications. If you win, we'll let you know in the comment section. So this episode is brought to you by a sponsor, Eight Sleep. This is the most advanced sleep system you'll find anywhere. It goes over your bed and it controls the temperature of your bed and it uses AI technology to read how you're sleeping and it adjusts it according to your sleep. It literally adjusts itself to make you sleep better. This is super advanced, amazing stuff. There's nothing like it anywhere else. Go check it out. Go to eightsleep.com forward slash mind pump. That ate 200 hours off and free shipping on the pod cover by Eight Sleep. Also this month's sale maps anywhere maps hit both 50% off. If you're interested, just click on the link at the top of the description below. All right, here comes the show. All right, so the first step you should take, if this is you and you're like, yeah, I'm clearly over training. This one's the first steps the hardest one, okay? But this is the best thing you should do first and that is to take a week off. Now here's the problem. When I tell people this, they go, okay, so go easy for a week or okay, so just kind of go lighter or do, I don't know, nothing, take a week off. Now the reason why I say that is because by the time somebody's here with over training, they've dug such a deep hole that it takes a week of nothing for the body just to start to compensate and start to bring that level back up. So then you can move back in adaptation, simply reducing volume or simply going easier. That can work, but it takes a lot longer to work. You end up finding that the person has to do that for a long time before they start to catch up. Whereas when I had people just take a week off and then we come back and there's some other stuff we need to do. It's a good litmus test to see what happens the following week. You'll come back stronger. That's almost always what happens. You'll take that week off and come back. No, I do want to define what that week off looks like. So people, because I feel like you get the, both ends of the spectrum.  There is like this, there is like, like it's a week. Just define it. It's a week off of intense training or training many times at all because the body is like you said, trying to recover.  Right, I typically would prescribe us to, I would normally move that person if they were in a caloric deficit, right?  Oh, we'll get there for sure. Right, so I want to feed them and keep them moving for that week. It's just like just moving, like walking, stretching. I love like recovery things. So if they're doing like yoga, meditative stuff, mobility, like. So I like them to still be moving but I also want the types of movements and the things that we're doing is to promote recovery. You don't take a week. Yeah, and the diet is a good one because a lot of people pair training with diet in this sense that if they're consistent with their workouts, their diets are on point. When they miss workouts, it's like, well, then screw it and the diet goes way off. So you take that week off, still eat healthy.  Healthy eating is going to help with recovery and repair. And then also be active in the sense that, I remember this as a kid, when I learned about this, I went in the extreme. I thought, oh, that means that you work out and then don't move at all, right? Not moving at all also sends a negative signal to the body to start to atrophy muscle.  Well, now I'm going to go do an hour walk. Yeah. I'm going to get some sunlight, get some nature, fresh air. Yeah, do something stimulating that direction because you're going to get a lot of benefit even just from the vitamin D. Yeah, I'm actually starting to incorporate more of this. I recently took four days off in a row on purpose and I came back and I'm stronger and better pumps. I mean, that's what you'll experience after this week off. By the way, that'll tell you pretty clearly you definitely needed it. That's, I mean, to me, that's how we always, because you're not, I'm not always 100% right as a coach, right? Like I don't always, I think, like I gather all this data and then I determine like what I think is the best approach to what I'm, what are the feedback I'm getting from my client.  If we did it correctly when they come back, they always love that first workout back. Meaning they're like, oh my God, I felt so good or oh my God, I was stronger than I expected and in that first week back, we see some sort of strength gain and or the response from them telling me how amazing they feel. That's normally my sign that okay, I was right. That was what we needed to do. Right. Now the next thing to do, and you kind of want to do this simultaneously and then again, continue this, is to get your sleep in order. Get really good sleep prioritized, getting at least eight hours of sleep every night, you know, preparing for bed an hour before bed.  You're kind of relaxing, letting the body kind of come down. You're not eating within two hours of sleep.  Meaning I can take the most advanced athlete or the most genetically gifted person and I can have them sleep just five hours a night for two weeks and I don't care what workout you put them through they'll over train. So this has such a profound effect. In fact, there are times when all I had a client do was get a couple of nights of good sleep and all of a sudden the recovery went through the roof. So this is a big one and nothing, nothing will contribute to good or bad recovery like good or bad sleep. This is almost always connected to this too. Somebody who's over training is almost always having a really hard time with getting good sleep. Like this is becomes, and this is why I really liked the advice too that Justin gave too about getting out and getting in the sunlight and doing like mobility or doing something so you're still creating movement so that they're not like sedentary. Because sometimes being sedentary all day especially like if you're in here with artificial light like we are, it's hard for me to get into my sleep routine. So getting out and seeing getting sunlight early on the day doing some sort of movement activity so I don't feel like my body hasn't been used or worked all day long and then making sure that I apply the same attention to detail as I do for my morning routine that I now do for my evening routine as far as getting ready to go to bed. Well and too a lot of cases like this of people that I've dealt with that are masking a lot of the symptoms by compensating with caffeine and pre-workouts and all these things. So if you can sort of like cycle that out, drink a lot of water like, especially if you're really focused on sleep maybe this is the time to really dwindle that down for that week and then see if that also was covering up some of the other symptoms. What a great point. I'm so glad you said that too because we didn't list that in this and that is actually up there too. Because that much caffeine could be over stimulating you right and so then it's just another. That's more stress. Yeah, it's another thing that's adding more stress and so reducing that while also doing that could be a huge red flag too. It's actually the best week to do it because a lot of fitness fanatics connect their caffeine intake to the workouts either it's a pre-workout or coffee before. So now's a good time to kind of lower that which also contributes to good sleep and then you say going outside, getting sunlight early in the day helps with your circadian rhythm at night and then if you're going to invest in any recovery tool, which we're not covering this episode, but I will say this, recovery tools that improve your sleep are the ones that are going to make the biggest impact. So if you're going to go with a recovery tool, go with the ones that help you sleep better. The next one is to bump your calories especially, protein intake. So protein is these are the building blocks of tissue in the body, okay? You need to have protein in order to repair and in order to adapt and you need more calories to also do this. If you under eat, you can almost under eat yourself into overtraining state regardless of what your workout looks like. Now there's an old saying, there's no such thing as overtraining, there's only under eating. That's not entirely true, but there is some truth in it. Now power lifters and strength athletes notice that if they bump their calories, they can handle way more volume and way more intensity. That's where that recovery element is. It's not 100% true because you could over train regardless how much you eat, but there is some truth to it. At this point, whatever your calories were at, start to bump them up a little bit, especially if you're in a deficit. If you're in a deficit, then bring yourself out of that deficit so you could repair your body and get out of it over time. Again, I'm gonna keep hammering the whole stressing.  And if we are, if the overtraining is what we think is going on here, we're trying to look at all like the low hanging fruit stressors that you're already causing on the body being in a caloric deficit, especially if for an extended period of time is another one of those. So simply by giving your body what it needs or even a slight surplus in that is optimal for you to get out of this slump. It is. Now people are like, okay, what do I do when I come back? Do I just jump back into my workout? No, because you will quickly go back to where you were before. When you come back, come back with half the volume. So take your total volume and just cut it in half, whether that be the sets or the exercise or whatever, just cut it in half and start there. Now this is again, not because you got to go backwards or we need to reduce, we're going to slow down our progress. Remember, the reason why you're here is because you stopped progressing to begin with. You're not going to go backwards by doing this. In fact, like clockwork, I'll say nine out of 10 times, 90% of the time, this come back with half volume ends up giving my clients or myself either close to or new PRs in their lifts. It's like, boom, they start to blow up in terms of the progress. Part of the reason why you constantly hear me say this on the podcast, that the goal is to do as little as possible to elicit the most amount of change is part of that is me talking to myself, right? I know it's like, I continually say that because I know what a challenge that is. Like I'm just as guilty as everybody else is of falling out of like my routine, not training for a couple of weeks and then coming back or taking a week off like this and then coming back and thinking that I need to do all these things and being wrong every time, going and getting done with that workout and then feeling myself like crippling sore the next day and it's just this consistent reminder of like, I didn't need to do that. And I always know like, I'm doing it and there's always this moment in the workout when I'm lifting and I'm like, I could probably cut it off right here, but I feel so good. Let me do another set. And that's why I can relate to our clientele because I know that goes through everybody else's head when they're training and they feel so good and I can easily do one more set. But it's not about that I could go do another set. It's that what's optimal for myself. I haven't been training for the last week or potentially longer if you're somebody's falling off. It's not about that. 100%. And there's a belief that extra volume so long as you can tolerate it is innocuous. In other words, well, what's the big deal? I like to work out a lot. Even if I get the same results, I'd rather work out more than less to get the same results because I love spending time at the gym. It doesn't work that way.  So it doesn't, it's not like, oh, I can just get away with doing more and it's the same as doing less. Now I get to spend more time at the gym. You're literally gonna give yourself worse results by doing more than what is optimal. It's important to understand that. Lastly, so you've come back with half volume. All right, what's the plan? After a week or two, do I jump back to what I did before? Again, the answer is no. Now this was an absolute game changer for me so late in my own workout career that I'm frustrated that I didn't understand this earlier. The way that I used to increase volume when I understood overtraining and I'd take a week off and I'd do all these things and then I'd come back with half volume is I just would say to myself like, oh, cool, I did half volume, I feel good. Let me do some more and I'd work out and I'd be like, yeah, I feel good. Let me add another couple of steps. I would not incrementally increase volume. It very quickly jumped back to what I was doing before. There is a formula for you to be able to figure out what your total volume is. Now the way I messed up before was I only looked at sets. I only looked at total sets. If I did 20 sets versus 15 sets versus whatever, then that was my total volume. It's not true, it's actually sets times reps times weight that was lifted. So in other words, 20 reps in a squat with 300 pounds for three sets is gonna be more volume than six sets with 500 pounds for two reps. Even though I did six sets with the 500 pounds, the total volume with the 20 sets of squats is way more damaging on the body. Now I use those extremes because I think everybody can imagine what it would feel like to do three sets of 20 hard reps versus just six sets of two reps. It feels very different. But it's important to understand this because when you take this, now what you do is every week you go up just a little bit in volume. Very incrementally. Very incrementally.  So if I all of a sudden bump the weight up and go low rep, I can figure out my volume and I can say, oh, I need to do this many more sets to equal the volume of last week or whatever. It allows you to calculate a little, not perfect, but within the realm of what's reasonable, this is a great way to track. I can still apply the least amount possible for the most amount of change, right? You still apply that philosophy here and sometimes the least is nothing. I think that's a part that some people need to learn to accept and it's okay. You don't have to week over week always add weight, add sets, add reps. If you're seeing, in fact, I don't wanna mess with it. My goal is to just not go backwards in volume. If I'm seeing progress, if I'm chasing aesthetics because that's my competition or if it's strength, I'm going that route, whatever I'm pursuing, if I feel like my body is making progress in that direction, even if it's incremental and small, I'm just not going, I just don't wanna reduce volume or anything, I'm gonna leave it until I start to see that progress slow down and then I'm gonna barely move it up and I'm gonna keep playing that game of doing as little as possible, letting myself stay there with that much volume. Okay, it looks like I've gotten the most from that volume. Let's go a little bit more volume and then just incrementally moving it up over time. So you're constantly seeing this nice progress. This is maturity and it's really difficult. Like this is a whole another discipline on its own to be able to taper off and realize what is my best dose for my body? Where am I actually progressing and adapting? Because yes, initially it's a really big discipline to be able to handle intensity and to be able to handle volume and to get to the gym. And there's different challenges, I think in everybody's journey as they mature with lifting weights and this is like, this is like black belt status almost for some people where it's like you get so addicted, not addicted as a word, but like very motivated and you get into the gym and you wanna do your routine, you wanna crush, but it's not benefiting you anymore. I know this analogy sucks if you're not familiar with the sport and you've never tried to play it, but it just, there's so many parallels to this game as a golf swing to me. Like of all the sports that I've ever played in my life.   And the most frustrating and yet can't be the most rewarding when you hit it just right. The sweet spot. But it's like, that's how like that's, and it's so, there's so many moving parts in the golf swing, you literally are activated from your neck all the way down to your toes and everything has to be in this beautiful uniform like for it to just- There's an optimal amount of- There is just the right amount. And a little too much and it makes it way off course. And sometimes going a lot easier and being consistent with the swing will send that ball way further than your heart is gripping and swinging. And so it reminds me so much of mastering the swing of a club and that learning curve that you go through that process of like, you can't just muscle your way to- More is not better. No. And it's not that simple to that. You could just, just cause you know how to do it now or you know some things about it like you figured it all out. It's like, it's kind of always changing a little but there's always other little variables. And it's like, that's what golf reminds me of. Why it's so frustrating and get rewarding at the same time. Look, if you want better results, if you want more muscle, more fat loss, better performance, then listen to what we're saying. That's the point. And just to cap this off, there's lots of studies on this. This isn't just based on our cumulative, you know, I don't know how many years that combined almost 70 years. You got a lot of anecdotes for sure. But there's data, like there was, one of the best studies was the one that compared the two groups of men. One group worked out for three weeks, took a week off, three weeks, a week off, three weeks a week off. The other group worked out every single week. At the end of the 18 weeks, I think it was 18 or 16 or 18 week study, they built the same muscle. They built the same muscle. And one group had a cumulative of a month, like a month off. 25% less. They literally worked out 75% of the time the other group did. They built the same muscle. Then there's other more inch quit in more specific studies on strength athletes where they're D-load week. So a D-load week is what strength athletes would consider like, oh, this is how I'm gonna prevent over-training, this is my recovery week. They look at strength gains in muscle building. The D-load week is where most of it happens. Not during the most intense week. So if you want the best results, then you need to contend with this problem. Look, if you love the show, head over to mindpumpfree.com and check out some of our free fitness guides. We have a lot of fitness guides and they can help you with your health and fitness goals. You can also find us on Instagram, Justin is at Mind Pump, Justin. I'm at Mind Pump to Stefano and Adam is at Mind Pump Adam.


🎵ahahaha🎵 🎵I want to buy some c-🎵 🎵but couldn't find any🎵 🎵ah get it🎵 🎵I want to buy some camouflage pants🎵 🎵oh no🎵 🎵but couldn't find any🎵 AAAAAA Because they were camouflage Shush! hey welcome back to our Super V chúnges Youtube Corbin i'm rek you post in the other friended video Hey, get away from my apples! I blocked you! I blocked you! I blocked you! I defy you! Today we got a video's earfront con on Bollywood versus Hollywood. Hey! He says, Bollywood better cocaine, Hollywood better weed. Probably true. Bollywood better nepotism, Hollywood better racism. Probably. Yeah. Actually, we don't see color. No. Just like dogs. Anyways, always love good insight from the late great earfront con. Oh my goodness, yes. Any and all content with that man makes me... Personally, I think I am an actor on par with earfront con. Yeah, here we go. Bye everybody. First I was looking for acknowledgement from my mother. When I didn't get it, I started looking, you know, outside of my, you know, surroundings. In our industry, we are, the center of the story is the image of the star. The films which I do in Hollywood, they're the, the center is the story, the power of the story. Yes. In the East versus West, are there different ways that we make films that, that make you an actor in a different way? See, there are a few differences and they are very, you know, very important differences. Like, sometimes in our industry, we are, the center of the story is the image of the star. Oh, deja vu. And all the departments serve that image. All the characters around him serve that image. The, the films which I do in Hollywood. Story as king. There the, the center is the story, the power of the story. You can take anybody, you know, from Tom Hanks to everybody, all the big stars, they are serving the purpose of the story. Yeah. Not the image of the star. So that changes everything because all the departments are working towards communicating that idea, that story. Yes. And people bringing their own reflection, their own experience of their life to enhance that story. Not about serving a particular image or, you know, star's image. If you are not doing a conventional work, if you are not following conventional, you know, storytelling, you are made feel guilty about what you are bringing in a newness to the craft. Right. Yeah. You are in pressure.  What, what is this guy doing?  At one point of time, I started my career as an actor because I was looking for acknowledgement. At first I was looking for acknowledgement from my mother. When I didn't get it, I started looking, you know, outside of my, you know, surroundings.  And then through, you know, after drama school and, you know, after many years, I came to know this is not acknowledgement.  That is the most important thing. When you do a story, you pour in your life and you make that thing, that story, an experience for the audience. And that becomes an experience for the audience. And that sharing is something which is, which is so precious, you know, you cannot match that kind of thing. So that is something, you know, very, very special to me as an actor.  There are some buffer jungles, you know, buffer forest of Jim Corbett. I don't want to tell the exact location because of, you know, so many things. And they are still pristine forest, you know, they are still untouched. All the poachers, you know, they find out things about that. But it's still, you know, they are forest like, you see a tree which has fallen down 20 years back. They're still there, it's getting, it's getting decayed. And you see that there's not, not many people come there in those kind of forests when you go. And you know that, you know, after 50, after five meters, you don't know what is there. It's so dense. So when you go there and when you're walking around, you know, on the riverbank and you don't know what is there.  That's it. And there was a mound and after that there was a deep inside.  It's a grout.  Then grouts. Then when you are too close, then he attacks it with fright.  So unfortunately, you know, the distance was too close. So he suddenly growled and he started growling. And then this guy panicked. The guy who was with us, the local guy, he panicked, he panicked and he started growling at him. And he growled in a, you know, he just shouted desperately because he knew if, if, you know, this is, this is something that we have gone. We have, we have gone, you know, we have crossed the limit. Too close. Too close. Because we didn't know.  You have to start growling if you see. I think you have to. You shouldn't go. Yeah. You shouldn't take away your eyes. Yeah.  That looks like a good interview. That was too quick. Looks like a good interview. Yeah. He missed that man every day. Yeah. And his intellect in terms of the craft and what he knows of it. And his perspective because not many people. Have that perspective. Have the perspective that he had being able to tell you the details and the nuances of work in both American cinema and Indian cinema. The way that he came. Obviously he was talking about commercial Hindi cinema. Yeah. About being centered around the star. Yeah. Because obviously, as we know, with few exceptions, I think the two exceptions would be like Mamudi and Mohanlal in some of their films in terms of Malayalam cinema. That's a pretty story driven industry, I feel like. Yeah. And obviously there's much more smaller parts that have always been there in Indian industry with parallel cinema. Correct. But that was a result of people wanting. Wanting that who were like theater storytelling. We want to be able to tell stories and not have it be the focus on just whoever the hero is. Yeah. Which is not a bad thing about Indian cinema. It's just a unique thing about Indian cinema. Well, I'd love to have heard and maybe there's a video of it as well. Another differentiation is the approach to the craft both in the storytelling and in the acting of the penultimate piece de resistance in Indian cinema for a long time and consistently still is emotion. Achieving an emotional state as an actor or getting an emotional response from the audience versus in American cinema, it's the emotion has to come from a place that's justified and that you don't do anything to the audience to manipulate the emotion. It has to come from a genuine place of them feeling something because you've created a believable reality for them to empathize with. Yeah. For sure. Always great. Yeah. I wish that was longer. We're going to get to another Irfan film. Let us know what that should be down below.


Good morning from everybody. We're really excited to welcome Sister Lorraine to our question here at MCC and masha'Allah she's here to take shahada and come into the declaration of faith in order to come into the religion of Islam. So Lorraine the way we normally start is just asking you a little bit about yourself if you could tell us who you are and a little bit about your background. Sure. I'm Lorraine. I came from Philippines. I came here in America since five years ago I would say and I used to be in Catholic. I used to be in kind of this field with foundations. Since I came here in America there's not too much a lot. Counting foundations like this or events get together and I felt like I'm starting using track and so I started studying on which religion I wanted to actually convert for myself and then from since I'm Christianity I studied kind of a lot of different type of field in religion and I ended up in Islam. It makes sense to me that where it started and where it ends from Torah event to Bible and then it went to Koran. So that's when I decided that you know what I'll convert but I have to get more idea on what really is them is. So I've been studying listening to Koran and getting more understanding and now here I am. Lorraine, can you tell us a little bit about how you ended up here at MCC, what city you live in? I live in Davis City. I've been trying to convert but I couldn't find a good mosque that I really want to be like excited you know like this and I was searching in TikTok and then I seen one of the ladies or one of the sisters here was doing speech and then someone took a video and posted and I was like oh this is really nice foundation and actually I was looking for the name but I'm like MCC as well.  So there's some benefits to TikTok after this? Yeah it really is. So I think you were sharing with me how it was somebody reciting for that and recently so my guess is it was actually from the most recent woman's conference and likely it was Deva, Madi and then you did the reciting for that. Might have been how you found that clinic in Pamela and found a square. We're so happy to have you. Inshallah before we take the next step sister Lorraine like the one of the things that we normally do is just kind of pause and ask if there's any questions you have and I'll also explain the steps of what it is we're doing but let me just pause and ask a lot of questions here. I really don't have questions but I'm really excited and getting more learnings. So far I know what's from Spons and what is you know but I don't really have a good study but this is a learning you know every day it's a learning and I'm going to learn for myself and I'm going to learn from everyone as well. Exactly one of the things that we can share with you that you know in terms of these next weeks days and weeks and months are really a step by step slowly but surely slowly but surely we consider because Islam is a way of life it's everything surrounds everything you're doing your entire lifestyle it very much is a marathon and not a sprint.   Exactly right.  I know I'm not but I'm here. So wonderful to have you here.  I don't hug, yes. Before we get to that point inshallah now we get to the testification of faith or the shahada. The shahada is the first of our pillars of Islam and in the shahada we repeat and I'll say in English and then I'll say in Arabic and I'll go very slowly because we'll I'll do a couple words you'll do those same words and we'll kind of go back and forth until we recite the whole of Arabic and then English. I also can um yes I can and I don't like them. I also give the opportunity to all of our ladies here to actually repeat the shahada along as well and the reason for that is it's always good to renew your testification of faith kind of renew that commitment to what it is that you believe in inshallah. So actually this will be a group process if that's okay. Yes. Very exciting. Excellent and so what we'll be doing inshallah is basically saying the first part of the statement says there is no god but Allah. I bear witness there is no god but Allah is cracking me a little. That's amazing. I love it. And the second part is I bear witness that Prophet Muhammad exactly Allah. And so let's do this in Arabic and shall we slowly be sharing? I can try but correct me. I'm happy for it. Inshallah. Allah. If you'd like to repeat together we can do it together. The whole group as we mentioned. Shall we do it together ladies? Yeah. Let's do it this way now. Rasulullah. I bear witness that there is no deity except for Allah and I bear witness that the Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him is the messenger of Allah. Takbeen. Welcome. Welcome Stirlorain. We're so excited to have you in the faith. I'm so so happy that you're here with us. I can't wait to get to know you more and more and more as the days and weeks go on. Inshallah. Here come all the hugs. I also want to do if it's okay just a moment. I know we have our sister here. Please remind Kamila who converted two weeks ago. Two months ago. Inshallah. And it's coming. Inshallah. You were with us two weeks ago for the women's conference and converted two months ago. Also there are new mashallah in the faith. And so you're here to support sister Lurain. Inshallah. So we met together. You met together. Would you like to inshallah say a couple of words for us too? Yeah. I'm also kind of revered. It's been a great learning process this couple of months. But I've been reading her like almost a year now. I met a friend and she's Muslim and then she like helped me and she told me you know you want to do it. Just let's go to the masjid and we live in Alamira. So we went on a Friday and I took my Shahada. It's been great. Alhamdulillah with my family because I'm also far away from home. And with my friends and you know learning all these Alhamdulillah it's been a great experience so far. It's so wonderful to have you with us, Kamila and Lurain. Wonderful. I can't wait to see the growing kind of community and starting with all the women. Inshallah. And I hope on our Friday nights we're going to see you consistently and grow together step by step. We have a small gift for you from the MCC masjid. It's a box that it's called being Muslim. Inshallah. And it's a box in which you'll find prayer book and I'll put it on there and also some books kind of just to start your journey on this that helps the process. But we are here. You're so welcome. And Sister Liz is here who's our Convert Care Coordinator. I don't know if you'd like to say a couple of words as well. Thank you for giving this opportunity to experience this and it's a great pleasure. It's beautiful and yeah until I get to work with a lot of people and I'm very friendly. Inshallah. Inshallah. Now it's time for our hugs.


Tell me a little bit about yourself. It's like what brought you to Athens and what do you do for a living? Sure. So like a lot of people came to Athens for UGA. I had never been here before until I came up here and I immediately fell in love with Athens and the small town feel. I'm from Savannah. It's very similar to Athens in a lot of ways. It's just the downtown area. Kind of feels like a I guess a more cozy version of the Savannah downtown. And so as far as what I do for a living, I fix phones over and tablets and computers over at Dr. Phone Fix inside the Upps Ridge Parkway Walmart. So why do you want to be a commissioner and why do you feel that you'll do a better job representing District 10 than your opponent? Sure. So as I said, I fell in love with Athens. I started to get involved with some of these community groups like Athens Anti-Discrimination Movement, going to the forums that are all around because they were something that was really interesting to me. And as I went around listening to what people wanted this county to be, what the changes they wanted to see, it became clear that there was a consensus on a lot of these issues, a consensus on affordable housing in the community, a consensus on bringing high wage jobs to Athens, things like that. But it seemed like the commission would often talk about them, but not move forward on it. Now with the newer commission elected in 2017, what was it, 2017 or 2018? They were elected in 2018. 2018, right. Okay. So they're moving forward more on some of these issues, but still it's one of the things that we often see as campaign promises. And then when it gets away from an election year, I'm seeing that a lot of the times that people just keep talking about the issues and the commission's not really moving forward on a lot of them, even though there's a lot of agreement and a place to move forward on them. And so as commissioner, if I was elected commissioner, I would love to be able to kind of be that driving force to focus on the issues that I'm hearing in the community, in the district, outside of the district, and also make sure that the policies that are being pursued are benefiting all of Athens. They're not mainly focused on one area. They're not focused inside the loop. They're not just focused on the downtown area. They're focused on expanding opportunities outside of that as well. And so I think that's something that, you know, that's something I want to do as a commissioner, and it's part of why I want to be a commissioner. And as far, I don't want to make it a negative race. So as far as, you know, doing a better job, I just think that this election is going to be a referendum on who's working in the community, who is known, what's been going on over the past four terms, or three terms, of the commissioner in district 10. So do you think that's true that they're mostly they just focus on inside the loop, and they kind of ignore the outer? I think they're doing, I think they're doing better now. But I know that was a big issue during the mayoral campaign. That was something that Harry Sims talked about. That was something that Carole Gertz talked about, is you had a lot of focus on what's inside the loop. You had a lot of focus on the downtown area, and a lot of the times the other districts outside of that, district four, you know, district two, district 10, now a lot of these districts were kind of being that don't have the downtown area. We're kind of being left out of that. And now, of course, you are seeing movement towards it, but it was, it was a long process and almost a change of the entire commission, you know, half the commission changed over before that focus kind of came back to the districts that they're in. Now you have focuses on things like Bethel Holmes. Now you have focuses, so things like that, that are finally being focused on rather than just how do we continue to expand the downtown area, which is a good priority. But you should also look at how can we make sure that people that don't live in the downtown area are also receiving benefits from changes the commission is pursuing. So this is a non-partisan race, but party identification is still very important to a lot of voters. And I know that you've been active in the UGA College Republicans, and I was just wondering if you still consider yourself a Republican. So I'm glad this is a non-partisan race, because I'm not having to toe a party line. I'm not having to choose one or the other. There are ideas from both. There are ideas from people who aren't affiliated with either party. I've been endorsed by the Libertarian Party of Georgia, because a lot of my ideas are aligned with them. Ideologically, I do consider myself a Libertarian. And I tend to vote for who I think would be best to represent a seat, whether that be from the lowest level of county government to the governorship. And so I think it's one of those things that, I guess, I'm glad it's a non-partisan race, because I don't have to choose a party line and stick with the issues that they would subscribe to. People have to get to know what I'm running on, why I'm running, and my platform, I hope, would have brought appeal to the people in the district, which is what it should be focused on. So you said you've been endorsed by the Libertarian Party. Yes. So, I mean, do you consider yourself a Libertarian? You're an independent, so I'm saying. Essentially, yeah. But as far as when it comes to the issues, and especially local issues, I do consider myself very Libertarian-leaning, at least, when it came to issues such as reforming cash bail, when it comes to issues of harm reduction ordinances, when it comes to issues of looking at these affordable housing regulations. These are all things that I agree with on the Libertarian Party. My platform, of course, was the Libertarians came to a consensus on it and did vote to endorse me. So obviously, we have a lot of common ground there. So let's drill down and focus on some of your policy ideas. So affordable housing is a big issue for your campaign, like you've been saying. So just wondering how specifically that you'll address the lack of affordable housing in Athens, Sure. So I think the biggest thing right now that I'm looking at is zoning regulations and housing regulations. This is something I really want to work with the zoning commissions, the planning commissions, and of course, other commissioners to address the biggest problem I have right now with our housing situation. We are in an affordable housing crisis. Athens has high rents. The rents continue to rise and people are unable to afford a lot of these houses and stay in them. One of the biggest problems right now is the regulation that mandates that no house can be built below a thousand square feet, unless it is built on a multi-family lot, in which case the minimum drops down to 700 square feet. And Habitats for Humanity is currently doing the Tiny Homes project, and which has 700 square feet houses that they're able to rent out an affordable price. But they had to get a multi-family lot to do that. It shouldn't be that difficult. That is something I want to target. Obviously, there should be regulations in place to make sure that housing is being built for quality, that housing is being built to safety. But in a county that has nearly a third of its residents in poverty, you shouldn't have to have a thousand plus square foot houses being built, especially when the bigger the house, you know, the more it's going to sell for, you should be able to build these 800 square feet houses, these 700 square feet houses. And if that's what people want, that's what they can get, you know, and if they can afford it, absolutely, they should be able to buy into that.  I just have a quick follow-up on that. So I think, you know, I clearly agree that I don't agree with these, these limitations. The reason why they did that, from my understand, is that they were trying to sort of get rid of the, you know, like the trailer homes. Right. If getting rid of those restrictions, but if that would mean that there's more trailer parks in Athens, is that something that, you know, you think people in district 10 would, so on? See, I don't think it would have to go to that. I think it could be more along the lines of encouraging things like cottage courts, encouraging more affordable housing. That's not necessarily trailer home, trailer, you know, trailer parks in the area, but looking at how can we build quality affordable housing that, you know, is built small, you know, they don't have to, rather than building cookie cutter, you know, suburban places with 1200 square feet houses that most people will have sizable amount of people in Athens can't afford. How can we build areas that have smaller houses that are quality that people can afford? This is something, you know, that Minneapolis had a problem with affordable housing as well. And it's a really interesting sort of thing that they did. What their council did was they focused on single family housing and zoning and they changed that and they worked out with all these different members of the community. They worked in redlining. They worked to change the restrictions that were put in place. And when they did, they went from a housing crisis to a housing boom. They no longer had a shortage of affordable housing. Now they were able to get people and houses and it didn't require a growth in trailer parks. It didn't require a growth in shoddy housing. You know, they were quality houses, but all it took was just revising single family zoning laws. And so that's something that I definitely want to look. How can we apply that project to Athens? How can we change the some of the zoning laws to make sure that we, yes, we have quality housing that looks good in the county. We make sure that the county looks nice, but it also makes sure that people are able to afford houses and they're not being forced out to Oconee County or they're not being forced out further to anywhere, any surrounding counties because they can't afford housing here. And you've also said that you want to freeze property taxes. So if our local government needed extra revenue for something, I was wondering what sources of funding that you would look to instead. Sure.  Obviously they're going to raise, you know, move up automatically as property values goes up. That's something that the commission can't change. However, what I want to make sure is that the commission is not raising the mills to spend more on projects. I would like us to look at using, Athens has the great resource of the splost, looking at if we have projects that need funding, can they wait? And if not, you know, at like I said, absolute last resort property tax raises, because I think what it comes down to is property tax is definitely a part of affordable housing. It's after you pay that mortgage, are you going to be able to afford to continue living there if your property tax is raised? Now all of a sudden you're in a situation where you can no longer afford that house or it's now your budget's a lot tighter. So that's something I want to focus on is making sure that people who purchase a house are able to stay there, that their property taxes aren't continuously raising to fund projects unless the county absolutely has to. And like I said, the resources that we have as far as the speed loss is concerned, as far as the project list, making sure that any project that can wait is suggested to a committee for that, that, you know, is asked, can we put it on that project list? Where else can we get the funds? Can this be something that we can form a partnership with other groups rather than raising the property taxes in the county? So if I heard you right, so you would support something like a squashed or another sales tax kind of thing over property tax increases, is that correct? Over property tax. So how do you feel about the current squashed voters actually? You can vote on that right now as we're talking? Well, I hope people go vote, you know, how they feel on it. Currently, I am pretty ecstatic about some of the projects. I do like the idea of the East Side Library. I think that was something we talked about at the last meeting. I like the idea of the Solar Rise Athens. I'm glad that that's coming here. And so there's a lot of good on the project and there's a lot of projects that I still don't know quite what they entail because they're kind of, you know, those smaller, not smaller, but those projects that are just, they're needed, but they're not flashy and they're not the ones that are publicized as much, you know, renovations to things like Bear Park, Hollow and things like that. So I think that there's a lot of good in the squashed. Is there anything on there you don't support? Well, there's so many projects. It's right. I'll be honest. I'm not a huge fan of the arena. I see where it's coming from. I do. I think that is one I want to point out. I think it's very important to have a epicenter of culture in any city. I've been to the Classic Center to see a production of rent. It was great. You know, this, the Classic Center has a lot to offer. And I think that people, especially with their pledge to, to bring living wage jobs and hire people within the county, I do think that that's a good start. I am a little concerned with the amount that was allocated to it. I would have liked to have seen maybe a smaller amount and maybe more later on. And I am a little concerned with the process of it being not put on the list and then re-added to the list, I think was my biggest issues with that. So that's the one I'm not quite ecstatic about. But I don't think that it's a make or break. So, if you were a commissioner, would you, you know, listen closely to the citizens committee or do you think there's some certain associations where it makes sense to put on a project that they didn't necessarily support? I would definitely listen to the citizens committee. It's there for a reason. You know, it's there to get a general feel of what the communities are feeling. Beyond that, I would also, you know, welcome more citizens input before it's finalized rather than just the meeting before the projects are finalized. I know that there were other meetings before them, but the Classic Center was one of the ones that it was added. And then there was one last meeting, a special called session to finalize. And so it's kind of one of those things I would look for more input and definitely, yes, listen to the citizens committee. It is there for a reason. 22 people definitely have a lot more opinions than just 10, well, or 11, including the mayor. So I think it's one of those things that you kind of get a more diverse range of opinions. And if they suggest things on a project, obviously, I do think it is good to look at those objectively and talk with the commission, like, how is this possible? You know, how much can we allocate to this? What are the pros and cons of it? Definitely. I think that's absolutely okay to do. But definitely, I would lean very heavily on the citizens committee recommendations. So are there any other major issues your campaign is focused on or any big changes that you would like to bring to City Hall? Sure. So one of the biggest things I'm focused on is transparency. Transparency in one of the good things that our county does right now is they record pretty much all the meetings and it's on the public forum. Anyone can go back, look at them. And they do post when the meetings are, especially the work sessions, those are on a pretty set schedule. The one thing that I want to focus on is making sure that special called sessions, if possible, I would like to see those put up 48 hours in advance to allow people to plan to go to them. Sometimes these meetings are put up hours before they're called, which makes it really hard to plan. If you're, you know, if you are at work or if you had something else going on, you're not able to say, oh, I need to go buy this. This is important to me. So that would be something I'd like to see. 48 hours in advance, you know, give people two days notice. Hey, this is what's being called. This is why the special session is being called. You have the chance to put input on that.  I also, it's a more minor thing. And I think it's something that the commissioners could do. But kind of one of the things that really helps with events is making the Facebook events form for people to use them because anytime you mark interested or going, other people see that. So it kind of broadens your base. Right now you aren't seeing the commission meetings on Facebook unless you follow one of the commissioners or you follow the main county page. And even then it's a little hard with the county page because they post everything at once. So you kind of have like blocks of posts. So I would like to see maybe one of the, you know, any of the commissioners in their districts posting on their candidate pages or their public figure pages. Hey, this meeting's happening. You can click on this if you want to go. And then that way more people can see it. Just kind of utilizing social media in a more savvy way. As far as one last aspect of transparency, I actually really like what Commissioner Denson does with his town halls. Having a monthly town hall would be something I would absolutely be open to doing, would love to do. I think it's very important that people know why their commissioner is taking the votes and they know who their commissioner is. So I think that's one of the other things I would pursue in my personal capacity. So how can voters in District 10 learn more about your candidacy if they have additional questions? Oh, and so where is District 10 exactly? Okay. Which part of the county are we talking about? Sure. So to find out more about my candidacy back to the social media savvy, my Facebook page and my Instagram page are both under the same handle, SPIVA, the number 4, A-T-H, SPIVA for Ath. My phone number is on there. And of course my email, devinspiva, gmail.com. First and last name, easy enough. And so anyone who has questions can email me. They can call me. I'll pick up. If I'm not at work, if not, I'll give them a call back or they can go to my Facebook page where I have my platform listed out. And I post thoughts on other things too. Now District 10, so District 10 is kind of like a triangle from at the tail end of the county. It covers all of Timothy Road. It covers Epstridge Parkway, Epstridge Parkway up to the Oconee line. And it covers old Epstridge Parkway and a few other areas, smaller roads. And it has, if you vote at the library or if you vote at Timothy Elementary, you might be in the district. It's a little difficult because there is some overlap there, but definitely at Timothy Elementary, more than like you're about 90% sure to be in the district. And let's see. So that's, as far as neighborhoods, Kingswood, Idlewood, apartment complexes, Abbey West, Athens Ridge, River Club, and a few others. Very cool. Do you have anything else that you'd like to say? I don't think so. No, I think we covered just about everything. Well, thanks so much. Yeah, well, thank you.


Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Jim. And one of the first things I learned in public speaking class was that you should never open with an apology, and I was wondering how I was going to explain that we had to get out of here before the meeting was over, and you took care of that. Thank you very much. Nancy and I are delighted that you could all come and be with us for what I know we all agree is this wonderful and very worthy cause, the James S. Brady Presidential Foundation. As you know, the foundation will honor Jim in recognition of the tremendous sacrifices that he and Sarah and their family have made. It will also provide assistance to other individuals wounded or killed in an assassination attempt on national figures, and will provide assistance to that individual's family. Now these good things don't just happen. They depend on the active support of fine people like yourselves and all of you who have worked so hard, and on the leadership of the foundation's nonpartisan board of directors. I won't name all the members, but I do want to pay a special tribute to three particular individuals. One is Jim Lynn, the president of the foundation, and the two who are co-chairing the fundraising effort, Joe Rogers and Bob Strauss. Now, since Bob and Joe both are such good numbers men, since this is the election season, I confess I got a little nervous, but I am assured that they are dedicated to this worthy and noble cause. I'm also delighted to tell you that Nancy will assume with great pleasure the position of honorary chairman of the foundation. You know that it almost became a byword several months there that Jim was Nancy's Y and H, young and handsome. But you know at the first reception marking the formation of this foundation, I said that it seemed to me that Jim Brady has some connections in very high places. He'd been out the night before at the old-timers baseball game. You'll remember that they held here with all the great baseball stars of the past, and on that particular night it was raining. And then Jim was introduced and it stopped raining.  On Monday afternoon he went to see his favorite team and mine, the Chicago Cubs. And after Jim threw out the first ball, the Cubs actually went out and won the game. And now there are only 20 games out of first place. But maybe the best way to describe the effect Jim Brady has on people is to read you a letter that I received from Mrs. James H. Terrell of Alexandria, Virginia a few months ago. Her son John had heard about what we're trying to do, and although he's only nine, he wanted to help. So he decided to go out on that bike path that's along Mount Vernon Highway and sell lemonade for ten cents a cup to raise money. And his mother wrote on Sunday, April 18, 1982, young John Terrell enjoyed selling lemonade and fruit punch to the many thirsty bicyclers on the bike trail. His goal was to help Mr. Jim Brady financially. His efforts collected the enclosed $37 and he did this by ten cents a cup plus a few tips. Please accept John's love gift for Jim Brady. John is a fourth grade student at Holland Meadow School in Alexandria. Well, as you can see, I think that John's sign probably helped a little. You may not be able to read that from where you are, but it's his own homemade sign that he had in his business undertaking. For those of those in the far corners he had read, please give for Jim Brady. Anyone want to argue that this isn't the greatest country in the world? And Jim, if you're watching, I think that John's sign says it all about the love America feels for Jim Brady and how all of us are praying for his continued recovery. Again, thank you all very much for helping make this foundation come true and for enabling it to provide assistance to those in need. So for Jim and for everyone else and for all of us, thank you and God bless you.


I went to the field yesterday with my buddy just to do some light training. It actually ended up being extremely windy and we couldn't really do anything. My dad even brought out this new drone that he has. He wants to do some footage, but it was way too windy. We couldn't get it up in the sky and then it even started raining. But I thought, hey, let's just make something of this session. So we just did some basic passing drills and I thought let's record it and we can show it to you guys. This is something you could do with a friend to improve your passing and first touch. Everyone wants to practice knuckleballs. They all want to practice free kicks, but in reality, the average player cannot pass and receive a ball with high quality, especially under pressure. So these are all drills that you can use to improve your passing and first touch. If you don't know about me, I used to be a huge underachiever, but through obsessive self-improvement, I found my success. Earned a college scholarship, played for my national football team, a YouTube channel with over 100 million views. I've helped players worldwide and I'd love to help you improve faster and achieve more. If you like this content, check out the Soccer Success Planner. You can download it for free. There's a link in the description below. And for advanced training, check out the Online Soccer Academy. If you like this content, check out the Soccer Success Planner. You can download it for free. There's a link in the description below. And for advanced training, check out the Online Soccer Academy.