I've had to really learn how to receive a mentor lately... Still a work in progress in my opinion, I don't always know how to handle myself sometimes, or the right ways to act, so I just try not to worry, I just let it hang out, be completely myself, and if a mentor wants to step in, I'll do my best to receive the good with the bad.. Still not the easiest thing of all time.
So I've been thinking a lot about my past mentors, My father was my true first mentor, my second was Jason Hawkins, a former professional hockey player who started me down this road, I wanted to be like him, and he was always researching and getting better as a coach, he was a younger guy, and just passion all over. He's the head coach of the Brockville Braves right now, I'm going to send him a facebook message later asking him if he ever needs help with coaching off ice stuff. Earl horvath and Doug Marr came after that.
Then there was Willie fu#$ing albert.
I rolled into the YMCA, and just started lifting, back then a 315 back squat was pretty good, and I was noticed because I could front squat half decent. I wanted to compete, and back then we were more of a family, tons of guys would go out for UFC back then. Willie always grabs the young guys that want it, so he picked me up somewhat early.
The thing you have to understand about Willie is nothing scares him, except maybe himself. Nothing scares that guy, and he just doesn't care who you are or what you do. He never backs down from anything or anyone, and it's like that all the time. That's what people don't get, he's wide open all the time, 100% honest, you always know where you stand, but if you're full of shit, he's letting you know. I'm not sure if Willie liked me or hated me for the exact same thing, doesn't really matter.
My first meet, Willie drove me down with himself and Anton Migounov, in his moms boat of a car, that would take 5 minutes to get up to 150km/h, and if he got it up that high, he was honking on the horn getting people to move because he didn't want to take that long getting us back up to speed. I tried to cut first meet, and Willie wouldn't even pull over for me to piss, and I can't go when you watch. Plus, if I got piss in the guys moms car, I was pretty sure I would be dead. I was like 23 and Willie was around my age now, him and Anton we terrifying, I've got a good poker face, but I was out of my mind.
They tried to tell me I wouldn't compete, or I'd get tested, or just in general tried to fuck with my head, I told Willie my plan for the meet, and he was all over me until i just did it his way. I did, and I went 8/9 and was one of the better performers that day. The guy took me there, wrapped my knees, got my rack heights, helped with what he should help with, and made fun of me when I should do it myself.
The night before, i spent the night in Sue Thompsons room and she calmed me down, I slept on the floor because there was no way I was taking a bed from one of those guys.
I was fucking pissed about that meet, and I've always been pissed about it. I understand now, guys have to be able to handle their shit, and I've got my own guys begging me to watch them squat in the middle of a warm up at my meets, and I wonder how Willie would handle it, probably around the same way I do, telling them to fuck off so I could warm up, then feeling guilty so i went and watched, lmao.
That's the way Willie had to be to get to the top, you don't do what he did and not believe in yourself. Willie is the only guy I've ever know who said "no" during a lift and still made it, saw it with my own eyes, and he still stood up. I see that as a turning point in his career when he found it even when his head said no, his body would still follow through.
Yeah, we drove 9 hours through a snow storm, in a truck my gf forgot to mention didn't have snow tires, got into my first car accident, got pulled out 5 mins later, and kept on driving, headed to our first big multi ply powerlifting meet.
7 full power lifters showed up. We rocked the meet, spent like 8 hours there freezing our asses off, Willie got a record no one ever talked about, then totally gassed we celebrated by ourselves that night, Willie threw me over his shoulder and forced me to, then we drove another 9 hours home. Willies gf broke down drying over the terrifying drive, and later he told me he wasn't mad, but he was disapointed.
Willie Albert was disapointed in me? I told him to fuck off, and go fuck himself, or something like that, then broke down crying in shame later when no one could see.
That's about how it goes with me and Willie.
You wanna get Willie fired up? I mean, see him let it all hang out? I know how, I've been doing it for years, I guarantee it's why his squat hasn't gone up... Nobody tells him he can't do it anymore. Every time I talk to him, I tell him how I'm going to beat him, he calls me dumb and delusional, but I will find any way I can to compete against the guy.
He thrives on proving people wrong, he loves it, lives for it. He still remembers his school teachers telling him how he'd never be anything, and no he makes more money then them and actually helps people, not the retarded way school teachers do, he gets them into shape, as fast as they'll allow, and all they have to do is keep and open mind and not piss him off.
When I trained with those guys it was easy, scream for Jay to be number 1, because that's why he trains, and tell Willie he couldn't do it, and then you'd see him really try, for Kade, just chill out, he's got that shit. I'm the same way, it took me a long time to actually be able to use encouragement, I can now, I love proving people wrong, it's more fun, but Willie made a life out of it.
I've got a hundred Willie stories, me and Dave Heisel had an entire table full of younger guys hanging on our every word because we were talking about him... My own guys just dying to hear about Willie... we've got some good memories.
Willie is the guy who'd ask for you help moving, do most of the work, buy you a pizza, say thanks and mean it, then get a ticket the next day and blame you for it... which actually happened, it was pretty funny. He was also the first guy I know who used the naked man, this was back in the early 2000's and it worked.
Without Willie, I might not have met my gf. When Megan got here, she asked me who to train with on facebook, I never looked at her pictures, and didn't realize she was hot as shit and not some dumptruck, so I told her about my guys, Willies place, Curds, Orleans, all the hot spots. She told me later, she'd met Willie when her was younger, and there was no way she was training with him, she didn't know he's chilled out... kind of, and is in a serious relationship now, so she came to the YMCA.
When I found out Megan was hot, I immediately told her we were going out on a date, used all of Willies moves, loudly proclaimed "We are not having sex tonite! don't even try" and constantly made fun of her for trying to get me into bed on the first date. I took her to a restaurant Willie showed me, ordered for her, held her hand and told her it was in case she slipped on ice... it was September, then back to her place, where I used one of Nera's old moves, and the rest is history.
So basically, Willie got me into powerlifting, taught me a shit load when we weren't fighting with each other, and got me the girl of my dreams in a round about way.
Boo yeah.
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