My coaching is not for endurance athletes.

I say that to my wife half-jokingly and say it to the world earnestly. Endurance athletes like distance runners, cyclists, and triathletes have fully embraced age-group competition. To be a triathlete is necessarily to be an age-grouper, with the sole exception of turning professional.

But in every other sport, there’s no unified name for adult athletes who are seriously competitive.

There are club sports for competitive adults – ultimate and rugby, namely.
There are league sports for competitive adults – basketball, softball, and soccer.
There are open-class sports for competitive adults – rock climbing, CrossFit, and golf.
There are sports that don’t even have reliable places for competitive adults – wrestling, football, diving…

Then there are sports that have it right: swimming, weightlifting, and track & field. These sports know to call the committed, competitive, powerful adult a Masters athlete.

Every Adult Playing Powerfully Is A Masters Athlete

As I responded to JT Ayers in my guest appearance on the On Track & Field podcast recently, the Masters athlete is every athlete out of college who is serious about competing. Acknowledging the culture established in endurance sports around “age-group athlete”, I’ll go further: the Masters athlete is an adult amateur that sprints, jumps, throws, and lifts for performance.

Does Your Goal Have A Fixed Date?

To be an athlete rather than an exerciser is simple: an athlete points to the calendar and says “on THIS day, I will perform.”

An exerciser never has to deliver a performance. Exercise is so valuable for health. Its benefits to happiness, mental clarity, stress management, and longevity are, frankly, unbelievable. But I learned early in my career that I don’t serve exercisers.

I’m too obsessive. I’m too particular. I’m too eager. And I’m too aggressive. Exercisers don’t need all of that. But athletes are all of those things already and they need someone to match their energy. So I serve athletes. I help you perform on THAT day.

Are You Content To Finish Or Determined To Perform?

To be a Masters athlete rather than an age-grouper is also simple: you expect superlative performance.

No offense to the “overly serious amateur” in endurance sports (my wife’s self-description, which I love and respect), but most of what has made distance activities so welcoming and inclusive is how vigorously you are celebrated for just finishing. Like exercise, finding a challenge that excites you enough to sign up, show up, and push through discomfort is unbelievably healthy. Finishing requires commitment and sacrifice and toughness, no doubt.

But a Masters athlete isn’t on the field, on the platform, or in the blocks just to say they participated.

A Masters athlete knows their PRs and wants to surpass them.
A Masters athlete knows their team’s needs and intends to over-deliver.
A Masters athlete can perform above expectations yet still be frustrated at falling short on the scoreboard.

What Endurance Sports Got Right About Adult Athletes

I envy the rich history of age-groupers in endurance sports. Those sports have created divisions, championships, and record books that acknowledge how age changes performance. Many serious athletes devote months and years to preparing for excellence and age-group titles. There are participants and there are competitors – the identity of age-grouper implies you expect to be a competitor.

I want the same language for power athletes. I vote that the language is “Masters athlete.”

Age changes performance when you sprint, jump, throw, and lift at maximum intensity. Divisions which acknowledge that impact create championship titles and records worthy of aggressive pursuit by amateurs. By adults. By competitors.

Adults In (Power) Sports Are Masters Regardless

Of course, none of these semantics matter.

The athletes I’m privileged to work with are already competitors.
They expect superlative performance.
They have a date circled on the calendar for a critical performance.
They are seriously competitive adult amateurs.
They are training to perform, regardless of age. Perhaps, even, in spite of age.

The athletes I serve are Masters. Whatever name they use within their sport, their desires for faster, higher, stronger, and better are what unite them.

If that’s what you are after in your sport, my coaching is for YOU.