A LOOK INTO THE TRUE MEANING BEHIND THE TERM "FULLREPS"
On the surface it appears to be all about baseball but peel back all the layers and reveal the true process & message that drives the success of our FullReps athletes!
New’s Years Day 2018 marked the 9 year anniversary of Kyle Ford’s death. For all of the players who train with us, it's extremely important to know the true meaning behind the words FullReps.
The term “FullReps” was coined by our PT, Bob Gorinski. An amazing coach and even better person, Bob had the privilege of training Kyle Ford in the earlier days. Bob Gorinski writes…..
“Kyle Ford was a “guinea pig” for some of our early ideas, so I heard much about this particular athletes progress in our system. I completed his orthopedic assessment, ran him through a few of our performance tests, and routinely viewed the fruit of his work posted online. He was the first guy to truly get the point of 20-rep squats. He put up some impressive power and baseball numbers, at the age of 15. Not the absolute best, though he was quickly gaining on anyone who wasn’t working like he was. That’s almost the point. But even better than the physical improvements, Kyle was getting it! He was pursuing focus. He pushed harder, suffered the uncomfortable consequences of disciplined effort, and didn’t quit. He was learning for himself how the mind raises the body. I’m told by those close to Kyle that they could see the “whole life” changes brought on by the circular effects of increased confidence and improved physical performance. Kyle was gulping down the full dose and I thought to myself, Oh God, this is not just about baseball. I never had much time with Kyle. After that initial assessment, I exchanged a few greetings with him and briefly watched him train from a distance. I remember watching him strain under the bar with squat jumps. I remember taking a mental note while Kyle was trying to do chin-ups. He was struggling, going all the way down and up without me needing to tell him to. He seemed to be going even higher than what’s required. This taught me about Kyle Ford. I saw how, of all tests, competitive young men are easily tempted to do a partial range of motion on chin-ups. Especially when there’s something at stake. It’s easy to appear that you can best your buddy or your rival. You may get a higher ranking in the database. But the truth of doing only partial reps on the chin-up test is that you’re either cheating or lazy. I didn’t know Kyle Ford very well, in some terms. I have little room to speak on all of him, and I never really like our human tendency to deify the entire life of a person after they are gone. But this I can say, must say, because I know: Kyle Ford did FullReps.”
"If it were only about teaching baseball & developing monster athletes, we simply wouldn't be here!"
Kyle Ford is why, for testing purposes, we will not count incomplete reps at FRTC. We don’t care how good the intentions, or if your next game is T-ball, NCAA or MLB All Stars. That’s the kind of expectations we set for our athletes when they train because what we do here is way bigger than the game of baseball. It's more about building character, being a good person and laying the foundation for your future one brick at a time.
Taking a look at some of the numbers....
There have been hundreds, maybe thousands, of baseball players walk through the door of FullReps Training Center over the years. Each individual walking their own path, traveling along their own unique journey and guess what!? Most of them will not go on to be the next Derek Jeter. In fact, every player’s individual path will lead to a different destination and a lot of the time that destination has little to do with baseball and everything to do with who you are as a person!
23% of the roughly two million little leaguers in the United States will go on to play Freshman High School Baseball. For some, the journey ends before high school, at a young age.
There are approximately 470,000 High School Freshman Baseball Players in the US, but only about 130,000 High School Senior Baseball Players. That means that for 72% of those High School Freshman Baseball Players, the journey ends before high school does.
Of those High School Ball players, 6.1% will go on to play NCAA baseball, and of those, less than 1000 will get drafted. So for the majority of young players that walk through our doors, their journey will not lead to professional baseball. Even so, the amount of young players who dedicate themselves every day to giving “FullReps”, whether it be in the weight room, in the cages, on the plyo wall, or anywhere else, truly exemplify work ethic which is something we value above anything else.
The concept of “FullReps” takes on a different meaning for each of our players within the context of their own journey - but in general, Kyle Fords efforts represent the true definition of “fullreps” which can be summarized as; The How of your actions is equally as important as the what of your actions. Essentially, How you do what you do matters as we all can agree that there are no shortcuts to success.
"Excellence is simply a projection of one’s willingness to be great and here at FRTC you can dream as big as your work ethic will allow you"
Whether your journey leads to Pro Baseball, College Baseball, or anywhere else, when you give FullReps, you can look the man in the mirror and know that you are walking your best path and being the best version of yourself at that very moment.
Success is a journey, much more than a destination, and FullReps is all about that journey. Continue to align yourself with those who are hungry. Those who are unstoppable & unreasonable. Those who never stop learning & aspire to be great. We speak on behalf of our entire FullReps staff when we say - we can't tell you WHAT motivates us but we can tell you WHY we're motivated!
Thank you Kyle Ford for always giving FullReps and inspiring us each and every day! Your efforts will live on indefinitely.
