It's a lonely road

Welcome back to another Leech Letter,

Rambo: First Blood opens with a man walking down a road.

John Rambo is looking for the last guy from his unit. He finds the house. The man's wife tells him her husband died of cancer he brought home from the war. Rambo pulls a photo out of his jacket, crosses the name off, and walks back to the road.

Dan Hill's song plays over it. No dialogue. Just a guy walking.

I have watched that movie more times than I can count, and it took me years to figure out why it sticks. The road is not the reason it lands. Everybody has a road. It lands because his list is empty. There is nobody left to call.

Most coaches I know are working on that same list.

You are the only strength coach in the building. The head coach is not asking about your set and rep scheme. Your AD just calls you the weights guy. You go home and nobody there wants to hear about what you did in the gym all day. So you carry it by yourself and you tell yourself that is just the job.

Then you decide it means something. That the loneliness is proof you are built for this. That the guys who ask for help are soft.

Here is what it actually is. You can push a sled by yourself. It moves. It just moves at half speed and you are cooked by the third trip. Put a second guy on it and you do four times the work and still have legs for the rest of practice.

There is a coach two hours from you who already solved the problem you spent last February building from scratch. You have never texted him. Not because you are busy. Because asking felt like admitting something.

The road is long. That part is real and nobody gets out of it.

The lonely part is the piece you keep choosing.

Rambo crossed off the last name on his list. You have not. Text that coach after you meet him in the handshake line after the game. Reach out to your friends you haven't talk to in a while. Join a group like Insiders and connect with Coaches on a similar road to you.

Keep the Fire Burning,

Leech