Ever wondered how breaking the four-minute mile seemed impossible until Roger Bannister made it a reality? Our latest episode is a testament to the limitless potential within us all, as I recount tales of extraordinary individuals who've redefined the boundaries of human capability. I take you through a journey of inspiration, from Roger Bannister's historic run to James Lawrence's mind-boggling 50 Iron Man triathlons in 50 days, each story echoing the power of belief and tenacity. This isn't just about athletic prowess; it's a universal call to action to smash through our own barriers in every slice of life.
The saga continues with Rick Hansen, whose response to paralysis was to wheel across the globe, sparking hope and supporting spinal cord research. Reflecting on Hansen's resilience, I share my personal brushes with obsession, from my infatuation with the Brat Pack films to narrowly escaping expulsion from my teaching program. These narratives weave together a message of relentless pursuit, encouraging listeners like you to redefine your perceived limits in professional realms and personal passions alike. Join us as we light the fire within PE Nation, proving that with unwavering determination, the impossible becomes possible. Dave
Ever wondered how breaking the four-minute mile seemed impossible until Roger Bannister made it a reality? Our latest episode is a testament to the limitless potential within us all, as I recount tales of extraordinary individuals who've redefined the boundaries of human capability. I take you through a journey of inspiration, from Roger Bannister's historic run to James Lawrence's mind-boggling 50 Iron Man triathlons in 50 days, each story echoing the power of belief and tenacity. This isn't just about athletic prowess; it's a universal call to action to smash through our own barriers in every slice of life.
The saga continues with Rick Hansen, whose response to paralysis was to wheel across the globe, sparking hope and supporting spinal cord research. Reflecting on Hansen's resilience, I share my personal brushes with obsession, from my infatuation with the Brat Pack films to narrowly escaping expulsion from my teaching program. These narratives weave together a message of relentless pursuit, encouraging listeners like you to redefine your perceived limits in professional realms and personal passions alike. Join us as we light the fire within PE Nation, proving that with unwavering determination, the impossible becomes possible. Dave
Hello and welcome to the Super Sized Phys Ed podcast. My name is Dave and today I want to talk about no limits or, better yet, anything's possible, and I know it sounds cliche, but I have some specific examples that I think you could use in your PE program and in your life. So, without further ado, here we go. So today I want to talk inspiration. This is not a lesson planning podcast this time. This is not a, you know, standards and grade level, outcomes and things like that. This is about pure inspiration. It's kind of things I love. I love to talk about, I love to read about, I love to watch documentaries of these people I'm going to talk about and this is actually I'm kind of testing it with you. I'm writing my new book, my second book to the sequel of the teacher, the chef and hockey player, and I'm coming up with some new concepts they're not new, but they're new to my characters and one of them is there are no limits or no limits is actually the name of it and kind of the subtitle is anything's possible? So I want to give you a few specific examples of just people in the world in history. Mostly, what I'm talking about today is, you know in the sports arena or sports realm, of people who really made a difference and there were just no limits on what they could do and what they can achieve. And if they can do it, that means you can do it as well and that means I can do it. So that's inspiring to me and that's what I want to talk about today. And, once again, if you did purchase my book, I do appreciate it Again. No one has to, but it's a good way to support the show. It is on, it's in the show notes, it's in the links, it's on Amazon, it's digital, it's a paperback copy, it's kind of everywhere it needs to be kindle, all that stuff. So thank you again to the people who purchased the book.
Dave:
Now, in both books, the characters the main character, Jay, has different mentors and they teach lessons along the way. So Savannah is in the first book and she's also in the second book, and she's also my daughter, my name, my daughter. That's why I named her Savannah. With the no limits, she actually takes Jay to a shape. Florida convention Sounds familiar, right, so a convention, and there was a speaker that talks about some of the game changers basically in history, and so here are some of the ones that are discussed by the character, and I'm gonna throw a few extra ones in there as well. Oh, let's make this a boomer type list. So we'll do five game changers, five no limit guys and girls, and so the first one will be well, wait for the boomer here, it is All right.
Dave:
So the first one is Roger Bannister, and I know most of you know who that is or you've heard of him. He is the runner. He was actually a medical student and he became a doctor that broke the four minute mile. And what's really interesting about that is and he trained for a long time trying to break that. I mean, it was deemed impossible to break the four minute mile. Now athletes and athletics are not the same as they were back in 1954. And you know, roger decided he was going to break that record. No one had ever done it and he just barely did it three minutes and 59 seconds. But he proved that something that was deemed impossible was in fact possible.
Dave:
And the story doesn't end there. It didn't end there. Afterwards, him and another runner I believe it was a couple of weeks later battled and they both broke it. And the story still doesn't end there, because after that, the next, in the next decade, 336 people broke the four minute mile. So what does that tell us? It tells us that it is possible or was possible, and that once and it was called the Bannister effect once he did that then it kind of deflated all the notions that know that people couldn't do it. It broke through that barrier of, wow, he did it, I can do it. And it proves that there are no limits. Now, of course, if you say there's going to do something that's going to be a two-minute mile or something that's probably pretty far-fetched, but with technology and athletes being in better shape, better nutrition, better everything, who knows what the limits are on that? And again, this episode is called no Limits. But it's just something amazing that he decided it was almost like a mental block, right, nobody could break it. Nobody could break it. He broke it and then all these people started breaking it, and that just proves that we shouldn't put a cap on our imagination, a cap on our limits or anything like that. So that is number one, roger Bannister. Number two is the Iron Cowboy, james Lawrence.
Dave:
Now, I did an episode about him not too long ago in my Game Changers episode, but there is some updates to that. So, to recap, or if you didn't hear it, james Lawrence. He first held records of half marathons about 10 years ago. He did 22 half marathons in 2011. And that was a record. That was a world record.
Dave:
But he wanted to go bigger than that and he went way bigger. So Iron man triathlons are 140.6 miles in a day between swimming, biking and then running a full marathon. So that is just incredible. If I did that one time, that would be amazing. I mean, that would be just something that I would be so proud of. But he decided to go way bigger than that. He did 50, 50, 50, which is 50 Iron Man's in 50 consecutive days in all 50 states, and I don't know why he's not talked about more. I don't know why people don't know who he is. There is a documentary on Amazon Prime. That's where I saw most of this information.
Dave:
I heard of him on a podcast, but I couldn't believe that. I mean 50, 50, 50. That's a lot of planning traveling. His family traveled with him. I'm not going to go into all the details. I did a big episode on that on everything but he talked about even Damien merchant's. I mean, he fell asleep on his bike a couple times because he was so tired. I mean he didn't sleep much because he couldn't. Every day he was up early and completing everything, which is unreal. It would take a good eight to 10 hours each day for him to finish and then he'd just crash and he would be driven to the next state. Sometimes he didn't even know what state he was in and it was just a big logistical problem for his team, not just his wife and kids, but his whole team of travel arrangements and I mean, think about, you know, hawaii and Alaska and just traveling. So that was amazing.
Dave:
And then to update it, which I didn't know about, he wanted to do 100 and actually did 101 Ironmans in 101 consecutive days. I guess on the 102nd day he's like, yeah, I'm good, but that is just something amazing that I just can't even comprehend 101 consecutive days of Ironmans. And that's not just dedication, obviously, that's a toll on his body. That is just pushing your body to absolute limits. And I know from watching the documentary on the 50, 50, 50, he would be losing toenails, he'd have blisters everywhere, he'd be cramping up, he'd have to get IV fluid in him too just because he was dehydrated. I mean it's just amazing what he did and again that proves that there's just no limits on what the human body can do. So again, if you want to check out the full episode, that is in if you go back in my episodes the game changer, james Lawrence, the Iron Cowboy. But that is for now. That is number two and it is James Lawrence.
Dave:
Number three Amanda Nunez. If you watch UFC fighting, I mean there's no one better than her. Now she just retired, but there's just read something that she might actually come back, so who knows? But Amanda Nunez is the greatest they, definitely the goat of UFC. She was the first female to hold two belts in two different divisions and she has beaten the who's who between Ronda Rousey, valentina Shevchenko, which is my favorite fighter, and Misha Tate and all the big ones.
Dave:
Now, if you don't know some of these names, that's okay, but she beat everybody and there's not much I can really say about her. She was absolutely the most dominant woman mixed martial artist ever and she started training when she was 16, so she wasn't like a prodigy at five years old or something like that. She was boxing at 16. She was in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and then she finally well, not finally, but she started professionally fighting at 19. And again, she just recently retired at 35, I believe but she might come back, like I said, which I'm very excited about. And Ronda Rousey was the one that made female MMA popular I'd say along with Misha Tate, but definitely Ronda Rousey and so I could definitely throw her in this category as well. It just again it proves that again, there's no limits. They broke down the barriers to women's MMA and I know that might turn some of you people off that are listening to this, but I'm just saying they are great.
Dave:
I'm going to go back to Amanda Nunez. She is the best ever at her field. She is a game changer, ground breaker and just total awesome fighter, if you go back and watch some of her fights, and she proves that there are no limits to what you can achieve. And so Amanda Nunez is number three. For number four, I also did a game changers episode on him.
Dave:
This is Alex Honnold. Basically, go watch Free Solo on Disney Plus. Free Solo, if you haven't seen it is. I mean again. It just it opened my eyes to a sport that I had never heard about. It is rock climbing without any ropes. That's just. Basically that's what it is. It is absolutely, to me, insane, to most people I think insane, but to Alex Honnold it is what he does and what he does best and what he's known for. And he achieves something that no one has ever done, that probably no one ever will do, which is to Free, solo, again without ropes or any harnesses, el Cap or El Capitan in Yosemite Park. It is straight up 3,000 feet of just solid granite rock and if you've seen it, if you've ever seen it or seen pictures or seen the video, the documentary, it is just amazing. And for him to have climbed that without any safety at all, that put into place, is just something no one ever thought was possible. And, by the way, kids don't ever try that at home.
Dave:
He did put a lot of work in. Now, at first, when I heard about that, I was like, well, maybe he just, I mean, did he just start climbing? No, he put a lot of work into it. He climbed with ropes, a lot of like the whole course, and he would train for hours and actually for almost a year just training on just that, just El Cap, and he would. He had a journal that he'd write down his notes and where he'd say, well, ok, on this part, I put my two fingers here, my one foot here and do a little. The one part is a karate kick to get leveraged on the rock, and so he had a whole journal and he again, he went through the course many, many times with ropes and then he did it without ropes and it is just something amazing. If you see that, you need to see the video, if you haven't, or the documentary again, it's called Free Solo. It just blows my mind as to what the human body, like we talked about before, can do, and many people have died in that sport, not, I don't believe it, on El Cap, but other ones, you know. People just lose their grip or they just the wind, you know, blows a certain way, or a rock falls from a ledge and hits somebody and knocks them off, and I just can't even put my wrap my head around it, what he did. So, again, no limits. And that is Alex Honnold, number four. So the final main one I want to talk about is a guy I'd never heard of before until I.
Dave:
How did I find out about this? I watched for the first time ever St Elmo's Fire. I'd never seen St Elmo's Fire and I've I've always beena fan of the Brat Pack and all those movies. You know, breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink and 16 Candles, and I'd never seen St Elmo's Fire and I don't know why. I just wanted to see it and it was actually okay. I don't think it was the greatest movie ever, but if you haven't seen it again, I didn't know much about it, except for all those main actors were in it.
Dave:
It's it's really just about people graduate from college and kind of staying together as a group and drifting apart a little bit and things like that. Now I have to disclose to you that my wife gets upset with me, not upset with me. She just kind of makes fun of me because when I read a book or when I oh that's actually what it started I read or I listened to, I said I read a book, I listened to a book on the Brat Pack and I believe that's how I. Okay, so that's how I started watching St Elmo's Fire. Follow my train of thought, please. And then what I do and this is what she makes fun of me for is I kind of obsess over things for a while, like if I'm in my, I love Led Zeppelin.
Dave:
I love U2 and and certain movies and things like that. If I'm in a Led Zeppelin, you know mode or mood, you know I'll go all in, I'll, I'll, and I do. I've read so many other books and listen to so many, many of the books, and U2 was my favorite. But I'll go all in, I'll listen to U2 for like a week and I'll. I actually just watched Rell and Hum again and you know I'll obsess over things and when I watch a movie, you know I'll always have to look up. You know the cast and where are they now and what are they doing and all sorts of stuff.
Dave:
So St Elmo's Fire, the song it's. It's called St Elmo's Fire and man of Motion and it was a popular song in the 80s. I'm not going to sing it for you because I have the worst voice ever, but in the song it says uh, want to be a man in motion. All I need is a pair of wheels. Take me where the future is lying. St Elmo's Fire. And I never knew what that meant, but it was. What happened was I'm not going to this whole history of this either because it'll take a while.
Dave:
They the song is really about a guy named Rick Hansen and what he did was just incredible. I'd never heard of this guy before, never heard any of these stories before, and so it was really amazing. It's really cool to talk about because I put in my new book and I just think it's something a story that not many people know. So Rick Hansen is a Canadian and when he was younger he was in a pickup truck accident where he flew out of the truck and was paralyzed. They hit a tree. So instead of and, by the way, he was a PE teacher. So that's pretty cool, right, I believe he was a PE teacher afterwards, but, yes, he was a PE teacher.
Dave:
So that's kind of neat, kind of tie in, you know, to our number five here, our game changer or our no limits person we're talking about. So he, you know there's so many things anybody can do in life and whether you're disabled or able-bodied, you know you set your limits and he decided obviously there was no limits. He won national titles in wheelchair volleyball and basketball, as well as competing in marathons in the Paralympics, and he won many awards in titles and medals and you know that's inspiring as it is. I mean that's amazing. Just just doing that, you're not giving up, obviously after a tragedy, you know, changing his life and doing things that inspired him, but that's not where it ends. As I have said quite a bit, I think here he did way more than that. He decided to raise money and awareness for spinal cord injuries. So he, on his, in his wheelchair, traveled the world like circled the globe. It took him 26 months and he averaged eight hours a day in his wheelchair. Again, it wasn't an electric wheelchair. He pushed his wheelchair for eight hours a day and he raised over $26 million for cancer research.
Dave:
And when he finally made it home to Vancouver, the song was playing the St Elmo's Fire man in Motion. The song was playing to a huge crowd and friends, family and fans that wanted to congratulate him, and so that is what the song is about. I don't remember what the song was about. It was about him and they kind of put it in with the movie. It doesn't quite fit with the movie, but that's what you know. That's what it's about. So that is Rick Hansen and it's a cool story. And that is number five.
Dave:
And now it is time for your cowbell tip of the day. All right, so your tip of the day is to hopefully be inspired. First of all and I'm going to give you a few more names, just name drop some people that you know prove there are no limits and there's no limits to your PE program either. You, you're all limit, limited by your, your creativity and your goals and passions and things you could bring to the PE program. I mean, I don't know how many times I thought I wouldn't be able to do something or I couldn't, or I was told I couldn't.
Dave:
I don't know how many times I told the story probably not much actually on this podcast, or maybe even never but I almost was kicked out of I don't call teaching school, but basically my program, my teaching program in college, and I kind of was ticked off. I was mad. I didn't think it was my fault, but I wasn't a very good student teacher. I really wasn't. It wasn't that I had studied, it wasn't that I didn't try, I just wasn't very good at being in the classroom. I didn't feel like my student or my cooperating teacher, or whatever you call them now, really helped me and guided me and I struggled and I was almost kicked out. I was given another chance and I did really well with my next experience, my next teacher and so I stuck with it. But it was almost like a okay, f-u kind of thing. I'm going to make this and you're not going to stop me. And obviously I became a teacher. I've been teaching for over 20 years and I love it.
Dave:
But you know, again, I'm not saying that was some extraordinary thing, that wasn't breaking the four minute mile or there wasn't climbing El Cap, but that's, you know me not putting limits to what I want to do and my goals and my dreams, and I don't want you to do that either. Okay, I'm going to give you a few more names to kind of check out. There's a lot, many in history and many in sports, especially because we're kind of talking about that a little bit. But I want to talk about a few other ones real quick, so I'm just name dropping here some no limit people. Obviously people like Elon Musk, JK Rowling I mean, she was on welfare and she created Harry Potter! Wilma Rudolph definitely check her out.
Dave:
I didn't have time for some of these. I would say Tom Brady, I mean obviously everybody knows who that is, but you know he defied age and what he did is just becoming the greatest ever. And trust me, being a Buffalo Bills fan and New England beating us for 20 years, tom Brady destroying us for almost 20 years, I was not a fan, at least not rooting for them. But I, you know, got to respect the goat, got to respect the game and you know what he did was just absolutely amazing. I could throw many, many other people in there that some I'll just talk about in later editions, I guess of this.
Dave:
But check those people out, check out inspiration, inspirational people, and you know, keep going and keep working and keep dreaming. That's no limits and that is your cowbell tip of the day. Thank you everyone for tuning in. I really do appreciate it. As always, go to supersizedphysed. com for more information. There's lots of PDFs and games and videos and all sorts of stuff there, so check that out. If you get a chance, take care of PE Nation. Have a great day, week, weekend, whenever you listen to this. Let's keep pushing our profession forward.