Reaching the highest level of any sport means training like you are going to compete — pushing yourself in practice even when it hurts worse than a class, because that is what separates someone qualifying for the big stage from someone happy to be a recreational athlete. In part three of Mindset of a Champion on Physical Friday, three-time CrossFit Games Masters champion Kevin Koester explains the mindset and behavior it takes to go from local competitor to qualifying for the Games, the Boston Marathon, or the Hawaii Ironman.
Listen now: press play in the player above and follow along.
It means bringing competition-level intensity and focus into your practice sessions, not just your events. Kevin Koester told me you have to be willing to push yourself in training the way you would on the competition floor, and that is difficult because it hurts worse than going to a class and worse than the consistency part. You do not have to do it every single day, but you have to be willing to have that mindset when it counts.
You make a real commitment and you train like the event is already happening. Kevin used the example of grinding through a 50-rep workout with a 100-pound D-ball, throwing over four-foot boxes and burpees, pacing himself off the clock from the very first ten reps. Qualifying for the CrossFit Games, the Boston Marathon, or the Hawaii Ironman all demand that same willingness to do the hard, often miserable work that recreational athletes skip.
Because you are pushing into territory most people avoid. A class workout has a built-in ceiling — you do the work and you are done. Training to compete means you are constantly chasing a pace, a time, or a standard, and you are doing it on your own when nobody is making you. Kevin described one of those sessions as sickening, and that honesty is exactly why so few people reach the top.
Good partners help, but they are not required. Kevin told me he can do the same hard work with or without a partner. The commitment has to come from inside. Having someone to push you is a bonus, but the athletes who make it to the highest level are the ones who will grind alone when there is no one there to hold them accountable.
It applies directly. As a fishing guide, training like you compete means going out in every condition and challenging yourself to catch difficult fish under tough circumstances, because on tournament day those might be the exact conditions you face. Whatever your endeavor — running, business, fishing — training like you are going to compete and carrying the mindset of a winner is what gets you there.
Kevin Koester is a three-time CrossFit Games Masters champion who went from being a local athlete to competing at and winning the CrossFit Games. He is the recurring guest in this Mindset of a Champion series, sharing the mental approach that took him to the top so the rest of us can apply it to whatever we are working toward.
I do not have CrossFit Games experience, so on a topic like this I am listening to every word Kevin says. What I do have is experience taking my fishing to the most competitive environments there are, and the advice he gives for making it to the Games maps perfectly onto that world. That is the magic of this series — borrow from a champion in one arena and use it in your own.
There is a major gap between the person who is just happy to be out there running and the person actually trying to qualify for something big. Kevin says it comes down to a willingness to train like you compete, and to do the work that hurts. I let him explain why that is so hard and so rare in the episode. Press play to hear the workout that made even a champion call it sickening.
Whether you want to qualify for the Boston Marathon, get to Hawaii for the Ironman, fish your first pro-level tournament, or build a business, the pattern Kevin describes holds. Commit, train like the moment is already here, and accept the discomfort. I tie his advice back to the way I prepare for the toughest fishing conditions in the full episode. Listen in for the connection.
What I keep coming back to is that the willingness to hurt in training is the whole ballgame. Almost everyone wants the result. Very few will do the miserable rep work alone to earn it.
Train like you are going to compete. Carry the mindset of a winner into whatever you are chasing. That is the lesson Kevin handed us, and it is one I am using myself.
Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series for fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen — the training, nutrition, and mindset to stay in the game for life. Watch and listen to every Physical Friday episode from Tom Rowland.
Kevin Koester · CrossFit Games · Boston Marathon · Hawaii Ironman · Bassmaster Classic · Redfish tournaments · Invictus · Physical Friday · Tom Rowland Podcast
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series where I help fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen build the training, nutrition, and mindset to stay strong and stay in the game for life.
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