Mighty Oak Athletic Podcast S3:E108 - Want Your Kid to Find Their People? Give Them a Community That Travels.
Key Takeaways
Training is a shared language. The same lifts, the same effort and the same respect are understood in every gym in the world.
Community comes to people who love to train. Show up, work hard, cheer for the next person, and you belong.
Belonging in a gym is earned with effort, so it is open to a 6-year-old on day one.
A kid who learns to train carries that community to college, to a new city and into adult life.
At Mighty Oak Athletic in Westmont, IL, athletes ages 6 to 18 from different towns, schools and sports train side by side in groups of 12 or fewer.
There is an outdoor gym on the sand in Miami Beach that I call Vice Beach. Sun. Sand. Barbells. Kettlebells. Pull-up bars. You train until you are cooked, and then you walk straight into the surf. It is one of my favorite places on earth to lift, and every time I show up there I feel at home within about two minutes.
That feeling is what I want to talk about. I have been training consistently for 34 years. It started in a high school weight room in the fall of 1992, and since then I have had the good fortune to train in gyms all over the world, with all sorts of great people. Big gyms and garage gyms. Fancy ones and rusty ones. Places where I spoke the language and places where I could barely order lunch. And here is what took me years to notice: I have felt at home in every single one of them.
The reason is simple. Training is its own language, and everybody who trains speaks it. A deadlift is a deadlift in every country. So is the nod from across the room, the "how many sets do you have left?" and the stranger who steps in to spot you. You show up, you do the work, you put your weights away, and you are in. Nobody asks where you are from or what you do for a living. They see the effort, and effort is the membership card.
There is a line in the movie Ratatouille that I think about all the time. Chef Gusteau tells Remy, "Food always comes to those who love to cook." Training works the same way. Community always comes to those who love to train. You can skip the networking and the small talk. Love the work, keep showing up, and the people find you. They always have for me.
And here is the part parents should hear. That community is open to everybody who puts in the effort. It cares about three things: that you show up, that you work hard and that you cheer for the person next to you. Every one of those is available to a 6-year-old on day one. The strongest person in the room and the newest person in the room are welcomed on the same terms.
I watch it happen every day at our gym in Westmont. We train 12 athletes or fewer at a time, ages 6 to 18, and they come from different towns, different schools and different sports. A hockey player, a volleyball player and an Irish dancer end up sharing a barbell. A high schooler high-fives a second grader who just earned a new shirt color. Kids who would never have met are suddenly counting each other's reps. They walked in as strangers and they train like teammates, because the work gives them something in common before anybody says a word.
Now fast-forward a few years. Someday your kid is going to land somewhere new. A college campus. A first job. A city where they know exactly nobody. A kid who knows how to train has a head start that is hard to put a price on. They can walk into the campus rec center or the gym down the street, pick up a barbell and be among their people by the end of the first week. Squatting, pressing, pulling and carrying are skills. So is belonging. We teach both at the same time.
That is the real return on 34 years of training. The strength is great. It lets me do what I love and be useful to the people around me. The friendships are better. They are waiting on a beach in Miami, in a weight room across the ocean and in a small gym on Cass Avenue in Westmont.
If you want your kid to have that for life, bring them in. The first session is free, and they will have somebody cheering for them before the hour is over.
Be strong to be useful.
Common questions
How does strength training help kids make friends? Kids in a training session share the same work, the same coaching and the same goals. That shared effort gives them something in common right away, whatever school or sport they come from.
What age can kids start at Mighty Oak Athletic? Kids can start strength training at age 6. Mighty Oak Athletic trains athletes ages 6 to 18.
Does my child need experience to join? Every athlete starts at Level 1 and learns the movements with a coach. Sessions are capped at 12 athletes, and the first session is free.
Where is Mighty Oak Athletic? 6424 S. Cass Ave., Westmont, IL. Families come from Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills, Downers Grove, Darien, Willowbrook, Burr Ridge and the western Chicago suburbs.
