How Orion Edwards Maximized His Potential for the Olympics
Clance: Orion!
Orion: Coach.
Clance: Edwards, my man.
Orion: That’s right.
Clance: My man. Welcome. This is your first year at LPS?
Orion: Yes, sir.
Clance: It’s a pleasure having you.
Orion: It’s a pleasure to be here.
Clance: Love your work ethic. I love your work ethic. I want to let everybody know who you are, what you do, and we’ll talk about your aspirations.
Orion: Yeah, my name’s Orion. I’m a bobsledder for Team Canada. My aspiration is to go to the Olympics. I won a gold medal for Canada. So it’s on the record so you could, I could look back at it-
Clance: Speak it, baby!
Orion: And also, you know, you always encourage us to have big dreams and we gotta, you gotta chase them.
Clance: Speak it so shall it be.
Orion: Exactly.
Clance: Yeah, exactly. A hundred percent. You got to believe.
Orion: Yep. You got to believe before, you know, that’s very personal to me in terms of letting the youth, not the youth, but anyone really believes. If you don’t believe it. No one else is going to believe.
Clance: So you got to believe it and own it and do everything you can to make that a reality. Right? So let’s talk about that. What are some of the things that you’re doing to making that a reality right now?
Orion: Well, I think it’s just one like being here. Being here, training here is a big step, you know. I remember I got you guys as contact actually from a bobsled coach.
Clance: Oh yeah?
Orion: And yeah.
Clance: I didn’t know this. What’s his name?
Orion: It was, actually. Her name’s Esther and she’s one of the Team Ontario coaches, and she’s like, yeah, I was working on like power cleans and stuff like that and I was like, how do I get better Olympic lifting? Because I was horrible at it and as you know, and she was like, well, you know, she gave me two gyms as one in Scarborough and then one, LPS, being here. That’s when I started following you guys on Instagram and I was like, Oh, this is a gym that, that Wayne goes to.
Right? And I played against Wayne Moore like in college and stuff. I was like, well, I just literally followed you guys for like a year and then got in contact and saw you guys.
Clance: So you’ve been following us for a year?
Orion: Yeah. I think-
Clance: A year before you came in?
Orion: Yeah. About a year. It was July 2019 when I first like, look, look-
Clance: So Esther gave you the number in like in a year before you even came in?
Orion: Yeah. Yeah. A year before I actually stepped into the building. I wish I started in July, but as the year before I stepped in the building and I just saw everyone who was here. You know, I knew that PK was here. I knew that like Gordo, Fabion Foote was here. I know Wayne was here. I saw like the numbers they are doing. I saw what the results that they’re getting and I knew who they were. I said, well, the next year after getting my first season, I was like, if I really want to get better at for real, I really want to excel in this sport, I need to get stronger, I need to get more powerful and to get faster, I need to put on a little bit of weight as well, and I need to get better at Olympic lifting.
So I came in, I talked to you and Jeremy and we sat down and we made a plan how to get better for this season. And we talked it.
Clance: So how was that process for you?
Orion: Man, it was hard. I’m not gonna lie to you. It’s hard, but it was amazing. I learned a lot about the environment.
Clance: What was about it?
Orion: What was hard about it? Squatting four times a week. That’s a different thing, you know, coming from like my college football days and stuff like that. And like, even like when I was training myself in high school, you kinda this notion like, well, you might do like legs once or twice a week, but the thought of like, Hey, every day you’re in here, you’re hitting full body range of motion, you’re squatting, you’re going heavy.
If you’re not maxing out, you’re doing your volume days. Volume days aren’t as not easy like 50%, you’re like 80% and you’re attacking it.
Clance: It’s funny you say that because, after, you know, obviously developing the system and being an assistant for so many years, I forget that one small little thing that what the average athletes out there if they squat…
Orion: Yeah. Right.
Clance: Right. If they squat and on top of that we squat four days a week. So that’s a huge-
Orion: And full range of emotion as a key.
Clance: Full range of motion. Yeah.
Orion: Cause anyone can box squat a crazy amount of weight. Can you go ass to grass and come back up?
Clance: How was that feeling that you’re going through that process? What was it like?
Orion: I remember the first three weeks I was here and working with you and coach Mark, he kind of holding me back. You be like, Hey, no.
You can’t just try to jump up, you gotta hold me back and be like full range, like feel the motion, feel everything. And then once you got to the next phase, that’s where really kicked it.
I remember we did like a five rep max and then we maxed again for front squat the next day. And then Wednesday, it was like volume again. I was like 10 to 20 kilos below and I was like, you just like doing the numbers, you’re calculating it. Okay, you feel the weight, this isn’t not much different from like what I was doing on Monday!
Clance: Are you kidding me?
Orion: I think everyone who trains here is like, you’ll talk to them like the sense is like, Wednesday is the hardest day. Wednesday is the hardest day. If you get through Wednesday, you’ll make friends. Wednesday is the hardest day.
Clance: I’m sorry. I apologize is because I’ve never like, just I said, I’ve been in this and I’m talking to all these old guys I’ve been doing these Dominate Discussions, and I’m talking to the guys who’ve been with me for years. So they’re just used to it. Right?
That’s why I called you. I said, let me just get a new perspective, this is your first year. I love your work ethic. You get your boat and you’re that chopwood type of guy that I’m drawn to. We love those people here.
So, but just hearing that, it’s refreshing. It’s refreshing and it’s crazy. Yeah, man.
Orion: It’s different. It’s good because like, I think everyone is here just trying to be different. You know what I mean? Trying to be like excel at a sport until you like, get to that top 1%. Everyone always say To be a 1% or anything, you gotta do what the 99% don’t do.
Like, I think back to the days I was training football, I think back to like, even like some of my teammates, they work extremely hard. I’m not saying that, but like I tell you, I squat four times a week, they go, What?
They sometimes see me in the gym and they’re like, You’re squatting again?
I’m like, yeah. Like in season, I’m like, yeah. But you’re gonna be tired, I’m like, No, my work capacity has been increased.
Clance: But break it down, your work capacity has increased. How did camp, how did testing go? You wanted to put on bodyweight since we’re there? Speak it, baby. Speak it up! You know what I mean?
Orion: I think basketball went up tremendously and before I had a pretty good back squat, the range was there, but it wasn’t ass-to-grass. Now, I’m like, Yeah, I can do 210 ass-to-grass done. And then 220 ass-to-grass done.
Clance: At what bodyweight?
Orion: I think it was like 196. So I think coming here, I came here at 190 kilos. So I came here 190, so I’d have like, probably a full month of just body weight training. So I lost weight. I think it went back down to like 187 and then I came back after like we’re able to come back in, got up to 196 for testing.
The biggest key there is I squatted 170 for three for front squat, which was big. Kilos. I sprinted faster with 10 pounds heavier. So the year before I was at 186 for testing camp, I sprinted faster. Like my overall 30 meter was, was a hundred faster, but my 15 and my flight 45 was, I think it was like my 15 was I think 3 or 400 faster. My fly was I think 2 or 300 faster as well. So like, and I felt more explosive. And from the numbers wise, that’s where it was at. Right?
Actually, one more number is like, you know, come to push testing, I decreased by 15th of a second. So like 1.5 per second. Huge. Right? But go to mentality-wise is completely different. You know, as I said like these workouts aren’t easy. It’s not like even in the max days, it’s great. But as you said, you get the Wednesdays and it’s a grind.
Clance: In maxing, you know, you put up your number out.
Orion: You can get through and you’re out, but Wednesdays or Fridays, you’re there and you’re like, it’s mental. You’re like, Okay, I have five by five squats or five by five push press.
I got to get this volume in and after that I gotta sprint.
Clance: And you’re probably saying like, there’s no way I’m going to get faster this week. This guy’s just beating me up. I was tired all the time. The biggest thing with this system, the biggest thing I have to deal with is the mental. Those who are not mentally strong because they are gonna put in that self-doubt. Clance is crazy. There’s no way. And that’s why I tell the coaches, You have to pay attention to athletes.
That’s why you see them, we’re always paying attention, always on you, always asking questions because you will go into a mental, a lot of athletes just break or leave and don’t come back or because they have to go through that. That’s why we got to stay close. We have to guide you through.
And it’s okay because you’re not used to, you’re tough. You gotta guide you emotionally through that process. And us as coaches have to really understand. That’s why we want our coaches to be hands-on.
Orion: Very hands-on. Yeah.
Clance: Sorry. I didn’t mean to-
Orion: No, it’s okay. Humbling. That’s one of the words I want to say is humbling. I know, because I remember like for the first three weeks I was here and that also remember just like, you know, yet you have to… It’s humbling to be like, on those days you feel weak. On those days you like, you’re at the bottom of the hole at squat or you’re on your third set of cleans or snatches and you’ve gotta be like, Do I really want this?
You know what I mean? Like, do I really want this? And then you got to be like, Yeah, I do.
Am I willing to go through the pain of training, the pain or dedication, pain or commitment to get my goals? And that’s humbling. I know I came in here, I was like, well, I’ve been training for a while. I’ve been working on since I was 15 and I know my way around a gym and all, and then being told like, No, you gotta decrease the weight. So you’ve worked on the form.
You already increased your weight to work on your form so that when it’s time to lift big weights, you can do it properly and do it smoothly and do it fast.
Clance: It reduces injuries.
Orion: Exactly. So that was humbling. But that I was talking about mental toughness. That mental toughness is like those days I don’t want her out of bed to go train. You know, I don’t want it. I don’t want to commit and grind in and do 5×5 or do all that weight. But when it came to testing wise, going back to that testing time, it created a different switch. I had somewhat of a switch, but it created a different switch. For Team Canada we call it the dark place. Our head coach talked about this and talked the last Olympics, where Chris won gold. And what actually happened is that they pushed… I think the push 100 faster than they did the run before.
Anyone who watched the 2018 PyeongChang games knew that Canada, the two men who won Olympic gold, they tied it with Germany. So they didn’t push that hundred faster. They won a silver. They tied goal with Germany. Only have one other time before. So like that dark place that we call the dark place is not dark though. It’s just like-
Clance: It’s like that flow.
Orion: Exactly.
Clance: That is rare as an athlete. I’ve been there maybe once or twice. And it’s a place where I know what you’re talking about. You’re just floating in space. It’s really hard to explain.
Orion: It’s like, I know it came to testing time. I had a single push testing, I had team push testing where they determine who is on what team, etc. That what came into my mind was like all the training, all the months I’ve put in here. I’ve been squatting four times a week. I’ve been cleaning four times a week, I’ve been snatching four times a week. I’ve been doing weighted sprints. I’ve been doing all of that.
Then you think about it like, I sacrificed a lot. My coaches have sacrificed a lot. My family has sacrificed a lot for me to be here, for me to just go and push mediocre. That’s not good enough. For me to go and push this average is not good enough. Ask me everything I have. It might not be that standard yet, but it’s going to be significantly better than where I was before. And all that just compounds. All that just like, it just creates a different energy that you’re like, that like dog mode, okay, like I’m getting this.
Clance: I’m just feeling that buck cause that’s that dog. We like to create that dog. It’s great. That dominant, that dominant, switch that dog. And once that dog is set, you can activate it at any time.
Orion: Exactly.
Clance: Because that dog has laid off a solid foundation.
Orion: Exactly. Exactly. That’s why I love it here. You look around and you look at everyone else who are training with you. You have like Olympians. Right? You have your pro athletes. You have everyone who’s around here is just trying to get there. So it was like that energy I’m talking about is here. The energy is here. If you don’t bring that energy, you’re an outlier. You’re like, you don’t belong here. You go last year.
Clance: And it’s so important that you say that. And that’s why I wrote that book DOMINATE. Just so many facets of that book is so important. We want every athlete to dominate, but that’s impossible. You just dominated your mind.
Orion: Yeah.
Clance: That’s the dominant switch we’re talking about. I don’t care who you are, what’s up, where or what situation, I’m about that. I’m about it. You know what I mean? And when you’re about it, you’re going to give everything you got cause you just said, you put too much work in too many people’s sacrifice and-
Orion: To deep and cut.
Clance: Too deep. You gotta tap it.
Orion: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Clance: And that’s what we call that, that’s what we about that DOMINATE and that tapping in is only fostered through repetitive hard work. You have to suffer. If you’re not suffering here, you’re not working. If you’re PR-ing every day, every week, you’re not working. You make you feel good, but that’s not what I’m after. I’m after that tap, hit. I’m after that dog. I’m after that repeated work capacity. You said work capacity, then you just on the testing the hills, the work, you felt like-
Orion: The hills. Yeah. I think like, uh, like the hills, I remember when Friday, Saturday going to run hills something, like okay. We met at Centennial and I was like, Hey, how far are you going?
And you’re like, We’re going all the way up and back now. And I didn’t yap, but I was like, I was really close. The mentality behind that is like, you know, every day you’re doing something. Every day you’re putting a lot of people like to say a deposit.
That you’re depositing the bank so that you can tap in, you can cash out. And if you don’t suffer, you don’t have a reserve to tap into.
Clance: I don’t mind at all me going the extra mile, you know how far at the drive to meet you at Centennial? Other guys didn’t make it, but you were there, and I appreciate every minute of it because people don’t understand, you got to do that work that no one else would do to get you where you need to go.
You don’t need anybody else. It was just me and you. Just putting in that work. I was talking to you, but you’re putting out work and I was watching you close to so you don’t, you know, but I knew that day you’re tapping in. I’m pushing you into another mental level cause not all about physical.
A lot of times the physical, yeah, it is important, but that mental to switch that tapping, and I love that, man. You said about sacrifice. We’re just talking the other day in terms of sacrifice. I don’t know if you want to share that, but I really think it’s important to let people know the sacrifice you’re willing to make to achieve your dream, which to me, I thought was, you know, it’s amazing.
Orion: Yeah. I think one of the things like in process of doing this is actually moving out to Calgary.
Clance: We’re going to miss you.
Orion: Yeah, definitely. I would don’t miss being here and like. I won’t be in until the summertime, but moving out to Calgary and what we talked about was, you know, be able to train in that specificity. I can’t say the word, but being like specific training and it actually get better at pushing. Right? And I don’t really know anyone in Calgary, I don’t really, I know the area a little bit, but like other than my teammates, so my coaches are still there, but like, that’s it.
Clance: And the reason why I think that’s so important is that you recognize what you need to do and your sacrifice and to get it done. You’re strong. You’re fast. Obviously, you get a little stronger or faster. That’s all good. But we’re connecting online when you’re there. Right?
So we’ve been doing that. We’ve been doing all this. What do I need? You need more skill work. So you’re going there skill reign supreme. That’s it and you have to dedicate that time to say, what is the most efficient way for you to do that? Okay. I got to move out there.
Orion: So I can push a sled. Yeah.
Clance: Right? It’s just that simple man. And a lot of times, you know, I say a lot of times I don’t like gym rats. You know, you reach a certain point, you don’t need to be in the gym. You just need to know, you know, you’re new so you still need to figure out what numbers, what’s the snatch, what’s the power clean, what’s the squat, what’s the pull-up, what are these numbers that are gonna make me feel my best? They change, whatever. You know what I mean?
When I need to do some work, how am I going to get activated to do that test work? You know, we’ve been playing through that and we’ve been going through some scenarios when you’re in Calgary. Right? But right now, you realize the number one priority for me is to work on my skill.
Orion: Well, you said it ain’t really like gym rats. Like it doesn’t. Yeah. Okay. You can squat 500 pounds, but like-
Clance: How does it translate?
Orion: Exactly. Is that your sport? If that’s not your sport that like, yes, like it’s important to be strong and it builds up the strength and allows you to be able to do that. But if that’s the whole thing, it doesn’t mean anything. You know, you can be as strong as you want to be, as powerful as you want, but if it doesn’t translate, it doesn’t mean anything.
Clance: It’s all about… For us, it’s simple, what you do in the gym, does it translate to the ice? Does it translate to the hill? Does it translate to the field? Does it, whether it’s soccer, football, baseball? So we have metrics for different athletes to hit certain targets so they can be. So once you got these metrics in the gym, what are you doing? What are the things you are doing to make you a better athlete? Figure it out, get it done, which is outside my scope. We, I do not specialize in pushing. So you gotta go figure it out. I do not specialize in football drills or the certain mechanics, so you gotta find that coach. I don’t specialize in hockey. So that’s is profound and athletes have to understand that. Find those metrics that you need to be a better athlete, stronger, more powerful, faster, and then pay attention to your skill. Because a lot of times the skills get disrupted with that new strength, with that new power, with that new 10 pounds of muscle that’s gonna disrupt certain coordination patterns.
Orion: I can see that in basketball players. They’ll like, they’ll get a lot stronger, faster, and better, and the shots off. Cause they won’t work on their shot and then the next thing, you know. They have more power where they can’t like touch it and it’s inefficiency.
Clance: Skill is a thing like a basketball. I was reading this book, The Mamba Mentality. Totally shot every day, play basketball every day.
Orion: Yeah. Multiple times a day.
Clance: Thank you for the correction. Yeah. Multiple times a day. Your skill has to be so efficient that you don’t even think it’s just automatic. That’s what sometimes a lot of gym rats miss. A lot of athletes miss that, how important it is to work side-by-side with the gym, but skill reign supreme. As a strength coach, that’s my job. Right? But my job is not to call the athlete back just so they can be strong, a little good in the gym. My job is: how I feel good, how I get that energy.
When you call me coach, man, and you know, you told me your numbers and we’re like, I was happy and you made the team. I’m like, yeah, yeah. That’s what I do this, man. So I appreciate you, man. You’re a great athlete. You’re a great person cause you keep me in communication. Communication that people don’t understand, communications the key.
The things you say, how you say it, I calculate so many different variables. Okay. This is how we’re going to approach it and as you know, based on what’s going on, things change in the instant, especially now with the COVID thing going on. We have to address those things. Right?
So Orion, it’s a pleasure, man. But I want you to, for anyone who’s listening, any young, I love Bobsleds. I watch it. I love it, man. I just love that. You know, like guys, I like Lasell Williams. Just love that power. I just love watching Bobsled. But I want you to basically just, you know, let the young aspiring athlete or young aspiring bobsledder, if you would have a word of advice for them in their path to making the national team, going to the Olympics, winning the gold medal.
Orion: I think one thing I learned from you and I want to hear LPS is, people underrate the basics. The basics, you know, everything we talked about is the basics. It’s nothing fancy. I’ve done some of the fancy stuff before and like, I feel stronger and faster and better doing the basics and the same way, like that goes with skill work. Right?
Like doing every day, doing something that will help you get better at your sport like that itself, it will create completely different. Just like Kobe did. Every day you work on it, on a shot every single day. So that way, when it comes time for him to get on the court, it’s easy for him. He had confidence in the shot. So every day, work on the basics. The small things, perfect those, and then you move on. Fundamentals are key.
Clance: Fundamentals are key.
Orion: That’s it.
Clance: Fundamentals are key. And fundamentals are a lot of times, you’re not exhausted to its maximum. Exhaust those fundamentals to the maximum. Exhaust the basics to the maximum. The biggest problem is that I feel and I see, and I don’t know if I blame attention economy for this, is that we have… When I say attention economy, I’m talking like social media, even me, I gotta fight with that. I gotta get off this, get off that focus structure.
Even today in my planner, I sat down and my daughter sent me a video and I know these things and she goes, okay, I gotta, this is the only time I’m putting my calendar. I’m gonna focus on social media. Other times no social media and whatever. It’s just, you know, multitasking. Multitasking is a myth. You know what I mean?
Orion: Yeah. You can’t do it.
Clance: You have to focus. I have to really dive in and really focus. And the thing is, a lot of times I find that it’s just the person. You know, coach, do we have to squat again? Or do we have to snatch again? And, but what we’re doing is you are harnessing so much qualities that you haven’t reached the potential that you’re ready to go. I lose my mind with athletes who can’t stick with it. We’re not an entertainment training gym though.
The system is the system and if you haven’t exhausted the system properly, find somewhere else to train. That’s just the facts because we know, you know, we will communicate with you, but the system is going to make you better. And a lot of times it’s hard to communicate that, but on top of communicating, it’s hard for the athletes actually mentally lock-in. And go through the common.
Orion: The motion. Yeah.
Clance: You know. The consistency. What’s that word?
Orion: Consistency compounds. Yeah.
Clance: Consistency compounds.
Orion: From coach Allan. That’s a great word. I remember that day, man. Consistency compounds. That’s the thing. I like what you said about focus. I know for me, my snatch, I gotta work on it a lot. It’s a new movement for me. As I said, we’re doing it for four days a week. Right? It’s easy to be like, Oh, I’ll just.
But like, no, you have to have like intention. The intention behind everything you do. And I think like that translates to life. Right? You have the intention behind what you do. Okay. I don’t want to sit down and focus on this even though it’s like, maybe mundane and maybe the same. Maybe like what I do every single day. But I don’t have my intention to do this well. Right?
And like that’s preached here. That is enforced here. That’s like reminded constantly here. Pull the bar close to. You know, use your hips, get down the full range of motion, all of that. So like I saw it’s all about, you know.
Clance: Consistency compounds. My man, it’s a pleasure, man. It’s a pleasure, man. It’s a pleasure. It’s a pleasure. Any parting words? Anything you want to say?
Orion: I, you want to be great. You gotta, you gotta win. You gotta read your book. Because as I said, like reading your book, it felt like we had a lot of conversations about the mentality, about the system, but I felt like I was reading it and I was hearing your voice. I was reading it, I’m like, Oh, that’s what he meant by that.
It is a little bit easier to digest. Like again, so I read the book.
Clance: I think that’s super important to highlight that. The book, a lot of athletes been saying they hear my voice and some athletes who have been with me for years, when they read the book, they’re saying, Okay, this is what he means. Now I get it.
They get it at a higher level. Right? So that’s what, the biggest thing that stood out to you in the book?
Orion: Yeah. And I think you broke down complex training systems and in Layman’s terms, it just made, it made sense after that. You know. Why do we try to attempt to max out every week? That’s new.
Clance: But it’s not!
Orion: It shouldn’t be, it shouldn’t be. It’s fun, but it shouldn’t be new. But you mentioned in the book like, well, it’s about motor unit recruitment, if you don’t use it, you lose it. All or nothing principle.
Clance: That’s the holy grail.
Orion: Right? If you don’t, the way you measure strength, either you do more weight or we do it for more reps. Right?
Clance: The biggest thing, if someone wants to get stronger, is simple. Right? Simple in terms of principle, you either have to do two things: you gotta lift heavy or you gotta do volume. And you got to do volume at a certain percentage of that heaviness. That’s the bottom line. Anybody tells you anything, they’re full of shit. That’s just bullshit. Right? And I see it all the time.
What we have a society of nursing, nurturing, babying, cuddling, you know. A lot of these God-gifted athletes. I get it, you’re god-gifted. But if you want to do better, these are things you have to do. You gotta grind. You gotta grind. You got to do this work. It will make you even better. I’m not saying a lot of these athletes that, yow, you came here. You came here strong. You came here fast. We just gave you a little formula to make you a little bit more faster. A little bit more stronger. Little bit nastier. That’s what’s up! You’re walking on that bobsled, yow, I’m taking this spot!
Orion: Exactly.
Clance: You’re not asking for it. You’re taking it and that’s life. When you’re ready to be about it, you gotta be about it. You gotta take it. Sorry. I’m getting a little too excited. That’s what’s up. The thing is, you know, you’re a beautiful young, respectable young man. I appreciate that.
But everybody, if you want that spot on the bobsled team, if you want that, you gotta, you gotta have that nasty there. Ain’t nobody just gonna give that to you. You better go in there and be prepared to take that. You better man up for it.
Orion: Because everyone else on that team are nasty.
Clance: That’s it. You got to get in there. Get that. That’s the type of mentality we try to put in these athletes. No. Like, and I get it. That’s just what we try to do. This sort of mental component is huge. Anyway, my man.
Orion: We can talk for hours.
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