Marc Esguerra – Student Intern Experience Share

Unleashing Potential: My Transformative Internship Experience at LPS Athletic

Introduction

Hello everyone! I’m Marc Esguerra. I’d like to share my incredible journey from a student to a more confident individual, shaped by my internship experience at LPS Athletic. It’s been a transformative four months that have left a lasting impact on my personal and professional life.

Chapters Overview

00:00 Introduction and Background
00:22 Choosing LPS Athletic for Internship
01:14 First Impressions and Initial Challenges
02:03 Learning and Growth at LPS
02:43 Eye-Opening Moments and Self-Improvement
03:21 Physical Improvements and Benefits
05:40 Final Lessons and Reflections
07:20 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Journey from Toronto to LPS Athletic

Hailing from Toronto, Ontario, I currently attend Centennial College. From January to April, I had the opportunity to intern at LPS Athletic. Despite it not being my initial choice due to proximity, the doors it opened for me made it a decision I am grateful for.

Initial Impressions and Challenges

As an athlete who plays volleyball, I’ve experienced my fair share of injuries, roughly around ten, emphasizing my athletic yet injury-prone nature. When I first arrived at LPS Athletic, I noticed it was a small gym that significantly transformed as the clock struck ten, filled with serious athletes and coaches dedicated to their craft.

Learning and Growth

The early days were challenging. I was clueless about Olympic lifts and load management. However, with time and the invaluable guidance from Clance, one of the experienced coaches at LPS, I began to understand the nuances of training, posture correction, and mechanics. A pivotal moment was when Clance, post a Master Coaching session, called me out for not conducting adequate research. That feedback was necessary to spark my enthusiasm for self-learning and improvement.

Impact and Application

The knowledge I gained wasn’t limited to the gym. By practicing full range of motion techniques and enhancing my mobility, I noticed significant improvements not only in my volleyball game but also daily activities. The reduction in knee pain and better mobility taught me the correlation between proper coaching and athletic performance.

Embracing Challenges and Initiative

One of the memorable lessons Clance imparted was the importance of proactiveness and initiative. Facing challenges head-on and not shying away from vulnerability became key tenets I embraced. As time went on, I grew more confident in taking action and realizing the importance of moving with purpose.

Transformation and Perseverance

This internship didn’t just transform my understanding of sports science and training. It altered my mindset. I learned the importance of perseverance and not giving up even when the path seemed difficult, subsequently becoming more resilient mentally.

Conclusion

To those who are eager to explore their potential and seek a place where challenges foster growth, LPS Athletic is a hub of learning. It’s where your existing knowledge is both challenged and expanded, underpinned by the solid strategies Clance and his team offer. Whether you wish to develop talent or skill, LPS Athletic encourages a combination of expert coaching and personal grit. If that’s not for you, perhaps a commercial gym might suit your pace better.

Having completed my internship, I’m not only better prepared as an athlete but also more equipped to take on life’s challenges. I hope sharing this experience inspires others to choose environments that not only push but transform them positively.

>> Watch more of our athlete success stories here.

TRANSCRIPTION:

I’m from Toronto, Ontario. I go to Centennial College and I was an intern at LPS Athletic from January till April. So I currently play volleyball and last season was pretty rough. I dealt with like close to 10 injuries and I’m pretty athletic but at the same time I’m very injury prone. So when I was in fitness and health promotion in school, We did an off campus placement and LPS was close to home, but it wasn’t my first choice, so when I was here, it gave me a lot of learning opportunities.

So my first option was to help at my school, since my class and all of my sports related activities were in the same campus, so that’s why my first choice was at my campus. And then LPS was the closest gym to my house. In regards to how fast can I commute there. So like every other place I had to go take the highway, go to Ajax, go to Barrie, go to Whitby.

And it was like, I’m not driving. So I have to take the bus and this was the better option for me. So for the first day I was like, okay, very small gym, not a lot of people at eight, nine o’clock in the morning. But when the big boys came out at 10 o’clock, even clients, it was a whole different story.

What in here is. Not for the average Joe Schmo. If you’re an athlete or you want to get better at a sport or you want to be big, you come here, Clance will get you right. The coaches, like these guys in the back right here, they’ll get you right too. And that’s what you get at LPS. Like the first day here, I don’t know, Jack.

I didn’t know what the hell to do for an Olympic lift. I don’t know how to load management. All I knew was I gotta clean, I gotta unload and load. And I was not a very good loader and unloader according to clients. So it was slow. But eventually towards March, April, I already knew the g the gist of what to do.

And like I was coaching some people off to the side already. So by that time, I already knew how to correct their posture, fix their mechanics, stuff like that. There was this one time during my placement where we finished the Master coaching session and we were out in the By the kitchen and he was like Marc.

I’m not really impressed with you right now. Like you don’t do your research. You don’t know shit Like i’m like, oh, okay. That was a very eye opening moment and like from that point on i’ve been like researching on my own You Watching the blogs, watching the articles, watching whatever you post in the chat.

I started to learn like different techniques for, or postural cues for the different lifts. And then I implemented it on my workout and I seen that it works. And then I watched some other stuff and it was like, do full range of motion. Okay, I did it. My knee pain progressively got better. And it’s okay, this shit is like that.

It’s that good. So when I came in, we did our muscle snatch overhead squat assessment and that was very bad. I had no shoulder mobility. My ankle mobility was garbage. My hip mobility was garbage. And then I’m like, okay, just sit here and just grind it out. Do it. Just keep doing it. Don’t just don’t quit like you used to.

And eventually I got past the training stick to the training bar. And it’s okay, my knee is more mobile. My shoulders are more mobile. I’m more stable overhead. And that’s important in volleyball where you’re spiking, you have to be strong overhead and you have to have good mobility because in volleyball, you’re going to end up in some weird positions where you’re going to have to be in those deeper squats.

And I was like, okay. This helped me because when I’m playing, I don’t feel pain when I’m doing everyday stuff. I don’t feel pain. It was like, okay, great. This is something I can use to teach other people who have similar problems with like me as an intern and coaching. So when you come in, it’s like you take your knowledge that you already know, and then you put it up against Clance’s system.

And then you, if you do his system and you try to. Compared to what you’ve done, you’ll know that it’s different. You need to accept it. Cause his stuff is backed by all the science and he’s pretty well educated. He’s pretty well versed in the science aspect of training. So he knows what he knows.

And coming from a program where you do partials and you do all this ugly work, it’s like You’re only good in those ranges. What about those ranges you’re not training in? You’re gonna get injured there. And then as an athlete, you have to accept the fact that if you’re gonna get better, you have to put in the work.

As I said, if you wanna not be injured, you have to train your full range of motion and you have to do all this Stuff that you’re not used to. You can’t give up. You have to work hard. It’s so easy, but at the same time, it’s very mentally difficult. As an intern, Clance told me this on my last day. Be proactive.

Take your initiative. Especially if you’re here, if you don’t know what the hell you’re doing. Ask or find something to do. If it’s unloading weights or cleaning. And that’s inside the gym. Thanks. Find something to read, find information. You can even ask Clance like I did to get some more books to read and get like his insight.

So as an intern, I think the first time I actually wanted to leave was when Clance called me out when the new intern came and she was moving around faster than me, unloading, whatever. I was like, like part of my friends like, what the f are you calling me out for? I’m moving around too. Like I have other stuff to do.

I’m watching other people. But then I didn’t leave because I was like, okay, he means this in a good heart. If you want to be employed, you have to show the employer you’re willing to work fast and you’re willing to put yourself in a situation where you can mess up, but you’re not afraid to mess up.

So that’s why I didn’t leave. And that was last like the second last week I was here. And I was like, OK, I’m going to take this into account. Try to move fast. See where I can help out. And then Clance came up to me the last day I showed up and he was just giving me some more advice and that’s where he explained how if an employer wants to see if they can hire an employee or an intern, just show them you have initiative, show them you’re willing to put yourself in a vulnerable position.

So before I came, I was not mentally as tough, I was easily giving up on myself. Like I’d find a solution if it wasn’t working out from day one, I’d leave it, give up, do something else. But once I came here, Clance put it in my head where you just don’t give up. If you don’t want to do it, dig deep and just do it.

In one of the chat videos, he put in the Whatsapp. I took that into heart and I reflected personally. And I’m like, okay, if he can do it and he’s doing this every day, like I can do it the two, three, four days out of the week where I have to get up early, even though I don’t want to, and just come here or go to work or whatever the case may be.

And even if I don’t want to go to the gym, I dig deep and I still go, even if I have to shorten the workout, I still do it. Like I don’t give up on myself as easily anymore. If you want to find a place where your previous knowledge gets challenged and in a good way, you can come here. You can learn from clients.

You want to come here. You want to stay and deal with the monsters. You can come here. If not, go find your commercial gym and go deal with that. And as an athlete dominating is using proper coaching. As well as your talent, combining them, and outdoing your competition.