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Greg Cooper

@coachgreg.cooper

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Coach • Sensei • Judoka 🥋
Lead Instructor @kodokwaijudoedmonton
Owner • Cooper Performance Coaching
Ambassador @apollostrengthequipment

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ALLEGORY 01, STOP FORCING THE THROW

There is a point where my effort becomes insistence. I keep applying myself, but stop attending to what my effort is meeting.

The Daoist principle of wu wei, often translated as “non-action,” invites me to reflect on a way of acting less governed by contrivance and the need to impose my will. I’m beginning to consider how my actions might emerge from a deeper sensitivity to the situation itself.

The dojo gives me a tangible image of this. I want a particular throw. But my partner's balance, movement, and response reveal what is actually possible. If I remain attached to the throw I've already chosen, I can miss the opening that's developing.

Learning requires me to let that information change my action.

Outside the dojo, the same question shows up more quietly. In conversation, in planning, in relationships.

Can I stay engaged without steering everything toward what I already want?

Sometimes I become so invested in how something should unfold that I stop noticing how it is unfolding. I repeat an explanation, hold tighter to a plan, or press for an answer, even as the situation asks something different of me.

These are ways I'm learning to think about wu wei. My participation requires attention, and paying attention leaves me open to being changed by what I encounter.

The difficult practice is loosening my attachment to how something must happen while remaining responsible for how I act.

I've begun asking myself "what am I holding on to because I've already decided how things should unfold?"

#Allegories #WuWei #Daoism #Judo #Kuzushi

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OUR YOUNG MEN NEED US.

The mental health of young men in Canada is declining, and the numbers should concern every one of us.

* Only 52% of young men aged 15–24 reported very good or excellent mental health in 2022, down from 70% in 2012.

* 67% of men aged 19–29 were at risk of social isolation in a 2025 Canadian study.

* 44% of young men aged 16–29 who needed mental health support in the past year did not access it, according to 2026 research.

These aren’t just statistics. These are our sons, brothers, friends, and the next generation of men.

We need to do more than tell young men to speak up. We need to show up for them.

Parents play an incredibly important role, but they can only do so much alone. Raising strong, confident, resilient young men takes more than what happens inside the home.

It takes a community of positive influences. Men willing to mentor, challenge, encourage, listen, and lead by example.

Young men need opportunities to experience adversity, develop confidence, build genuine connections, and discover what they’re capable of.

This is part of why we’re building The Foundry.

Through physical challenge, coaching, mentorship, and brotherhood, we want to help men develop the confidence, purpose, and resilience to navigate life’s challenges.

Because raising the next generation isn’t just a parent’s responsibility. We all have a role to play.

The question isn’t just what kind of men we want the next generation to become.

It’s what kind of example we’re setting for them today.

Stronger men. Stronger communities. A stronger next generation.

#nextgeneration #youngmen #mentorship #menshealth #futureleaders

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I'm talking with @coachgreg.cooper and he's spitting wisdom!

"Not trying to chase something big is a bigger failure than trying and not making it"

Even if you don’t get all the way there, think about who you become and everything you learn while trying!

I’m chasing a pretty big goal. 🏎️ There are only 22 seats in F1. The odds of making it to the very top of any sport are crazy.

And I’d rather go for it than always wonder if I could have 💪🏽

🎙️ Full episode with Coach Greg Cooper on Race Towards Your Dreams (on YouTube and Spotify)

Comment PODCAST and I’ll send you the link!

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The Call Was Already Dialled.

Nine minutes with his name up on the screen before either thumb moved.

Not a hard call. Just one we’d let get so overdue that making it started to feel like an event.

That’s how most of them go quiet. Not a falling out. A gap that got long enough to need a reason.

He answered on the second ring like none of it had happened.

Forty minutes about nothing.

The overdue ones are never as heavy as the wait makes them.

#BreakTheSilence #Brotherhood

Today and every day, we as #MenTELL Health.

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You need the older man who has perspective.

The younger man who reminds you what you once needed.

The father figuring it out beside you.

The man rebuilding his life.

The man succeeding where you’re struggling.

The man struggling where you’ve succeeded.

Sometimes you’re the student.

Sometimes you’re the coach.

Sometimes you’re just the guy standing beside another man while he works through it.

That’s brotherhood.

Caption question:
What lesson could another man learn from you?

#brotherhood #men #mentor #mensharpenmen #challenge

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The long way up

Saturday, larches going gold, four of us strung out along a trail with packs on.

Nobody planned a talk. The walking does it. An hour in, somebody’s breathing hard enough that he stops editing himself, and the thing he’s been sitting on comes out between switchbacks.

Nobody can leave a trail. That’s most of the trick. No table to get up from, no truck to get back into, just the next kilometre and the guy in front.

The gold is good for about two more weekends.

Somebody has to send the text that starts it.

#MensMentalHealth #BroCheck

Today and every day, we as #MenTELL Health.

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I’m James a photographer and I want to use my photography to help spread a message on Men’s mental health. I’m doing a mental health silence photo challenge project and my goal is to get 800 faces by end of September. I believe photography is a great to spread a message.
To participate just take a photo with duct tape over your mouth with a mental health word written on it and send me a photo through the dms and I’ll add you to the collages and I’ll post the collages by end of summer Let’s spread awareness and keep speaking up for mental health we are all in this together. 💚
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#mentalhealth
#mentalhealthawareness
#photography
#mensmentalhealth
#mentalhealthadvocate

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the day you stop learning is the day you die #judo #learning #martialartstraining #ippon #martialarts

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There’s always something else to do.

Another message. Another deadline. Another person who needs something from you.

But sometimes the most productive thing you can do is disappear for a minute.

Put the phone away. Get outside. Float the river. Take the long drive. Sit somewhere without needing to accomplish anything.

Men are often taught to keep moving until something forces them to stop.

You’re allowed to stop before that happens.

Take the afternoon. Take the hour. Take ten minutes.

The world will still be there when you come back.

And maybe you’ll come back a little more like yourself.

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After training this weekend, our conversation shifted from autopilot to making the call.

We talked about how easy it is to stay in the same routines, habits and comfort zones, even when we know something needs to change.

Making the call creates work. It creates discomfort. But every time you choose to act, you reinforce that you can change your circumstances instead of simply reacting to them.

Every Man left with three questions:

What call do you already know you need to make, but haven’t?

What are you protecting by avoiding it?

What becomes possible if you make the call today?

Afterward, one of our newer members reached out for some individual coaching around what came up for him.

That’s why these conversations matter.

Training is the vehicle. The conversations create reflection. And reflection can lead to action.

Sometimes one question is enough to get a man off autopilot and make the call.

Comment “Forged Truth” to find out for yourself.

#thefoundryokotoks #mensdevelopment #makethecall #takeaction #leadershipinaction

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There’s something good about being around someone who knows when to listen, when to laugh, and when to simply sit beside you.

Make time for the people who bring that kind of friendship into your life. And be that person for somebody else too.

A coffee. A walk. A ridiculous story. A message you almost didn’t send.

Connection often starts small.

#MenTELL #MensMentalHealth #MensConnection #Friendship

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How are you brother?

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