First, let me start off with a shout-out to my #1 fan - Chloe. She texted me today concerned I hadn't posted here in a few days. Fact is I've been pretty busy, but in the interest of feeding my fan base, let me throw some thoughts out here.
I've been doing endurance athletics since I was 14 years-old, a mere freshman in high school. I joined the swim team more because my P.E. teacher asked me to than any desire to be good at it. Frankly, it was the first time any adult in my life had taken any interest in my athletic ability. I was good at it, but I never got as good as I could have been, mainly because I didn't want it, or at least, badly enough. Hind sight is 20/20 as they say, and I've often wondered what might have been had I committed myself to the sport the way I have everything ever since. Of course that's the lament of all people my age - coulda/shoulda/woulda - and it isn't all that germane to this post.
What I've wondered more often is why I did it at all. What was it that made me go through all the workouts? I can honestly tell you I hated every single lap of every single practice I did for 4 years. No exceptions. I knew I was good at it, and apparently that was enough to keep me at it.
Time passed and I came into my running career, into which I threw myself 100%. It was a completely different story, as I believe I wrung everything I had out of myself. I have absolutely no regrets with that part of my athletic history.
Here's the question though - what made it different? Was swimming harder? No, not at all. In fact, I would say it was easier for me because heat made no difference in swimming. Was I just better at running? No, I was good enough to swim college, but never good enough to run in college. What was it then?
To this day I cannot tell you.
Fast forward to now. I am now a coach (again), and part of my job is to help motivate other people to do something above and beyond what they themselves can accomplish. Imagine that... I'm supposed to understand what makes each of you tick, and I can't even for sure tell you what makes me tick. I'd be insane to assume I can nail this every time, if ever.
Sometimes people assume there is a one-size-fits-all approach to coaching teams. If there is anything I have learned as a coach, it's that there is no panacea for athletes. We all come into this for different reasons and different intensity levels. Sometimes it's a search for self-worth, sometimes it's a need to belong to something bigger than one's self, and sometimes it's just plain old vanity. Sometimes it's a bit of everything.
I think it's easier to believe we're all on our own individual paths, and as often happens in life, our paths intersect every so often. For this brief period of time you call high school, all your paths intersect. For whatever individual reasons you have, you share a purpose. Your motivations may be different, but you all want the same thing. That's special, and it won't happen very often in your life.
You see, having that shared purpose creates that unspoken yet poignant bond amongst one another. This is something so special that there is a high price to share in it - hard work, suffering, pain - but the reward lasts a lifetime. These people with whom you share your time right here, right now will forever occupy a special place in your hearts, and no matter where you go and what you do, will remain forever young and forever in this place and time.
There are some things in life that cannot be understood merely by reading a description. Words are inadequate at such times, only experiencing these things on a personal level provides true understanding. Your sisters-in-arms understand you in a way no one else in your life ever will.
I don't know if these existential ponderings have accomplished anything more than making some of you scratch your head and say, "Whaaaaat?" I suppose one of the side effects of endurance training is it gives your mind plenty of time to wander, and sometimes I turn philosophical.
What I do know is this - endurance athletics changed my life, and very much for the better. They taught me I had value, that I was good at something, that with hard work I could accomplish many things. They taught me to think beyond myself, to think of others first. They taught me to be humble, and to persevere when things didn't go my way. They gave me the very best friends of my life, my second family. All of these things by themselves would have been good enough reason to be involved, but when I started, I wouldn't have listed a single item on this list as a reason why I was doing it. I was too young and didn't yet see the whole picture.
If you sometimes find yourself asking why you do it, relax - everyone does that. Just let me assure you that there are plenty of great reasons to stick it out and do your best - and you probably don't see even a fraction of them yet.
I've been doing endurance athletics since I was 14 years-old, a mere freshman in high school. I joined the swim team more because my P.E. teacher asked me to than any desire to be good at it. Frankly, it was the first time any adult in my life had taken any interest in my athletic ability. I was good at it, but I never got as good as I could have been, mainly because I didn't want it, or at least, badly enough. Hind sight is 20/20 as they say, and I've often wondered what might have been had I committed myself to the sport the way I have everything ever since. Of course that's the lament of all people my age - coulda/shoulda/woulda - and it isn't all that germane to this post.
What I've wondered more often is why I did it at all. What was it that made me go through all the workouts? I can honestly tell you I hated every single lap of every single practice I did for 4 years. No exceptions. I knew I was good at it, and apparently that was enough to keep me at it.
Time passed and I came into my running career, into which I threw myself 100%. It was a completely different story, as I believe I wrung everything I had out of myself. I have absolutely no regrets with that part of my athletic history.
Here's the question though - what made it different? Was swimming harder? No, not at all. In fact, I would say it was easier for me because heat made no difference in swimming. Was I just better at running? No, I was good enough to swim college, but never good enough to run in college. What was it then?
To this day I cannot tell you.
Fast forward to now. I am now a coach (again), and part of my job is to help motivate other people to do something above and beyond what they themselves can accomplish. Imagine that... I'm supposed to understand what makes each of you tick, and I can't even for sure tell you what makes me tick. I'd be insane to assume I can nail this every time, if ever.
Sometimes people assume there is a one-size-fits-all approach to coaching teams. If there is anything I have learned as a coach, it's that there is no panacea for athletes. We all come into this for different reasons and different intensity levels. Sometimes it's a search for self-worth, sometimes it's a need to belong to something bigger than one's self, and sometimes it's just plain old vanity. Sometimes it's a bit of everything.
I think it's easier to believe we're all on our own individual paths, and as often happens in life, our paths intersect every so often. For this brief period of time you call high school, all your paths intersect. For whatever individual reasons you have, you share a purpose. Your motivations may be different, but you all want the same thing. That's special, and it won't happen very often in your life.
You see, having that shared purpose creates that unspoken yet poignant bond amongst one another. This is something so special that there is a high price to share in it - hard work, suffering, pain - but the reward lasts a lifetime. These people with whom you share your time right here, right now will forever occupy a special place in your hearts, and no matter where you go and what you do, will remain forever young and forever in this place and time.
There are some things in life that cannot be understood merely by reading a description. Words are inadequate at such times, only experiencing these things on a personal level provides true understanding. Your sisters-in-arms understand you in a way no one else in your life ever will.
I don't know if these existential ponderings have accomplished anything more than making some of you scratch your head and say, "Whaaaaat?" I suppose one of the side effects of endurance training is it gives your mind plenty of time to wander, and sometimes I turn philosophical.
What I do know is this - endurance athletics changed my life, and very much for the better. They taught me I had value, that I was good at something, that with hard work I could accomplish many things. They taught me to think beyond myself, to think of others first. They taught me to be humble, and to persevere when things didn't go my way. They gave me the very best friends of my life, my second family. All of these things by themselves would have been good enough reason to be involved, but when I started, I wouldn't have listed a single item on this list as a reason why I was doing it. I was too young and didn't yet see the whole picture.
If you sometimes find yourself asking why you do it, relax - everyone does that. Just let me assure you that there are plenty of great reasons to stick it out and do your best - and you probably don't see even a fraction of them yet.
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