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After our meet on Sunday, I gave our throwers the day off on Monday from throwing. They still completed their weight room training session, and I could tell it took a tool on them. Yesterday’s practice went well, but some of the throwers were hurting.
About a third of the way through practice I pulled one of my throwers aside and asked him what he thought about before he physically stepped foot into the circle. To provide some context, I pulled him aside because he was not having a particularly efficient day. He seemed off, and his body language was not exuding confidence. His head was down, shoulders down and he basically did not look confident. I think as coaches we know when something is going on with our athletes. It doesn’t necessarily have to come from a conversation, but by a look and their (the athlete’s) physical presense. When I asked him what he thought about before he stepped foot in the circle, he said that he thought about not caging the discus. In all honesty, that wasn’t what I was expecting to hear, but then again I’m not sure what I was expecting in that moment. I asked him to step out of the circle, pulled him aside, and we talked about confidence. More specifically we discussed mindset and how our thoughts control our emotions. Those emotions then in turn control our physiological response, which directly impacts our performance. I suggested to him that rather than thinking about the negative outcome or the expectation of the negative that he should think about a time when he felt most confident in the circle. Word for word I won’t share exactly how I shared what I shared, but the basic premise of the mindset strategy I suggested yesterday was to think about a time when he really felt good about his performance in the circle and what that looked like in his mind’s eye. In essence, I was working on helping him re-establish his confidence by asking him to visualize his past successful performances and what they felt like in that moment. I also wanted him to improve his concentration by redirecting his thoughts to those past peak performances that would help him attain (or re-establish) his state of practice readiness. Rather than focus on the most recent negative experience I really wanted him to bring his thoughts back to those prior successful experiences he had in the circle. Lastly, I wanted him to redirect his emotional response to the situation. That emotional response (I’m going to cage the discus) was affecting his physical response, which was causing his performance to suffer (throwing the discus into the cage). By thinking about it, it was manifesting itself in his performance. His next 12 throws went between the sector. They weren’t all perfect throws, but by redirecting his thoughts, he was able to have a successful string of throws that didn’t end up in the cage. Coaches aren’t magicians. Although our athletes may expect magic to happen, it really comes down to how well we as coaches are able to communicate expectations, cues, drills and reinforcement back to our athletes. Effectively communicating with our athletes is more than half the battle. That communication helps establish trust and respect between coach and athlete, which in turn positively affects the coach-athlete relationship. As you can probably tell, I write a lot about these facets of coaching. I believe that these concepts (communication, respect, trust, coach-athlete relationship) are the determining factors in whether an athlete is going to perform well or not. We really don’t have control over the physical attributes an athlete enters our program with. I can’t control whether our throwers are all over 6’ tall and have 75” wingspans. We don’t have much control over who is physically going to walk through our doors, but once they do walk through our door we have control in supporting the emotional factors and determinants that will allow them to realize their dreams and achieve their goals.
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On Sunday our team competed at the Brockport Invitational meet. Yes, the meet was held on a Sunday. The week of practice and preparation leading up to the meet went pretty well. Lots of good throws in practice, the throwers’ technical efficiency improved, and we had some strong performances in the weight room. Then the competition began.
As a whole, the competition went fairly well. We had lots of personal best and season best performances. It was the distance of those performances that I think most of our throwers didn’t like. In my experiences as a throwing coach, I’ve come to learn, understand and accept the fact that the best week or weeks of practice does not always necessarily translate into a great or even good performance on meet day. Ah, why is that you may be asking. Well, he is a conversation I had with my athletes today about just that. Coach (me): We won’t have practice today. We’ll get back to it tomorrow. Thrower 1: Are we still lifting today? Coach (me): Yes, you are still lifting, but no throwing. Thrower 2: Thank you coach. Thrower 3: Does anyone else feel tired, or is it just me? Coach (me): Although the actual volume of work conducted yesterday was relatively low, the intensity was very high-hence your fatigue today. Thrower 3: Oh, you’re a lot smarter than me coach. Coach (me): Well, let’s not get carried away here. I think it’s important to take into consideration that a lot of factors play a role in fatigue. Yesterday definitely plays a huge role. Other factors like CNS, rest, recovery, and nutrition are also critical. Thrower 3: I just thought I didn’t sleep enough. My brain lacks the wrinkles yours possesses. Yes, that is the actual text exchange from earlier this afternoon. And yes, that is how I respond to my athletes in our group chat. And even further, those factors listed above do indeed play a role in fatigue and to a greater extent, performance. So what’s the catch??? There isn’t one really. Our performances as athletes, and in this case throwers, is often pre-determined by the factors above. That isn’t 100% always the case, but in my experiences the few days and certainly weeks leading up to a meet determine the likelihood of perceived athlete success or less success (failure). Now, in my humble opinion, a personal best is a personal best. Even a 1cm improvement is better than the previous performance and outcome. I always take a win or find the silver lining in a meet or performance. We build on win’s. Our growth as individuals is supported by those small wins. Every little bit helps. In 2015, I attended a throwing conference held at the Spire Institute in Ohio. One of the guest speakers was world record holder in the weight throw and current American record holder in the hammer Lance Deal. In his presentation he spoke about a 10% rule that he has maintained and incorporated when working with the athletes he has coached in the past. I’ll leave you with the talk he gave on the topic and how it’s relevant today with the idea and notion about expectations around performance and what we should expect to throw at any given competition. Since our meet wrapped up this past Friday, I have been thinking a lot about next steps for my athletes and the path that can be taken moving forward with the remainder of the outdoor season. As of now, we have a track meet every weekend until Mother’s Day. Knowing this allows me as a coach to continue to establish routines and rituals with my throwers. We are able to maintain a fairly structured practice schedule, with some flexibility included. Let me explain.
The next couple of competitions are scheduled for this upcoming Sunday, April 18th and Friday, April 23rd. Flexibility is important here because we are able to gain a practice session this week (Saturday) and lose one next week (Friday). There is a 0 net gain, but how practice structured the next 14 days is important. After first meet performances, I typically review meet performances and the weeks leading up to the meet objectively. Keeping a detailed journal is important here for a couple of reasons. First, if we (athlete and I) were expecting a different performance, we can go back and see what we did in training leading up to the meet. Second, in the same light, we are able to review expectations and accountability. This is where the conversation about picking and choosing events moving forward might first happen. I recorded and shared a podcast episode about this yesterday. Main eventing in three events during the outdoor season is quite rare. It isn’t too often that an athlete is going to have a real strong opportunity to win three throwing events at an outdoor conference championship. It happens, but not that frequently. With that said, now is the time to start the conversation moving forward. What I like to discuss with my athletes is which event would they like to continue moving forward with as event 1, event 2, and event 3. Splitting time equally between all three events isn’t always fruitful and suggested. At least from my perspective, I wouldn’t encourage athletes to share time equally, especially if they are not as vested in one of the events they are asked to compete in. In my podcast yesterday, I shared a story from my senior year (2004) about a conversation Coach Barr and I had after our indoor SUNYAC championships. I was seeded first in the weight throw going into the competition and ended up placing 4th. I was not pleased with my performance and knew that I needed to change something before the outdoor season started to give myself a chance to win the hammer. I told Coach Barr that I was no longer interested in competing in the shot-put, and that I wanted to put a greater emphasis on the hammer and discus. I knew I didn’t have a good chance to score in the shot-put. In 2003 I finished in the top 3 in the hammer, and just missed the finals of the discus. As a team we were not going to win the meet, and shared as such with Coach Barr as well. After I shared my plan with him, he agreed to de-emphasize the shot-put and focus more time on the discus. Looking back at my training journal from that outdoor season, my throwing time was about 60% hammer, 30% discus, and 10%. When it was decided I wasn’t going to throw the shot-put at the outdoor SUNYAC championships, I added the 10% to the hammer a couple of weeks before the championships. At that time, I didn’t really know what I was doing or how Coach Barr would respond to this conversation. I knew I wasn’t a great shot-putter. I was all-in on the hammer, and thought that the discus would be a bonus at SUNYACS. Our conference was deep in 2004, and going into the competition I knew it would take at least 40m-42m just to make the finals. Coach Barr and I discussed this and made a plan moving forward two weeks out from SUNYACS. Now getting back today, the conversation for this week and next will be what to focus on moving forward. I understand athletes have favorite events (maybe the one that they are performing best on, but not always), which I certainly take into consideration. I encourage my athletes to share their thoughts with me about this because it is their season and they are competing for the pure enjoyment of track and field. There are a couple of factors that will play a role here. First, what are your expectations with competition moving forward with the remainder of the season? If there are goals the athletes still want to achieve and accomplish, this idea should be taken into consideration. If the athlete wants to compete in 3 or 4 events each meet, I’m all for it. I never want to discourage an athlete from competing in an event. If they decide they are no longer interested in competing in an event, we make the decision to no longer compete in that event. If the athlete has an opportunity to score at the conference meet in that event, I would also encourage the athlete to think about it (from a team perspective; this is an idea for another blog post down the road). If your team is in contention to win the conference championship and your athlete has a chance to score, then again I would encourage them to compete. Really, what this all comes down to is having open and honest communication between coaches and their athletes. I encourage the conversation about events. I want me athletes to get the most out of their seasons, and if that means that maybe they only compete in two or three events, then that is ok.  Chasing Greatness
The other day after practice I was having a conversation with one of my throwers about our first meet. For context, the conversation happened about two weeks ago as we were preparing for our home meet. I’m writing this blog post on Tuesday, April 13th, 2021. After practice he shared with me that he wanted to win an event and finish high on another. I’m not purposefully speaking broadly, but I’d like to keep the context of the events private for the sake of this post. I’ll get there, don’t worry. In February, after we had finished up practice at 10pm, the same athlete pulled me aside to discuss our current school records and what it might take to break them. In the same conversation we discussed what it might take to qualify for outdoor nationals. Regardless of our school records, he would need to throw at least 55m (my guess) to qualify for outdoor nationals in the hammer throw. Probably closer to 47m-49m in the discus. Our school record in the hammer is just under 49m. Our school record in the discus is over 50m. So, depending on the event I told him, he would certainly break the record and might not need to in another. I enjoy having conversations about these topics with my athletes for a multitude of reasons. First, it adds some context to their expectations about school records and qualifying for either indoor or outdoor nationals. Depending on the university or college you attend, you might be able to win a national championship without actually breaking your school record. In other instances, you would probably need to break your school record just to make it to nationals. And that doesn’t take into consideration the prospects of either earning an All-American award or actually winning the event. You see, depending on the situation or perspective you take, essentially you are chasing your own greatness. You define it as you would like. My greatness was winning one SUNYAC hammer championship. I didn’t have the perspective or context to be aware of setting a much higher goal for myself, like qualifying for nationals by training through our conference championship to give myself a better chance or opportunity. I wanted to win that one championship so badly that I didn’t take into consideration the larger narrative around me-which at the time was outdoor nationals. In our conversations with athletes that we coach, I believe as coaches our top priority aside from keeping our athletes both physically and mentally healthy (as best we can) is to provide them an environment that allows them the BEST possible opportunity to achieve their goals. Plain and simple, in a way we work (or coach) for them. We as coaches take on a lot of information, decipher it, analyze it, and put together individualized plans for our athletes to achieve their goal(s). We do our best with the circumstances we are given or the cards we are dealt. In my experiences, I haven’t had many national championship conversations with athletes. I can count on one hand the times I had serious conversations about nationals and the realistic prospects an athlete had of going. Jen and I discussed this in February 2005. Julia and I had a conversation about it before her sophomore season. Luis and I first discussed this after his sophomore year in 2014. Tyler and I also had a conversation about this at the start of the 2016-17 season. I say a realistic conversation because it wouldn’t be fair to have the conversation with an athlete out of context. And what I mean by out of context is having a conversation about the prospects of winning a national championship with a freshman thrower that has never thrown before. That, I think, would be an unrealistic conversation to have. A realistic conversation would be with a returning senior thrower whose mark is the best returning mark for that specific event group and that was also an All-American the prior season (see Luis). During the 2015-16 season, Luis finished 6th at indoor nationals with a throw of 19.29m. That throw was the top returning throw to the 2015-16 season. We had our first conversation about nationals in August, 2015. Defining Your Greatness I’ve written about this topic many times. Goal achievement and realistic expectations, in my opinion, go hand-in-hand. A realistic perspective of what you can or cannot immediately accomplish can be established by; having a clear understanding of your own current skill set, a realization that some sacrifices may need to be made in order to achieve something and a willingness to accept accountability for your decisions. If as an athlete you are able to give yourself a definitive answer to the three questions above, then you will give yourself a better opportunity to define your greatness. A lack of understanding or an unwilling desire to answer those questions will probably leave you unmotivated, no direction, and disengagement from what you thought you originally wanted to achieve. You see, only you can clearly define your own greatness. Comparison is the thief of joy. What you are capable of achieving is different from everyone else. You may have clear and concise answers to the questions posed above. Answering them, believing in them, and holding yourself accountable to them is what will make a difference in what you may or may not accomplish. As you continue to embark on your journey this spring semester and even beyond, think about these questions. Ponder them. Answering them on paper is a start. Living them is another story altogether. Making those difficult decisions will influence (positively or negatively) your outcomes. If you need an accountability partner I’m here to help! If you are having difficulty answering those questions, let me know and we can discuss the questions and your answers together. We all experience roadblocks and encounter obstacles and challenges along our life journey (athletic, professional, etc.). How you respond will make the difference between what you think you should achieve and what you actually did achieve. This past Friday our Alfred State throwers competed in their first meet of the 2020-21 season. It was also the first time in many years that Alfred State had hosted a meet. We had great weather, great competition, and exciting performances. The meet began at 3:30pm, and all throwers were given 4 attempts per event. We just finished up the men’s discus before dusk. The men’s competition started off with the hammer. Overall, we had our two best performances in the hammer throw. Freshman Nate Chambers won the competition with a throw of 48.03m. Directly on his heels was sophomore Dylan Perlino. Dylan threw 47.88m. Both of those performances qualify these two athletes for our regional championships in mid-May. These two performances also rank Nate 3rd and Dylan 4th all-time in the hammer throw at Alfred State. Also having strong performances were freshmen Joe Hammer, Devin Gross, and Wilfredo Rodriguez. Joe finished with a personal best of 24.05m, Devin hit 21.51m, and Wilfredo threw 17.90m. After the hammer, we transitioned to the shot-put event on the other side of the track and field complex. As with the hammer, we had great performances here as well. Dylan led our group with a toss of 11.17m. Joe and Nate were right behind with tosses of 10.45m and 10.26m, respectively. Wilfredo (9.57m), Jamison Pomroy (8.68m), and Devin (8.28m) all had personal marks. Lastly, we wrapped up with the discus portion of the competition. Beginning right around 6:45pm, we were able to get 44 discus tosses in before dusk. Dylan led our throwers with a mark of 37.97m. Nate and Wilfredo were right behind with throws of 36.70m and 26.52m. Jamison, Joe, and Devin also had solid marks of 25.29m, 24.00m, and 23.99m respectively. We began this spring semester with many unknowns. We weren’t sure if we would have an indoor season, an outdoor season, or any seasons at all. Beginning in January, we started having practices 2x per week from 8:30pm-10:30pm. We made it through those late evening practice sessions and successfully transitioned to outdoor training outdoors. There are still many unknowns left this season. What we may have taken for granted in the past with Friday or Saturday track meets may go by the wayside. We sit on the edge of our seats waiting for correspondence from other coaches and universities with updates about meet schedules, dates, and times. For now, it looks as though we will have a track meet every weekend until Mother’s Day. We are not quite sure of all the specific dates and times, but we know we will be competing. We all took a collective breath Friday night. Some of our throwers hadn’t competed since last March. For another it had been a couple of years. To say I’m proud of this group would be an understatement. We have traversed many challenges thus far within this infant season. We have collectively overcome many obstacles, challenges, and road blocks. I’m grateful for the opportunity to coach this group of throwers. A thank you isn’t quite enough, but for now it will suffice. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to call myself your coach!
Creating Your Own Luck
On this St. Patrick’s Day edition of our blog, I can’t help but think about the luck of the Irish. The luck intertwined with throwing. Is there luck in throwing far? I believe we can create our own luck. When thinking about coaching and helping athletes achieve their goals I can’t help but think that some luck, or what we may think is luck, can be attributed to an athlete’s success. After Luis won his national championship in the 35lb. weight throw in 2016, the inscription he wanted to have placed inside all of our rings was, “There is no such thing as a lucky throw”. As I think about that thought, there is no such thing as a lucky throw, I can’t help but wonder how in a sense, coaches help athletes create their own luck. I often times share concepts and strategies with my athletes focused towards controlling what is within our own control and how that idea helps shape the journey we travel throughout the course of a season. Individual choices, which may seem small and irrelevant at the time, set a foundation for later successes or failures. Depending on the decision, the outcome may be evident early on or it may take some time to rear its ugly head. So, how can athletes create their own luck (or success)? 1. Have a Plan I’ve discussed the randomness of practice in prior blog posts. I’ve even asked in prior Instagram posts about having a plan before practice or not. The overwhelming majority that responded suggested that they show up to practice without having a plan or an idea of what they were going to focus on that day. Failing to plan is planning to fail is an anecdote that comes to mind when I hear athletes and coaches alike suggesting that they just show up to practice without a plan in mind for that particular session. If you have had a chance to listen to some of the interviews I’ve conducted over the course of the past 18 months, each athlete spent a great deal of time discussing their thoughts about planning out programming and thinking about the goal(s) for their upcoming competitions and training sessions. Coaching is a delicate blend between science and art. Having a coaching eye certainly makes things easier, especially when relating information back to your athletes. There is however that other part of coaching that I think is often overlooked, the mental component to preparedness. One aspect of that mental preparedness is being able to draw out and execute a plan for your individual athletes. Not all athletes come to us with the same physical and mental skill sets. A proven strategy to assist with mental preparedness is to map out an individualized plan for your athletes to ensure they receive the best care and attention they require in order to achieve their unique and specific goals. 2. Realistic Expectations In keeping with our theme for today, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is the outcome our athletes wish to achieve. The proverbial pot for everyone is going to vary, but vary as it may greater athlete successes will come when that pot is held in realistic regard. A first-year thrower with little to no background in throwing events may not win a national championship during their first season of competition. That isn’t to say that it won’t or can’t happen, but the likelihood is relatively low. Coach and athlete sitting down and planning out the year can also discuss realistic expectations for the season as well. Realistic for one athlete is not the same of another. A lot of factors play a role in the outcome of throwing events. Having an understanding of the factors we can control (mindset, training, nutrition, recovery, etc.) will all ultimately play a role in the outcome of our throwing performances. Now, the expectations we set forth early on in the season can obviously change from month to month, meet to meet, and even practice to practice. It’s up to both coach and athlete to keep open lines of communication about what the expectations are and how the plan accordingly based on performances in meet competitions and practice sessions. 3. Hold Yourself Accountable As coaches, once our athlete’s names are called to enter the circle or step on the javelin runway there is very little if anything we can do or say that can positively impact what is going to follow. We may be able to share words of encouragement or suggest a cue for our athlete to focus on. However, the timing is crucial. Understanding your athlete, their tendencies, and their personality is critical in this moment. Shouting something out during their winds in the hammer or during their approach in the javelin may not prove fruitful during that attempt. It is in this moment that I have realized many times over the years that what happens next is not all in my control, but in the control of the athlete. This is where having realistic expectations of our performance as an athlete comes into play. Expecting to throw well when you as an athlete didn’t put the time in leading up to this meet will most likely result in a poor performance. Now, with that said, I have been to competitions where athletes have performed well after having a poor week of practice (Ithaca, 2016, comes to mind). For the greater majority, the little decisions I wrote about when having a plan is vital at this very juncture. 4. Willingness to Make Sacrifices A willingness to make sacrifices goes hand in hand with holding yourself accountable. If you haven’t deciphered the pattern here, these concepts and ideas are all entangled in a web of success or failure. How you define success or failure is probably different than my definition, yet I think we can agree upon sacrifices to be made in order to give ourselves as athletes a better opportunity to be successful. Again, decisions play a fundamental role in the outcomes we seek for ourselves as athletes. Did we go to bed at a decent hour? Did we recover properly? Are we getting the necessary nutrition we need to fuel our bodies? Am I drinking alcohol 5x a week? All of these different decisions will impact our performances. Unfortunately, I’ve had still drunk athletes try to get on the bus for a Saturday meet. I politely told them to go back to their dorm or apartment for the day instead. After a second time, they were dismissed from the team. Our sacrifices as athletes are going to vary based on our own unique circumstances. However, if an athlete isn’t willing to make some sacrifices along the way, they may need to readjust their expectations for a successful season. The sacrifices I listed above are meant to be an example for athletes. Some athletes require 7 hours of sleep. Others require 8-9. Some athlete’s recovery faster than others. All things taken into consideration are going to depend on the individual athlete. Blog 7 Don’t Sell Yourself Short - February 19, 2021
Over the course of the past couple of years, I have made a concerted effort to send a text message of each of my athletes. Each message usually takes the form of a couple of positive things that happened during the session, something about a conversation we had, and a question about one thing they would like to focus on the following session. The text exchanges vary in length. I’ve had some conversations go on for multiple exchanges. Sometimes I don’t hear back from my athletes for a day or two. Sometimes I don’t hear back at all. In those instances I usually need to prod a little bit during our next training session. I don’t like leaving things to chance and just showing up to practice without having a plan for my athletes. The other night I had a conversation with one of my throwers about some goals he has for the upcoming outdoor season. During practice he asked about our outdoor school records. Our current hammer school record is just under 49m. The discus record is 44m. The shot put record is over 16m. The interesting thing about this conversation was that he said that his goal for his senior year was to break the hammer record. That kind of caught me off guard a bit because as a high-school senior he was a 70’ weight thrower and close to 200’ with the 12# hammer. He also asked about the weight throw record. Our current record is 17.16m. All of our current school records are well within reach of being broken at some time by the current group of athletes on our team. On my way home from this practice I called a former thrower I had coached and shared the conversation with him. He, like myself, thinks that our athletes are selling themselves short of what they may be capable of accomplishing. This athlete also shared that me as their coach shouldn’t share unrealistic expectations with them, especially if I don’t really think they are capable of breaking the records. In my honest opinion, four years to 50m seems fairly likely. I believe there is a good chance that all the throwing records will be broken by this current group of throwers on the team. Maybe this year, but certainly within the next four years. The following day I texted this particular thrower about the practice session from the previous day, what I thought, and what he would like to focus on. His technique is very good. His high school coach taught him very well. I shared with him that the hammer record is a realistic stretch goal for the season. I didn’t want to tell him outright that I know for certain that he will break the record, but that if he continues training the way that he has that he will give himself a good opportunity to do so. Now, a lot of factors will play a role into how this outdoor season plays out. First, will we even have an outdoor season? As of right now, all indicators point in the right direction. We have a tentative outdoor season planned out. Four meets in April. Our conference championship in May. NCAA Division III outdoor nationals are scheduled for the end of May. Second, the action plan this specific athlete and I put together should put him in a great position to have an exciting outdoor season. He was close to 50’ with the shot indoors, and his discus personal best from his junior year is in the 160’s. Third, individual accountability will play a huge role in his success. Like I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m only with the kids for a couple of hours a week. A lot of their success or lack thereof will hinge on how they take care of themselves when they are not lifting in the weight room or at a throwing session with me. Fourth, are there certain sacrifices he will be willing to make to accomplish his goal(s)? From what I heard, he enjoys sleeping in until around noon. That doesn’t leave a lot of time to do much in the morning. Finally, and maybe the most important idea here is that he needs to be able to articulate why it is important to him to throw far and break records. The answer(s) to those last two questions will give an indication into the likelihood he has to accomplish all his goals. Don’t Give Up
One night a week my oldest son plays recreation soccer through our parks and rec department. The age group he plays with is 7-10. He is one of the youngest (7) on the team, but physically stands head and shoulders over most of the other kids. There are two teams of 7 kids and each coach on the indoor field at the same time. They begin with about 15 minutes of drill work, and then play short games (basically until one team scores). After a goal the kids take a water break and then continue playing. I enjoy watching my son play soccer for a multitude of reasons. It gives us a chance to get out of the house together one night a week and talk about how things are going in his 2nd grade world. I played soccer through high school, so I have a bit of an emotional attachment to the sport and think it’s wonderful that our two oldest enjoy playing it thus far. Plus, I just enjoy watching him participate in things he enjoys doing. He asked to play indoor soccer, and is just finishing up his second winter session of the year. He asked to be signed up for another indoor session which begins in early March. As the teams began playing, it was clearly evident that the other team had a couple of much more gifted soccer players on their team than our team. If you have ever watched 7 and 8 year olds play indoor soccer you know what I’m talking about. Most of the kids chase the ball around similar to a school of minnows swimming in the water. But every once in a while there are a couple of really good kids that play as well, that don’t always chase the ball around the field. Tonight one young man had five opportunities to score on our team, but the combination of our goalie and defensive players caused him much frustration. Each time he got within 10’ of the goal he would either be met with a fury of defensive players or the goalie would be quick to capitalize on the loose ball and quickly scoop it up. Each time he didn’t score he grew more frustrated. His body language told me that he felt defeated in the fact that he couldn’t score or get a shot off because of the defense. He kept trying until his 6th opportunity. It was on his 6th opportunity to score that if he would have continued with the same intensity as his first opportunity that he would have blown past the goalie and scored a goal. On this attempt however, as soon as he kicked the ball towards the goalie, he put his head down and started running back on defense. Well, as fate would have it, the ball rolled through our goalie’s outstretched arms and into perfect position for one of his teammates to kick the ball into the goal. If this little man would have continued pursuing the ball after it left his right foot, he would have scored. Instead of bringing the same intensity and fire as the previous 5 attempts, he gave up and started jogging back on defense. A couple of more steps forward and he would have crushed the ball into the goal. But he gave up. I’m not sure what was going through his mind at this time. The parents on his team were screaming at him to keep chasing after the ball, but he simply stopped. His loss in this instance became a goal for one of his teammates. If you have read this far, you probably can guess what I’m going to wrap-up with. Just don’t give up on what you are doing. Keep moving forward towards whatever goal you want to accomplish and achieve. I think at some point in everyone’s life they wake up one day and think to themselves that this day is the day to stop because continuing towards {insert goal here} is difficult and they think they haven’t made much progress. It’s when we reach that point that we should double down and keep moving. Sure, failure might be part of our journey, but it doesn’t have to end our progress. Maybe we need to take a brief pause and find peace and gratitude in the current moment. We can think of failure as a conditioning point that strengthens our resiliency. How we respond to failure and disappointments as we are moving towards our goal(s) is important because it is in those moments that we ultimately create the outcome(s) we are competing for. Our first practice of the spring semester was scheduled for February 1st, 2021. Unfortunately it was scheduled for then. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we are pushed back another week. We have access to the weight room and training facilities, but are just unable to throw. With the majority of our season happening in the spring, it isn’t that much of a loss. We will still be able to train specific exercises that transfer over to the throwing events.
I spoke about this group of throwers in a presentation I gave the other day to staff members I work with. We are trying to coordinate and launch a virtual social emotional learning sports coaching programming. Part of my presentation to staff involved sharing my previous experiences as a coach and what the current literature has to say about coach-athlete relationships. My coaching philosophy has changed quite a bit since that first season at SUNY Fredonia. I’ve written about it before, so I won’t go into all the details again. If you’d like to read about those previous experiences you can click HERE. When I transitioned to my position at Nazareth College in 2012-13, I took a much different approach than the one I implemented at Fredonia. Not that I didn’t try to develop positive relationships with my athletes at Fredonia, but a majority of the first group of kids I coached were my teammates. I didn’t take the time to get to know them more as people, and not just athletes. I made a concerted effort to be open about my experiences at Fredonia. As the season moved along, I felt as though we grew closer as a group. It was just the four of us. Jess was in her second year of throwing, Luis had never thrown before, and Brandon had experience downstate. You can read more about those first couple of years by clicking HERE. Transitioning back to Nazareth for the 2015-16 season was difficult at first. I was only able to attend half of the track meets because I was enrolled in my doctorate program at the same time. Our class schedule required us to attend every other week. Fortunately, the schedule worked out that I was able to attend our E8 conference championships and Nationals. I learned that communicating more effectively and efficiently was going to be imperative if we were going to have a successful season. This season helped me become a better coach for a couple of reasons. First, it required me to communicate more efficiently with my kids. Second, it allowed me to be more present in what was happening during practice and at meets. Third, but most important, I got to know my athletes on a more personal level. Once things started clicking, we started rolling and the team came closer together as a unit. They took really good care of each other at meets when I wasn’t able to attend due to class, they took turns writing in our throwing journal, and they kept me informed of what was happening at the meet via text message. With my team this year at Alfred State, communication has become paramount. We’ve had a couple of virtual team meetings where Coach G. and I discussed the upcoming spring semester happenings and expectations. I text my throwers on a regular basis. We’ve only had a handful of practices. Getting the physical components of throwing down is important, but establishing solid coach-athlete relationships is critical! The Spark We all have something that motivates us, that pushes us when we don’t want to be pushed, that sparks a fire within us to go beyond what is necessary to achieve our goals. What drives us to succeed is going to vary by individual athletes and teams. Regardless of what our goals are, we all have that special something that sparks the fire. For some the flame burns until we achieve what we have set out to accomplish. And yet for others the flame burns out way too soon. The goal may not have been realistic, the individual lacked the necessary support system, they got bored, they lost focus, or there was too much clutter in their lives. That spark is what gets us moving towards accomplishing our goal(s). For some it may take years to accomplish what we set out to do. And yet others may not give themselves enough credit and accomplish their goal well before they expected. In both those instances and all points in-between, a road map is necessary in figuring out where we want to go. You Have One Too When I think of a spark for a team, I can’t help but first think about professional wrestler Tully Blanchard. Tully was a founding member of the 4 Horsemen stable in Jim Crockett Promotions. Alongside Tully were Double A Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson, and Ric Flair. In one of my favorite wrestling dvd’s, Ric Flair and the 4 Horsemen, Tully is interviewed about the 4 Horsemen after he left the stable. To paraphrase, Tully says that he was the blasting cap (or spark) that got the 4 Horsemen going-the instigator if you will. If you haven’t, go out of your way and either watch the interview or the whole dvd. You will not be disappointed. I mention Tully Blanchard and the 4 Horsemen because much like how Tully describes himself, I believe that everyone has their version of Tully Blanchard living deep down inside them. A spark, something that gets us out of bed everyday, working towards moving one step closer to our dreams. If you don’t have something that immediately gets you out of bed every morning, think about what you enjoy doing. We all have something that we are passionate about. What are the things that fire you up? What is your Tully Blanchard spark... |
Dr. Charles InfurnaCharles Infurna, Ed.D., is the owner and lead coach of Forza Athletics Track Club. Dr. Infurna has coached National Record Holders, National Champions, All-Americans, and Conference Champions at the Post-Collegiate, Collegiate, and High School level. Archives
April 2021
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