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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.
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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... In this journey we’re setting out on, there is a specific path each of us will take with our athletes. As we begin to map out our process with our athletes, it’ll be important for us as the coach to include what is going to give our athletes the best opportunities to be successful. In this case, we act as a Sherpa.
In mountaineering terms, a Sherpa let’s the climber pick the mountain they want to climb. Then the Sherpa lays the ropes out in advance so the climber can move along the mountain faster and more efficiently. And possibly the most important part of the Sherpa-climber relationship is that the Sherpa tells the climbers what they don’t need to take in order to make their summit. Like coaches, Sherpa’s outline an action plan (or path) that gives the climber the best opportunity to be successful in achieving their goal. As we review our 16-week outline to compete at our outdoor conference championships, as coaches we need to only include the tools necessary to get our athletes where they want to go. Where they want to go. The critical component of planning, in my opinion, is working one-on-one with each athlete to set forth a path that gives them the best opportunity to be successful. Hence why communicating with our athletes is so critical before we set out the path. Our role as coaches is get our athletes where they want to go. Laying out the rope (or path) beforehand gives them the best opportunity to achieve their goal. It also instills a sense of accountability. To get from A to Z, we need to make a few stops along the way. It isn’t often that we will go right to Z from A. We will probably make some stops along the way, move some rope around, and continue on our path. We may approach a path that is blocked (by no control of our own), backtrack a little bit, and then continue moving forward. How you do that is going to be determined by your coach-athlete relationships. Much of our athlete’s successes are going to hinge on a couple of critical factors: their own intrinsic motivation, why they want to achieve their goal(s), communication between coach and athlete, and a willingness to make some sacrifices along the way. As we reflect back on our 16-week example, this is how we are broadly going to prepare for the upcoming outdoor conference championships. The following six weeks are going to be incredibly important in planning. Athlete accountability is going to be key because our athletes at Alfred State are still training from home during time. As I previously mentioned, each athlete has a general weight lifting program to follow. Similarly, they each have unique throwing programming to follow based on the equipment they have. January 31-February 6 January 24-30 January 17-23 January 10-16 January 3-9 The month of February is going to be used as a general prep period to get back into “throwing” shape. These four weeks are going to be spent throwing indoors. Mostly because of how much snow we get in Western NY, but also because it gets dark at around 4:30pm. Our indoor training is going to be focused on each athlete’s main event (what they want to focus on for the outdoor season). In such a time crunched season, it will be difficult to excel in 3 or all 4 throwing events. We have limited practice times and dates, therefore communicating with our athletes is so important during this time. The critical ropes will begin to be placed along the mountain side during this time. That leaves us with 8 weeks of outdoor throwing before our conference championships. In the past I used a formula similar to what I’m going to share here with my athletes about preparation for events during the outdoor season. With athletes that are interested in competing in three events (shot, discus, and hammer), the larger focus or main event will receive 60% of the throws/training time. The second event, depending on the possible success rate of the athlete’s performance will receive 15%-25%. The remaining time will be dedicated to event three. In Luis’ senior season at Nazareth, his outdoor season was 75% hammer and 25% discus. He finished 3rd at DIII Nationals in the hammer and also held our school record in the discus for a majority of the outdoor season. We knew that he had a chance to win the hammer outdoors, and that throwing the discus would support the team by finishing in the top 6 at our conference meet. We put a majority of our eggs in the hammer basket, and it worked out well. In Jen’s senior season at Fredonia, after our SUNYAC conference championships, Jen wanted to drop discus training altogether. We knew she had an outside shot of qualifying for nationals in both the hammer and discus in 2005. She continued to throw the discus in competition, but didn’t hit the standard necessary to qualify in the discus. She entered nationals seeded 11th in the hammer. Conference Championship Week--April 30th - May 1st April 18-24 April 11-17 April 4-10 March 28-April 3 March 21-27 March 14-20 March 7-13 Communication is important because realistic expectations will come into play. Having a sense of where our athletes are both physically and mentally gives us as the coach (or Sherpa) the information necessary to create an environment conducive to goal-achievement and a rewarding season. I encourage coaches to have these conversations. Sometimes they might be difficult, but having our athletes express their goals is obvious in creating a culture of success. You can succeed as long as the inner satisfaction and peace of mind that come from knowing you did the best you were capable of doing-Jim Tressel Happy New Year! What better way to begin 2021 than by beginning with the end in mind. We last left off discussing how my graduate program at SUNY Fredonia aligns with coaching. Beginning with the end in mind in graduate school lends itself to beginning with the end in mind with coaching. The end I will be discussing today in part 2 is preparing for our outdoor conference championships in the spring semester. This is a very unique year. With COVID still running wild and wreaking havoc on collegiate sports programming across the country, this plan will provide a unique look at preparing for an outdoor championship (that may or may not even take place).  For the sake of this article, I’m going to guesstimate that our outdoor conference championship meet will be held on Friday, April 30th and Saturday, May 1st, 2021. I’m just guessing. Now if we count backwards, our seasonal plan would look something like this: Conference Championship Week--April 30th - May 1st April 18-24 April 11-17 April 4-10 March 28-April 3 March 21-27 March 14-20 March 7-13 February 28-March 6 February 21-27 February 14-20 February 7-13 January 31-February 6 January 24-30 January 17-23 January 10-16 January 3-9  Up until our conference championship meet, our weekly programming begins on Sunday. Our week concludes on meet day, which is typically Saturday. Again, I’m really guessing here because I’m not sure if we will have any meets on Friday besides our two day conference championships. For all intent and purposes, we may only have our conference championships on Saturday. As you can see, it really doesn’t leave us a lot of time to train and prepare. We have 16 weeks until our conference championship week.
From my perspective, this really isn’t a lot of time to prepare. Our athletes at Alfred State return to campus for in-person classes on February 1st. Our indoor season is still in doubt, so our plan right now is to move forward with a successful outdoor campaign. Now that we have our weeks figured out, we’ll need to look at individual preparation for my athletes. I’ve had some conversations with them individually since we have been on break. Some have access to training equipment. Some have some throwing implements. They have all received programming and basic outlines they can follow while they are home. Those athletes that sit around until practice on February 1st will have missed out on about 8 weeks of training. At this point, communicating expectations is really important. And again, everything is based on individualized action plans for your athletes. When I was coaching at Fredonia and Nazareth, each athlete’s season was based on realistic expectations. For example, at Fredonia, we have a really good feeling that Julia was going to qualify for nationals each season. Beginning with her sophomore season, she competed at 3 indoor and 3 outdoor national championships. Similar with Luis at Nazareth. We knew his senior year was going to be big, so we planned around that. For many athletes across the country, their season usually concludes with their conference championships. At this point, only 20 athletes per gender and event attend nationals. That leaves many hundreds of athletes preparing for either the outdoor season or the following indoor season. In my next installment, beginning with the end in mind, I’ll provide you with a sample program that can be implemented with your athletes based on the parameters discussed in this article.  As this time of the year often does, it causes me to pause and reflect on the year that was. Well, 2020 was what it was. But in reflection, I think back to my graduate work at SUNY Fredonia. Immediately after I graduated with my degree in Childhood Education, I enrolled in graduate school. With a couple months off, I attended my first graduate class in August, 2004. The title of the course was Curriculum Design I.
One of the central tenets we discussed in that course was to begin with the end in mind. The focus of my project for that course was to design a 12-week 5th grade social studies unit. On the first night of class, as our cohort was wrapping up our guided activity, the last thought our instructor shared with us was, “Begin with the end in mind”. I find many parallels between that class, the graduate program and coaching track and field athletes as a whole. There is significant overlap with working with throwers too! The fall semester of the 202-21 season, to some, may be considered a wash. For some sports teams, the winter (indoor track season) has been cancelled. Actually, the SUNYAC conference canceled their winter sport seasons back in October, 2020. At Alfred State, we are still holding on to the possibility of competing indoors. I was able to meet with my throwers a couple of times a week for a few weeks before coaches were told they were unable to practice with their athletes moving forward with the remainder of the semester. As the semester has now officially come to a close, I’ve begun to think about our outdoor conference championships in May, 2021. Yes, I’m beginning to prepare for the end of the season by starting at the beginning. Our throwing squad is returning in whole this spring with the possibility to add more throwers that didn’t participate in the fall. We are beginning with the end because it is unlikely we will be competing indoors. The indoor prep will serve as a great opportunity for our athletes to get in shape for the outdoor season I’m confident we will have this year. In my next article I’ll go into more detail outlining backward design programming (yes, similar to block periodization of some sort), specific to collegiate throwers with the intentions of competing in an outdoor season. Well, we almost made it through the fall semester. The other day we received word from Alfred State that effective immediately we were no longer to conduct practice with our athletes. Things went well on Monday and Tuesday, but some positive tests caught up from the previous weekend (Halloween shenanigans). I feel for our athletes. I feel for all athletes across the country that have had their winter seasons canceled. I think for the most part there is really nothing much they (the athletes) could have done differently. This is a campus decision based on how our numbers have seen an uptick over the course of the past couple of weeks. For the most part our athletes have been great! As I mentioned to them in an email Wednesday night, I’m very proud of them and how they have been able to navigate this unsettling time in all our lives. With positive cases and percentages creeping up across the county and state, it came as no surprise that something like this was bound to happen. I was just hoping that we could have made it to the last couple of practices. Not only for the sake of practice, but for the valuable messages shared during practice. The aside conversations in which the athletes get to better know each other. The same can be said for the athletes getting to know me better as their coach. The next few weeks will be telling. Although we are no longer able to practice on campus, once the athletes go home, some will have access to training equipment. Most of my throwers already own their own shot-puts and discii. Finding a place to throw may be difficult for some, but others have throwing facilities in their backyards. Students will tentatively be returning back to campus to commence in-person classes again on February 1st. That leaves a couple weeks of November, December, and January. Plenty of training time. Tonight we are having an all athlete team meeting via Zoom. I’m going to share some thoughts with everyone about identifying a goal they have for themselves, why that goal is important to them, and some steps they can take in order to achieve those goals. For now, a lot of the work will be independent. Tim and I really can’t have contact with the kids, but we can provide them with workouts and things they can do at home until we are able to practice again in February. I’m not sure if we will have an indoor season, but I am sure that indoor outcomes will be determined by what happens from today until February 1st. With an abbreviated season, many of the performances will be decided by the habits and actions the athletes begin to develop and establish today. Waiting for December will be too late. Beginning in January, well we would have a lot of sessions and reps to make up. Coming back in February without having touched an implement or completed some type of training session--yikes! This is a small sample of what I’m going to share with all the athletes today. I have Liz Beaubrook to thank for sharing this image on Instagram a few months ago.  We all start with a goal in mind. Each subsequent step either takes us closer or moves us farther away from what we want to achieve. There are many paths and decisions to be made. But most importantly is this, with whatever direction you go, you don’t get there overnight. Let me repeat that, with whatever path you chose, you don’t get there overnight. We all make thousands of decisions each day. Most of which probably won’t determine the fate of accomplishing our short-term or long-term goals, however failing to make a determined effort to establish habits that would move us closer to our goal will have us move in the opposite direction. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen over the course of 13 weeks!
The other day I wrote about how we structure our practice times at Alfred State to maximize the time I have with the athletes. We are limited on the number of practice sessions we can have per week (2), and guidelines restrict our practice length to one hour. Where in the past I would spend two hours training and coaching my athletes at Fredonia or Nazareth per session, now that is the maximum amount of time we have for a week. That is still more practice time than some schools across our area that have sent their students home for the remainder of the semester.
So what do we focus on? Well, much like physical skills that can be taught, such as proper technique in the throwing events, focus is a mental skill that can be taught as well. When I share ideas with my athletes about focus, we don’t sit down in a room and have what you might consider a coaches talk for an hour on the subject. I am subtle with my conversations because I am still getting to know this group of throwers and they are still getting to know me. And also because this group consists of all freshmen throwers, I don’t want to overload them with too much information during a one hour training session. I’ve briefly written about it before, but focus is a complex skill comprised of five different mental components (McGuire, 2012; 2016):
Over the past few years, I have found that concentration has been the easiest component for me to teach my throwers. I equate concentration to cuing in the circle or on the runway. When I first began coaching, I would give kids half a dozen different things to concentrate on per throw. That was not very helpful. It wasn’t helpful to the thrower and it wasn’t helping me because we would both grow frustrated when something didn’t go well. Now, I usually give my kids one or two cues after they complete their throw to think about for the next one. It is a struggle at times because if that cue goes well then something else may not go well. In my experiences, working on one or two cues a session or week assists in instilling confidence and mastery because the athletes, over time, will begin to master that specific component of their throw, so then we can move onto the next one we need to concentrate on. The most difficult component I have difficulty with is the first one, being in the present moment. I have noticed that for some athletes, it is not easy for them to turn off their academic brain and turn on their athletic brain in an instant. An athlete coming from class may have a difficult time making the initial switch. I try to give them a few minutes to gather themselves after their class before we get started. I always ask them how their day is going and how class went. That is a way to take the temperature of the group and figure out where their minds are. If they had a rough class, I know that I need to adapt my coaching style for the day to meet their needs. If they had a pretty good day, then it is probably an indication that we can continue as scheduled. All too often I’ve attended high school track and field meets and I can hear coaches screaming at their kids to focus on what they are doing. Well, if they haven’t been taught that skill, how would you (as a coach) expect them to be able to execute on it? I wouldn’t ask a thrower to take a toe and three in the hammer during a meet if they have never practiced that skill during a training session. So why would you expect high mental strength capacities from your athletes if you’ve never trained them on those specific skill sets before? |
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
March 2021
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