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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.
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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. |
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
January 2023
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