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When you think about the goals/aspirations you laid out for yourself back in July/August/September, were those goals process focused or outcome focused?
Outcome goals are just that, outcome based with an emphasis placed on a specific performance. These are goals that are focused on the outcome, distance, place, or victory that create pressure, anxiety, and heaviness. An outcome goal might be to throw the weight 15m or to throw the shot-put 12m. Process goals place an emphasis on daily habits, routines, and rituals. Process goals are about the process and not the end result. These thoughts are focused on the present moment and the things you need to do to be at your very best. Did I complete my training session today? Did I monitor my nutritional intake? How was my recovery? Did I get enough rest? To give ourselves a better opportunity to achieve our outcome goals, they need to be intrinsically motivated. Essentially they are goals we want to achieve or accomplish because we are passionate about doing so without outside factors dictating our interest in doing so. If our outcome goals are extrinsically motivated, we might be compelled to want to achieve this goal because of outside factors (respect garnered from others, to win something, etc.). In essence, athletic scholarships can be viewed as extrinsic motivators for athletes. If you do this (throw far) then our college will give you that (money to attend our college). That is a totally different bridge to cross at another time. But I think you get the idea. Now would be a good time to re-evaluate your goals from the indoor season. Step 1. What were your goals for the indoor season? What did you want to accomplish in track and field?
Step 2. After you have written down your goals for the indoor season, create a list of which goals were outcome specific and which goals were process driven. Step 3. When you compare your two lists, what did you specifically do to help yourself achieve your outcome goal(s)?
Step 4. If you did not achieve your goals or a goal, why don’t you think you did? What hindered your progress towards accomplishing that goal?
Step 5. Your list of tangible items that kept you from achieving your goal(s) from Step 4 is now a good starting point to begin developing a list of process goals to incorporate into your training for the 2022 outdoor season Re-framing goals for the Outdoor Season 2022 Outdoor Track and Field Goals I want to ___________________________________________ because ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This goal is important for me to achieve because (why is this goal deserving of my time and committment) ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ To achieve my outcome goal, I will: Process goals (within our direct day to day control):
What are the habits and daily actions necessary to ensure your commitment to your goal(s)? What must be done everyday? In order to achieve my goal(s), I must start doing (what are the habits you need to begin implementing in order to achieve your goal?)
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Opportunities Conference championship season is upon us! All the training, sets, reps, and throws since August have prepared us for this moment in time. The moment to throw well when it matters most, during the championship season. I venture to guess that not all championships are won and lost at the meet. I venture to say that these championships are won and lost well before the championship meet arrives. I guess that these championships are won and lost when the fall semester begins, maybe sooner. I say this because I’ve attended my fair share of conference, regional, and national championship meets to understand that anything can happen when the top throwers are vying for the coveted championship win. Some might say these meets are stressful and difficult to manage for some athletes. For others, many throwers achieve seasonal best marks and even personal best marks when it matters most. For those individuals, I say that they take advantage of the opportunities bestowed upon them in those situations. I fell victim to those high stress situations on two different occasions in my own collegiate throwing career. In 2002 and 2004, I was the top seeded thrower at our indoor conference championships for the weight throw. I felt as though I was prepared for the situation at hand, but unfortunately I was not. In 2002 I finished second with a personal best throw in round 5. The eventual champion hit a personal best in round 6. I could not respond. In 2004, my senior year, I was also seeded first. I threw 15cm below my personal best. I finished 4th. The top 3 individuals all hit personal best throws in that competition. If I would have hit a personal best, I would have moved up to 2nd. I may have won depending on how the other throwers would have reacted to me setting a personal best in the finals. Yet at our 2003 indoor conference championships I was seeded 3rd coming into the meet. I hit a personal best throw in round 3. I was the top thrower entering the finals. I hit another personal best in round 4. I could not catch up to the thrower that eventually won the competition. He hit a personal best in round 5. I could not respond in round 6. However, reflecting back on those experiences has led me to realize that my 2003 2nd place finish is more valuable to me than any other indoor conference championships I competed in during my collegiate career. I was not expected to throw far, took advantage of an opportunity in which the top 2 seeded individuals did not perform well, and believed I was going to sneak away with a victory. The 5th seeded individual had other plans, too. These opportunities are presented to us in the throwing world at every competition. Every meet. Every throw is an opportunity for ourselves to meet a goal, realize a dream, and aspire to be great. As cliche as it sounds. As a coach, I’ve sat on both sides of the conversation with my athletes. Those that took advantage of an opportunity and those that failed to do so. A couple of specific instances stand out, one situation at SUNY Fredonia and one at Nazareth College. In the spring of 2006 I was coaching a group of throwers that had far exceeded the expectations I had of them at the beginning of the season. Led by two upperclassman transfer throwers, the men’s squad single handedly removed me from the top 10 list of the weight and hammer throw. What sticks out most is the way a freshman female thrower handled the outdoor conference championships that season. In what turned out to be a coming out party for arguably one of the most successful athletic careers at SUNY Fredonia, Julia Hopson won the hammer throw that day. She beat a senior thrower that had watched the hammer championship slip her grasp the prior two years. Julia took advantage of an opportunity presented to her, set a personal best when others were faltering, and came within a meter of breaking our then school record of 52m in the hammer. She set a personal best by over 3m on a day that the throwing Gods had decided was not going to be suited for outstanding performances. Julia surprised everyone and came away with the victory. Her first of 4 consecutive SUNYAC hammer championships. About 7 years later I experienced it again. This time I was a first year coach at Nazareth College with two freshmen male throwers competing at our conference championships at St. Lawrence University. Both throwers competed well the weekend before at our outdoor E8 Championships. At this meet they were both seeded outside the top 10, competing in the first flight of 2 flights. One day 1 of the competition, freshman thrower Luis Rivera set a personal best in flight 1 of the men’s hammer competition, throwing just over 41m. He finished 2nd in his flight of 10. We knew that he needed to beat at least 9 of the throwers in flight 2 to make the finals. It didn’t seem realistic because everyone in flight 2 was seeded over 44m. Well, if you guessed that he would end up making the finals, you are right. He entered the finals seeded 9th of 9th throwers. He ended up hitting another small personal best in round 5, moved up to 8th place, and scored 1 point. A couple of throwers fouled out. Others didn’t throw as well as their seed mark. Things happened to fall into place for us. When these opportunities for greatness approach you, do you find yourself prepared to propel yourself towards greatness?  2005-2006 SUNY Fredonia Throwers
“When significant changes are needed, we often assume a cataclysmic event is necessary to achieve them. Which typically fails through the actions of impatience. It takes glaciers a millennium to find the ocean, don’t assume you can push them back up the mountain in an afternoon.”
Derek Woodske I was speaking to Luis this past weekend about the opportunity I had to work with some high school throwers at the school I visit a couple of days a week. In our conversation I shared that all but one of the five throwers took standing throws in competition. The lone turner taking a modified Highland Games approach to throwing. In two sessions with the kids, as I shared with Luis, they began taking multiple turn throws with the weight. I pride myself and my coaching ability on being able to teach someone how to throw the weight/hammer in one session while being able to finish the session with two winds and three turns with the implement. Now I’m not saying that the throws are perfect. Oftentimes far from it, but the athlete is able to stay in the circle after three turns and a finish. That’s a win in how I perceive myself to coach throwers. In a meet on Saturday, the one of the throwers I worked with was able to set a personal best in the shot-put, placing 5th after being seeded 12th of 16. He was really excited and pumped up about having set a new personal best in the shot, especially since he told me it had been since before Christmas that he had done so. Now onto the weight throw. As an aside, this high school track and field meet was run exceptionally well. Warm-ups went well, and the officials moved through the flight in about 25 minutes or so. In total, 16 male throwers each took 4 throws. Immediately after they were finished, they were ushered off to the weight. After another 15 minute warm-up, they were done in about 30 minutes. Warm-ups and competition done in about 1hr. 30 minutes. I had a sense that the excitement of the shot-put personal best was going to take its toll on the weight because of body language and aside conversation with the other throwers within earshot of where I was sitting. Warm-ups went pretty well, with the focus of feeling comfortable taking a one wind and two turn throw in competition. His first “real” weight/hammer throws. His first throw in competition was a sector foul due to releasing the weight a little early. He was still pumped up about his opportunity to throw farther, and went for it again in round 2. This time it was a foul down the opposite sector line. Now I could see a sense of apprehension and fear come over his face. On his 3rd throw he reverted back to his old throwing style, good enough for a 41’2”. His 4th throw was also a foul down the left sector. After the meet we had a brief conversation about feeling comfortable in the circle, giving the technique a chance, and how to move forward during the next couple of weeks before Sectionals. I asked him what happened there in round 3, and he told me that he didn’t want to foul out so he reverted back to his old style of throwing. He also told me that he thought he would have figured it out after two sessions. In the two sessions prior to this meet, he took a total of 20 throws with weight/hammer technique. Maybe a little bit of impatience. Certainly fear. A little desperation. Our initial conversations early in the week were about his goals and how he wanted to wrap up this season. I suggested that he had probably maxed out his Highland Games technique, and that a 44’ throw would not secure him a spot in the top 16 of the region in 3 weeks. Rather than give it a shot in round 3, a safety throw was taken to ensure that he would at least finish 2nd in this meet and score points for his team. The thrower that won went over 57’. It was unlikely that he would throw a 4m PR to win, and 2nd was all but assured because he was the only other thrower over 40’. From my perspective, he wanted to accelerate the learning process. He expected that everything would instantaneously click and that he would automatically throw much farther. Derek’s words ring true in this situation. I see it often. When making minor technical changes, throwers might assume that the fix will cure what ails them in the circle. It is not always the case. Sometimes it is never the case. The notion to reap immediate outcomes without putting in solid work still boggles my mind. Patience as a virtue (or skill to be mastered) seems to have fallen by the wayside and replaced with immediate or instant gratification of a job well done. Now, mastering a two or three turn weight/hammer throw at the high-school level might not necessarily take four or five years (if you start throwing as an 8th grader). The comparison to others is what I feel sets an internal clock. The thrower that won the boys shot-put and weight throw doesn’t have a high school throwing coach. He doesn’t have a private coach. I know this because I asked him after I congratulated him. He told me he watches YouTube videos and that is how he learned how to throw. When other throwers (with coaches, too) see and hear about this, instincts might tell us to begin pushing the glacier back up the mountain. How Do You Know When You Are Ready to Compete?
Yesterday I was on a coaching call with one of my holistic coaching clients. We were having a great conversation about competing, competition, and when to open up the season. This particular thrower has international experience, is a national record holder, and is on the cusp of hitting the 2024 Olympic Games mark in the hammer. They have the opportunity to open the season at an international competition in Europe in early March. Our conversation went something like this: Athlete: Yeah, I can open up in early March. It’d be a long flight with the prospects of only taking three throws. Me: It sounds like a great opportunity to open the season in an early major competition. Athlete: I’ll go compete if I feel excited enough and I’m ready to compete. Me: How do you gauge your excitement and readiness to compete in terms of preparing for this competition? Athlete: Umm…. As we continued our conversation, I asked what type of markers or data points they tracked in regards to being ready to compete. We discussed some items that most would suggest, such as; throwing distances in practice with the competition hammer, throwing distances in practice with hammers of varying weights, and weight room numbers. I shared a story of hearing Lance Deal speak in Ohio back in December 2015. He shared that he expected himself to be able to walk off a plane after an international flight and be able to throw at least 90% of his personal best within an hour or two of landing and competing. After we completed our coaching call I started thinking about all the things (or lack thereof) we ask our athletes to do. But do we ask them to do things because we know it will help them get better, or do we ask them because we think they will help them get better. Here is a list of some items we as coaches ask our athletes to do and keep track of: Physical:
I believe the physical items are probably on a majority of coaches lists. Taking them one step farther, how do you use the numbers you gather to inform training decisions? How do you know that what you did in the weight room a couple of weeks ago had a positive or negative impact on your throwing session today? Do you track your throwing volume and weight lifting volume and schedule throwing sessions accordingly to the intensity of your weight lifting sessions? Non-physical:
I’m surely missing a few items, but I think you get the idea. If we ask our athletes to keep track of the non-physical traits, how do we incorporate that knowledge into training sessions? Do you as coaches acknowledge whether an athlete pulled an all-nighter and got minimal sleep the night before they are to have a high intensity throwing session? Do your athletes realize that they have taken X number of throws this week in preparation for the upcoming meet? Were all those throws at a high intensity over 90%? Did your athletes have breakfast or lunch before a training session? Does your athlete take into consideration how they feel when they wake up every morning? What I’m getting at is that we ask a lot of our athletes. We ask them to do a lot of things. Hopefully those things are planned out and incorporated in a systematic manner in which will give your athlete the best opportunity to be successful. We ask them to track things. We should use that data to inform training decisions that will give them the best opportunities to reach and hopefully far exceed their goals and aspirations. My One Word: Focus
A few years ago I was reading an article on Jon Gordon’s (one of my favorite authors) website about how each year he selects a word for himself to emphasize for the upcoming year. Of course I thought that was a fantastic idea and quickly decided to begin a similar tradition of selecting my own word for the year. My word for 2022 is Focus. I’ve written about the skill and concept of focus for quite some time. If you have followed along over the course of the past few months, I’ve written extensively on the topic. I won’t go into that much detail about the five specific aspects of teaching someone the skill of focus. This year, however, I feel it is a good time to select Focus as my word. I’ve selected it for a multitude of reasons. First, with so much on my plate this year (professionally and personally) I feel it is most important to concentrate on what is most important to me this year. On a more personal note, I had three goals I wanted to accomplish in 2021; 1) complete a Half-Ironman race, 2) finish two other shorter Triathlon races, and 3) compete at a body weight under 260lbs. Needless to say I didn’t come close to achieving my body weight goal. I got close at 267lbs., but definitely not close enough. The Half-Ironman race I was registered for was canceled due to COVID-19 (out of my control), as were the shorter races I had on my calendar. Second, and most important on a professional level, is to concentrate and emphasize more time with Forza Athletics. Similar to my personal goals, I also have professional goals that I try to accomplish each year. I’ve had some relative success writing and publishing peer-reviewed research papers. Since I graduated from St. John Fisher College in May 2017, I have had a peer-reviewed research paper accepted for publication. I had two accepted in 2020 that were published in 2021. I had one accepted in 2021 that will be published in 2022. This is one I’m really proud of and I hope it will assist coaches in further developing and understanding how important it is to have a sound coaching philosophy and is based on your values and what is most important to you. With Forza Athletics, I’m going to Focus more time and energy on helping support high-school, collegiate, and post-collegiate throwers. I’m going to do this by providing more relevant content that will assist throwers in achieving their own unique and specific goals. Everyone is different, has different ideas, and a different path on how to get there. I want to illuminate that path for those throwers. I want to help them realize their dreams. Identifying a goal is great, sharing that goal with others holds us accountable, and having someone illuminate the path towards achievement is powerful. Since launching my Holistic Coaching program, I’ve had athletes from all over the world reach out to schedule a consultation to discuss their goals. I want to continue to assist those that are looking for something a little different, that doesn’t quite fit a “box”. When all things are equal during a competition, it is the athlete that is more mentally prepared that has the edge on their competitors. I want to provide that edge to new, aspiring, and seasoned throwers. Those are the aspects of my life that I’m going to emphasize in 2022. What is your one word for 2022? Leave a comment and let’s see how we can realize your goals and dreams together. Meeting Your Expectations
At the beginning of the fall semester, I gave each of my throwers a jar full of marbles and two notecards. The jar contained 24 marbles. Each marble represents a week of the season. The last marble to be pulled out of the jar a week before our outdoor conference championships. Essentially each week we either move ourselves closer or farther away from our goals. That is where the note cards come into play. On one note card I asked each thrower to share their goals for the upcoming season - what they wanted to accomplish and why it was important to them. I’m writing this article on Tuesday, December 21, 2021. Our fall semester went relatively quickly. Our throwers competed in two meets, and overall competed very well. We did throw through some growing pains, but unfortunately I think that can be expected from time to time. And not from new throwers, but from experienced throwers as well. Meeting Your Expectations When one experiences set-backs like this, in my humble opinion it comes down to expectations. What were you expecting was going to happen? Did your work and effort leading up to the meet warrant those expectations? Those were two questions I asked a couple of my throwers after our first indoor meet. What were you expecting was going to happen? This question often comes with an unequivocal look of disbelief. I can’t believe coach just asked me that question. Of course I expected to throw far. When I get that response, I follow up with this. Did your work and effort leading up to the meet warrant those expectations? Now I’m making them think a little bit. As a coach you need to know your audience and in this case your athlete. I feel comfortable asking these types of questions because we spend time discussing these topics during the season (before practice, during practice, after practice). I am a HUGE proponent of being a reflective thrower. In this instance, journaling and keeping a detailed journal adds support (to either the coach or thrower) when a discussion about work and effort comes into play. When I’m presented with a blank journal with a blank look that accompanies it, I have come to realize that 99% of throwers will look back on the semester and really think about it. That other 1% doesn’t, and when presented with ideas about training they really don’t have much to discuss or care to discuss. When reflecting back on the fall semester, it is ok if you didn’t meet your own expectations. I understand. Life happens is the response I’ve grown to hear most often the past few years I’ve coached. Make life happen for you. With about 19 weeks left of the season, there is plenty of time to make life happen for you. How will you reorganize your priorities so you aren’t sitting at the conference meet in May and thinking about what I should have done differently? You can put a lot of pieces in place NOW to ensure your spring semester lives up to your expectations. Fall 2021 Semester Thoughts
And just like that, the fall semester has come to a close. Our athletes have returned home for a much deserved and needed break. As coaches we plan and plan and plan for a semester and in the blink of an eye it is over. In all honesty I wasn’t sure what to expect this fall semester with so many new throwers joining the team. In total we had 11 throwers this semester. Five freshmen and six returning throwers. I didn’t know what to expect because you never know how a group of individuals are going to come together as a TEAM. It became quite evident early on that they were going to get along just fine. Now that isn’t to say that there weren’t some hiccups along the way, but for the majority of the semester we were able to put together a solid string of training sessions that produced nice throws at Houghton College and Utica College at the end of the semester. As I’ve written previously, when the weather turned we were only able to practice indoors on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. A much more reasonable set up compared to training from 8:30pm - 10:30pm last spring semester. In my opinion, the most difficult part of the competitive season begins - winter break. It isn’t difficult in the sense of being away from the throwers, but how the throwers spend their time when they are away. Essentially, all the great work that has been completed this fall semester can quickly become unraveled if the throwers don’t keep up with their training regimens. I understand that it may be difficult to throw over break. In my four years at SUNY Fredonia, I never brought home a weight or shot to train with over the winter break. Now that I think about it, I’m not quite sure I was able to bring one home. What I was able to continue building upon was my strength levels. My younger brother and I got winter break gym memberships at a local powerlifting type gym and made a lot of growth over the five weeks we were home together. At that time, we didn’t do much of anything besides go train at the gym and play video games while we were home for break. He was a freshman and I was a senior, the perfect training partner. Holistic Coaching: Propelling Towards Greatness Overview
______________________________________________________________________ Scheduling a free mentoring meeting Scheduling a mentoring session is the first step on your journey towards propelling yourself towards greatness. This 30 minute session will provide you with an overview of a true time tested goal-setting journey that will propel you towards achieving your goals. In this session, Dr. Infurna will share mental conditioning strategies that can be incorporated into your daily training sessions such as; the skill of focus, time management, confidence building, positive self-talk, goal-setting, and increased self-efficacy. Dr. Infurna will illuminate a path that will allow you to see where you want to go by discussing realistic and actionable steps down your path towards greatness. Create a customized roadmap that will direct you towards your goals With Dr. Infurna, you will illuminate a path that will allow you to see where you want to go by discussing realistic and actionable steps to be taken down your path towards greatness. Dr. Infurna will take you down a reflective journey of understanding where you were previously in your throwing journey, bring a sense of awareness of your current throwing situation, and inspire a vision of where you can take your throwing successes. We’ll travel on your journey together Through continued mentoring sessions, Dr. Infurna will continue to illuminate your path towards greatness. Each mentoring session will consist of a discussion focused on your path; accountability, what has gone well, what could be improved upon, and strategies to support you on your journey. I’m really excited to announce that I will be offering a free 30 minute Holistic Coaching and Mentoring Consultation session for throwers this year. I’ve been thinking about putting together an opportunity like this for quite some time. My approach to coaching and how I work with my athletes is more outside-the-box than what we might consider more traditional coaching methods. I emphasize more time spent focused on the mental aspects of throwing, which has led the throwers I’ve coached to achieve unprecedented success. Throwers that I’ve mentored have accomplished these outcomes:
Holistic Throwing Consultation
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You want to throw farther, right? Are you focusing on the mental aspects of throwing as well? Are you aware that by training the mental aspects of throwing you are preparing yourself to unlock your true greatness. If you want to throw farther by analyzing your mental training as well as your physical training then this opportunity is for you. This free 30 minute consultation with Dr. Infurna is for the thrower that wants to harness their physical and mental aspects to throwing. In this free consultation, Dr. Infurna will:
You will be contacted by Dr. Infurna within 48 hours of selecting this holistic approach to coaching consultation. You and Dr. Infurna will then schedule a time to speak via phone, Zoom, or Skype. Dr. Infurna will also email you his mindset and goal-setting strategies that will be discussed during your call. Over my 10+ years of coaching high-school, collegiate, and post-collegiate has provided meaningful insights into the types of physical and psychological traits required to accomplish one’s goals. It is in this process that I have refined my approach to coaching which provides throwers both the physical and mental cues required towards achieving one’s goals.
This specific free 30 minute coaching/mentoring consultation meeting with me, Dr. Charles Infurna, includes the following:
I will share strategies and tips that I have incorporated with my throwers over the past decade that has led them down a path of accomplishing their goals. As you have probably read or listened, the past couple of weeks I’ve shared a lot of strategies, suggestions, and tips for coaches and throwers when thinking about goals and the goal-setting process. A central tenet of this process is establishing open lines of communication in sharing expectations with athletes, and in turn athletes sharing their expectations for themselves and their teammates. Taking everything into consideration, a lot of this can be summed up with one word.
Reflective Over the summer I shared a lot of thoughts about the importance of journaling and how keeping notes on training and throwing would serve as the ultimate accountability partner. Taking the time to journal and write really causes someone to be reflective and think about what they want to accomplish. To accomplish this one needs to think about where they came from, where they currently are, and where they want to go. It might seem more difficult than it actually sounds, but broken down into small segments one can be honest with themselves about where they currently are and where they want to go. Much of this comes from where they were. An example might look like this. Let’s say we have a senior thrower on our team. As a junior they ranked in the top 50 nationally in the discus and competed in their last chance qualifier meet in both the discus and hammer. Removing those that graduated, they return as a senior with a top 35 ranked discus throw and top 60 in the hammer. Their aspirations for their senior year are to become an All-American in both the discus and hammer. They came off a relatively successful junior campaign in which they improved their best discus mark by 6m, while also improving their hammer mark by 8m. They made significant improvement from their sophomore year (COVID year) to their junior year (still under COVID restrictions, no indoor season). The 2021-22 season will seem to allow more opportunity to throw with fewer travel and competitive restrictions in the North East. Our current (November, 2021) indicators suggest that this thrower is on a positive trajectory towards accomplishing their two goals for the season. Earlier in the fall this thrower hit discus marks over 50m in training, which lets us know that his aspiration of getting to nationals and earning an All-American award is fairly realistic. To qualify for nationals, one needs to finish the season ranked in the top 24 in their respective event. Hitting a mark to get there is obviously the first step, but what happens once at nationals is a completely different story. One of which is better told for another series of articles. To be continued in a future blog post… |
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
May 2022
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