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Archive for December, 2009

Great Examples…

Posted in Great Examples, tagged , , on December 30, 2009 |

Here’s another great example of sportsmanship from college softball in Oregon a couple of years ago.  It’s not the World Series but you can see from the coaches and players involved that it was very meaningful to them.  If you haven’t seen this before, it’s fantastic, and a great example for athletes and coaches of all levels.  It wasn’t just a great gesture of sportsmanship, I think it ties back to the philosophy we first touched on in the Gregor Staehli article which is of course, wanting your opponent to be at his or her best so if you are able to win, it means something.  Without question, if the opposing team had won because Sara Tucholsky was not allowed to count her home run, the win would be meaningless.  Yes, maybe it would count in the standings but what’s that worth knowing it wasn’t earned?

Here’s the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jocw-oD2pgo

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8. Neil Crone – Part 1

Posted in Value of Sport, tagged , , on December 27, 2009 | 2 Comments »

In the spirit of the season, this week’s post is more of a sentimental choice for me.  Neil Crone (see contributors) although now a very successful actor and comedian was once a high school football player coached by my father.  As an award winning columnist, he wrote two pieces about those days.  I could go on about what a great friend Neil has been to my father and my family over the years but suffice it to say that when the following article was first published, it was an incredible gift.  It’s not possible for me to accurately describe how much the article(s) meant to both my father and our family but we will always be extremely grateful.

*****

I went to my high school reunion last month.  I was excited about going.  It’s been 25 years since I graduated and there are many old friends that I dearly wanted to see again.  Unfortunately although well organized and held at a lovely venue, the reunion for some inexplicable reason was poorly attended.  From my entire graduating class I met a little over a dozen people.  Still, it was nice to see their smiling and aging faces.  There were many wonderful surprises and not a few ghastly shocks.  It’s amazing how far south the human body can go in a couple of decades.  The highlight of my evening though, with the exception of having a glass of red whine spilled down by back by some class of ’69 pisstank and being relentlessly hounded by a stoned beatnik desperate to engage me in a dialogue of souls was a chance to sit with my old friend and football coach, Andy.

Andy has always has been a great bull of a man.  As high school football players flopping about spastically in ill-fitting uniforms we were often terrified by his baleful glare and his booming voice.  He didn’t say much but if he was addressing you, chances were you’d screwed up.  If you were lazy or in need of correction he would make us do chin ups in full gear from the goal posts.  He lived for rainy days when he could make us practice running and diving in the mud, until we were soggy through to the skin.  At practice’s end we would stagger back to the locker room looking like the days survivors from some catastrophic flood.  Still, we loved him.  There are dozens of us here today who once shared a huddle who would still run through a brick wall for him.  The reasons for our devotion are admittedly clichéd but nonetheless timeless.  Through Andy and with Andy we learned about courage, pride, loyalty and how to be good men.  I’m not sure they still teach those things.  I hope to God they do.  I hope to God my own boys are sent an Andy that they will gladly sweat and ache for.

On this night though, Andy and I did not talk much football.  We came together as veterans of the cancer gridiron, both of us engaged in the games of our lives, mine only just begun, his already into a well-fought and exhausting overtime.  Typically Andy was not conceding any easy yardage.  He was making his cancer hang from the crossbar and dive through the mud.

I have a particularly vivid memory from my days in high school.  I’m lying face down on a hospital gurney, stabbed in the leg while attempting to stop a thief from robbing the gym locker rooms and in great pain and scared to death.  In the midst of my panic I am aware that a strong hand is holding mine, calming me down, helping me to be brave.  It was Andy.  I never knew when or how he got there but there he was.  As we said good-bye that night at the reunion, perhaps for the last time, I made sure to take his hand and squeeze it for just a little longer than necessary hoping to give him back some of the courage he so freely and so often gave to me.

Neil Crone.

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Great Examples…

Posted in Great Examples, tagged , on December 21, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Got an e-mail from Lester the other day, an old speed skating team mate of mine.  He had a few stories to share about sportsmanship and this was one of them:

Don’t know if you follow english “football” but the FA cup is like the Stanley cup, only bigger.  Teams from multiple leagues compete, elimation style, all season long on top of their regular league games…  Eventually this leads to the FA cup final, played at Wembley Stadium in front of 100000 people, usually against 2 of the top premier teams.  In 1999 Arsenal scored a goal that was legal, but ethically questionable ( I think in the quarter finals).  The other team had put the ball out of play to allow for an injured played to get treatment.  On the next throw in, the common unwritten rule is thow the ball back to the team that put it out, so not to gain advantage from their sportsmanlike play.  Instead, a player from Arsenal capitalized on it, and scored, winning the game 2-1.  It lead to some outrage, so much so that the management of Arsenal, offered to replay the game, as they didn’t want to win in a tainted way…game was replayed, they again won 2-1.  It would be like the flames saying to the Oilers, sorry we won the quarterfianls, on that questionable goal, lets replay the game. Here is the link: http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/ars-ne-wenger-offers-fa-cup-rematch

Thanks for that Lester.  It makes me wonder though, why that would never happen between the Oilers and Flames (because I’m sure most people would agree that it wouldn’t).  A common answer to a question like this is often “it’s big business, it’s not about fair” but surely the dollars involved (or pounds) are much bigger in FA Cup soccer?  So why wouldn’t it happen here if for example, the ref got it wrong and it led to the winning goal?  It’s a best of seven series in hockey so what comes around goes around?  Or is it just our sporting culture?  Is it just the choice of the people involved?

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7. Ben Rutledge – Part 2

Posted in Teamwork, tagged , , on December 18, 2009 |

The process of finding athletes who can survive in this sort of environment is not an easy task and is the reason we have an “open camp”. Basically, any rower who has at least shown a basic level of skill or potential is allowed to train alongside the best rowers in Canada.

The top rowers/athletes are given Mikes full attention and the best equipment.  These rowers then received the opportunity to represent Canada at the World Championships or Olympic Games. Newcomers often think that incumbents are protective or territorial to their positions.  In fact, the opposite was true, my teammates and I were always excited if a new or good athlete came into the mix that had potential. We saw them as having something to offer the program that could elevate all of our end games.

“Newcomers often think that incumbents are protective or territorial to their positions.  In fact, the opposite was true, my teammates and I were always excited if a new or good athlete came into the mix that had potential. We saw them as having something to offer the program that could elevate all of our end games.”

In 2007 this athlete was Jake Wetzel, he was a 2004 Olympic Silver medallist who had taken the past two years off to sort out an injury and work on his PhD. Jake was a talented athlete who had demonstrated in the past he had the capabilities to be the best in the world, his team missed a gold medal by only .08 of a second at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Our training group at the time was filled with strong and talented athletes, but had not had a top performance in two years.  In addition we had some new young talent in the group that had yet to reach their full potential.  This was an opportunity for all of us to come together and start making something gel. In January Jake arrived, three months after the camp had opened and we were gearing up for our Olympic qualifying year. Competition was fierce to get into the top boats, which would have the best chance at a medal at the world championships and Olympic qualification.

Jake was a threat to many of the athletes including myself since he rowed out starboard side. In sweep rowing we each only have one oar and it takes time to develop a specific side, similar to hockey and golf.  However we knew if we could harness Jake’s power and expertise we would all be better off, even the athletes not selected for the crew. I will try to explain this; we are all now going to try harder to ensure we are not the last guys selected to the crew so if and when Jake gets back up to speed we would not get ousted from the boat. In effect, allowing all of us to push harder than would have been achieved prior to Jakes arrival.

Now I can imagine that this might be intuitive in most teams selections; bring in the good out with the bad, overall everyone seems better.  However, rowing is one of a few unique team events in that is timed. No goals, no referees, no special teams, no power-play, less random chance is involved, just pure performance.  So for those of the team who perhaps saw their opportunity for rowing in the men’s 8+ slipping away with Jakes arrival, they were still given the opportunity to grow in the open camp.  They would then try for another boat and with the opportunity to prove that if he was good enough to win a gold medal in the eight man boat he was also good enough to win a medal in the four man or two man boat.

No farm teams, no minor leagues, just a different position on the lake to fine tune your abilities.

By March our eight man team was doing well, it had just won the first world cup of the season.  And our boat was an early contender for the gold at the world championships four months away. Jake had only been training for four months at this point, and was not exactly in top form, but our coach recommended the team accept him due to his past performances and athletic talent. Now for some this meant they were going to be taken out of the boat and possibly their chances of becoming a World Champion had been lost. But, for others left in the boat this meant they had a chance at reviving a proven performer who could add to the performance of a crew.

In the end, Jake lived up to his past performances and was selected for the team. He was later able to step into a leadership position within the team. That year we won the world championships by the largest margin in the men’s 8 in over 20 years.  Our size of victory is comparable to the margin that sprinter, and fellow Gold Medalist, Husain Bolt takes over his field.

“We sat on the start line in Beijing believing we were ready to perform at our best only because the combined beliefs within ourselves, teammates, coach and training program allowed us to do so.”

Nothing stopped our team from looking at ways to improve, even if it meant putting our own spot on the team at risk. We were dedicated to our team’s success and if there was an individual that was going to elevate us we would explore it. We sat on the start line in Beijing believing we were ready to perform at our best only because the combined beliefs within ourselves, teammates, coach and training program allowed us to do so. This came from a unique program that made us accept responsibility for our own performances and give respect to others.  And with that we claimed the top position at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, even if it meant a few bowels coming loose along the way.

*****

Thanks again so much for that Ben.  To me this attitude shows incredible perspective.  It all comes down to this in terms of attitude:  ”We sat on the start line in Beijing believing we were ready to perform at our best only because the combined beliefs within ourselves, teammates, coach and training program allowed us to do so.”  Nobody on that boat wanted anything other than the best for the team.  In the words of a friend of mine, athletes all too often want to win by default and not because they earned it.  In the end, everyone on this boat deserved to be there, and the boat was better because of it – in fact, it was the best in the world.  Again, positive attitude, values, sportsmanship – these things aren’t just compatible with winning, they cause it too.

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6. Ben Rutledge – Part 1

Posted in Teamwork, tagged , on December 15, 2009 | 2 Comments »

I’m really grateful for the tremendous support I’ve received for this project and part of that has come in the form of other athletes writing entries.  Ben Rutledge is a World and Olympic champion rower (www.benrutledge.com; twitter.com/ben_rutledge) and has written the following entry.  I think you’ll find it extremely insightful in terms of what it takes to train and compete at that level and about teamwork especially (which is mostly in part 2).  To succeed in rowing at a world level requires an incredible amount of effort and dedication.  In terms of work load and intensity of training, there are few if any athletes that put more into it.  What has gone hand in hand with the dedication is what Ben refers to as an “open camp” philosophy and I’ll let him describe how integral it was to his team’s success.  Thanks very much Ben for your support and the great article…

*****

To win an Olympic gold medal in rowing, it takes many things.  Some of which include being physically fit, tall and strong, having a belief in yourself, a belief in your training and in your team-mates.  Our team had an open camp system, designed by our coach Mike Spracklen it kept the top athlete’s on the ball, while at the same time keeping the door open for any opportunistic athletes. Excellence was revelled and pushing towards physical failure was accepted, and by pursing these polar opposites we found out that they were actually one of the same.

Our Coach Mike Spracklen gave the unwavering leadership necessary to create this system and elevate excellence as a virtue. His reputation as a task master is well known within the rowing world, but what is not well known is how he consistently gets his athletes to abide by and take on his program.  His intense training schedule, gruelling hours and a never ending drive to push harder does not leave room for the unmotivated athlete.   For someone to ask and receive this of his/her athletes for a short period of time is not entirely improbable, but to have results and medals from every Olympics since 1984 says much more.

To be a part of his system can be an unnerving ordeal.  One day in my first year under his tutelage  I remember  trying to give it my absolute all during a Saturday afternoon workout (the last of the week)  in the eight man boat –or at least what I though was my absolute all. Halfway throughout the workout he mentioned to me that he thought I wasn’t giving it my all…well, this was news to me.  My heart rate was at maximum, sweat was pouring down and I could not gasp air any faster.

I wanted to be the best and if he thought I could give more, then I would try and give more. The next work set, I recall pushing hard enough to what I thought would break my oar, again over the microphone came “you’re still not getting it”. I couldn’t believe it, could he not see that my eyes were nearly popping out of my head. I shuddered at the thought of what was necessary to get the desired result.  As we took off for our next set of strokes I prepared myself for something spiritual, I would separate the boat in two if I had too. The next set I pushed and pulled so hard I was literally crying after the piece.  To be completely honest, my bowls were nearly coming loose, and in a soft tone he said “OK Ben, that’s better”. 

I will never forget that day, because it serves as a reminder.  There is always a little bit more we can give, if we really want to step outside our comfort zone.

My writing skills may not give light to exactly how he was able get this from me, but he has a way of asking for more without making you mad at him. I might be partly because he has a British accent, or maybe because he is 70 years old. But more realistically I believe Mike can do this because he only coaches athletes who want to be the best and he holds a reputation that is unmatched in the sport of rowing. This is what allows him to ask more from his rowers.  Consistently, they will try and do anything to be better; thus, create a respectful relationship between the athletes and coach.

(End of Part 1).

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5. Teamwork and Positive Rivalry – Part 1

Posted in Teamwork, tagged , , on December 9, 2009 | 4 Comments »

Cal Botterill (see Contributors) is an accomplished teacher of sport (or performance) psychology.  I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know Cal over the past few years through his work with the Canadian bobsleigh and skeleton teams (while I have been coaching skeleton).  Before meeting Cal, I certainly knew of him by reputation through friends and colleagues of mine who think very highly of him and as I am coming to realize, for good reason.

What I find really appealing about Cal is his positivity.  When you’re talking to him you really get the feeling he ‘gets it’.  One thing that contributes to making Cal a great communicator, is the fact that he’s been in his field working with elite athletes for decades and has some great anecdotes to draw from.  When you can illustrate your point by referring to people who have won championship trophies or Olympic medals, you can make a strong argument.

One of the challenges in working with a team of athletes that compete in an individual sport is the fact that your teammate is also your competition (like Jamie Gregg and Jeremy Wotherspoon).  Speaking from personal experience as both an athlete and a coach, it’s difficult sometimes to be in that environment and not look at a teammate as the enemy.  It’s easy to fall in to that trap.  Depending on your perspective, it can be really stressful to go to practice every day along side someone else who wants nothing more that to be exactly where you want to be – on top of the podium.

Of course this is a very limited perspective – everyone in your entire sport wants to be on top of the podium.  In fact, it’s their job as your competition to want to be on top of the podium, and they serve you best by challenging you.  In general terms, your opponent (teammate or not), shouldn’t be thought of as “the enemy” or someone you have contempt for but someone that will help you to reach your best by creating the greatest possible challenge and exposing areas of your game that you can improve upon.

In fact, it’s their job as your competition to want to be on top of the podium, and they serve you best by challenging you.

Here’s what Cal and Tom Patrick wrote in their book Perspective, The Key To Life (Lifeskills, 2003) about teamwork and perspective,

People with perspective are usually great at teamwork.  Their ability to see the big picture helps them recognize and appreciate the value of collaboration and working with others.  Their sensitivity and perceptiveness help them realize that everybody has a role that is important and needs to be appreciated.

Most of all, people with perspective have enough vision, gratitude and security to be open to positive rivalries and other people’s needs.  Positive rivalries are reflected in the sentiment “I hope you are great, because that brings out the best in me, and that’s better for all of us”.  Top competitors seem to embrace positive rivalries and share this attitude.  It is clearly a much higher level of functioning than negative rivalries and the “eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth” mentality that often creeps into highly competitive activity when people lose perspective.

Positive rivalries bring out the best in us and promote a win-win possibility.  They promote an approach-success versus avoid-failure outlook, which is much healthier and facilitates, much higher levels of performance and functioning.  Negative images, fears and tension are reduced and enhanced focus, connection and flow become possible.

People with perspective play a leadership role (by example or initiative)!  Their poise has a settling effect on people.  These people play a huge role in teams developing perspective.  When this happens, it is an exciting thing to be a part of.  Team members become constant reminders of the perspective, poise and dedication necessary to be successful.  Natural energy flows and is shared and felt regularly, without the tension and static that is part of negative rivalries and have to versus want to mentalities.

One of the great examples I was referring to previously that Cal has to draw from is the positive rivalry once held between Susan Auch and Catriona LeMay-Doan.  At the Nagano Olympics in 1998, Susan won her second straight silver medal in the 500 meters speed skating event while Catriona won her first of two consecutive gold medals.  It was a case of two world-beaters on the same team, always training on the same ice at the same time.  Cal suggested that I look up an old video that he had put together for Sport Manitoba.  The video talks about the rivalry and you really get the feeling that it was a strain at times but there’s a great segment in which Susan talks about the end result,

“Catriona and I became powerful because we were working together.  I think it’s a lot harder being from the same country, but obviously it’s possible.  I mean there were times that were really really difficult.  They were dumb things [the petty differences] so in the end I definitely think that the two of us wouldn’t have been on the podium without doing it the way we did.  We would not have both been on the podium, maybe one of us would have, maybe the other, maybe not first.  But I’m sure we both wouldn’t have.”

Positivity and collaboration facilitated by perspective results here in higher achievement.  This is yet another case where attitude translates in to success.

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Follow-up…

Posted in Great Examples, tagged , on December 7, 2009 |

The following Toronto Star article was actually recommended to me by two different people in the last week.  It’s definitely worth the read and in a sense is very similar to the post about Gregor Staehli from November 19th.  What you may or may not realize reading the article is that Jamie Gregg made an incredible gesture not just to a team mate but to someone that could very possibly bump him off the podium in Vancouver just over two months from now.  Why would someone do that?  I guess you’d have to ask Jamie Gregg to be sure but I have a feeling that the answer would be pretty similar to Staehli’s philosophy which is of course: I want you to be at your best so if I can win it means something.

Congratulations to Jamie for his first World Cup speed skating medal last week in the 500 meters and for making an unprecedented gesture of good sportsmanship for his team mate and friend, Jeremy Wotherspoon.

Here’s the link:

http://olympics.thestar.com/2010/article/734998–gregg-gives-up-spot-for-teammate

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4. It’s About The Journey

Posted in Value of Sport, tagged on December 2, 2009 | 4 Comments »

“You’re not going to get anywhere if you think you’re already there.”

Anonymous

As the quote implies, to get to the top you have to constantly strive to improve and for some, that means they will never be satisfied until they reach their goals.  As is the case with many athletes, when you’re trying to get to the top, you spend a lot of time dreaming of what it will be like and a lot of time visualizing the performance it will take to get there.  I believe it’s a necessary part of the process but by the same token it’s easy to be so focused on the future that you fail to fully experience the present.

Living in the “now” is a concept extensively written about in recent years.  Eckhardt Tolle is probably the most renown author advocating for the concept but there are several others including Dan Millman who gives a great illustration of its value in the novel Way Of The Peaceful Warrior.  When we say, It’s about the journey or enjoy the process, it doesn’t mean don’t dream about success and it doesn’t mean take your eyes off the goal.  It just means that to succeed at anything you have to spend a great many hours, the overwhelming majority of your time as an athlete, developing and perfecting your abilities, in other words, training.  I don’t think it would be possible to work the hours necessary to have your shot at the top if you don’t love what you do.

It’s important to acknowledge this fact and to be aware of it along the way.  Many athletes say after they’ve retired that their days as an athlete were the best of their lives.  I think it’s important to be aware of this while it’s happening.  We need to be goal oriented and we need to dream about (or visualize) success, but if we do that too often we can miss some of the fun along the way.

I remember hearing an interview with Marnie McBean (multiple Olympic medalist in rowing) in which she stated that if her house was on fire, her Olympic medals wouldn’t be the first things that she would rush in to try to save.  At the time I remember thinking that she had a lot of medals and might not notice losing one or two in a fire!  It also reminded me of a story that my father told me (a couple of times) as a child.

Before I was born, on two occasions my father won the Canadian Judo Championships.  After the second time, my mother and father were walking out of the stadium with the trophy in hand.  I gather it was very tall and very elaborate with many levels and one level in particular had a platform with a series of gold balls upon which another platform sat and so on.  I mention that because when they were walking out of the stadium my Mom who was carrying the trophy slipped and fell smashing the trophy into a million pieces.  My father described a vivid memory he had of all these little gold balls rolling into a sewer.  According to my Dad, my mother was crying (which made sense to me as a kid – she just destroyed the main reason for doing a sport in the first place!) but my Dad on the other hand was describing it as if it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen.

As a kid hearing this story I was baffled that my father could actually find humor in it and when I asked him why he was laughing his response was, “why would I worry about something that was ultimately going to end up in a cardboard box in the basement?”  As you can imagine, at that moment I was absolutely disappointed in his explanation and I didn’t understand where he was coming from.  Now after so many years of competing in sport and having had my share of success and failure I understand much better what he meant.  His point was that a trophy is just a symbol, take away the symbol and it doesn’t change what happened or what you went through to make it happen.  In other words it has no effect on the real benefit of sport or why we do sport in the first place.  It doesn’t change the journey.

“His point was that a trophy is just a symbol, take away the symbol and it doesn’t change what happened or what you went through to make it happen.”

Coming to this realization at the end of an athletic career is better than not ever reaching a conclusion but it is of course better still to understand it’s about the journey while the journey is in progress.  It gives the athlete great perspective for sport and life and allows them to enjoy the time on the road to taking your best shot at success.  We have the ability to make the journey really enjoyable or really miserable for ourselves and for the people around us.  I was really lucky because I had a great support system of which my wife was the biggest part, but also it was due to great teammates and great competitors.  I am grateful for the time I had as an athlete and yes, it was a wonderful time in my life.

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