The pep talk

Some missed the Sat morning talk during our stretching session. Some came late. Some were focussed on the bits that they thought I was aiming at them and missed other important parts. It is amazing how when we read a newsletter or listen to a talk, we feel it’s directed at us personally. One of our members told me, he hadn’t been to club sessions for a while due to work commitments and sickness. Every time he opened the newsletter, he thought the only thing missing at the top of the page was “Dear Tony”. All the rest of it related to him so well. My talk on Saturday was primarily aimed at getting athletes to look at what they’re doing and analyse their actions more closely.  Results - It means different things to different people. For some it’s winning your category in Hawaii. For others it’s a one hour PB in your next Ironman. For some it’s living a good life and having a small bottom. 

Confidence - It’s a known fact, the single most important factor involved in achieving great results is confidence. That’s not just confidence in your own ability, but confidence in the plan to which you’re working/committed. The athletes who change their programs around, add a little more here and there, take a short cut here and there, are not confidant in the plan. They’ll never get the results they seek. 

Commitment – This is the driving force which, gets you out of bed in the dark, gives you the power to say no to the distractions which may derail your progress. Commitment is what the athletes who have to travel for work, have when they do their AB work in their hotel room, when they find a pool in a strange city and do the swim when they should. Commitment is the force which gets you organised, when you get everything ready the night before, so in the morning there are no hold ups.It’s also the ability to get there on time. I make sure I’m there on time, I can’t expect you to be there on time if I’m not. I’m committed to giving you the best coaching possible, are you committed to being the best athlete you can be? 

Details – I often say “I’m not a details person, I’m a big picture person”. That is not entirely correct. I’m just not a “nit-picker”. I really don’t care if a 100km ride turns out to be 98km. I am not worried if you can save 17sec over 40kms with an aero helmet, or if the Hed Jet wheel is any lighter than the Hed Alp. But I do care if you don’t hold your belly in when you do your leg extensions. And I do care if you do your aerobic run intervals 15sec faster than I have specified. And how well you refuel yourself after training is really important to me. 

Excellence – This is the difference between contenders and  pretenders. Excellence = confidence, Confidence = results. If you have read the many books/stories about the great Lance Armstrong, you’ll realise, he had all of the bases covered. No one was more committed, he accepted nothing less than excellence from himself or those around him. His attention to detail was legendary, and all this converted to an unshakable confidence on race day. You may say, he was a professional athlete with nothing else in his life to worry about. If you can excuse it away as easy as that, then it leads us to the next factor involved in producing great results. 

Excuses - We all have them. To achieve our individual potential, we have to become very good at identifying them as soon as they appear. Excuses are very sneaky little things. They disguise themselves as reasons. They are really, they’re reasons to fail. They’ll try to convince you that they’re really looking after your lifestyle. Maybe protecting you from becoming obsessed. Whenever you feel an excuse trying to sneak into your world, an excuse which may alter your path, remember “the view from the podium is always much better than the view from the audience”.