After the success of Jim Vermeulen's XC Journal in the many falls of Cross Country, we've asked again for him to provide some news and notes once a month. Think of these as the thoughts that cross the mind of your average coach. Up from Section 3, we present you with "Thoughts From Three."
- - -
"You cannot help dealing with the limited information you have as if it were all there is to know. You build the best possible story from the information available to you, and if it is a good story, you believe it."
Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow
(Note: "A Few Rules" was published spring of 2017)
My assistant noticed it first, how in the milling about after practices, M. frequently stood alone with her gear bag or left by herself. How she seldom shared a seat on the team bus. When we discreetly asked others about this, they seemed perplexed and said, no, there were no problems. It was only in another season, one without M., that some of those same team members recalled the late-to-practice privilege several days a week that M. had been granted by administration because of conflicting music lessons. They had not realized how much they resented that affront to their own shared commitments.
The psychologist Timothy Wilson describes the adaptive unconscious as an active and intuitive substrate of hidden reactions or feelings that we often cannot clearly identify. Ironically, the best way we understand them is by watching our own behaviors and then inferring. Other proponents of that theory also contend that astute observers often deduce more accurately about others than those others do of themselves. There's good and bad there. The bad part about not really knowing oneself is a little deflating, but the good news is that coaches who observe carefully may be able to learn as much about their athletes as the athletes actually know about themselves. The experienced intuition of an attentive coach is what often reaches the truth faster than waiting for an athlete to somehow understand and explain him or herself.
RULE #9: Pay attention. The unobtrusive acts are often the most revealing.
Steve Magness and Brad Stulberg like to remind both athletes and coaches that there are times when you have to just do things, to take actions, and then let the associated feelings and intentions catch up. That's a twist on the adaptive unconscious notion. R's eyes were wide with fear that one race afternoon when I finally just walked away. Our American insistence on more talk was going to improve absolutely nothing. I was relieved none of her teammates or family could get to her at that point. The race went on, with her in it, and she was proud of that afterward, as well as the meet record she set in the event. It takes, of course, a degree of boldness, or faith (or both) for athletes to act on circumstances before they feel certain. They should, then, be encouraged and supported in the right way when it's time to 'take a chance' and simply act. So maybe Nike was right after all, though I'm sure they mostly just wanted to sell stuff.
RULE #10: If necessary, lead with the right actions. Feelings and attitudes will eventually follow.
My hand was on his shoulder when I offered a chagrinned nod and said it. "Well, that wasn't very good, was it?" The IT had been being jumped at the start, being forced to race wide to swing around slower runners, failing to 'go' with the proper group when the time came and so being gapped and essentially racing alone. All chances for the desired PR vanished before the halfway mark. His race was a clinic of cascading mishaps due to ill-advised decisions. I suppose I was expected to search for the positives--or simply make something up about a "good effort" on that last inconsequential lap. One should, though, always defend an athlete's right to productive failures. So, I briefly noted two mistakes while the moment was fresh, then I added, "And remember, your folks will still love you in the morning," We both smiled a little. It was just one race, for pete's sake, though a race with potential positives if focused on the athlete's ultimate intention, which was to master himself. There is, then, nothing demeaning about serving up a reality sandwich if it's a slice of honesty wrapped in respect.
RULE #11: In time, they usually appreciate the truth more than the compliment.
Everyone wants to believe their life is in some way dramatic-and everyone is right. We know that sports can provide positive drama, but that means finding ways to dampen all the outside 'noise' of sports-the distracting media hype, the family or friend 'experts' weighing in on how to train and compete, the negative voices on or off the team. Inner drama is what they really want, the dramas of mastery, so that also means helping athletes simplify the uncertainties in their performances so they can focus in, not out. And that ultimately requires coaches knowing maximal training for their athletes and then putting them in the right competitive circumstance at the right time. That's when the curtains can rise.
RULE #12: Build the best stages for athletes.
I wonder what Hunter is up to these days. He, of squirrels-in-a-box fame, also managed to rile up the neighbors with a renegade car garage where he restored sports cars when he wasn't training and racing on two feet. The place, I am told, was littered with automobile carcasses, and I'm sure he's still on the move somewhere. Kayla contacted me recently-from Germany. She and her husband had relocated there for a few years, not long after she decided to run every day for a year just to see if she could. Elizabeth is now a physical therapist in Ireland and raising a family. She met her Irish husband at Notre Dame and has Irish lineage, so the move was not surprising. Shannon, always a free spirit, left Buenos Aires after a while, settled in Santa Barbara and watches sunsets instead of sunrises over water-for now. Tom told me he would have my job someday but then changed plans to set down in South Carolina and get married. He's happy the way things worked out. I know Elise transplanted to the upper mid-west with her beau, where she probably thinks the long hikes in deep woods are comparatively easy strolls. Others, like Katie and Ron and Colleen have settled locally, so we occasionally cross paths, but I don't know whatever happened to Kerry or Steve or Bob. Time just seemed to cover their tracks.
RULE #13: Always coach for those longer distances.