Perspective – Style versus Substance

I am 59 years old and have been coaching for 37 years. I have seen many changes and many fads come and go, many starts rise and flame out. I guess I am at the point in my life and my career where I have become more reflective. I am certainly much more aware of where I have come from, who have been my role models and teachers. I also know that I have become a lot less tolerant for hype and general bull shitake in training and in life. I am trying to temper this intolerance with keeping an open mind to new ideas of substance. The dilemma that I face and I am sure many of you face is separating the style from the substance. What is real, what is validated by honest experience and science?

I began coaching in 1969. To say it was a time of change would be an understatement. It was a time of social change and because sport does not exist a vacuum, a time of change in sport. A big issue then in coaching was dress codes and appearance standards, how that has changed, thankfully. We spent too much policing stuff that detracted from coaching. Knowledge about training was changing, sport science, especially applied exercise physiology and biomechanics were gradually making their way into the performance world. It was a time when a generation of great coaches in my sport, track & field were ending their careers. Bill Bowerman at University of Oregon, Bud Winter at San Jose Sate. These guys were innovators, real pioneers. They were passing the torch to the next generation of coaches.

As a young coach hungry for information I could not get enough. I subscribed to every journal and went to every clinic and scientific conference I could. All with one goal: to be the best and most knowledgeable coach I could be. I learned a lot. I still made many mistakes, some I learned from and other I kept repeating. Overall the progress was forward, the athletes were getting better.

Just like every young coach I think there was time when I put the focus too much on me. I took too much credit for the wins and took the loses too personally. It took me some time to figure out that it was about the athlete, that is why we are coaching, they are the center of the coaching universe, not the coaches.

What is the point of all this? As I move ahead in my career I find myself talking more about ‘the good old days.” I know how that used to annoy me when I was a young coach. I think that can be a real trap, because you are making a choice to live in the past. Rather than live in the past I chose to learn from the past. I do not want to repeat past mistakes. History and experience can give a wonderful perspective. This is a perspective missing from the current generation of coaches. Their focus is on marketing themselves, trying to come up with a gimmick that will make them some money. There is something to be said for paying your dues. It is important to know history and the origins of training methods. There is not a whole lot that is new. If you do your research you find that most of what we use today in training was done 50 to 100 years ago. It is trite to say but we stand on the shoulders of giants.

It is really tough when you know everything. I know I have been there, there was a time when I was convinced that I knew everything and I was not afraid to tell anyone who would listen and some who would not. The problem is that when you get to the top of the mountain, it is awfully lonely there and there are a lot of people waiting for you to fall off. Those are hard lessons. I guess I am not sure why every generation has to make the same mistakes. Learn from those who have gone before you. I know now, more than ever it is not about I or me, it is about great friends and mentors who had the patience and understanding to help. It is about my family who stood by me. I look back to gain a clear perspective to move ahead.