I showed a young swimmer images
of two different elite swimmers. One is
an Olympic champion and world record holder and the other swimmer is not. One exemplifies the modern athlete swimmer:
heavily muscled with wide shoulders tapering to nothing at the waist – a triangle. The other is lean but blocky and unremarkable
by comparison. I asked my young swimmer
to point to the image of the champion.
Naturally she pointed to the most impressive physique, and she was wrong. The unremarkable looking swimmer is Natalie
Coughlin; perhaps the greatest kicker in the history of competitive swimming,
male or female.
The point we discussed was the
difference between trying to reach for an ideal in the pursuit of excellence,
versus undertaking a journey to make the greatest use of what you’ve got. Champions are not champions because of the
talents or skills they have but as a result of their journey to discover what
they’re capable of. Young athletes need
to strive to be better but they need to understand; to learn to understand, that
they can be more than the sum of the parts.
Sport asks questions and
solutions needs to be found, and only the individual can truly understand what
that means.
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