By Reilly Dampeer, Head Coach and High Performance Program Manager at OKC National High Performance Center
This letter shares the messages that I needed as a young athlete. No words are able to replace experience so I cannot honestly say that I would have heeded the lessons of each story in this letter, but I know that they would have impacted my success and most importantly: I hope that the lessons motivate aspiring young athletes today.
Dear Athlete,
I have been coaching 15 years and I am grateful for the privilege to coach aspiring Olympians everyday. I get to work with athletes who believe that they can be the best in the world at their sport. I’m sure that you can appreciate this kind of single-minded focus. I love the ego, resilience and humility that athletes bring to their Olympic pursuit. There is no such thing as a professional rower in the United States. American rowers working toward the Olympic podium are not paid to do it, they don’t do it for the 401(k), there is no Nike contract. It is all for the pure love of the sport and belief that they can be an Olympian.
I wanted to share my coaching principles with you because they define the quest of the American elite athlete. These principles are also the fruit of my own experience as an athlete and coach.
The principles are:
- Own your role in your success
- Adaptability sets the pace
- Train to win
Own your role in your success is about 2 qualities: honesty and initiative.
In rowing competition, there is one distance for all boat classes: 2000 meters. The objective is to go 2000 meters in a straight line faster than any competitor. Typical races have six boats across and progress through Heats, Semi-finals and Finals. For the men’s eight that takes five and a half minutes and for the women’s single that takes seven and a half minutes. From start line to finish line with no coaching allowed. It is a sport with no subjective points given or time outs or substitutions. At this level, you are the most important decision-maker for your success. And you have to own that. You cannot wait, because your competition is not waiting for you. You have to be present in training and in competition.
Coaches don’t give out cheat sheets and competitors are not going to offer second chances.
Coaches are just one resource for you to use. Initiative must come in where coaching leaves off. You have to take the initiative to use the resources provided to their fullest. The worst thing you can say after a bad performance is – I don’t know what happened and let that phrase be the seal finalizing the verdict of your performance.
Take the initiative to reflect on what you did well and what needs improving. Because no one cares more about your success than you do. Your coach, teammates, friends, family—-no one cares more than you do. It is your coach’s job to create the environment for you to be successful. It is your job to make yourself successful.
You must be willing to take an honest look at your preparation and execution of the race plan. It is a necessity for improvement. You have to ask yourself with every action, will this make me better? Take care of what you need and be honest with yourself in figuring that out.
The second principle: adaptability sets the pace. For top performers in sport they have achieved that position through hard work, time-in, patience and passion. Everyone at the top has done the hard work, which is actually the minimum to be at that level. The difference is adaptability, especially under pressure. Adaptability is the difference between silver and gold.
I was training in 2008 trying to make the Olympic Team that year. My teammate Margot and I were the fastest double–two person crew–on our team. Together we were invited to the Selection Camp for the Olympic women’s quad–four person crew. We did everything together, we were roommates and teammates. During the Selection Camp, it worked out that we had to move out of our apartment in DC–while the camp was being held in Princeton, New Jersey. After one Saturday morning training session, we had the rest of the weekend off–except at some point, we had to do an erg (ergometer/rowing machine) workout that was an hour of low intensity, recovery work. Cool, so we plan to drive to DC, move our stuff into storage and get back in time on Sunday to get the erg workout in before the end of the weekend. Not surprisingly, the task took longer than expected and we get caught in traffic on our way back to Princeton on Sunday. We arrive at 9pm, with a 6am training session the next morning.
Margot is driving, and takes us straight to the boathouse. I ask, “What are we doing?”, she just replies, “The erg workout.” And I launch into a steady stream of reasons why we shouldn’t do the erg–we’re already so tired, the session tomorrow is too important, we have to sleep.
We pulled into the boathouse parking lot and without wavering, she just says, “Well, I’m going in.” For an hour I sat outside–angry that Margot didn’t see how ridiculous her commitment was to an easy recovery erg session. Ridiculous.
Two weeks later, the Olympic quad was selected and Margot made it and I didn’t. I was crushed and it took me a few years to realize that it was not just because she was bigger and stronger than me–but because she had approached every workout the same–adapt to the conditions and make it work. She found ways to be faster than all of us by adapting to circumstances.
I thought it was unreasonable to do the workout—and she changed her perspective on reason to make sure the workout got done–without stress or question. This is the mindset of a true champion and I learned the hard way.
The third principle: train to win. So we all know the saying: It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. Which means success should not be defined by the end result. I have come to reject this sentiment. Winning as a result of the athletes’ journey must be the goal. Because Olympic Gold is not given to the best personal journey–the Medal is given to the winner. Medals represent the goal of the whole endeavor–Winning. No other option should feel available. While you are in pursuit of Olympic Gold, no other option should feel available.
So my last story is about Sam. Sam is an 11-time National Team member who has competed at many World Championships and the Olympics. When I first started coaching, I asked one of Sam’s closest friends and teammates: How has Sam been so good for so long? The teammate replied, “He still believes the rabbit is real.” The way that greyhounds were bred to chase the rabbit. It is instinct. Sam was focused on one thing and when he was in pursuit, nothing else mattered. Today greyhounds race around the track chasing down a mechanical instrument that looks like a toy rabbit. The greyhound does not distinguish between what is real and is a toy. The greyhound just goes on instinct. As an athlete, you decide in the beginning if the rabbit is real or not.
You have to suspend all other thoughts and reason to give all of your attention to the task at hand. It is simple and pure.
I love that I get to witness the top athletes chase Olympic Gold as if nothing else mattered. I am grateful for all that I have learned from athletes like Sam and Margot and all that I continue to learn as a coach.
Remember:
Be the greyhound when you want something, do the 9pm erg and expect no one to want you to win more than you do.
Sincerely,
Coach Dampeer
