Steve Jobs On life

Three great quotes from Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement speech that resonated with me:

On life"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Nothing to lose, follow your heart - Why I went to the UK in 2009, and why I came back to Canada in 2011.

On work"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

Doing great work, and not settling - Why I love coaching and helping people reach their goals, and why I left British Triathlon.

On instinct"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." 

Connecting the dots backwards- Why getting sacked from the Triathlon Canada National Triathlon Centre in 2003 was the best thing that happened to my coaching career - it forced me to make my own way and discover my own approach to coaching that I wasn't able to develop within the Federation structure.





RIP Steve Jobs

"I had a point to prove to myself ...and I'm back."

Chris McDonald takes his second Ford Ironman Louisville title

From a plan put together over a skype call in April to executing on race day in August with determination and consistency in preparation: "I will give it hell and let you know how it goes" Great effort Chris!

Edit: Chris' race report 

Frustration in New Zealand

From an article in the NZ Herald: "Triathlon: Docherty hears the call of London"

Broadcaster Mark Watson ran the TNZ's high performance programme in the south of France for three years. He resigned from the TNZ board last year in frustration at what he says was the elite arm of the sport needing to change its approach. 

"They're over-staffed and over-researched but not enough is spent on coaches. There is too much ticking boxes to appease Sparc. There is no longer an utter desire to commit; often the greatest test to reach the top is adversity and we're doing everything but wipe their arses.

 and

(Jack - Hamish Carter's former coach) Ralston's biggest issue for ongoing development is the lack of support for coaches: 

"No-one will speak up because no-one wants to bite the hand that feeds. You get the danger of a herd of people with their noses in the trough. I'd love an accountant do an in-depth analysis of where the Sparc funding is spent. Once you group in the bio-mechanists, nutritionists and psychologists, there is not enough left for coaches."

No comment necessary.

QOTD

The Dalai Lama was asked what surprises him most: 

"Man, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived."

If you're not winning, what do you have to lose?

From Lets Run 

"I just want to be the best I can be. And I'll do whatever it takes to be that. I could have been really comfortable where I was in Teddington, nice house, family, friends, watching the Arsenal. But if you want to win medals, then you have to do whatever is necessary. Every second counts. One, two per cent could make a difference. I went to the US to find those percentages. People say don't change when things are going well, I felt the opposite. And it's worked."

  - Britain's Mo Farah, who is a perfect 10-for-10 after moving to the US to be trained by Alberto Salazar. 

 Also posted by Dr Sousa

There are many reasons to respect Farah's decision to move to a new environment, particularly off the back of a relatively successful 2010 season, and so close to the 2012 games. He's really pushing to win, and willing to takes some risks to do so, rather than being happy being the best Brit, and perhaps otherwise being off the pace at the sharp end, and out of the medals.

A successful athlete making a change to keep progressing is interesting and noteworthy and shows no complacency - interestingly in my experience many of the top athletes in triathlon are surprisingly complacent. Many are happy to be around the best in their countries even if they are not winning or close to the podium. Despite not achieving at the very highest levels - every athletes dreams of standing on the top of the podium - too few are willing to change in order to reach the top. So they stay stuck where they are, in some ways settling, as change is hard, risky and unknown.

Farah is a great example for any athlete - if you're not winning*, what do you have to lose by changing?

*Even if you are winning, continuing to do the same thing for too long is a sure way to let the competition catch up to you.

Elite national championships still relevant?

This past weekend the majority of cycling nations held their national elite championships in the road race and time trial. Cyclingnews.com has a round up of all the results here. Many of the big names around the world ride their national championships, and it's seen as prestigious to win, and entitles victor to race in their national champion colours for the remainder of the season. I don't know how the UCI has managed to coordinate each country to use the same dates, however it's an idea that could be applied to elite triathlon as well.

In the early days of elite triathlon, winning national champion title was taken more seriously than it is currently. With the plethora of racing options available to elite triathletes these days, for many athletes the national championships has become less relevant. Compared to cyclists, triathletes can race a much more limited number of times, and with the ITU World Championship Series, the Olympic qualifying/ranking pathway, as well as commitments to French and German clubs, in addition to the numerous other non-drafting options, many countries 'national championships' are not really representative of the best of their countries, with the top athletes often taking a pass, when they are permitted to do so.

Looking at the British Triathlon site, the information on the 2011 elite national championships is not even listed, however 'insider' knowledge says that the Windsor Triathlon was indeed designated as the National Championships at a relatively late stage - however a quick look at the results shows no Brownlees, Clarke, Hayes, etc, or Jenkins, Blatchford, Holland, etc on the women's side. With all due respect to the respective winners, when the top athletes don't show up, it devalues what it means to be named a 'national champion' for all involved.

British Triathlon tried a different approach in 2010 when the elite national championships was held over a sprint distance in an effort to draw the best British athletes with minimal disruptions to their racing programmes. However even with a national team contract clause requiring funded athletes to race, and the promise of respectable prize winnings and television coverage, it was still a struggle to pull it off. Now back to 2011, the funded athletes were allowed to pass on the nationals again, in order to pursue other races.

Other countries have faced similar challenges, a quick look at the results shows Australia used the Mooloolaba World Cup this year as their national elite championships, so 'tacked on' to another bigger event. Meanwhile New Zealand, and the USA suffered from the 'not all the best show up' problem. Other countries no doubt are facing similar issues.

The solution is to look back at cycling - say what you will about the state of the UCI, however they have managed to coordinate an integrated international calendar across many competitions with different organizers, including fixing dates for the respective national championships. The ITU could do the same, and solve the date conflict issue. It would of course be a big challenge to do so, but coordinating dates and avoiding conflicts with their own racing properties, the World Series, World Cups, and Regional championships would be a good start. The UCI also seems to have managed to have southern hemisphere countries racing the same dates, out of the normal 'summer' season, so as far as the elite championships in triathlon go that could work as well.

The other aspect is adding prestige back to the title - again looking to cycling, have unique racing uniforms in national champion colours, and promote these athletes on the WCS television coverage. The ITU is already part way there toward the uniforms, now that at the World Series each athlete must wear a country-colour uniform already - just add some national champion stripes and off we go. The coordinated dates also highlight the respective countries events, and make the winners newsworthy. When the best athletes are racing for their national colours and these athletes are highlighted, it will help restore some pride to what it means to be the national elite triathlon champion.

Perhaps none of these changes would be enough to have better representation at respective elite national championships, but looking at other sports like cycling shows that it's possible if the will is there to make being a national elite champion significant again.

Now what to do about making the ITU Regional Championships relevant enough that all the top athletes show up?

"There is an alternative to Periodisation"

There is an alternative to Periodisation.
It’s called Coaching. You may have heard of it!

This is from the follow up post from Wayne Goldsmith on the "Coaching without Periodisation" post.