Patience

Track and field is all about trying to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. Which makes it seem almost counter intuitive that patience is one of the greatest qualities a track athlete can have.

Not to go off too much about our society, (that's not what this post is about) but we have so much information out there in the world today and things to do and people to connect with that if something doesn't keep your interest you have plenty of alternatives to which you can put your attention into. The idea of ADD (attention deficit disorder) didn't really exist 30 years ago. I think it is also a bit of a misnomer I think it is more of an attention abundance disorder there are SO MANY things competeing that if something doesn't show results quick we move on. I think there are positives and negatives to this. I will stop there because I could go off all day on this.

Back to my point. In other sports your performance throughout the season dictates how well you will do at the end. In baseball/football/basketball etc.. this constant pressure to perform fits in perfectly with our society. We just need to focus on winning this week. We can break the season into 12 individual single servings. It is alot easier to keep their attention.

Track on the other hand is a different animal altogether, we could lose all our dual meets 144-0 and at the end of the year our athletes are just as likely to advance as a team that won all their dual meets. Imagine trying to keep someone motivated in February with the promise that it will be worth it in 3 months from now.

At Live Oak we take it a step further because we put absolutely no emphasis on the dual meets and sometimes would train right through them. We use the phrase 'champions in May not March'. Now sure we have PRs throughout the year but until we get to May those are based more on just improvements in technique, understanding of an event, becoming more energy efficient. (That's the reason freshmen and sophomores get way more PRs then juniors or seniors)

Just to single out one person, Courtney worked as hard as anyone this year but had not had any PRs because it would be too much to ask her to hit the times she hit in previous years that early in the season. It is so easy to get discouraged when you feel your results aren't keeping up with your effort. It is so easy to be discouraged or to give a little less effort. As a junior, it completely dicouraged her because she figured she would just pick up where she left off sophmore year. Thats where the problem occurs going into a season knowing you probably won't be able to PR until May when we give you fresh legs. This year she was patient and kept working hard and ran her fastest 100 ever (beat her sophmore year PR).

Well I am sure this post is now testing your patience, there is plenty of other things to read on the web. Just wanted it was really great to see all the good performances of the last 2 days. Now is our time to reap the rewards of our work and it needs to last another 11 months because next March when you are deciding (subconsciously) whether you are going to go all out or just 90% on that last rep up the hill. These next few weeks need to have made a big enough impression that you understand the importance of your choice.