The Mentality of Athletic Excellence

I'm all jacked up, but it's not because of Mountain Dew, it's because cross country and football season is in full swing.  As a coach who focuses on the 400-3200 during the track seasons, I have athletes competing in both fall sports.  I get to work with my middle distance runners during cross country while keeping a watchful eye on the long sprinters during the football games and a few practices I can sneak away to.  One of the best parts of working at a school like John Curtis is the tremendous culture of academic and athletic excellence (just last signing class saw four of our track athletes sign either football or track scholarships to Tulane, one to LSU, one to San Diego State, and one to Stanford) that is founded on toughness and sound training philosophy.

We have been blessed to have a steady flow of willing and hard working track athletes in the past few years that have allowed us to compete for state titles.  The key to having a successful program lies almost solely in the athletes.  Without them, you could be the best coach in the world and it wouldn't matter.  The willingness to work hard lies within the mental recesses of the athletes mind.  It is the duty of the coach to help cultivate that mentality.

As a coach you have to put kids into situations where they will succeed to help build confidence.  The sum of repeated successful situations helps turn an athlete from a good one into a great one.  That lies almost exclusively in the mental aspect of training.  Almost every athlete can physically become a great high school athlete in track in field, they just need to find the right event and get the right motivation. Be reminded, toughness is a talent, and it is one that you can actually build up if you don't have it at first. You can't train to gain height and our size is somewhat limited to our genetics, but toughness is nearly boundless.  If you learn to harness that talent you can achieve nearly whatever you want as an athlete.

I consider an athlete that I coach.  He is physically one of the best athletes I work with but since he started running he has always been behind during competitions despite being physically capable of outmatching many of his peers in workouts and having the measurables that say he should be in the front.  Well his issue was that he didn't have the belief in himself necessary to succeed while other around him did.  Well he has slowly started to turn the corner and is now moving up the middle of the pack with his peers.  He is slowly gaining the confidence to do what he needs to be a top flight runner. It is a slow process but when he gains the mentality of athletic excellence, he will be a force to reckon with.

Multiple time All American from John Curtis, Dylan Duvio

Coaches need to make their athletes think they can succeed and then once that is conquered the athletes will surely succeed.   First and foremost the athlete has to believe in the program, believe in the work he is doing, and also be put in successful situations.  Excellence needs to be talked to as a common standard, not some lofty goal that can never be achieved.  When that is the norm, your team is probably already on its way to being a top program.