At least do something

"At least DO SOMETHING! DO! Don't think, DO! Don't hope, DO! At least you can come off and say 'I did this; I shepherded; I played on; at least I did something!" - John Kennedy Snr (1975)

The 1975 VFL Grand Final was a bruising affair - as they usually are - contested between North Melbourne and Hawthorn. North were on top from the beginning, and blew the game apart after half time going on to win by 55 points.

The hapless Hawthorn coach was John Kennedy Snr, renowned for his toughness and skill as a player, and as a coach was notorious for borrowing ideas from any source he thought would inspire the players, embodying passion as much as instruction. His half-time exhortation in the 1975 Grand Final to the Hawthorn players became famous...just imagine a large figure with a booming voice in a long overcoat passionately striding around waving his arms pleading to his players.

"At least DO SOMETHING! DO! Don't think, DO! Don't hope, DO! At least you can come off and say 'I did this; I shepherded; I played on; at least I did something!"

Inspiring and motivating words, in which the key message is don't let the details get in the way of just doing something. A powerful sentiment indeed, and ones many athletes could follow...

You would think that athletes should have no problems with the concept of just doing something, after all they're motivated enough to take up the challenge in the first place. But being the usual Type-A personalities that athletes are can also be a downfall, having a tendency to over think, over analyse and over complicate the whole situation. The problem is that all this mental activity often gets in the way of what they're thinking about...just doing something. Don't think, DO!

Behind all good sports performances is a lot of training and preparation, and the more you get into training the more your realise how many variations there are - and can be - for how to prepare. There's certainly some luck involved in training...and as many people have said, the harder they try the luckier they get. But at the end of the day, often just doing something is more important than the specific details of what you do (...although some general guidance will certainly help). Don't hope, DO!!

In a world where there's more and more devices and gadgets for athletes, whether it's a heart rate monitor, a GPS watch, a power meter - all of which can make a worthwhile contribution to your training and performance - there's a tendency to over think how to use them, or be constrained by the information they tell, or feel limited by not even having one. They're all just tools which don't necessarily make you directly go faster. Use them as a tool, and don't be one. At least DO SOMETHING!

The best athletes don't always get their training spot on, or have a perfect race. Everyone is prone to lapses in form, concentration, motivation and having ups and downs. Van Halen sang "You've got to roll with the punches to get to what's real" in their otherwise banal song "Jump". The athletes who get the most from each performance are the ones who ride out the waves and still get out there to do their best regardless. At least they can say...I did something!

So while there's a lot of value of having the guidance and advice of a coach, training tools and equipment, and a group to share the training with, don't forget that at the end of the day often the best strategy is just to do something.

Teamwork

Teamwork comes in all shapes and forms, and a weekend or so ago I was struck by two particular counts of teamwork…one in a movie and one in our running group. What was notable about them for me was they were both optional acts, rather than being part of a planned, cohesive effort. Nonetheless, their significance stuck with me and inspired this post.

The first bit of teamwork was in the film “Coach Carter”, a fantastic film about a hard-ar*ed coach who brings about not just improved on-court performance in the Richmond High School basketball team, but also – and eventually – a complete attitude change within the team about the bigger picture of their direction in life. It’s a compelling film with a lot of great messages throughout.

At one point in the film a player who had previously walked out on the coach – and team – came back and begged to be re-admitted to the team. Coach Carter set him the (impossible) target of 1000 push-ups and 2500 suicide sprints by the end of the week to re-join; it was a test of mental (and physical) wills between coach and athlete. How much did the player want to return to the team? How much did Coach Carter want him back?

The player started on the hopeless task, with subsequent scenes at training showing him in the background going about conquering the challenge. It finally got a point where the player protested to Coach Carter in front of the team about the scale of the challenge, which earned further scorn. The player was in a hopeless position, unwelcomed by the coach because of being unable to complete the re-admittance test.

What happened next was inspiring. One team member got up and said he’d do some of the push-ups, reasoning to Coach Carter that a true team shares the work in order to accomplish things. Then another team member joined in, and another, and another until the whole team was completing the remaining pushups and “suicides” so the outcast player could re-join the team. It was a powerful physical and emotional demonstration of teamwork and support.

Two days later some runners from our group were competing in the Puffing Billy Great Train Race fun run, which we’d penciled in weeks earlier as part of our preparation for the Gold Coast marathon, and entered as a team. Unfortunately one of our runners ran (pardon the pun!) into some knee problems and couldn’t run…a really frustrating and disappointing situation.

When you’re part of a group training for a common goal all you want to do is be out there amongst the activity, in the excitement and energy of the sport. When you can’t do what you really want to do, it brings your spirits to the shuddering halt.

In this situation our runner could have responded in many ways, including being down and depressed, and putting up the shutters to the world and her beloved sport. But instead she rose above her predicament and came up to support her training partners – her team mates – in their race. She was there for us, and not to wallow in her own sorrows…which I’m sure were bubbling in midst of the event. She was fantastic and never once moaned about what she was missing out on, rather showing her excitement at being part of the results we all had.

I’m not sure if she realised the significance of her act – of whether the rest of us did also – but it was also a powerful physical and emotional demonstration of teamwork and support that I’ll remember for a while.

I’d say that teamwork is as much about the little things that are done within a group of people, as it is about the high profile actions. It’s acting with the interests of others in mind, where actions speak so much louder than words. Teamwork is doing what your heart knows is a good thing to do.