Faith in the System

"I have a few sayings I have shared with her over the years, such as “the key to success is not working harder but working smarter.” She's really picking up on that one. I have asked her to have faith in the work we do to prepare for races, to have the patience to carry out the plan we come up with, and not to panic if things aren't going our way – we're smart enough to figure out something that will work."

The above quote comes from the coach of Jordan Hasay. You know, Jordan ... the really fast one with long blond hair. (On a trivial note, King ran in Jordan's HS debut, the Morro Bay Invitational, 2005. She won the girls' race by 800 meters and would have been 14th in the boys varsity race!).

It's great advice from a guy who has successfully guided the nation's top runner for the last four years. Did you read it? Did you get it? Read it again. The key to success is not working harder, but working smarter. Don't misunderstand him, he's not saying "hard work is the key to failure." It's a statement built on the assumption that hard work is already taking place. When it is, success won't come just because you work even harder. Instead, an intelligent approach to training the right way will bring the rewards.

After 20 years of coaching however, I'm convinced the second part of his quote is the more significant one. "I have asked her to have faith in the work we do to prepare for races, to have the patience to carry out the plan we come up with, and not to panic if things aren't going our way – we're smart enough to figure out something that will work."

My, so true.

A while back I had a conversation with one of our runners about my training philosophy. There had been a little disagreement over the path we were taking, and I said, "You know, our philosophy is a good one. It's produced good results in the past and will again in the future. No, it's not perfect, but no training plan is perfect. BUT, even if it was the "perfect system" it still wouldn't work if the athletes didn't have faith that it would.

We left it at that, but I hear those words echoed now in Jordan Hassay's coach.

Did you catch the key word in that quote? It is: "We". The success of Jordan -- or any athlete -- doesn't come alone, it comes from a relationship between -- at minimum -- the coach and the athlete in communication. Talking about goals, about strategy, about training, about life. Great athletes don't get there alone. It's always a team effort. No coach can read minds, and if the athletes don't communicate with their coach on matters of importance toward the desired results, a coach assumes there are no desired results. Silence is doubt. At best, it's apathy.

Some of us here at King have marveled at what Jordan Hassay has accomplished in her four years. What's her secret?

Is it talent? Partly.
Is it hard work? Certainly.
Is it great coaching? Perhaps.
Is it that she believes in what she's doing? According to her coach, yes.

As I think back over the last two decades and the athletes who have achieved success to the level of their high school potential, without exception, those athletes were ones who listened to and embraced our philosophy, applied their talent, worked hard and went for it. To this day I remember sitting in the bleachers at Walnut High School as a young man named Eric Loudon, grinning from ear to ear after running a PR in the 1600 at League Finals, yelled up to me, "It works, coach! it works!"

Well, our training worked because it was based on sound practice and physiological principles, but more so because Eric had the faith to believe it would.

It's working for Jordan too, and it can work for you.