I want to tell you a story. In the summer of 2012, I invited about twenty of our projected top runners to our special training camp in Mammoth Lakes, located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. For many years we had been a “good” program in Southern California, making the CIF prelims most years and frequently the CIF finals. We usually finished in the top six to ten range in the highly competitive Orange County Championship races. Still, we were not a “great” program.
I studied and read, talked with other coaches, and attended seminars, but we were still missing
something to get to the next level.
As I was preparing for the education seminars, I knew I’d have two periods in the day at camp,between workouts and meals. I ran (no pun intended) across an ad for a video called, “Run with Your Body, Race with Your Mind” by Dr. Stan Beecham. It looked interesting. I sent away for it, and upon receiving it, threw it in my backpack, and hauled it up to Mammoth. Good teaching methodology would suggest previewing a DVD ahead of time to make sure it is relevant and appropriate for the learners. I did not do that! Instead, I apologized to the girls ahead of time, put on the DVD, and watched. My life and those of my teams changed because of the next few minutes watching the video.
In it, Dr. Beecham addressed a room of runners and asked them what their goals were. Many responded with a race time like 17:59 or 15:59. He asked why they chose that particular number,and they, of course, responded that they wanted to break eighteen or sixteen minutes. He then asked, “Why not 17:30 or 15:30?” Often, there was no answer. Dr Beecham went on to challenge the runners to examine why they were not reaching for higher, faster times. What would happen if
they tried for the faster goal and failed? Would they get kicked off the team? Get a bad grade? No, of course not. What might happen was, if they trained properly and focused their mind correctly, they might actually achieve that faster time. But they would never get there if they didn’t try!
When the DVD was over, it became so clear to me what was holding my runners back. I, their
coach, was holding them back by not setting our team and individual goals higher, and, in turn,
not setting up the workouts to achieve those higher goals. I had said I wanted us to finish among the top three in our league (one of toughest in the nation), so that we could go to the CIF playoffs. Why wasn’t I saying that I wanted us to win our league? I had always explained that we wanted to be in the top eight in Orange County (one of the most competitive races short of a California State Meet). Why did I not say we wanted to be the County Champions?
Why was I (not) doing this? I was afraid to “fail.” I was afraid to set my teams up for
disappointment. Was I really going to get “fired” for being sixth and not first in Orange County?
Were the athletes going to be more disappointed at not being first than at being seventh? My athletes and I vowed then and there, as a team, to never settle for trying to be less than the best. We understood we might not reach number one, but at least we wanted to try by pushing our own limits.
Two months later, we would have placed first at the Orange County Championships if not for
a key injury during the race, and a month after that, we qualified for the California State Meet in Division One (large schools) for the first time. We would go on to win the Orange County title in 2013 and 2014, and we finished in the top three there for seven years in a row. We also qualified for the State Meet for six straight years, finishing second to Nike Cross Nationals (NXN) Top 10, Saugus High, and ranking as high as eighth nationally. We expected to win. We expected to be first, and we planned our workouts to get to the State Meet and beyond. Why not be first? Thank you to Dr. Beecham!
Coach, Run, Win