Privateers and Independents

Self-coaching and Self-discovery on the Road to Success 

One of the advantages of the internet is the seemingly endless amount of information out there on subjects far and wide. To take a step further and you have the increasing amount of podcasts available, which depending on the subject matter can be as educational as they are entertaining.

Over the last few months I’ve listened to some great podcasts related to the realm of endurance sport, the most interesting and enjoyable from my perspective are listed below:

●     Simon Lessing interview

●     Frank Shorter interview part 1 and part 2

●     Dave Scott interview

All three of the individuals listed above have been world champions in their respective sports and have successfully moved on to other ventures post-competition. Whilst their collective experiences would no doubt fill a national archive, some common traits of these three individuals could be summarized as:

●     indomitable spirit and will to succeed

●     incredible resilience

●     masters of their own destiny

●     self-coached

All three of these of these guys clearly have extremely strong personalities, which could at times be interpreted as arrogance. But is it really arrogance? Perhaps it is more a case of an extremely deep belief in themselves and their individual methodology in the quest for excellence. 

Frank Shorter comes across as an extremely articulate and opinionated individual as do Lessing and Scott. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of Shorter’s time at the University of Yale was his interaction with the legendary coach, Bob Giegengack. Ever the student, Shorter relates how Giegengack encouraged each athlete to have almost total input to the prescribed training programs to the point where they (the athletes) were effectively coaching themselves in their second year at the much vaunted academic institution. His reasoning was that because they were at university to get an education in whatever field they had chosen, this learning process should be extended into the athlete's sporting pursuits. They effectively became their own coaches, which benefited them in different ways in their future lives. Shorter’s gold medal performance at the 1972 Munich Olympics was effectively self-engineered, which set a theme for his later occupations as entrepreneur and pioneer of drug testing.

This sort of self-sufficiency is clearly evident in the story of Simon Lessing. For almost a decade in the 1990s, Lessing was the most feared competitor in the sport of Olympic-distance triathlete, attaining a level of dominance that has perhaps yet be repeated in the multidisciplinary sport. Simon’s tales of showing up in Europe in 1989 as a raw South African teenager with the hunger to succeed against all odds is quite compelling. In today’s world where youngsters are often supported and managed by their national federations, this sort of “lone wolf” approach is becoming distinctly less prevalent. It certainly helps being supported and guided on the path to success, but there is certainly a viable argument that this approach keeps the athlete in a bubble, unexposed to the realities of life outside of their chosen sport. On the flip side, the whole “it was tougher in my day” terminology can become of cliche and most certainly must “bust the balls” of those youngsters trying to make a go of it in the big world of professional sport. It is just finding the right balance I suppose.

Do ex-world class athletes make world class coaches? Very rarely, according to Dave Scott. This is an area where the aforementioned argument of the “good old days” can have a negative effect in the coach-athlete relationship. As Scott attests to in the podcast, the coach needs to have a connection with the athlete that goes beyond merely giving out instructions. This could even extend to a more mentoring role where the coach encourages the athlete to identify what they are doing well as opposed to the more draconian “you sucked today so go and ride for 7 hours tomorrow”. It is perhaps ironic that Scott is one of the rarities of the modern era: a former world-class athlete and now a world-class coach. But if one listens to the interview you can understand that his background in physiology and coaching goes back to his college days. Add to the fact that he has always maintained a sort of coaching role even when he was competing professionally and you have the complete package. Maybe that is why he s so sought after by professionals and amateurs alike in the athletic hotbed of Boulder, Colorado.

Having listened to these podcasts some time back certainly left an impression on me. Whilst working at a mountain bike stage race here in South Africa a couple of weeks ago, I had an interesting conversation with a young fellow who is one of the country’s leading exponents in cross-country mountain biking. His main goal is to qualify for the 2016 Olympics yet he has eschewed settling into the comfort zone that is the marathon racing circuit in South Africa. He most likely could be racing for a local professional team, earning a nice salary and driving a nice car yet he has chosen a different path. He is a privateer, relying on a few small sponsorships and his developing side-career in the world of bicycle ergonomics to fund an annual trip to Europe to race where the real competition is. He knows that this approach is not really sustainable in the long run but his nous and intuition dictates that he pursue his athletic goal whilst developing an alternative fall-back plan, which he is equally passionate about. With the Rio games just over two years way, he has allocated enough energy and dedication over that specific time period. Whether his dream comes true or not is irrelevant at this stage; it is all or nothing. Our chat stuck with me for a long while afterwards and couldn’t help but admire the guy.

Guts and glory are often displayed in different ways; some need others, whilst others only need themselves. Whatever the path, if the passion and desire are there then half the battle is won. Throw in a bit of luck and sheer hard work and you could have a formula to success that is good for you, whatever your goal.