Looking for Clues: Reflections of a Collective

Doc Talks About His Olympic 'Spirit'

As we now begin the countdown to the last week before my last Olympics, we have seen some twitter banter between coaches who know what it is about. I have had plenty of stick privately from coaches who don't know what the really high-end performance levels are about.  Such criticisms are like water off a ducks back as even my worst enemies or better still competing athletes know a Doc athlete will be prepared both physically and mentally to perform at their best level.  They also know I don't talk people up or down; we spend all our time trying to hit numbers: day in, day out.

Nicola was given a set of numbers three yrs ago of what I wanted achieved before the last week going into London.  Nicola at the time laughed and said it was impossible.  Today, they have all been achieved, who believes or doesn't believe don't bother us.  You hit ‘em or you don't just as in the race.  Some coaches can't fathom: it’s just another race.  Thus, I point out to them why their athletes might not perform like they expect.

What I do know on Saturday is that Nicola Spirig will look down the line and won't see one new athlete that she hasn't raced over the last 4 years.  I know the course will be a similar one that she has raced on many times.  I know the officials she will encounter most will be on a first name basis such is the ITU triathlon tour.  She will know she has beaten  them all at some stage in her career.  She will know she has been beaten by some of them.

They are the cold hard facts.  Sunday morning she will have beaten them again or been between by the better athlete on the day.  This is sport at its finest.  She will know her family will love her on Sunday.  She will know 3 billion people couldn't care less, and the routine things in life will go on being the routine.

Nicola is a Swiss German lawyer.  Flights of fancy of what Olympics is or how it will change her life will not be part of her dreams. She will step to the line and compete for honor not for what financial reward it may bring.

What she does know is that she has prepared the best she can.  There can be no remorse.  No, ‘I could have done this or may be done that’. For the first Olympics, we can say ‘I’ve done a 100% professional job and thus it makes defeat so much easier if that is deemed on August 4^th then she knows I will not judge her on Saturday win or lose.  But Sunday morning I will start to judge her about how she handles whatever cards are dealt.  I win or lose that’s our pact that’s the teamTBB wa.  You win: you do it humbly.  You get knocked down: it’s how you get back up that counts here.  Nothing changes just because it’s the Olympics.

Why reflections? And why a collective?

Well, this will be my last full time on deck Olympics and as Nicola and I sat out in the sun going over our 4 yrs of planning then over the last month leading into the race prep week then even the sessions of the last week, it became very apparent that the Doc is a collective.  As I described to Nicola why the sessions have to be done and then for positive reinforcement where they came from and who did them, the Doc is a total fraud.  He has few if any original thoughts but is a plagiarist of the highest order.  The whole preparation has been one of amalgamation of history’s greatest athletes and the signature sessions they relied upon.  Yes, most are the originals but with slower intervals.  Her prep has been much less a program than a history lesson through the ages: a tapestry sewn together in all 3 sports.  The list reads like a who's who in each sport, and I thought I would publicly thank them as they have delivered me success I never even dreamt of in triathlon.  Will it help at 9 am Saturday morning?  I think not.  It will be up to Nicola to make the decisions these great champions did before her.  But they have given her the weapons to take into the fight and that is all any of us can ask for: the opportunity to express yourself through your sport.

Best mechanical luck to the Spirit!

And a big thank you to all the athletes who Doc has plagiarized to have her ready:

And there are many more.  But definitely the biggest thank you to Joan Benoit for all her help when we doubted what to do.

Cheers,

The Doc

Trainer of champions

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