Leave the glory to someone else. Let the honour fall on whoever goes out and gets it. There is nothing that angers a coach more than a lazy athlete. An athlete that puts in a poor effort during training looks poorly on  their self and their coach. For a while I have been struggling with the idea of how to motivate an athlete. Not necessarily to motivate the athletes that craves victory,  but an athlete where the strongest performance would be a top 10 finish.

An even greater question that I have been dealing with is how to deal with an athlete who believes that their best finish would be a top 10 and don’t realize that victory may be within their grasp. My answer had to be something that is extrinsic but not necessarily material.

For the ski team that I coach I am questioning the usefulness of an armband or a bib. A show of importance, and the wearer would be the hardest worker of the previous day. Perhaps not even the hardest worker as much as the smartest trainer, the athlete who is most receptive to coaching, willing to relax and have a fun day, willing to step up and put in 100% effort, and most importantly willing to lead by example. It could not be the same player every day, everyone has bad days, but i feel it would be important to be honest, and not bow to the adage of getting everyone a turn. This wouldn’t be an award that would be handed from athlete to athlete to make them feel special, it would be a badge of honour that other athletes could look to see what being a successful athlete looks like.

Its not about the glory of standing on top of the podium, its about the honour of training right.