HARD WORK - Oliver Leroy
| Following up on our talk about carrots, egss and coffee beans here are 6 thoughts on hard work from the Oliver Leroy newsletter. Coach Chris --------------------------------------------------------- As a swimmer, you know that working hard is important. It’s usually the great equalizer, the key to success in the water. But hard work is worth more than just fast performances on race day. Hard work expands your horizons. Consistently giving a quality effort shows you what is truly possible versus what you think is possible. Hard work gives you the chance to surprise yourself with how capable you are. Hard work helps you to work harder down the road. Today’s practices are built on the performances of the past. When you have a deep history of choosing to do difficult things, it becomes the default setting moving forward. More aggressive challenges become less daunting when you have a track history of confronting hard work. Hard work prepares you for difficult situations under stress. Race day nerves are something every swimmer contends with. By choosing the hard work in practice, it helps you be prepared for those race day nerves and moments of increased stress. After all, if you actively avoid doing the hard things in practice, how can you expect to do something hard in competition while also under increased pressure? Hard work is the thing you will take away from the season. Swimmers tend to value the medals, records and PBs as the “why.” But the hard work—the stretch of unmissed practices, showing up to workouts when your teammates don’t, choosing the harder interval—these moments consolidate into something far more meaningful than medals or ribbons. Most swimmers fixate on those select swims at the end of the year, deciding that the result of these specific swims will be the sole source of value. But long after the season is over, and the medals and ribbons collect dust, and your records and times are eclipsed, the warm burst of confidence and pride you will get from your hard work will persist. Hard work makes you value your swimming. Doing the hard work in the pool means you value your swimming enough to risk failing or looking silly in the attempt to improve. And when you value your swimming, you protect it. You appreciate it. You don’t cheat it or avoid the demands it makes of you. Hard work is scarce. Lots of swimmers go through the motions at practice, daydreaming, yet still getting a good workout, technically “working hard.” Other swimmers do the hard work, doing the breathing pattern they want to hold in competition (even though coach doesn’t), doing five dolphin kicks off every wall (even though coach can’t see if they are doing it from across the pool), and putting their head down and finishing hard every rep. Hard work is scarce. And scarcity is valuable and sets you apart. Hard Work vs Working Hard In this newsletter I purposely used the term “hard work” and not “working hard.” Doing hard work is choosing to do the hard things:
It’s a subtle difference, and one that won’t matter for most swimmers. But for the swimmers with excellence on their mind, the ones who want to explore the outer boundaries of their potential…Choose the hard work. Something to think about when you hit the water today. Olivier
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