Belief in All Part 2

A few weeks ago, stumbling on Ratatouille led me to write a bit about the concept of “Belief In All.”

BELIEF IN ALL is one of the four pillars, along with LEGACY, PURPOSE, and COMMUNITY, that is foundational for the Seattle Metropolitan Aquatic Club and when I focused on it in that piece, I looked at it through a teamwide lens and how it relates to the pursuit and process of achievement. In this case, I want to look at BELIEF IN ALL on a more individual level and how our belief in our teammates turns into belief in ourselves and what role that belief in ourselves plays in our own process.

When we think about the fastest swimmers in our world (whether that’s an Olympian or just that really fast 14-18 year old on our summer league team), we often think of them as more than just a swimmer. I can certainly look back on my swimming career and remember thinking that swimmers like Jeff Kruger (summer league all timer in Northern Virginia), Tom Dolan, or Michael Norment had some unique attribute that made what they did possible. Their achievements seemed almost mythic.  That perspective made their accomplishments seem 1) fated and 2) outside the realm of what I could realistically hope to accomplish. It took a long time and exposure to athletes who had reached the highest level of the sport for me to realize I had the wrong view of these athletes.

Early in my coaching career I had the opportunity to coach with Jeremy Linn at Nations Capital Swim Club. Jeremy is a former American record holder in the 100 yard and 100-meter breaststroke, a former world record holder as part of the 4 x 100 medley relay, an Olympic silver medalist in the 100-meter breaststroke, and an Olympic gold medalist as part of the aforementioned relay. So, you know, pretty good at swimming.

Jeremy grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and like most of us, he assumed the Olympians he saw on television were different from the swimmers he saw at local meets or on his club team. They were special and had something that the average swimmer did not. Then in 1992, Anita Nall (who trained with Jeremy in Pennsylvania until her family moved to Baltimore when she was 12) made the US Olympic team and won a gold medal as a member of the 4 x 100 medley relay. Jeremy often talks about that being a pivotal moment in his pursuit of his Olympic goals because Anita was his friend, someone just like him, not someone “special.” And because Jeremy saw someone he knew and believed in make the Olympics he began to believe that he could make the Olympics.

I think these are other aspects of BELIEF IN ALL that are worth exploring. How does our belief in our teammates, and their accomplishments, translate to greater belief in ourselves? And what role does belief in ourselves play in our achievement of our goals?

When we see athletes that we train with or around accomplish big things it humanizes the accomplishment. Records, qualifying times, and gold medals are no longer the result of some magical specialness but instead the result of the actions we see on a consistent basis and their continued pursuit of the process.  These are things that we have been witness to and, more importantly, that we have also participated in. Suddenly high-level achievement is no longer mystical, and we begin to  believe ourselves capable of meeting the high-level achievements of those who came before us. Think about it for a moment from a different angle, how many of you have done broken swims in a training session? For those of you in Age Group and above the answer is probably: most of you. Have you ever wondered why coaches ask you to do a broken 200 and not just 2 x 100, 4 x 50, or 8 x 25? There are lots of great reasons to do broken efforts, but one is that it opens the mind to eventual possibilities in the same way seeing a friend or teammate do something amazing changes your perspective on what is possible for you. In turn, our accomplishments feed the belief of the swimmers who come after.

Which sounds suspiciously like another of the four pillars we have discussed doesn’t it? If the actions of others inspire us and our actions inspire those to come, that is a lasting LEGACY.