The Power Of Belief

Ask yourself this...How important do you think belief is?  Do you believe in yourself?  Do you have belief in your teammates or co-workers?  Do you have complete belief and confidence in your coach or boss that what they are doing is the best thing for you?  The power that believing has can not and should not be underestimated, it has the ability to make a mediocre athlete GREAT, and a great athlete MEDIOCRE.  Without having complete confidence and belief in yourself and the people around you, then oneself will never reach their true potential.

Of course every now and then you have that little devil creeping inside your head telling you that "You are doing too much, you are going to burn out, there is no way that I can do all this work" or "You are not doing enough, next race you are going to get demolished, pummeled, mutilated, flattened, pulverized, etc. etc."  When those thoughts come digging in, thats when you tell the little devil to F&%K off and remember that there is a reason that you have a coach that hopefully knows what is right for you at the time.  

Belief is a big thing in our squad in Victoria, without the belief and committing 100% to our program, there is just no room for you.  There is no room for the half assed athlete, or the pick and choose athlete.  It is all in and believe or go take a hike!  With saying that, I have complete faith and BELIEF in our coach, Joel Filliol.  It really is a no brainer when you have someone like Joel working for you.  All you have to do is show up and he tells you what to do.  I love it when Joel comes out with a crazy ass set and not one of us complains or peeps up to say WHAT THE!?!?!?!  We might smile to ourselves but the set is said and all Joel has to say is "Ready, go" and we are off.  Some great examples of this is we show up to a swim workout like any other morning and Joel says, "OK, 50x200, 10 swim, 10 pull, 3 IM, 2 kick twice through."  Instead of us questioning Joel's mentality, the first thing said was "We better get started" and we were off on the next top.  Another example was that Joel had a favorite saying last year when it came to certain running workouts.  On the schedule all it would say was "400's".  Ok so we know it is speed work.  We show up, "Hey, how much are we doing?"  Joel's reply would be "N+1."  N being when you think you cannot take another step, then you do one more.  We all think 10, maybe 15 since it is a speed workout.  We take it out hard, 10 comes along and you are thinking "I am glad that this is finishing soon."  We finish 10, then Joel says "ready go".  15 comes along "ready go".  20 comes along "ready go".  24 comes along "ok this is N".  After 25 we are done for it.  When you are coming in expecting only to do half as much work as you did the last half can be torturous.  I don't know about the others, but I wanted to throw my water bottle at him but it was my BELIEF in the program that kept me going.

I have tons of examples like that...one being we were doing running hill repeats up Mount Doug here in Victoria with finishing the interval by coming down the other side fast and then recovering around the base.  Well my hamstring was sore and tightening up when we had a couple more to go.  "Joel, I think that I might be done, my hamstring is starting to get pretty sore and I don't want to make it worse."  Joels reaction was priceless.  Without looking up he says "OK we are leaving in 20 seconds" and not acknowledging what I said at all.  I took this as him saying "Suck it up and stop being a wuss!"  That may not be the best example but it was a time when I thought that coach knows best and I should do what he says.  BELIEF IN BELIEVING.

I know that I got carried away with these examples but I think that it is extremely important that an athlete has complete faith in everything around them (coaching, equipment, sponsors, etc) and BELIEVE that they can achieve the impossible.  BELIEVE that what they are doing is the best thing for them and better then what anyone else out there is doing.  BELIEVE that they have the smartest coach, that their group is unique and works the hardest then any other group in the world.  Having this mentality during training and bringing it to the start line thinking that you are better prepared than every single one of these athlete standing beside you means that you are already half way to accomplishing your goal.  Have no doubts, just believe, BelievE, BELIEVE that you can do it and you will be amazed at what you are capable of doing.  When those doubts start creeping in, you are FINISHED!  Thats why in the picture above I have the Olympic Flag with the words "BELIEVE" above my bed, to remind me of why I moved out to the other end of the country and leave my family and friends behind.  It reminds me of the belief that I have in myself and in our training squad.

I BELIEVE THAT THE IMPOSSIBLE IS POSSIBLE and that I will be on that start line in Beijing or die trying!