Competing Not To Lose
I scribble out some key themes on a blank page in my journal.
“Let them lead. Manage energy. Simplify. Bring forward their truth.”
It is not your typical playbook for coaching elite athletes who are tactically preparing for their most intense of competition of the season to date.
By the time you read these words, the athletes with whom I work will be half way through a two-weekend series of whitewater canoe slalom competitions that will choose the 2020 Spanish National Team. Amongst our group, we just call this event, “selections.”
Selections present a different kind of challenge compared to other races. In most competitive events, a path “to race your own race” appears. At selections, this path still appears but it is often obstructed by another path, “to race not to lose.”
In other words, you want to race well enough to earn a position in the national program, but this does not necessarily require winning a single competition throughout selections.
The environment at selections is raw. There is not a sense of team — each athlete competes for herself or himself. There is a struggle to find connection to what matters most. At selections, it is as if there is a restrictive object from which participants try to break free.
Review that description once more and you may notice that the characteristics of selections arise more frequently and closer to home in your own life than a once-per-year and far-away canoeing competition.
The desirable outcome of breaking free of a restrictive object leads to our overarching strategy:
Lead yourself
Manage your energy
Simplify
Bring forward your truth
Note: It helps to know from which restrictive object that you desire to break free.
With gratitude,
-Joe
Perform your best at what matters most without compromising your life. Let’s design your simple and clear plan to get you and your team outside of the day-to-day rush of life and bring focus to what truly matters most.
