and Track?
By: East High Coach Harry Johnson

Your success in athletics, as in life depends on two major factors: Your desire to be successful, and your willingness to have the discipline to be successful. It really is as simple as that.

Do you really want to be successful? Do you really want to be a state champion or a champion within your own scope of success? No athlete is successful with out the absolute desire to be so. As they say, "talk is cheap". We see this everyday, athletes that say they want to be good, to be the best, but don’t display the real desire to be good, to be the best. Being good, being the best requires a true passion on your part. It requires a commitment to be good, to be the best. It requires you to be different than others. You don’t find eagles in flocks; you find them one at a time.

Do you have the discipline to be successful? Again, talk is cheap. How disciplined are you? Let’s look at a couple of areas of discipline that are essential to success as an athlete.

1. The discipline to be focused on your success. All good athletes know what they want and stay focused on that goal. When you take your eyes off those goals, when you stray with your focus, you loose your ability to reach those goals. Examples are slacking off in practice, skipping a work out to do something that is not directly related to your goals, becoming involved in other activities that take you away from your goals. A common situation high school athletes find themselves in, is that of part time job issues. There have been very, very few successful high school athletes that worked steady part time jobs. It is simply not possible to be a great student, great athlete, and a great worker all at once. Athletes with the potential of gaining athletic, or academic scholarships need to ask themselves a simple question: How does the $2,000 or so I make in a part time job compare to the $60,000 in college scholarships I may potentially loose in having that job? It’s a simple business decision.
2. The discipline to train hard. Are you willing to train hard to be successful? Really hard? There is nothing more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Talent only takes you so far, because there are other athletes with talent who are willing to work harder than you. When you race those athletes, they will beat you. Successful athletes, like successful business people, are willing to work harder than their competitors, and are willing to work harder every day, every week, all year long. If you are willing to do that then you will be successful.
3. The discipline to utilize your strengths AND work on your weaknesses. All of us have weaknesses. Successful people recognize those weaknesses and have the discipline to work hard at minimizing them. Do you have good endurance, but lack speed? If so, you should work hard to develop your speed. Do you have good skills, but lack fitness? If so, you should work on your fitness. It sounds obvious, but it is easier to do what you are good at. Great athletes work on what they are not good at also.
4. The discipline to take care of yourself. Coaches see athletes every day that will never gain the level of success that is available to them simply because they eat poorly, sleep poorly, and have poor health habits. Are you willing to get to bed early to be successful? Are you willing to eat only healthy foods in moderate portions to be successful? Are you willing to listen to your body and rest when you need rest? Are you willing to pass up that offer from your friends to do something that will take you away from your training in order to be successful? Are you willing to weight train and stretch because you know that they are important parts of your long-term goals to be successful? If you are willing to do those things, to be different, you will be a winner. If you are not, you can count on the fact that you have a competitor that is and they will beat you when you meet in a race.
5. The discipline to look like a winner, to act like a winner, to feel like a winner, to know you are a winner. Successful people, successful athletes are easy to recognize in a crowd. They look successful, they act successful, they have that aura about them of success, and you simply know they are successful. Do you want to be one of them?

How good can you be in cross country running, skiing and track? The answer is quite simple. You can be as good as you are willing to be. In the world today, the best distance runners are from Africa, the best skiers are from Scandinavia, and many of the best track stars are from Kenya. Why is that? They want to be the beset. They have the discipline to be the best. They work hard, they eat right, they rest right, they are willing to be different and they are different, they are winners. Always remember it is different to be a winner, but it is a fun difference.