Or How Patrick Alienates the Canadian Shooting Community (well, I hope not.)
I've been in Beijing for about 4 weeks, watching the Olympic Games. I've seen it as an insider, coaching an athlete and living in the Village, as a spectator in the stands, and as part of the television audience. Its been an eye-opener, to say the least.
I've written and deleted this entry a few times now. Maybe instead of being witty and intelligent (well, I've tried: you be the judge), I'll just spit it out?
The Olympics are big. Really big. The Canadian system doesn't adequately support our athletes to get to the podium, neither from the COC level, nor from the SFC level. This isn't meant as an insult: its just a reality. Consequently, Canadian shooting athletes must be prepared to go it alone.
You must be your own source of inspiration, motivation and financial support. If you are waiting for an organization to deliver free high performance services to you, you are wasting your time. Similarly, complaining about not getting any support will get you the same results. Switching provincial or national bodies will just mean that you'll have someone new to be mad at. The answer does not lie in them.
You are your own support system. More than anybody else, you know your strengths and weaknesses. When talking to yourself, if you're honest, you'll know how high you can go. Similarly, you'll know if you are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to get there. If you can get there and are willing to make sacrifices, you'll find the people who can help you. You'll be able to demonstrate to others that you're the real deal. People will buy into your dream and get on board to help you out. Coaches will supply their time and facilities will open up, because everybody wants to be a part of success.
Quest for Gold Funding or Sport Canada carding (or any grant money for that fact) can't buy a steady hold or a smooth trigger release. Massive amounts of time practicing is the only currency that expertise accepts. (Sorry Visa.) If you're unwilling or unable to find 15-25 hours a week to train with gun in hand(s) all by yourself for several years, then you're not going to make it to the Olympic level. Aspiring provincial or national champs need to put in 10-20 hours over many years, so they haven't got it much easier.
School and work are important aspects of life. If you can't take time away from them, what can you cut back on? I would wager that most of us (including me) could use their time better. Make some choices and cut accordingly. If you can't sacrifice either your social activities, or your other involvements, then perhaps you should rethink your priorities. If you legitimately can't find the time, then you're overextended and must accept that high-performance sport may not be in your future. Accept your priorities and live regret-free with your decisions. That's cool.
Excellence in sport is hard. Coming here has taught me that much. If we want to get to the top of the heap, we need to work as hard as we can and expect to do it alone. In a sense, we're stranded on an island. We can complain about the fact that there is no help, that the captain grounded us here, and that we don't have a GPS. Or we can figure out how to survive the first night and start making a boat. We can take the situation into our own hands and create our own destiny. It may not be the best plan; but, its infinitely better that sitting down and effectively waiting to die. I prefer that challenge and that is what I've taken from these Olympics.
(By the way, if you're a pistol athlete and agree with the above line of thought AND are willing to make those sacrifices, please contact me. I'd be very pleased to speak with you.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I agree with just about everything you wrote except the road being the commitment to working hard. Unfortunately it's not even that simply you not only have to put at least 15-25 hours a week in training hard, but you also have to be training smart. We all know shooters who put in lots of hours shooting at targets hoping that from series to series their score will improve. Guess what it won't. They refuse to dryfire, go out and shoot with no particular thing to work on and shoot and shoot some more, hoping the target fairy will grant them 10's.
As for being Olympic class I think we have to get the athletes to World Class first, with consistent finished in the top 20. If you can't do that well success at the Olympic level is highly unlikely unless the target fairy shows up.
Success in shooting isn't about money, it's like happiness in life, more money might make it a little easier but it is not necessary for niether success nor happiness. Compared to most sports shooting is cheap, it's not like racing cars or yachts. The main currency of shooting is time, am time is very valuable, I assure you if you talked to the riches people in the world, who seemed to have everything, they'd all want more time. Some funding is designed to give you more time, unfortunately the athletes don't see it that way and use it as a windfall up buy stuff.
Very true, Richard. In my world, though, training hard includes intelligence. I've mentioned "deliberate practice" in a few other postings, so I have that as my out.
The athlete must be continuously training with a purpose in mind, looking at each aspect of his/her performance and constantly making improvements.
Post a Comment