Champions Don’t
Have Balance
By Dave
Kotowski
I was listening to a recent podcast where
ex-professional athlete Lewis Howes (The School of Greatness) was interviewing
Crossfit World Champion Katrin Davídsdottir from
Iceland. The podcast link is https://lewishowes.com/podcast/the-worlds-greatest-athlete-katrin-davidsdottir/ and your can you can follow Katrin on instagram
@Katrintanja.
In the podcast Katrin said
something that really struck me - “Champions Don’t Have Balance.” Forever I have heard world class
speakers, teachers and coaches talk about having the right balance. Just think how many times have you
heard someone say you must have balance in your life.
Let me say this - balance
is a good thing. But motivation
and goals and need to be at the centerpiece of what is truly important to you.
If you choose to be like “everyone else” then you will be average. If you choose to be great then you need
to be a little off balance.
When I was working for
Merrill Lynch in the late 1990’s I remember a great quote that the President of
Merrill, Launny Steffens said to me - “At Merrill Lynch I treat everyone
equally, some more equally than others.”
Basically he was telling me
that as a manager we needed to treat everyone equally, however, there were
certain people who we needed to treat differently. A few years ago I had the opportunity to be part of a group
of coaches who spent some time with a former USA Olympics coach. One of the things that struck me was
him saying that we needed to give more time to our top players because they
will be the ones who will make the biggest difference. That is why Katrin’s quote really stuck
with me. Some things in our life
must be given more of a focus depending how important they are to you.
Just to give you some
background on Katrin, she was a former gymnast and track athlete who did not
start Crossfit competitions until 2011.
After only 1 year of competing, she took 30th place in the world
championships in 2012. That alone
is crazy and just goes to show you what type of athlete she is. In 2013 she improved to 24th place and
in 2014 Katrin who said “was in the best shape of her life” had one devastating
event that knocked her out of qualifying completely.
Katrin said it was the
mental side that had let her down.
She proved just how strong she was mentally and physically and one year
later won the title of Fittest Woman on Earth in 2015. In 2016, Katrin’s grandmother and best
friend passed away. Her
grandmother became her fuel and she became only the 2nd woman in history to win
back to back World Championships.
For me to become a better
coach and better leader, I am always looking for motivation, new techniques and
skills to help our athletes.
Hearing Katrin’s story and listening to her quote about balance really
impacted me and made me want to write about this topic.
Champions Don’t Have
Balance. If you want to be the
best then you have to train like no one else. At its simplest point - you need to train to be better than
the 2nd place finisher. What is
that person doing or in some cases what aren’t they doing? Are you willing to
put in the time and effort necessary to be the best at what you do? Are you pushing yourself every
day? Jack Hayes who is the
Athletic Director at Brown University once said “If you are not getting better
every day, you are getting worse.”
As it relates to lacrosse,
I hear so many players tell me that they want to play in college. When I ask where they want to play they
will rattle off some of the best colleges in the country. These schools are the best of the best
and have some of the best lacrosse players in the world playing for them. Those players worked really hard to get
where they are today. Are you willing to work as hard or harder than them to
even have the chance to play at a school like theirs?
That’s the real question a
player needs to ask themselves.
And unfortunately in today’s world - this question needs to be asked of
the parents as well. I see
all too many times the parent who wants it more than their child does. Well guess what - that is not going to
work.
In 1996 I had the
opportunity to have Greg Cattrano, a Brown University lacrosse goaltender from Ward Melville HS come and intern
for me at Merrill Lynch. A lot of
people don't know that my own lacrosse career started as a goalie before
switching over to defense at the end of my freshman year. As a former goalie, I was excited to
have Greg as an intern. During
that summer I asked Greg what his goals were for his senior year. He told me he wanted to make 1st Team
All Ivy. I then asked Greg if he
knew what it would take to be First Team All-Ivy. Did he know what the goals against average was for the
last 5 winners? How many saves per game did they
have? What was their save
percentage?
Greg researched this
information and came back to me with it.
I then asked him if his teammates knew about his goals and he said
no. We talked about how important
it was for him to share what he wanted to achieve with his teammates so they
could all be on the same page and work together. As a goalie - if you don’t have the confidence of your
defense you won't go very far.
Well in his senior year at
Brown in 1997 - Greg Cattrano not only became a 1st Team All Ivy Goaltender but
he was named the NCAA Goalie of the Year.
He finished his Brown career with an unheard of 68% save percentage. Greg Cattrano was on a mission. He had to focus on what was truly
important to him. Giving his goals
the effort they deserved. He knew
he had to be out of balance.
Just like Katrin did by
winning back to back World Championships - Greg also proved that his 1997
senior season wasn’t just a fluke.
Greg went on to be a star in Major League Lacrosse. He played in all five of the league’s
first ever Championship games from 2001 - 2005 and won the Championships in
2002, 20023 and 2004. He was named
MLL Goalie of the Year 3 times.
If you want to be the best -
you need to be out of balance. You
need to give your goals the focus they deserve. Hard work will beat talent when talent doesn’t work hard. You could have the most talent in the
world but if you don’t put the time in to make yourself better you will go
nowhere. As a coach I think one of
our most important jobs is to help our athletes be the best they can be. There will be days when they don’t feel
like being great and that is when they need us the most - to coach them, push
them, inspire them so that they can achieve their goals.
It’s also important for us
to be there when they don’t hit their goals. In the world of sports there is
only 1 champion every year - everybody else lost. Everyone else came in 2nd place or worse.
It is at these times that
we must be there for our athletes and our athletes must be there for themselves
and their teammates.
We have all heard the
saying - Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lose. One of my friends gave me a great book by New York Times
Bestselling author John Maxwell entitled - “Sometimes
You Win, Sometimes You Learn.”
And that in and of itself is one of the most valuable lessons for
anyone. Don’t look at a loss as
just a loss with negative connotations. Look at it as a way to learn. Why did you lose? How did you lose? What can you learn from that loss to
empower you and make you better?
In 2017, after winning back
to back World Championships in 2015 and 2016 Katrin took 5th place. The message she sent out to her fans is
just a display of the type of champion’s mindset that she has. Here’s her message:
You win .. or
you learn.
–
I’m trying to
wrap my head around this whole season. Mostly just the fact that it is over.
This is certainly not the results we wanted but in a weird sense this might
have been my favorite CrossFit Games so far .. we got to FIGHT & we got to
LEARN so much more than any of the times we stood on top of the podium. Giving
it everything we have, regardless of circumstances, is something Ben talks to
me about alllllllll the time .. now we got to live it.
–
I’ve been on
both sides of the story where at the end of it all my name is called & also
when someone else’s is .. and that hurts. When I know we CAN win .. It hurts.
We can still walk away with our head held high & no regrets. I feel like
you can only regret something & it truly be a mistake if you don’t learn
from it. If you learn, you win.
–
The competition
is AHHMAZING, my competitors are absolutely incredible athletes & it is
nothing at all to be ashamed of to be standing behind them at the end of it
all. They really impress me. And they REALLY give me fire for this whole upcoming
year
–
I can’t wait to
be back .. 2018 is in trrrrrrouble hehe
What will you do to be a
Champion? Are you willing to be “unbalanced” if it leads you on the path to
greatness? Hopefully you will find
inspiration in the message of Katrin and Greg so that you can ELEVATE yourself
and be the Champion you deserve to be.
All my best - keep
ELEVATING!
Coach K
