Several years ago, legendary swim coach Bob Bowman had a world champion caliber swimmer amongst his batch of athletes. This swimmer had won World and Olympic medals, even the golden kind, but didn’t have the world records that he wanted.
And this athlete did it all. Some weeks he put in 60 miles (Yes, running 60-mile weeks is a lot. Imagine swimming that.) He slept 8+ hours a night. He ate the best foods he could and a lot of them. (Rumor has it about 10,000 calories a day during peak training.) He had access to the best physiotherapy individuals in the sport to help with recovery. And he had the financial means to focus on just swimming and winning medals and breaking world records.
But it still wasn’t what he wanted. And being his coach, Coach Bowman was left with the responsibility of answering the why. So one day Coach Bowman asked him, "are you doing all the little things?" Perplexed by such a question, the athlete answered "yes — what more could he do? Coach Bowman repeated, "are you doing all the little things?"
The athlete and coach pondered what else could he be doing to take a second, 1/10th of a second, or even 1/100th of a second off the athlete’s times. One thing they agreed on was seven kicks off the wall before his first breath. So, the athlete jumped into the water for the first practice after this discussion and after his first few flip turns, Coach Bowman stopped him and asked, "What happened to the seven kicks?”
The athlete answered that this is just his warm-up, so he wasn't going to go into that quite yet. Disgusted, Coach Bowman yelled, “NO! Every flip turn on every wall during every swim from now until you swim your last lap, you are to kick seven times. Not any more. Not any less.”
So, hundreds of miles and thousands of flip turns later the athlete found himself on the starting blocks for the 200-meter freestyle in the Olympic Finals. Every “little thing” he could’ve done leading up to that point had been done. Including the seven kicks. As the buzzer went off and the swimmer pierced the pool's surface, the unimaginable happened. His goggles came off.
There are no timeouts in swimming. No do-overs. No “wait a secs”. You don’t get to stop and have everyone else stop along with you. Same in distance running, right? But are do-overs actually needed?
Maybe... but maybe not. If you toed the line knowing that no stone has been left unturned, would your confidence be so high that regardless of what may happen in your race, regardless of any doubt you may have, you'll still be the best you ever have been up to that point? Or, at least, the most confident you've ever been? Imagine that feeling. Imagine being able to actually doubt your doubts.
So do the little things this next week, Kansas. Be perfect at what you are in control of. In practice, run the pace you’re supposed to at the distance you’re supposed to.
Do the warm-up. Perfectly.
Do the cool-down. Perfectly.
But don't stop there. Get your schoolwork done. The right way. Do your chores. The right way. Be a great teammate. The right way.
Chip off the dried mud on your spikes from your last last race. Pack your backpack and lay out your uniform out on your floor the night before. Wake up 15 minutes earlier the morning of the race so you're not rushed by going to bed an hour earlier the night before. Eat the same meal you that you ate before the best race you’ve ever had. Double-knot your spikes at the line. Tie your shorts' drawstring to the perfect tension. Take the perfect amount of water or liquid of choice just before the gun goes off. And bask in the confidence that you’ve trained for. Because you have done the little things. You have taken those seven kicks.
And by the way. That swimmer whose goggles came off? Because he devoted EVERYTHING he did to achieving his goal — both the hard things and the easy things but, most importantly, the little things... the 7 kicks — he didn’t miss a beat after the goggles came off. He knew his stroke cadence and breathing rates. He knew exactly how much he had to rotate his hips so his stroke extension was optimal for each length of the pool and he could flip turn blindly if he needed to. Losing the goggles became meaningless and, if anything, it provided the evidence he needed to prove his own confidence to himself. He went on to win the gold medal in the event and set the world record. That athlete is Michael Phelps. Not a bad dude to copy, right?
Don't forget to do the little things, Kansas, and see you on the course.
Don't see your stats or think something's missing? Claim your MileSplit athlete profile now to take control of your results, PRs, and recruiting profile.