Braves,
I hope you have been enjoying your break, and that you
will continue to do so for the next few days. We will be back to school and to
practice on Wednesday, with only 7 practice sessions before our first meet on
1/11 at the Olympic Oval – information for that meet is attached here. This is
a smaller meet in terms of events, as it does not contest field, short sprints,
or relays. Throwers will have opportunities down the road, this meet just has a
facility and time issue so they don’t contest everything, unfortunately.
I am looking forward to what the new year will bring, as I
hope you are as well. At the very least, the turn of the calendar offers an
opportunity for reflection and rededication. I invite you all to take a few
minutes before Tuesday to think of 3 things you did well in 2018 and 1-3 things
you would like to do better in 2019. This isn’t a resolution exercise, but one
that I think should accompany our reflection after every practice, and every
day. The exact exercise came from Jared Ward’s sports psychologist who said to
think of 3 things you did well in a race/workout, and 1 thing you would like to
do better. As I’ve repeatedly said, the process of continually trying to
improve ourselves is what makes the journey satisfying, but we should also
pause to recognize how that striving has made us better. I’m excited about this
team; there is a different feel to this team than ones in the past, and it is
something exciting.
I leave you with a short article from world renowned coach
Steve Magness called What
Holds Us Back from Performing to Our Capabilities? Our Self.
He discusses how we hold ourselves back and some of the
tactics we employ in an effort to protect our ego. The same principles he
describes here are found in many aspects of life, be it athletics, education,
or professional spaces. My hope is that we don’t attach performances to our
self-worth so we can work to improve without feeling like we let ourselves or
others down with a poor performance. If we can see our performances as
something we do, rather than who we are, then we are able to legitimately
analyze it and make plans to improve.
Enjoy the next few days, looking forward to getting back
at it on Wednesday.
Coach Jacobson
