Articles Mind Over Matter Willing To Commit Years To Get Better?
Willing To Commit Years To Get Better?
| 21 January 2010
How long does it take to get good at endurance sports? The short answer: YEARS. A good example? The U.S. Nordic Combined ski team has jumped way up on the radar in the season going into the Vancouver Olympics, but it's taken them along time to get there. The United States has never won an Olympic medal in the event but has several solid medal contenders, including Billy Demong, Todd Lodwick and Johnny Spillane, this year.
“The success we are seeing now reflects a commitment by this organization made in the mid-1990s,” Bill Marolt, CEO of U.S. Skiing said. “That’s when I came on as C.E.O. and the coach at the time, Tom Steitz, saw the opportunity to get some help from the new guy. He came into my office and had a plan for how the Nordic athletes could succeed. He needed some more money but it was more about us having a consistent commitment to the sport. And we’ve done that, we’ve stayed with it. There has been a consistent level of funding and coaching leadership and year-round dedication from the athletes. It really demonstrates how powerful that kind of commitment can be. It’s taken 14 years, but it’s nice to see.”
Suggestion: why not take this kind of success as a model for your own training plan? I know plenty of athletes who feel that if they don't get better in the next month, it will be a failure. I think that the reality is you do have enough time, if you look far enough ahead. Or, looked at in another way, if you don't give yourself plenty of time, you don't really want to succeed.