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Good Evening Sidwell Friends Varsity Track and Field Family,

As this class comes to a close there were some things I wanted to touch upon.

Our last meet went well. Better than the first meet, which shows progress. We understand, we are more detailed than you are used to, and we are still getting used to each other. That being said, trust our hearts and intentions, regardless of full understanding of our actions. There were some indoor personal bests, and overall personal bests. For those of you joining us for the Spring Season, you should be excited to take the momentum of indoor into outdoor. There is still work to be done, which is why closing up shop and spending the next few weeks of training will be beneficial. Now that we can see what you can do and what needs some work based on our meets, we can best serve you as coaches. That being said, I want to make it very clear, YOU WILL FAIL! YOU WILL MESS UP! YOU WILL FALL FLAT ON YOUR FACE (For some, it may be literally. Coaches included.) That is okay! I won’t be there to help you up, but I will be there to empower you to pick yourself up. You can’t take the pass/fail mentality in the classroom and apply it to athletics, or even life to be honest. In the academic world, FAIL, FAIL, FAIL, FAIL, PASS= a FAIL, in the athletics world FAIL, FAIL, FAIL, FAIL, PASS= a VICTORY! Apply that to athletics and honestly in life, and you will be FEARLESS, RESILIENT, AND RELENTLESS!

Like the previous email, I always like to share things that I have learned in the past few weeks. Make no mistake, if I am pointing out things I have learned, these are areas where I need the most growth in myself. Also, I will always challenge the mindset and not the person. You are all thinkers, and where most coaches would shy away from that, that is what I enjoy the most working with this particular group of athletes. It challenges me on learning the art of coaching, and though I always aim for the heart of the athlete, I know I can only do that by aiming for the heart of the coach aka myself. I am reading a book on Dynamic People Skills. One of the topics was success principles. The author discussed “non negotiables”. What are your non negotiables in track and field? I ask, because make no mistake, if you have none, you will lead an experience of pure compromise. Compromise is a deceptive way in life called taking root in a place called the comfortzone, masking lack of discipline. When you start to compromise even the small things, you are chipping away the likelihood of reaching your goals and conquering what you think is your full potential by crushing the mountain of the limitation lie that you finish with what you started with (let’s face it, at the end of the day we accomplish more than we thought we could in the beginning aka your workouts). You are fooling yourself into thinking “I’m working hard though. Surely, I will get to where I want to be.” LIES called justification. How can that manifest itself? “I know I wanted to run sub 60 for the 400m, but I think I’ll just go out in :30 and hope for the best”, or “I know the goal was for me to break 4:30 in the mile, and I spoke strategy with coach, but I’ll just see what the pack goes out in and whatever it is I’ll stick with it.”

When we don’t have non negotiables and live a life of compromise, we work based on feelings and not responsibility. Kobe Bryant says, he never trains based on motivation. He claimed that when you continue to motivate yourself through your training, by the time you get to the game, you are burnt out, but when there is but so much time left on the clock and everyone is exhausted that’s when he pulls on motivation and he has plenty in reserve. He says he uses his discipline and responsibilities to his team, his family, and himself to get him through his training. Think about it, your feelings may change, but your responsibilities are a constant. What are your responsibilities to the team? Make no mistake, regardless if track and field is your “first sport” or not, you decided to be on this team, which is a commitment. If we as your coaches are committed to making you stronger and faster to make you and your “first sport” better, you can commit to making our program and sport better as well. In coaching, I have responsibilities to myself, my athletes, as a head coach to my staff as well as athletic director, and one important one many forget; PARENTS. Remember, a positive safe environment where your parents can trust that they are leaving you with someone that does things for your best interest is a responsibility. I may not “feel” like getting up at 4 in the morning to drive to meets, but I am “responsible” for this program and not being there for my program is NOT AN OPTION. I may not want to bike up and down hills, because let’s face it, Coach is old…ER and that is the only way I can keep up with you guys, but not knowing if you’re safe out there is NOT AN OPTION. So I ask again, what are your non negotiables in track and field, and if you don’t have any, then what are you truly trying to accomplish here, if anything at all?

I’ll end with a story about a 50miler in Australia. There was a 50miler marathon in Australia. (May have been 100, but either way we can all agree that’s far!) Elite runners from across the world came to run this race. There was an elderly man that also came to race. When reporters found his coach, they asked how he thought his athlete would do, he said, “He’s going to win.” When the gun went off, mile by mile, all of the elite runners dropped off from exhaustion and dehydration. They all watched from their hospital beds as this elder man kept at it and never stopped. He won the race! When one of the reporters interviewed an embarrassed elite runner and asked why he thought the elderly man won he said in awe, “He just wouldn’t stop. How can you beat a man that JUST WON’T STOP!?!?!” That is an uncompromising attitude. When you say you are coming around the first lap in a certain time and “If I die, I die!” you have set your non negotiable and made a commitment. You made a promise to yourself, and if you can’t keep a promise to yourself, how can you keep a promise to anyone?

In Hope, Powered by Joy,
Coach Hyat