Although there was a record entry (1,800 entries) I think the cool, windy conditions kept a few of those entries in bed, but for the other 1,000 odd who participated, we were treated to an excellent event once again. Thanks to the organisers and the sponsors too, as there were some awesome prizes.
As an athlete I have over the years…. as a scholar, a son, a univeristy student, club runner and even more recently as an age group triathlete…. found that you do get influenced by the perceptions of those whose company you keep, or interact with. I’ve often heard that ‘you can’t do this’, or ‘this or that is impossible’ and we need to guard against allowing other people’s perceptions and even our own negative experiences placing a lid or a ceiling on our potential.
I have been able to use these comments to fuel my motivation, but as a young kid I was influenced by other people’s perceptions and thoughts on what I could achieve.
Today I was running with my 11 year old son Jamie in a 5km Fun Run and his goal was to be the first Grey Junior boy and hopefully make the top five overall. I thought he was capable of a sub 20 minutes, so my perception was that he would run the opening kilometers at about 3:50/km.
Well he was running sub 3:40 for the first km, which I thought was a bit too fast. Question is was I wrong or right to think this? Jamie was all too keen to hammer it, but running alongisde him, I was suggesting to him that he should relax and not chase the frontrunners (me fearing he may blow).
1st km whizzed by in 3:39 and Jamie was running with intent and I, all the while was trying to get him to ease off a bit to save something for the second half (2nd km 3:46).
The Question is, are we placing our perceptions as a limiter on our children? In my mind I felt I was doing the right thing and he kept going, picking the runners off one by one to finish second overall & only 20 seconds behind the winner, Jared Cook of Grey High, winner of Cape Schools Cross Country this year.
However, maybe I should have let him run like the Kenyans…. just forget about the watch, run as hard as you can and if you blow, then you find out where your current ‘ceiling’ is and with age, mental and/or physical training you will gradually move that ceiling upwards. Are we too conservative in South Africa?
In SA we always say let the kids have fun, don’t push them too hard and I sort of subscribe to that thought process, particularly on the training front. But Internationally they say Champions need to be fearless and the only way they will ever do this is if they learn it when they are really young, before Parents, Teachers, Peers and even Coaches start limiting their beliefs.
One thing I do know is that Jamie loves his sport and plays rugby, soccer, water polo, participates in swimming, nippers, biathlon, triathlon and running so he is busy all the time and doesn’t train specifically for one particular discipline. I think he has a little of his Dad’s competitive spirit, but I need to be wary of limiting his beliefs by influencing him with mine.
As Parents (Teachers and Coaches) these are the challenges we face in our everyday lives. I am very wary of sport being too serious from too young an age, but for me the question will always be whose too much is too little and whose too little is too much?
I guess in this case I should just let Jamie (and Camryn) dictate their own pace of development, train to enjoy, participate in a variety of sports for diversification and fun, to learn from both individual and team sports.
The important thing is that kids need to enjoy what they are doing and usually you can see when they are enjoying and when it could become a bind.
The Riddle of an Ironman's Life 