Recipe: WALK, TALK, THINK Like a CHAMPION

Early May evening, Memphis, TN, and I’m walking the track with an athlete I have trained and coached since she was 9 years old. She’s just a freshman, 5’2” 104 lbs. She still has braces in her mouth.

It’s the Regional Championships in track and field. We’re walking the track as I am explaining to her the game plan for her race: 300 meter hurdles. She stops, she looks at me and asks….”do you think I can win this race Marcus?”

She is actually the reigning Regional Champion. She won this race as an 8th grader and set the Regional record in doing so. At this point in my career I had trained a Super Bowl Champion, led multiple athletes through their college career who went on to the NFL Combine and one of those athletes set the positional Combine record in the 40 yd dash.

As a kid growing up my father would always take me to Church; I could remember something the “Preacher Man” would always say “The TRUTH shall set you free and it is amazing how simple the truth really is.”

Here I am faced with a real question: “Do you think I can win?”

She’s nervous because she was not the number 1 seed going into this race. The #1 seed was a 6 foot tall giant. She has been offered and accepted a Division 1 track and field scholarship. She is Goliath. I also thought she was arrogant as most of us are susceptible to this type of mindset when we experience a high degree of success at a young age.

“The truth shall set you free”. I looked her in her eyes “I know the size of your heart and she can’t match it.”

Any fear, doubt, and hesitation that existed within her eyes disappeared in a heart beat and she “flipped the switch” as I call it. This is the place elite mindsets go to when a call to action has been given.

This race was a semi final race as the finals would be 2 nights later. We decided to use Goliath’s arrogance against her. Give her a false sense of security, let her think she has the lead with 110 meters left to go in the race. “No one can beat me, I’ve got the lead and I haven’t lost all year.”

“David” laid the trap with perfection. She set up the straight away buy “sling shot” off the curve. Here’s the trick that Goliath had forgotten: in the hurdles there are 3 constants; distance of the race, height of the hurdle, and distance in between the hurdles. This is key, the distance between the hurdles. Your stride pattern needs to be consistent so you can maintain your speed into the hurdle and off the hurdle. In a flat sprint race if an opponent accelerates you can simply pick up your pace, there is not a barrier in front of you to “leap” over.

We let Goliath think she had a lead and as “David” accelerated she knew how to time the hurdle with her acceleration. “Goliath” panicked looking to accelerate with her opponent and now her stride pattern was completely off kilter.

“David” went on to win the semi final race and yet again set a Regional record in the event.

Did this shake “Goliath”? No. In her arrogance she dismissed this as “it really didn’t happen.”

“De Nile just ain’t a river in South America”.

The finals come and “David” is ready yet again. Do we implement the same game plan as the semi finals? Or is this little freshman athlete just flat out better the 6 foot tall senior athlete?

I made the call: “put the hammer down and bury her all the way. We’re faster.”

We didn’t need any tricks. She was the superior 300m hurdler. I knew it and she knew it.

“David” ran with complete COURAGE, DETERMINATION, and FOCUS as she went on to crush “Goliath”, beating her by over 2 seconds and yet again winning another Regional Championship and breaking her own record, which still stands to this day 20 years later.

“Goliath” left the track shaking her head “that girl is just fast.”

“It is not the size of the dog in the FIGHT…..it is the SIZE of the FIGHT in the dog!!!”

Between competing as an athlete and coaching I have learned going for championships, breaking records; it is not for everyone. I believe it takes COURAGE, DETERMINATION, AND FOCUS to bring out the best within ourselves.

It takes a T.E.A.M.: Together Everyone Achieves More. Within the T.E.A.M. You develop a PLAN and you go about the execution of The Plan with courage, determination, and focus.

“WALK TALK THINK LIKE A CHAMPION”