Functional Path Training

Figuring It Out

From the time I was a kid I have been curious, always trying to figure things out. My first recollection of figuring things out may in retrospect have set m​e on the path to being a coach. In 1954 I was seven years old. My parents allowed me to go to the California theater in Santa Barbara. I had to collect enough bottles to pay my own way. Admission was fifteen cents. I would get two cents a bottle, so sometimes it took a bit of time to collect enough bottles. Saturday afternoon was a matinee usually with a Long Ranger or Cisco Kid Serial. I thought that the Lone Ranger and Tonto and Cisco and Poncho were really cool, but the real highlight for me was the newsreel that would start the show. It was in black and white with dramatic music and ​the ​booming baritone voice commenting on the news of the world. We did not have a television, so it was an opportunity to see actual images of the people you heard about on the radio news. I will never forget the headline story from the third Saturday in May 1954. The image came on of Roger Banister breaking the tape. The commentator boomed that Bannister  had broken the four-minute barrier in the mile on May 6 at Ifly track in Oxford England with a time of 3:59.4. It showed him exhausted as he ​was ​greeted by teammates.

The time was meaningless to me. But the distance of the mile captured my imagination. It obviously had to be hard to run a mile because of the way Bannister looked at the finish. My dad picked me up that afternoon and I asked what a mile was. He said it was far. So, I started trying to figure out how long a mile was. Too young to get a map and look at the scale. I was asking everyone. Someone told me it was four laps around a track. That did not help because I had never seen a track. My frame of reference was city blocks, in fact my world at the time was a big square of four city blocks. To downtown Santa Barbara from where I lived was six blocks, somehow that did seem far enough. Over the next several weeks I figured out that  in my world it was twelve city blocks. I don’t really know how I came to that conclusion. That’s how far it was to Dolores school where I went to school.

So, summer came, and I set out to run a mile like Roger Bannister, mind you not for time because that ​was ​too abstract for me and we had no way of timing anyway, it was the distance. So, the first day I stared out and ran as fast as I could and had to stop short of a block. I quickly figured out that was not the way to do it. So, over the next few weeks I tried going slower, that was better. It took most of the summer to finally run the whole twelve blocks without stopping. I had run a mile and I had figured it all out by myself.

Looking back, it was the start of a journey longer than a mile. 52 years later I am still trying to figure out how to make athletes better and how to make myself better. I am convinced curiosity, persistence and not taking no for an answer will open up adventures you cannot imagine. Figure it out!

The Golden Gate

Saturday morning on my morning walk around Lands End and then through the Golden Gate I saw the bridge and teared up. It looked different than it looked the day before. It had a golden look with the morning sun reflecting off the structure. It again looked like the symbol of freedom and tolerance that represents what the US is about. If you will, the west coast version of the Statue of Liberty that has welcomed millions into this country to pursue the American dream, including my parents 96 years ago. I also thought about those whose last view of America was the Golden Gate on their way to fight for our freedom. To them we owe the utmost respect and a tremendous debt of gratitude. Now, hopefully we can put the turmoil and madness of the past four years behind us, unite for the common good and win back the respect this great country deserves. Let’s go out of our way to be civil to each other, encourage healthy discourse and work together for only together and united can we be the best we can be.

My Learning Journey – Influential People

Of late I have been thinking about those who have influenced me over the course of my career. Below I have listed the people in four categories 1) Teachers/Professors 2)Coaches 3)Sport Scientists 4)Athletes. Some of these people I have been able to work directly with, some I just learned from through reading their writing and some through observation. The biggest influence on me has been my family – My mother and father who came to this country without education or knowledge of the language. Their work ethic and the standards they set for us are my guiding light. My older brother Frank. My wife Melissa and our children Curt and Kristen. They are my daily inspiration.

Teachers/Professors

Father Bernard

Father Alexander

Professor Canales

Sherm Buttom

Coaches

Charles Kuehl

Bill Crow

Bill Bowerman

Ken Shannon

Red Estes

Tom Tellez

Sam Adams

Marshall Clark

Chuck Coker

Dan McClymond

Mihaly Igloi

Pete Pedersen

Frank Dick

Doc Councilman

Tadeusz Starzynski

Vitold Kreer

Arthur Lydiard

Percy Cerutty

Gerard Mach

Bud Winter

Sandor Calvesi

John Jesse

Fred Wilt

Joe Vigil

Jimmy Radcliffe

John Larralde

Kevin McGill

Gary Winckler

Jim Steen

Scientists

Per Olaf Astrand

David Costill

Jim Hay

Jack Daniels

Chuck Dillman

Betty Atwater

Bob Nidefer

Pavo Komi

Carmelo Bosco

Athletes

Curt Harper

Pat Matzdorf

Jim Ryun

Anthony Sandoval

Kristen Gambetta

Easter Thoughts

Obviously with the lockdown I have had more time to think, to think about the past and the future after we emerge from this. It seems that more often than not my thoughts turn to family, my wife and children. I think a lot about my parents who passed away thirty years ago. I think of how they would reacted what they would have done. I think of how their love and sacrifices gave me the life that I have. Most importantly they give and continue to give me, and my family is the gift of love.

My parents were immigrants without any education to speak of, yet they were two of the wisest people I have known. They came to the US for the American dream and in many ways achieved it, but they never lost their old country values from Switzerland. My mother was very religious and put her faith in God. My dad went to church but was a skeptic. I like to think I got a bit of both from them.

On this Easter in very troubled times I am thinking of my friends, my family and thanking my parents for giving me the tools to cope and thrive like they did through the great depression. Reach out to those you love and tell them you love them. Thanks mom and dad and give all of us some of your strength to make it through this.

What Makes Coaching Special

Last week during my visit to Santa Barbara I connected with one of my former athletes from the Santa Barbara High School cross country and track team, Raul Gil. I had not seen Raul for close to forty years. He graduated in 1977 and was captain of the 1977 track team and a team leader on the 1976 cross country team that finished seventh in CIF Southern Section (There was no state cross country meet then). What a tremendous person and success story. He came to US from a small town in Mexico at age eleven not speaking a word of English, he was in ESL (English as a Second Language Class through his sophomore year in high school). Early on he maintained two paper routes, which he credits with teaching him business skills. In 1977 he was named paperboy of the year and won a trip to Europe. He graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a degree in business and because of being paperboy of the year got a job with the local newspaper on the business side where he worked for over thirty years. Now he is a team leader for an international company. It was so good sharing stories and catching up. He told me that when I named him captain of the track team that it was the first time he had to get up and speak to a group in English. His children have graduated from college as well a majority of his extended family. Just sitting down with Raul reminded me that coaching is about people, yes, he was a fast runner, yes, we won championships, but most importantly Raul is a champion in life. He is someone to look up to and emulate. Raul thanks for making me a better coach and person, you are in inspiration to me.

If you ever wonder why you coach, this is why – the possibility to be a factor in a person’s life. This elevates us all.

Living and Learning

Life is about learning, when you stop learning your stop living. My love of learning was instilled in me by my mother who had been denied an education but placed a high premium on it. It was exciting growing up discovering new worlds and expanding my horizon. There was always something new to learn and explore well beyond the confines of the classroom.

Learning is not a direct function of formal education. Formal education is just that, formal. In fact, deep learning is informal, messy and chaotic. To learn is to go where your passion and curiosity leads you is very Sherlockian, solving mysteries, not completing puzzles.

After fifty years on my professional journey I am more excited than ever to keep learning, growing and challenging myself to learn new ideas and challenge old ones. To always seek to understand why. It has taken me this long to learn what I don’t know and to make connections between disparate ideas. In today’s world there are opportunities to learn more and faster than ever before. We can now make instant connections that we were unable to do ten, twenty or thirty years ago.

The past few months have been a time of reflection and contemplation. My brothers passing only served to remind me that that time on this planet is limited and that I have more yesterdays than tomorrows. In that time my goal is to keep learning and sharing the lessons that I have learned.

Fifty Years On

This is not the easiest blog I have ever written. I must admit I am struggling to find the right words to express my feelings today. 50 years ago, yesterday I was studying for my last final before graduating from Fresno State college when I turned on the TV and found out that Robert Kennedy had been shot. Four years before during my senior year in high school his brother had been shot. The 1968 California primary was the first time I was old enough to vote. Next morning, I took the final and then found he had died. I can still remember the hollow feeling I felt then. Needless to say some of the dream died that day. 50 years later I still have much of the idealism I had that day tempered by many experiences and lessons. I am still hopeful for a better world and world peace, hopefully we all will be able to see some of his dream come true in our lifetimes. For me personally since graduating from Fresno Sate the last fifty years have been an incredible journey, some successes, some failure, some mistakes, many lessons learned and love from family and friends. Thank God for my parents who were uneducated immigrants who inspired me to live the American dream. Thanks to my wife and children who inspire me every day. Thanks for the friends. There is hope because there are good people who want a better world. Louis Armstrong said it best in his iconic song:

What a Wonderful World

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They're really saying I love you

I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world

Coaching Parenting Parallels

I try to talk to my adult children as often as possible. My daughter works in San Francisco and my son is in graduate school at Princeton. Both are in their thirties and by every measure quite successful, but I cant help but think every time I get off the phone there is always some advice a little reminder of lessons from their childhood that was reinforced. They learned principles, concepts of what was needed to grow up, to go to school and to be independent. We gave them space to grow, to spread their wing and learn to fly on their own. They made mistakes but we were always there to help to them and draw lessons from the good and bad. Isn’t coaching the same? We give our athletes the foundation by teaching good principles and practicing good habits. As they grow literally and figuratively they earn the right to be more independent and to have a voice in their training. They stumble and fall and we help them to fall forward. We give them the tools to thrive in competition and life. Above all we remember they are people and we love them for their faults and their virtues.

My Parents

One of my cousins sent me this picture of my parents. They were special people. There is not a day a day that goes by that I do not think of them. My dad passed away 22 years this past week and my mom passed away 23 years ago. They made me who I am and for that I am so grateful. They were immigrants from the Italian Canton of Switzerland, Ticino. They came to this country not speaking a word of English and learned both English and Spanish. Neither had any significant education. My mom went to four years of elementary school and one year of high school in the US before my grandfather took her out of school to work. My dad went through the eighth grade in Switzerland. They were married at the height of the great depression. I remember my dad telling me stories of getting up at four in the morning to milk cows for ten dollars a week and a house. My mom was an amazing cook, not just Italian food but Mexican food that she had learned to cook work on the dairy farm the Mexican lady who was the cook. My dad was a gardener. As head grounds keeper at Santa Barbara High School the lawns were a work of art. My dad had a beautiful signing voice; some of my earliest memories were of him signing Italian and Spanish ballads. They sacrificed to put my brother and I through Parochial schools and helped me with my college education. I get my love of learning and reading from my mom and stubbornness and determination from my dad. Thanks mom and dad I love you and think about you all the time, your were very special.

 

Reading

This is from today’s NY Times Opinion Page. http://tinyurl.com/aj3ktca Although the article is about Mexico, it could be about the United Sates. This is a powerful statement that needs our attention as a nation. We are turning out generations of dolts who can check boxes on standardized tests and text like crazy on their so-called smart phones, but they are functionally illiterate.

 “We have turned schools into factories that churn out employees. With no intellectual challenges, students can advance from one level to the next as long as they attend class and surrender to their teachers. In this light it is natural that in secondary school we are training chauffeurs, waiters and dishwashers.”

“This is not just about better funding. Mexico spends more than 5 percent of its gross domestic product on education — about the same percentage as the United States. And it’s not about pedagogical theories and new techniques that look for shortcuts. The educational machine does not need fine-tuning; it needs a complete change of direction. It needs to make students read, read and read.”

This does not bode well for the future of our society. As many of you who read this blog regularly know I am a serial bibliophile. Thank God my mother encouraged and facilitated me to read. Any success I have had in my professional life has been due to this. As professionals we need to speak out and get our leaders to recognize the importance of reading.

NY Times

Op-Ed Contributor

The Country That Stopped Reading

By DAVID TOSCANA

Published: March 5, 2013