Ever set yourself a big goal, achieved it and then wondered what the fuss was all about…almost like there is a type of anticlimax even though you have won?

The reason I’m asking is that the responses from coaches and their athletes seem to differ quite a bit when a team wins a championship. The players are on cloud nine for weeks and the coach seems to be more relieved than anything else. Of course that is not entirely true, the coach still acknowledges and celebrates the win, but it is different to the players’ response.

The main reason seems to be that the coach is following a path from training session to training session with the objective of having the team members improve their performance over time. It is both being mindful of an ultimate objective, but being firmly grounded in the present; ensuring the players’ technique, physical condition, mental skills and strategic thinking are all being addressed in a balanced manner.

The athletes, on the other hand, are impatient for the competition to begin. The possibility of winning drives them, but so does competing. All successful athletes thrive on competition and always want to measure themselves against other people, teams or standards (time and distance, etc).

This is a critical point of understanding for coaches and athletes: while you may have a long-term outcome, which provides you motivation to train and practice, it is the ability to focus on the ‘now’ on a day-to-day basis that keeps you on track. Being ‘present’ in each training session is both extremely enjoyable and helps ensure that you and your team will get better.

I have been fortunate to coach State teams to national championship wins 13 times, but many more times than that we haven’t won. If the pleasure of being part of a team was contingent only on winning a championship, then I would probably have given up coaching very early.

As a coach or athlete do you take time to enjoy your evolving progress, allowing yourself to gain pleasure and satisfaction from every training session, or do you consider all the training a waste of time if you don’t win? What a tragedy if you have the latter response.