Coaches are allowed to put you down, question your toughness, call you fat, and ridicule your gait all in the name of constructive criticism. For some reason we're all ok with this. Similar pointed, yet accurate, statements don't go over so well when they're made by spouses, friends, coworkers, the guy sitting next to you on the metro, etc.
The last coach I had was an AARP aged Catholic priest from England by the name of Fighting Father Pat. Father Pat would personally challenge the "raw meat" one by one in the ring to see if they were ready to spar. Under certain circumstances, this would have been funny. Father Pat could have easily passed for legendary pro-wrestler George “the Animal” Steele, except he didn’t chew turnbuckles, sounded vaguely like Sir John Geilgud as the butler in Arthur, and sometimes wore his priesthood collar in the ring. I’m not a religious man, but something just seemed wrong about trying to hit a priest. Of course, this kind of tentativeness was just what Father Pat relied on at his advanced age. He had no reservations pummeling college kids too timid to hit a man of the cloth.
It would be eight long years until I'd be coached again. Geoff and Laura are the team's half iron man coaches.
Two of the most athletic people you’ll ever meet, they’re also expecting their first child who will also be more athletic than you or I. Thanks to them, I’ve discovered that I run like a duck and swim like a man drowning, among other things. Two weeks ago they brought me to the pool to help fix my broken swim technique. Besides doing everything technically wrong, I also learned the following.
1) I have trouble balancing in the water because I don't have enough "junk in my trunk".
2) You shouldn't be ashamed of getting lapped multiple times by a seasoned swimmer who's 6 months pregnant.
3) The swimming portion of this race will not be my strong suit.
1 comment:
Other than the intangibles of being able to shakedown your friends and family; getting up before the crack of dawn to sweat; and stuff like that...
how does this work out from an ROI standpoint?
how many hours have you committed? could you have raised more money by doing other activities with a similar time commitment?
say, getting a parttime job at the quik-e-mart and just handing over your meager paycheck?
what if you had dedicated the same amount of time to a criminal enterprise of some variety... what might have been raised that way?
recycling coke cans?
mystery shopping?
just gave $20 to the neighbor's kid for a batt-a-thon... that seems pretty high-margin.
learning to play banjo and busking outside the springfield metro stop?
if you beat any visibly pregnant women (or men) in the main event; we will increase our donation commensurate with the degree of besting. photographic proof will, of course, be required.
MoC
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