‘Cheatin Koons
Every coach has their own special ways of describing what they want their athletes to do, and pushing them to break through limits. Excellent coaches are often uniquely gifted in how they express themselves.
Earlier this week, the team I skate with was doing one of those brutal skate drills that basically involves gliding along on one foot, and getting so deep into the skate position that the knee is close to the ankle of the support leg, and don’t let that free foot touch the ice!
Folding yourself in half while balancing on 1mm of steel, and holding it for a looong time, improves many neuromuscular aspects of skating, and is also a guaranteed triple shot espresso of ouch…. Please don’t hurt your knees if you try this, it is easier if you are properly warmed up too…
As we were swimming through these rough seas of lactic acid, coach Scott Koons shouted from the center of the group:
“Come on! get lower! If you are cheating on this drill, you aren’t cheatin ‘Koons, you are cheating yourself!”
Through my own haze & shaky one leg glide, I thought, “wow, I need to remember that one”…. As it accurately describes drills for what they really, are: litmus tests of personal responsibility & motivation.
Later in the gym, during workout #2, I got Scott’s permission to share his words here.
Maybe a top accomplishment of a great coach is to embed phrases, attitudes, and goals inside an athlete’s mind, so even when that coach is not physically there, they still are with you. Even though Boris is not coaching this year, I still can replay his unique voice, & his brilliant ways of describing skating in my mind.
“Coaching is making men do what they don’t want, so they can become what they want to be.”
-Tom Landry
This is true no matter what sport it is applied to, from the Dallas Cowboys to ‘Koon’s bunch of bladed dreamers.
I now open the floor to you, dear reader, what have coaches of yours said? What has stuck in your mind through time?
and I do define the term “coach” loosely, if your great-aunt said something that resonated, and applies to this discussion, that is fine.
Filed under: from the coffee shop
I just tried standing folded up with my knee touching my ankle. All I can say is ouch! I don’t think I’ve reached that level of training or the desire for it.
I suddenly had a vision of folks getting hurt trying this, and a lawsuit coming my way.. so I altered this post slightly…
I find this a hard drill, and when I do it, with my body geometry, my knee comes to within 4 inches above the ankle, some in the group can do it perfectly, knee to ankle… I also find I am better on one foot that the other…
This drill also hurts more when you try it when not warmed up… the knees tend to complain… accelerating off the line in a 500m, I can skate roughly this deeply, that is why it’s a good drill!!!
for those who have seen the “karate kid” this is one of those “wax-on-wax-off” kind of things…..
if you go up & down during this drill, instead of simply holding it statically, its often called a “wooder” after Dr. Wooder, a committed speedskater, who would do this in his office during his lunch hour & breaks from patients….
So Dr Wooder was ‘committed’…
yeah I think all speed skaters need to be ‘committed’…lol
It is Dr. Mike Woods and I heard it was in a closet he did these, while in medical school or during his internship when 36 hour shifts left one little options on where and when to train.
What is it with you bipods? This is major news when someone does something on one leg? Try living every step of every day like that like us monopods. Woo hoo! And you guys evolved from us?
Oh yeah, and I bet Wooder’s closet has worse lighting, less space, less ice, and more junk on the floor than the Pettit Center. Any whiners want to trade places with him?
No, I would not trade for Dr.Woods closet. I do balance stuff while waiting in line at the supermarket. I’ll start working down to the knee on ankle level, next week. NOT!
I do have some things Corey told us that I do not think I’m allowed to post on the internet or repeat in front of anyone but someone who really knows Corey.
When asked about why short track is important to skate good on long track Shani Davis said “Well as
I see it, if you can’t skate the small corner, how you gonna skate the big one?”
“Beginner’s luck is just what you can do before you’ve learned to fail consistently.” - Prof. Ed Fredkin, MIT, ~ 1971
This was one of the first things that ever communicated to me how much it’s all about attitude and motivation (sometimes very deeply-buried motivations). It also conveys a belief that, naturally, our bodies know what to do, that we’re graceful from the start if our ideas or nervousness or whatever don’t mess us up.
It wasn’t so much as the spoke word, but the look.
After skating my first 3000 meter race-ever (at Nationals none the less!)I was elated that I even finished. Well, the lap counter mixed me up with another person and showed me as a DNF!!!After protesting it and seeing the erase marks, reenter of numbers and erase marks again, they let it stand. I was crushed. My coach said that it happens and I just had to let it go. It fueled a season long fury of trainig for that race. I would not have it on record again. Fast forward to the next year. I ended up pulling my competition for 27 laps..could not shake them…and with 2 laps to go they went off..I tried to catch them but by this time my legs were tree trunks. When we finshed, They said to me “Wow-I’ve never skated that time before..you really trained for this race this year. ” I thought, Yeah, you’re welcome.
But the best was after the day was done, a fellow skater said great job and my coach looked at me with a look of ” I had no idea you could skate like that-a nod of the head saying yeah-good job. For some reason, that spoke more than words could ever say.
For the Wooder fans, try adding a hop.
Sometimes it’s the negative things spoken by someone that provides the impetus to work even harder or longer
Coach to kid that would have taken on Dick Butkus one-on-one just for a chance to play:
“You’re too small to play” (he later went on to play College ball)
and this one from a so called loved one not clear on the concept of one who still has a passion about a sport and competition past the age of 40 or even 50:
“Why do you spend so much time training and racing? It’s not like you’ll ever go to the Olympics.” (nah, he’ll never go to the Olympics but he is still passionate about skating and is loving every minute of it, so close enough.)
“It’s not raining in Quebec” (or wherever your competition lives..)
-From my crazy Norwegian XC ski coach on a particularly cold, rainy morning at a training camp where we had some hideous workout planned.
Since then that line has gotten me out of bed and on the road countless times… Even after checking to see if it was equally nasty everywhere else.
“Always sleep with your Exes”
From a former guitar teacher.
KOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
Andrew should post this himself, because he said it to me. It’s a Norwegian saying, I believe: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just insufficient clothing.”
Also, my mother used to teach karate to women who are survivors of domestic abuse, and her dojo’s motto was, “Nana korobi, ya oki” which means, “Seven times down, eight times up.”
From Seattle, where it can be “wet” most any day from September through May, having the right amount of clothing does have its influence on how comfortable one can be during a workout, but considering perspiration is commonplace during workouts (okay, maybe just for me), why should it matter that the sky is gray or that the pavement is wet? Don’t wait for the sunny day–you won’t ever get it!
As for words of a coach, I will use those of my father when he was my only coach, “I’m right even when I’m wrong.” Unfortunately, it may have happened that a few at USS may have adopted the same statement, but with a twist.
name that coach, the source of this phrase:
“there are two big asses in speedskating-one that the skater has, the other that the coach is.” (a little self-deprecation?)