Interviewing Coach Walters for his biography taught me the inside of an athlete’s world. One amazing revelation was the intricacy of the human body as it performs each skill.
To race at the speed of her potential, a child sprinter must first repeat a skill again and again and again. How to bolt off the starting blocks; how high to lift your forward leg; how to use the ball of your foot, the position of your arms, the angle of your spine: all these must be mastered through repeat, repeat, repeat.
I was reminded of a younger me when I approached guitar lessons with more desire than grit. I soon gave up. You know how to eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
A ten-year-old daydreaming about Minecraft needs an incentive to keep at all those repeats. I learned from Coach Walters that mastery of each skill is its own reward. Success is that exhilarating state of mind when you feel your muscles working perfectly for the task. That thrill was why many of his athletes ran extra hours beyond the club’s practice sessions.
“Watch your times,” he would tell them. If a racer hit her personal best, she was to think about what went right. If she did not, he would ask her what she could do differently next time. Invariably her personal best got faster and faster as a summer season progressed.
Sundowner athletes were not taught to think about the elephant. They were busy munching on each bite. I wonder if it is too late to try guitar again. First I would need a teacher like Coach.
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