126 - Attitude

[Music] Welcome back to The Heart of Teaching. I'm Dave Ruzicchi with my good friend and my producer Nathan Rivers and thanks a lot for joining us today. Today I thought I talked about attitude and as a coach and as a teacher the message that I give to my students. Now I always tell my athletes usually before the season begins that their attitude will determine how successful they will be that season. And as a result how successful we will be as a team and even more importantly how successful they will be moving forward in life. And I tell them that if you believe you can't do something, guess what? You're probably correct. But if you believe that you can do something, you are going to be correct. And either way you're right. Now I've had students say to me, coach, what if I try and I'm still not successful? And what do I do then? And I always tell them I go, aren't you better? Aren't you better as a person for trying? Even though you're unsuccessful, you still try and what you do is you try again. And the great hockey player Wayne Gretzky won't said you miss 100% of the shots that you don't take. You'll know eventually if you need to move forward in life and move on if you're having completed instances where you're not being successful. But have a fall forward plan, an alternate plan, an alternate plan for life. And you know I often hear this term. It's have a plan to fall back on. And the problem is when you fall back, you can't see where you're going. At least if you have a fall forward plan, you can see where you're going. Now with that same thought, I've often heard coaches say it's not how you start but rather how you finish. You know what? I don't entirely agree. I think starting is as important as finishing. And you can't finish something if you can't start and you don't start. And if you're unsuccessful, you start again. In competition and sport and in life, you need to keep trying. You need to keep starting. I often tell the kids and I use a track analogy. I go, if you're a sprinter, let's say you're running the 100 meters and you get into the starting blocks and you go and you finish eight out of eight lanes. So you're the eighth person to compete and you finish last. So you know what you do? You train, you get better. And next week, you get back in the starting blocks and you start again. Starting, competing, being successful has everything to do with your attitude. Now in addition, don't set yourself up for failure in life because of the negative events that have impacted you. Don't use those challenges as excuses. The challenge is what white, why you can't be happy, why you can't be successful and be the best version of yourself. Use those challenges as a form of motivation and a reason why you're going to be successful. Turn a negative into a positive and believe, believe in yourself. Don't let adversity define who you become in a negative way. Rise above that. And be once again the best version of you. Now, I got a pretty cool story and this story actually illustrates the power of a positive attitude and what can happen when you do believe. Now to kind of set the stage, this happened several years ago when it was at the British Columbia Track and Field Championships, right? And which by the way is the single largest track meet for high schools in North America. And there's some place in the United States, if I'm not mistaken, I think it's Virginia that has the second largest track meet. Now, my junior boys, so that's grades 9 and 10, my four by 400 junior boys needed to qualify to get into the finals, right? The final eight lanes. And we ran into some problems. And our four by 400 team, our best runner had to be moved up to the senior level because one of the senior runners was injured, so I needed to find a replacement. Now, the problem with that is both my alternates were injured and I didn't have anyone else, but I needed to get one more runner. So I end up walking to the stands, now there's thousands of people watching this event, right? And it's also televised. So I walk into the stands and I see one of my grade nine boys who wasn't successful, qualifying for the BC Championships, right? Especially in the 400. And he was in grade nine and I go to him and I go, Sharif, I said, I need, I need to help me. Now he's thinking, I need help with maybe distributing batons or gathering equipment. He goes for sure, coach, he goes, what do you want me to do? I go, I need you to run. The look on his face, oh my gosh, he goes, Mr. Rizickey, he goes, I haven't run in a couple of weeks. He goes, I didn't qualify for this meet. And I said, I know you did, but I don't have anybody else. I need somebody. I need four people to run the junior boys, four by 400. And I said, and you're the one. And he goes, coach, he goes, I ran a 63 second 400. And he goes, that's my best. He goes, coach, he goes, the girls are running faster than me. He goes, there's no way. He goes, and I'm going to embarrass myself and embarrass everybody here. And I put my hand up and I go, Sharif, I said, I need someone. I have nobody. I said, I need you to step up and give me a hand. Can you please do that? And he kind of goes blank on me. And I said to him, I said, you know what? I got to believe you're faster than the 63 second 400 meters. I honestly do believe that. I said, so this is the day that you show me that you're faster than 63 seconds. Don't worry about the crowds. Don't worry about any of that. Just worry about, just worry about going faster than 63 seconds, because I know you can. So reluctantly, he comes down from the stands and he looks, he goes, why me, Mr. Rzik, there's a couple of other other other kids there that you could have grabbed. And I looked at him and I said, you want to know the real answer? And he goes, yeah, and I said, I don't think they would run. I said, but I knew deep down you would. I knew I could count on you. And I said, I got to believe that you're faster than 63. And I said, I honestly believe that. And he looks at me and he goes, coach, you believe in me. And I said, 100%, 100%. I wouldn't bring you down to embarrass you. I'm bringing you down because I need you. And whatever happens on that track, I'll always remember the fact that you stepped up and he helped me. I'm not sure if some of the other kids that I was thinking about would actually do that, but I know I can trust you. And I know that you'll support me and you'll help the team. So anyways, got him down, stretched him out, and he was doing the thing where, you know, I'm only, I said, no more, no more talk. I said, I'll tell you what, you can run 63 seconds. Any other track meet you want next year, but not today. Today's your day. And I said, but you got to believe. I said, I believe in you, but you got to believe. And he just looks at me. I said, Shrieve, just tell me, tell me that you believe in yourself. And he goes, coach, I believe that I can run faster than 63. I said, it's all I need is to know. I said, get ready to roll. So I stretched him out and we're walking the track. He goes, Mr. Shrieve, he goes like, so what's the, he goes like, like sort of what's the thing about running this, the 400 any words of advice? Like, what's the strategy? And I said, you're looking for me to tell you, you know, your pace. He goes, yeah, coach, I said, not today's Shrieve. I said, you run as fast as you can right from the beginning. I said, your legs will tell you when you can't run any further. I said, your body will tell you when you're done. I just just go for it. So we put them on the track, but I have him running second. Now remember, it's a four by 400. So what my plan is, I take my fastest, well, my next fastest, my fastest boy has been pushed up to the senior level. I take my next fastest athlete. And I have him start. And I'm hoping that this athlete will give Shrieve a lead and the opportunity of maybe holding on to part of that lead when he gives the baton off to the third person. And so we got these boys all lined up in the track and the gun goes off. I'm actually standing beside our principal and he goes, how Shrieve doing? I said, he'll be fine. I said, he's going to be fine. And the gun goes off and the first runner takes off. Well, it looks like I'm a genius because our second fastest runner is leading the pack, right? He's gone. And he's got a sizable lead except what happens is, and you have to know there was a butt. What happens is as he's coming around the corner, he pulls his hamstring. And when he pulls his hamstring, every one of the other runners passes him. And my runner is about to get the baton dead last and seconds behind the seventh runner. He is now number eight. My principal actually puts his hands over his face and he goes, oh, Dave, I said, no, no, no, no, I said, he's going to be fine. I jump on this fencing that keeps the coaches away from the track and I yell at him. And I go, Shrieve, I said as fast as you can, as fast as you can. Now, I got a pretty big booming voice, right? You can probably imagine from this podcast. And I actually, I was warned by one of the referees saying that I was coaching from the sidelines and I could be disqualified and "Ala, la, la, la." Anyways, I jump down. Shrieve gets the baton. Remember, he's dead last. And he takes off like he thinks it's 100 meters, but it's not the 100 meters. It's the 400 meters. But he's running. He's running so fast that on that very first corner, he passes the seventh and the sixth runner. And it's like, wow, so there's still 300 meters left. On the back straight, we're getting close to the 200 meter mark. He's still going for it. I'm thinking, wow, like this is incredible. His speed on the back straight, he ends up passing the fifth and the fourth runner. Now I'm like, what the heck? The kid isn't just trying to catch up. He's trying to win. As he passes those runners, he's now hit the 200 meter mark. He's now on the curve and he's getting close to the wall. Now, if you know anything about running 400 meters, quarter mile, You hit the wall, which is about 100 meters from the finish line and your legs start to go and all That's gonna get you through or your hands and you got to pump your hands and you got to breathe and it is literally it is hell Sharif hits the corner and he passes the third and he passes the second runner and he's not slowing down and By this time I'm in awe and I'm in shock and I'm like, oh my god as he comes up to straight There's one runner to pass the runner looks over his left shoulder And Sharif ends up passing him on the right side and he gives our third runner a Lead not a commanding lead, but he gives them the lead he came from last to first and then he falls Does a face plan on the track and gets one heck of a road rash from the track? By this time I don't even care what the referees say jump over the fence and I grab him one of the referees You're gonna be to qualify and I go my athlete is down on the ground. I got to help him So I grab him I literally pick him up physically and I carry him to the middle of the track middle the track middle of the inside field I put him down and he's trying to breathe and I tell him I tell him to go slow down your breathing I said slow down your breathing and then I look up at the the time clock and there's a split which is how fast he ran that individual 400 meters Sharif ran 51-3 51-3 he basically ran 12 seconds faster than he had in any other previous track meet In 43 years of coaching no athlete that I have ever seen has knocked 12 seconds off their 400 time in a sanctioned track meet He just made in my world history Don't tell me attitude isn't everything I've seen too many great things from my students from my athletes I've seen provincial championships won by teams that were given no chance to win except they all believe that they were winners And then they would win. I've seen students with learning disabilities become doctors lawyers and teachers I've seen students who've lost both parents as children students who grew up in horrible circumstances Reach down and refuse to fail but rather became the best versions of themselves and found reasons why they would succeed No excuses only reasons why they would be successful and Once again, you're at a total to find you as a person and the success you ultimately have moving forward in life This is Dave Rizeki with Nathan Rivers and before I go I'd like to thank our podcast provider feed spot for their continued support In all these years and I'd like to thank you for joining us today and we'll meet you back here in two weeks So until then please take care be well And as always peace