when you can't stand the heat...
The question of nature vs nurture has always put me at odds with the alumni- I've been told that I'm such a regimental person; another person has told me I'm so "last decade", that I should change my coaching style to better suit the new generation of rowers.
The new generation needs to be motivated, and talked to, rather than prodded along with the rod and cane, and will never accept the old ways where we as J1's were, at the start, given the boot camp treatment. Is that so? has your generation become soft? I do not believe without some convincing that matters much. there are hardcore people around. No difference.
This is the issue which has given me alot of sleepless nights. There are two extremes as to how we can filter the j1's. We can filter and retain only the most mentally resilient, chasing away all the weak minded people who have no desire to train hard, who think competition is just a matter of attendance at training or worse, the points-driven athlete, or, try and nurture them, despite their transgressions, so that this club has a chance to change their personality for the better.
I have a huge problem with the latter method. My arguement is this: How long do we have to take to bring out the best in these novice athletes?? A long term holistic approach would be to take as long as it takes to get a person's attitude right. However, I feel that in the case of this club, we do not have time for that. If we allow the J1 athlete to take more than six months to get a positive attitude and train hard the ac dragon will NEVER fly again. Why? because each new batch will take the same long stretch of time to wake up. Therefore, we can never adopt the approach of other schools and other eca's we are unique. Militaristic? Regimental? hardly, and these words are not always the dirty words some would like me to believe... not always.
The bad point about this is people may leave because they take the treatment personally and it becomes more of a 'I'm leaving because I can't stand so-and-so. Well, it also means that the J2's may have gone overboard, or that the J1 has no concept of humbling himself, the first value the J2's should instil in the J1's.
Some other people have said that I'm hard hearted. Incompassionate. Too hard headed. Inflexible. Some people have insisted I try to follow Teck Hock's formula for dealing with canoeing training to get the rowers to perform better.
I have always believed and still very much still believe that this club rests on the strength of character of each of its rowers. I believe not so much in the numbers of rowers but the quality of the people. I believe in the bottomline: If the rower cannot stand the heat he should either learn to take it or get out (or be asked/forced out).
I am convinced that 6 months is hardly enough time to nurture a rookie athlete who has never competed in any physical activity in his whole life to suddenly fight as hard as we need to.
I say, "turn the heat on to temper their spirit and will". Those who convert to our way will be able to stay on. Those who can't will leave. Again, the high casualty rate and the fact that we currently don't have much members is an issue for some. It is not an issue for me.
It only takes one, and only one, to ruin the efforts of all, this can especially be seen in the dragonboat. In this club, the mentally weak are NOT welcome. This is my mentality. These people will ruin the club by dragging EVERYONE behind. we used to have a saying that we as AC rowers have to pull our own weight or the whole team has to pull your weight for you, and we used to emphasize that saying alot.
J2's, I know you hated the way you were treated when you yourselves were J1's, and so you chose not to distance yourself from the J1's at the start of the year, and hated to be the one to tell the J1's off, and badger them for good quality pushups and situps.
In some years that may have worked and the whole team may have been motivated, but not this year. the J1 guys have grown soft and become weak pussies. Root them out.
I say, the motivation is a pull factor and my boot camp mentality is a push factor and they should be used together with extreme prejudice to pushing, because until you are sure you can trust them, you should not give them an option to go for the soft approach.
I'm just hoping that when the day comes and if you have to come to a decision to ask someone to leave, do not hesitate. If up to this stage such people are still in the club it will be hard to uproot and remove him once you guys leave. This month if I say someone has to go I will need your understanding. Some painful changes have to be made. harden your hearts and hope that these people can find their niche elsewhere, because they are not cutting it here.
To the J1's, winds of change are blowing. If you can't keep up don't bother staying... but i know, and i hope all of you will grow stronger after all this.
Yours painfully,
Nicholas
The new generation needs to be motivated, and talked to, rather than prodded along with the rod and cane, and will never accept the old ways where we as J1's were, at the start, given the boot camp treatment. Is that so? has your generation become soft? I do not believe without some convincing that matters much. there are hardcore people around. No difference.
This is the issue which has given me alot of sleepless nights. There are two extremes as to how we can filter the j1's. We can filter and retain only the most mentally resilient, chasing away all the weak minded people who have no desire to train hard, who think competition is just a matter of attendance at training or worse, the points-driven athlete, or, try and nurture them, despite their transgressions, so that this club has a chance to change their personality for the better.
I have a huge problem with the latter method. My arguement is this: How long do we have to take to bring out the best in these novice athletes?? A long term holistic approach would be to take as long as it takes to get a person's attitude right. However, I feel that in the case of this club, we do not have time for that. If we allow the J1 athlete to take more than six months to get a positive attitude and train hard the ac dragon will NEVER fly again. Why? because each new batch will take the same long stretch of time to wake up. Therefore, we can never adopt the approach of other schools and other eca's we are unique. Militaristic? Regimental? hardly, and these words are not always the dirty words some would like me to believe... not always.
The bad point about this is people may leave because they take the treatment personally and it becomes more of a 'I'm leaving because I can't stand so-and-so. Well, it also means that the J2's may have gone overboard, or that the J1 has no concept of humbling himself, the first value the J2's should instil in the J1's.
Some other people have said that I'm hard hearted. Incompassionate. Too hard headed. Inflexible. Some people have insisted I try to follow Teck Hock's formula for dealing with canoeing training to get the rowers to perform better.
I have always believed and still very much still believe that this club rests on the strength of character of each of its rowers. I believe not so much in the numbers of rowers but the quality of the people. I believe in the bottomline: If the rower cannot stand the heat he should either learn to take it or get out (or be asked/forced out).
I am convinced that 6 months is hardly enough time to nurture a rookie athlete who has never competed in any physical activity in his whole life to suddenly fight as hard as we need to.
I say, "turn the heat on to temper their spirit and will". Those who convert to our way will be able to stay on. Those who can't will leave. Again, the high casualty rate and the fact that we currently don't have much members is an issue for some. It is not an issue for me.
It only takes one, and only one, to ruin the efforts of all, this can especially be seen in the dragonboat. In this club, the mentally weak are NOT welcome. This is my mentality. These people will ruin the club by dragging EVERYONE behind. we used to have a saying that we as AC rowers have to pull our own weight or the whole team has to pull your weight for you, and we used to emphasize that saying alot.
J2's, I know you hated the way you were treated when you yourselves were J1's, and so you chose not to distance yourself from the J1's at the start of the year, and hated to be the one to tell the J1's off, and badger them for good quality pushups and situps.
In some years that may have worked and the whole team may have been motivated, but not this year. the J1 guys have grown soft and become weak pussies. Root them out.
I say, the motivation is a pull factor and my boot camp mentality is a push factor and they should be used together with extreme prejudice to pushing, because until you are sure you can trust them, you should not give them an option to go for the soft approach.
I'm just hoping that when the day comes and if you have to come to a decision to ask someone to leave, do not hesitate. If up to this stage such people are still in the club it will be hard to uproot and remove him once you guys leave. This month if I say someone has to go I will need your understanding. Some painful changes have to be made. harden your hearts and hope that these people can find their niche elsewhere, because they are not cutting it here.
To the J1's, winds of change are blowing. If you can't keep up don't bother staying... but i know, and i hope all of you will grow stronger after all this.
Yours painfully,
Nicholas
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home