It's the little things

*From September 2017

This past weekend, I helped crew/pace for my friend Chris at the Tahoe 200. Yep, that’s right, 200 miles. Chris and I met while traveling on the STRAY bus in New Zealand early 2015.  The trek around Lake Tahoe started at 9:00 AM Friday and culminated the following Tuesday afternoon. I arrived in Tahoe Saturday afternoon to link up with Chris at Heavenly, which also signified the 100-mile point. He recuperated, refueled and geared up for the dark, cold night ahead.

We left Heavenly around 6:30. There would be no aid station for another 20 miles. Chris’s ankles were taped and wrapped, but that didn’t quell his spirit for the trek ahead. We walked, shuffled, jogged and conversed as the day gave way to night. We would stop occasionally to in an effort to relieve the pressure caused by the bandages tightly-wound around his ankles. At times, we were accompanied by others, exchanging words of encouragement. As the hours got later and later, that ubiquitous sense of care becomes more evident.

The night got longer, colder, and darker. At times, the trail became rockier. Combine those factors with sheer silence and fatigue, and everything becomes a little more formidable. A half-mile felt like 4 miles. The night got longer and longer. Since we were power hiking, it was difficult to keep warm. Temps had now dropped into the low-40s. Coming from triple-digit temps, this felt bone chilling.

Also, it’s difficult to gauge progress at night because all you can see is the luminescent glow beaming from your headlight five feet in front of you. This makes it difficult to stimulate your mind. That lack of stimulation added in with extreme fatigue and you have a recipe for some serious mind games. 

It was now nearing midnight. At times, the fatigue was evident when Chris whether or not we were on course or how much longer we had remaining until the aid station. I estimated we had nearly 3 more miles remaining. Mike, another participant in the race, claimed that we had at least 5 to go. This was the second time, Mike had estimated that there was more than what actually remained. This was deflating. Without missing a beat, Chris replied, You’re a real Debbie Downer man!

 Whether it was due to fatigue or frustration, Mike didn’t reply. About 20 minutes later, we arrived at a sign that stated: Spooner Summit 3 miles. I laughed, probably because I didn’t know what else to do.

As the night wore on, so did our spirits. We inched closer and closer to Spooner Summit. It was now 1’clock. We needed Spooner Summit. Chris’s water supplies were low and, in addition to his ankles, his left knee was hurting. Switchback after switchback, I continued to reassure Chris that we were almost there. In reality, I had no idea. It was getting pretty grim.

Finally! At 1:45, I saw the light. There it is Chris! We’re going to get your ankles and knee looked at, some real food in ya, a quick nap and you’ll be ready to rock! We slowly entered Spooner Summit. Ahhhhhhh, yes!!!

The volunteers were outstanding. Almost immediately, they provided us blankets. There was another EZ-UP next to the aid station that had cots, yoga mats, blankets and chairs, all surrounding a propane heater. Other participants were gathered there. They were wrapped in blankets like burritos and probably deep in the REM cycle. Speaking of burritos, the wonderful volunteers made us some breakfast burritos and chicken broth. Double-bonus!

Since my duties as pacer/crew required a little extra focus, I had a heart-warming half-coffee, half-hot-chocolate combo. Wrapped in a blanket, I gingerly walked back to emanating heat with a burrito in one-hand and a coffee/hot-chocolate in the other. There was a spectator standing next to me. We both nodded and smiled.

 It’s the little things isn’t it?

She replied, Oh yes, it most definitely is.

Directly below the heater, Chris was passed out on a yoga mat next.  Slowly, I was warming up. Accompanied by some light Pearl Jam in the background, I smiled while savoring my caffeinated-hot chocolate. In that moment, I had all I needed: Warmth, a hot meal/drink, shelter, and support. It didn’t take too long before mind slid into a deep slumber.

This moment of respite is one I won’t forget. It would have never happened without the remote darkness or frigid temperature or the mounting impatience. That’s what it took to make Spooner Summit feel better than any 5-Star Resort. There are plenty of lessons to pull from Tahoe; however, the lasting takeaway is that generosity, warmth, shelter, and encouragement go a long ways. One certainty is that they help one go a long ways. Either way, it really is about the little things!

Estimate the investment that you're willing to make.

*Here we are in July 2020 and most of my yearly goals have been cast aside or thrown out entirely. After five years of completing races to gain entry into the Western States 100 Mile Ultramarathon, I finally made it, only to have the race postponed until 2021. It was inevitable, which meant I needed all of five minutes to process and emotionally move forward. I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t acquired any sense of enlightenment through any of this, just genuine appreciation for my health and relationships. If anything, with most aspects of life being put on hold, I was initially excited to maximize the extra time I’ve accrued. Setting goals has feels different now considering we have no clue when things will begin to normalize, whatever normal might look like.

Below, you’ll find an older write-up. For what it’s worth, it’s my attempt to better understand and explain strategies that can be employed in pursuit of a goal. I hope you take away something useful from it and apply to your journey (because these strategies are something that I, as much as the next person, need to revisit frequently). Cheers to working with - and not against - uncertainty because there is only so much that you or I can control.

For many in America, New Years Day symbolizes a clean slate. Somewhere between the holiday parties and indulgence of celebration, New Years – to many – represents both an end and a beginning. Thus, we have New Years Resolutions. Though, after a brief time, those who remain resolute are few.

Unfortunately, resolutions lose their luster fairly quickly. According to a survey, 48% of Americans who set New Years Resolutions report infrequent success (https://www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/). Success’s definition varies, but for simplicity’s sake, “infrequent success” means sporadic where success – in this case – could implies consistency. Infrequent suggests that any bit of resolve initiated at the onset of the New Year withers away quickly. In with the old and out with the new seems apropos consider the number of folks, despite their best intentions, who deviate back to old pattern. To understand this better, one need not look further than the local gym.

Come mid-January every year, gyms across the U.S.A are noticeably more packed. In fact, the second week of January marks the busiest week of the year for most gyms (https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-new-gym-members-in-January-stop-coming-after-February). Halfway through February, it’s a different story. Only six weeks into the New Year and most gyms – or people - revert back to the way things were right before resolve reached a fever pitch. Come June, less than half of the “resolute” will still be at it.

Why is this cyclical? At my gym every January, I hear the chirping from the regulars about the beginning-of-the-year chaos, “Just give it a month” they say usually complaining about the packed parking lot. Why is this a norm?  For one, it can be attributed to multitude of PR or marketing campaigns targeting new members through family discounts or end-of-the-year slashed rates. Clearly, people want to make a change and a deal doesn’t seem to be enough. People want to get better. But they stop.

This reality that more New Years Resolutions will fail than succeed become as its own cliché. Perhaps it’s the fact that long-lasting, legitimate change implies adaptation. In a society that values comfort and consumption, it’s easy to see why many fail at achieving resolutions because resolutions require the opposite: discomfort and the effort that necessary to create. To embrace this is countercultural smacks in the face of what the media shoves down our collective gullet.

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to take ranks with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

- Theodore Roosevelt

To be “resolute” means to be admirably purposeful, determined, and unwavering” (O.E.D.). Why then, do we still call them resolutions? It doesn’t appear to be a problem deriving from a lack of willpower. Though, for other, the fire burns hottest on January 1 before flaming out Instead, it’s that in an outcome-oriented society, the effort  – journey – necessary to achieve the result is valued, but much less than the result itself. Again, it’s not the goal that are the problem, rather, how to set them. 

Research by psychology professor Gail Matthews, at Dominican University in California, found that 76% of people who wrote down their goals, made detailed plans for how to achieve them. Additionally, they sent weekly progress reports of their goals to monitor progress or achievement. This is compared to the less than half who merely composed a thought about their goals (https://moneyish.com/hoard/more-than-a-third-of-americans-have-abandoned-their-new-year-new-workout-routine-resolutions/). Actually writing goals down, keeping them, and having some form of accountability leads to better outcomes than just wishful thinking, keeping it to yourself, and trying. 

If an athlete is going to set effective goals, then he or she needs to create or follow a similar formula. Structure – to varying degrees – is paramount to success. There are a variety of effective goal-setting methods. At a granular level, each look a little different, but, overall, they each create boundaries absolutely necessary for creativity to flourish. A prime example of creativity via boundaries is the “Spam-Ku”.

During the mid- 1990s, students at MIT created a website dedicated to a very unique form of Japanese poetry – the haiku – but with a twist: the subject matter had to be limited to the infamous canned meat – Spam. A haiku is made up of three phrases in a 5-7-5 (word number per line) order. It’s fair to assume that such tight boundaries would only constrain creativity, but that couldn’t be further from what resulted. According to the site, when it was created – July 14, 1995 – there were fewer than 18,000 websites in the world. By 2002, there were over 19,000 “spam-kus” posted to the website’s archive. John Cho, the Spam Haiku Archive Master (S.H.A.M.) compiled a couple hundred of the best ones into a book. Within those boundaries, you have the freedom to push against them and, also, some friction that is necessary to keep the internal fire burning. The only way to find which formula works for you is to try.

APPLICATION

Prior to setting a goal, one must consider where they would like to place their emphasis and there are three types of goals that help with that: outcome, performance, and process-based goals. An outcome goal refers to focusing on the end result. A Performance goal is specifying a personal objective to be achieved. A process goal is comprised of forms or strategies geared towards improvement. Though there names are self-explanatory, the distinguishing factor between an outcome goal with performance and process goals is control. Control results from that clarity in understanding which type of goal it is that you’re striving towards.

Choosing an outcome goal means relinquishing control because no result is entirely in your control. An example would be winning a tournament or a race as the goal. Your placing depends how others perform. You have no say in your competition trains and what they do during a performance. This depends Unfortunately, in athletics, the outcome is what garners the most attention. The irony here is that once a desired result is achieved (i.e. winning a championship or race), only then do the masses crave behind-the-scenes footage of training, hoping to discover some groundbreaking performance secrets (For example: almost every popular sports documentary about champions). Thus, the outcome must always be in the back of one’s mind, but it should never take priority over the effort needed to achieve it because effort equals energy, which is necessary for you to flourish.

A performance goal is within the control of the individual because it’s centered on achieving a specific standard. These standards are independent of other variables. An example would be improving one’s marathon time from a 3:30 to a 3:20. You have much more control of whether this happens than how you rank amongst your peers. 

A process goal is also 100% within one’s control because it focuses on strategies or techniques geared towards performing well. Examples include focusing on form during strength training or landing softly on one’s feet during speed drills or tweaking one’s swimming stroke.  

Another way to categorize goals is to chronologically break them down into long-term, short-term, and daily goals. Long-term goals span anywhere from six months to a year and beyond. Examples include graduating college by a certain date or conquering a distance and doing it either faster or going longer you’ve ever done before (completing a 50-mile race by a certain date). Short-term goals move the needle closer to the hear and now, ranging from days to weeks to months to years. Some examples include spending x amount of time on per week on your classes so that you can achieve a certain grade or dedicating a set amount of time each week towards agility, mobility, or core. Finally, daily goals are goals set for every day. These are the building blocks for long-lasting change. Daily goals range from morning and nightly routines to eating x amount of vegetables per day. By defining a goal and then categorizing it, it becomes more explicit, thus allowing the athlete freedom within; otherwise pie-in-the-sky hopes lead to no structure, making it difficult to track progress and maintain motivation.  

“Within the boundaries, they found freedom.”

- Anson Dorrance

Anson Dorrance: UNC Women’s Soccer Head Coach and 21X Division I NCAA Champion.

The third effective goal-setting strategy is referred to as SMART goals. SMART is an acronym with each letter specifying a valued element in the goal setting process:

S stands for Specific. Authors uncovered that in 91% of 200 studies conducted that ambiguous goals “do your best” were significantly inferior to specific, challenging goals (Locke & Latham, 1990). If it’s not specific, then there are no boundaries to work within. Boundaries are necessary for athletes and creative alike. For athletes, this is why coaches create specific training protocols. As evidenced earlier, constraints actually yield creativity. If athletes were encouraged to just do whatever they wanted and sport had no rules, sport would be much less interesting and inspired. Inspiration comes from widening boundaries.

M stands for Measurable; if a goal can’t be quantified, then it can’t be tracked. If it can’t be tracked, then you have no way of knowing where you’re at in relation to the goal.

A stands for Attainable, meaning that it should be realistic. If the goal exceeds your current capability by too much, then you’ll likely give up before even getting close. On the flipside, if it’s too easy, then you’ll quickly lose interest. The goal has to stretch you just beyond your capability to keep you engaged. Make it ambitious.

R stands for Relevant, meaning the goal has to align with who and where you are in relation to whom and where you want to be. If your goals don’t line up with your values or bigger, more long-term goals, it will be more likely that you’ll fold when difficulties arise.

T stands for Timely. You need an end date or at least indicators on the calendar to check in and see where you’re at. There is no greater incentive than time. It motivates and influences priorities. It’s a finite resource for all. Squandering it is of no use. This is important for forecasting as well because you have no clue what a Tuesday in three months from now might look like. Knowing where you’re at on a big-picture scale minimizes destructive thinking. 

Onward.

Quarantine Quagmire

What a time to be alive. I’ve found it increasingly difficult to find objective information amidst the noise. That’s due to the fact (or lack thereof) that most it is either partisan-fueled or blatant misinformation. Naturally, it seems be loudest at the extremes. Criticize one and automatically you’re grouped in with the other. Right now, for that reason – and more – I find both repugnant.

On one end, there are protesters ignoring any form of medical advice, deeming any decision made my authorities as either conspiratorial or an egregious assault on their “freedoms”. On the other, folks are those looking down upon even the slightest form of protest. Likely, many of them are the least unaffected – monetarily speaking - by current events. Celebrities and others of that ilk encourage the masses to just “stay home because we’ll get through this together”. They do so while “cooped up” in their estates. There was never a whole lot of “we’ll” from the get-go. This crisis, like others, hasn’t gotten bad enough for people to behave better, which might explain why there is so much hubris, elitism, and judgement.

By allocating blame, each feeds in to the very same game they allege to disdain. I wish the need to “do what’s right” would supersede the desire to “prove who’s right”. In reality, every decision is politically calculated. Exemplary behavior would require humility and genuine leadership, of which our authorities on both sides are lacking.

Admittedly, my normal disposition is strongly anti-establishment. But it takes little to no interest or knowledge to see the inconsistencies from the agendas, actual action from rhetoric. Politically speaking, their very existence is to serve us - and our best interests – though there is hardly any indication of that, especially considering their only lies in doing whatever they can do to preserve their current status. If you don’t believe me, have a look at your email inbox.  

“Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage… Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man’s sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength.” 

Henry David Thoreau

Since mid-March, the rules to the game have shifted. Weekly, if not daily, we wait for updates. The bureaucrats get to create the game and its rules, but don’t have to participate. How very convenient. In doing so, they determine who is essential and who is not. The majority of them (especially the career politicians) have no idea what it’s like to take a pay-cut, lay-off employees or have one’s own business get shut down. So they keep talking.

In the meantime, the masses continue to blindly stumble along - like zombies in the urban trance –turned off and tuned out until told to do otherwise. Then, once the siren sounds, it provokes reaction, leaving us one move behind them. Our lack of proactive thinking and doing keeps them in charge of the game. Nowhere is that pronounced than when it comes to them setting directives for our personal health.

“They rarely read books and seemed almost proud of their extraordinary ignorance. Immature though they were, they had the knack of steering clear of suffering, strong excitement, or any of the more overwhelming emotions. They were the scions of a certain breed of men: men who have succeeded in subjecting large numbers of humanity not through intimidation or violence, by the sheer paralyzing power of inaction.”

Yukio Mishima

How and why bureaucracy has the right and/or the expertise to provide guidelines for my health is beyond me. There’s not one ounce of integrity nor credibility to back any of their guidelines. There never has been. But it’s all “in the name of the greater good” and that’s been evidenced through decades of data manipulated to mask lies and conflicts of interest (i.e. margarine, Ancel Keys, Foods Pyramid…). Conduct a Google search on any of one of your civil servants. Then, tell me if you want them to have any influence on your personal health.

In the last 30 years, obesity has become its own epidemic in the U.S.. Today, obesity-related diseases are the leading cause of death in America. That trajectory parallels their directives and influence on the food industries. Like anything, as obesity has become normalized, it’s become easier to accept. Children developing Type-2 Diabetes was unheard of 50 years ago. No longer is that the case!

One would think that this epidemic should have garnered more attention by now, especially during a pandemic where those with obesity are associated with a higher risk of becoming severely ill from COVID-19. Still though, the media outlets neglect to report on this. It’s the elephant in the room. Maybe we should find a different way to acknowledge this elephant though because one bite at a time might not help.

“People have become separated from their bodies. They stress constantly, lose sleep, and eat badly and they behave badly. They are no longer whole. They need the iron mind.”

Henry Rollins

We’re still in the midst of this pandemic. It’s late May and we have more data than we did two months ago. One would think that might help in making more informed decisions. Since the onset, authorities have publicly and repeatedly stressed the importance of personal health. Their recommendations have included spending time outside and exercising – while social distancing, of course – because doing so improves one’s health.

Sure, I can get behind that.

Notice, there are “no recommendations to limit physical activity”, but there certainly are actions….

What I can’t get behind is what happened next door from my house two weeks ago. Three men were heeding those very recommendations and exercising at a - mostly unused - outdoor park. They were spotted (or worse yet, reported by a passerby) by local park patrol. Police and patrol rolled up and hit them with an immediate fine. Despite their best efforts, any opportunity for a dialogue was quelled. Each of them got slapped with a $700 fine. That’s $700 per person.

Their reasoning for such an exorbitant and 100% arbitrary number is that fines are doubled during COVID-19. Did such a fine ever exist for exercising in the park prior to COVID-19? Last time I checked, vagrants used the very same exercise to sleep night. Many an evening I’ve seen officers pass by these folks camping out without ever doing a thing. Perhaps, they were choosing to not notice. Either way, it would be nice to hear a plausible explanation for $700. Right now, apparently civil discourse isn’t a viable option.

We have even more information than we did two weeks ago when those three guys were fined. Things look like they might be opening up. So what did city officials decided to keep the inconsistencies rolling and lock down the exercise park entirely. Meanwhile, on the basketball court next to it, there have been many a pick-up game. Adjacent to that is a football-field size patch of grass that sees its fair share of action each afternoon. 80% of the time I’ve worked out there, I’m the only one. The rest of the time, there is only one other dude there. To this day, I have yet to see droves of people flocking to the pull-up bar.

Do you think you know better?
Do you think you know?
Do you think you know better?
I don't think you know

Bully

So, here we are, two months into this and, day-to-day, paradoxes still abound. Officials continue to blabber on about the importance this or that and act on that by doing the opposite. They encourage maintaining healthy habits so they shut down parks and beaches. Meanwhile, fast food chains remain open.

Pre-pandemic, there were those who were adamant that they lacked “ the time” for exercise and since have exchanged that with “lacking the the tools”, trading one excuse for another. I wouldn’t know for sure, but there seems to be plenty of folks in prison who have had the same predicament for years but seem to be making due. Yet still, we cling to any possible reason we can to neglect our health as opposed to seeking every possible reason to protect it.

Life is no more uncertain now than it was a year ago. COVID-19 has affected everybody in some capacity. Personal health is not defined by exercise alone, but movement is one way (if you’re able to do so) to maintain it. Most importantly, your should be defined by you not a bunch of insincere bureaucrats who, when it comes to your health, have no idea what they’re talking about.What convinces you that they do now? If you did listen to them in the first place, you’d likely be far worse off than necessary.

So, keep cruising in the passenger seat, coasting along for the ride or take initiative. Grab ahold of the wheel. Be discerning. Be proactive. Be in charge. Which seat you choose influences which direction you go.

In a society where #quarantine15 is trending (and even celebrated), the greatest form of protest you can engage in is taking responsibility for your own health because without that, how can you truly be free?  

Sport Specialization: The Game the Nobody Wins

In less than a week, the never-ending lists of extracurricular activities that many American families are accustomed to have come to an abrupt halt. For the foreseeable future, there will be no pick ups, no drop offs, no racing to and from practices, games, or any extracurricular. Right now, there are no practices, no games, and no weekend tournaments. Nothing.

This is the new normal with no definitive end in sight. What are we to do? Might this hustle hiatus heed better judgment around which activities might be worth pursuing when we get back to the bustle? Perhaps, this extra time spent at home will lead to some real thinking about how we prioritize our time, time that otherwise had been spent playing catch-up on an unrelenting schedule.

Being a 30-year old bachelor, admittedly, I haven’t the first clue as to what it’s like to scramble from work to errands to school to practice, all while coordinating multiple drop-offs and pick-ups. However, having earned a Master’s degree in Sport Psychology, worked with student-athletes - and done a fair bit of coaching - I’ve become increasingly familiar with this world. It seems that the school day has become a warm-up for everything else that follows: multiple multi-hour practices, leaving little to no time for an at-home meal or even homework.

We’ve bought into this arbitrary ideal to swap drills for play b/c we want to be a “step ahead”…

….The reality is that play fosters creativity, communication, ingenuity, autonomy, and movement. Kids are kids, not mini-adults.

Then, there are the weekends. If one game isn’t enough, some scramble to and from multiple tournaments. I’ve seen scores of parents voluntarily buy into this idea that more is better for their children. More, in this case, is not the number of activities; rather, it’s the number of hours directed towards a single activity and this is trickling down to younger age groups. Structured practice, training, and drills have all but replaced free play. This trend is not leading to a good outcome. Sport specialization is defined as year-round participation in a sport at the exclusion of others. Such exclusion is comprised of a high training volume per week (high meaning the number training hours per week exceeds one’s age. The logic here is the Gladwellian to accumulate those 10,0000 hours as fast as possible and, if not, more because more equals better. Better, then, might result to a scholarship, a shot at the Olympics or a professional career. It’s far more likely that none of these scenarios will play out than they will.

There is not a shred of evidence that correlates success in youth sports with a professional sports career, let alone a college scholarship. While earning MVP at a weekend showcase or tournament for 10-11 year-olds is no small feat, it’s rarely indicative of what’s to follow. There’s so much developmentally that hasn’t even happened yet. According to the NCAA, less than 2% of high school athletes receive a college athletic scholarship (<1% to Division I) and only 2% of college athletes will continue to play a sport professionally. Even then, if young athlete’s talent stands above the others, so much so that they will land a scholarship, consider them lucky if they can get to that point without having incurred serious injuries.

The data connecting sport specialization to physical injuries is staggering and these aren’t the types of injuries from kids being kids. Moreover, they’re from kids training like adults. This is problematic because of the dramatic physiological differences between children and adults. Researchers captured data from five different studies focusing on around around 5,600 athletes ages 18 and younger found that those who specialized were 81% more likely to develop overuse injuries. In a 2015 study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, ACL injuries increased at an annual rate of 2.3% between 6-18 year olds in high-impact sports such as soccer and basketball over the past 20 years. Kids getting Tommy John surgery used to be unthinkable, unfortunately, now it’s not. These injuries are developed from muscle imbalances attributed to repetitive motion. Overuse injuries are just one subset of detrimental outcomes associated with specialization.

Psychological burnout, a much less tangible but more impactful one, is another. It’s worth noting that this was something that only used to be discussed in conversation around adult professions, not children playing sports. When kids burn out on sport, they burn out physical activity in its entirety. Recently, research conducted by Utah State University in conjunction with the Aspen Institute revealed that age 11 is the average age of a child who quits sports. For many, that’s because sport is no longer fun. There are lessons to be learned from winning and losing, but when our obsession with these outcomes takes precedence over everything else, kids quit - and for good - meaning they’ll never have the opportunity to learn those lessons we say we value. Rhetoric and action are not the same; while we might not feel the effects of such high levels of inactivity now, it won’t be long until prolonged inactivity leads to a whole host of other problems, often in the form of diseases, many of which you and I will be paying for.

Who is specialization really about? The parents (egos) or the kids? Attend one of these weekend “showcases”; you be the judge.

Then, there’s the monetary aspect, which extends well beyond a uniform, shoes, and post-game snacks. Today, costs include (but are certainly not limited to): home uniforms, away uniforms, new gear, travel, food, hotels, tournament(s) expenditures, and other fees. It’s a lucrative business, which explains the proliferation of “specialists” or “gurus” chomping at the bit to train your child because they claim there is no off-season. On the low-end of the spectrum, the annual costs associated with sport specialization costs round out to about $2000 - $3000. Repeat this for consecutive years and there’s a college scholarship or two before your child has even stepped foot on a college campus. But, if it makes you feel better, you can still call it a “scholarship”.

Fortunately, more people are being made aware of this information and it’s permeated beyond the world of sports science. Former and current professional athletes – the very career many parents believe sport specialization participation will lead to - have started vocalizing their opposition towards specializing in a single sport. Perhaps, this is because many of them never specialized and, ironically, still went on to thrive at the highest levels in sport. Each year, TrackFootball – a football scouting service that independently evaluates data on football teams and athletes – conducts surveys on the total number of players on both Super Bowl rosters who participated in multiple sports in high school. For the last 4 years, over 90% of each roster (8 teams of around 60 players) has been comprised of athletes that participated in multiple sports in high school. There are countless examples of this, many of which extend beyond the sporting landscape within the U.S.

In the 2018 Winter Olympics, Norway – a country of under 6 million people – won with a total of 39 medal. For comparison, the United States finished fourth with 23 medals. Sport specialization is unheard of in Norway. They don’t even keep score of games until the age of 13. Over 90% of children grow up playing sports. Travel teams don’t exist until a child’s teenage years. Even then, it’s not until 13 that coaches begin to separate the noticeably talented from the rest of the pack. Granted there are plenty of differences between Norway and the U.S., but that doesn’t diminish the fact that their model is working, or in the very least, that their structure at the youth level is far superior to ours.

One moment captured amongst many in 2018

For most, specializing in a single sport is not a ticket to the big leagues or even a scholarship; rather, it’s the fast track to unwarranted injuries, prolonged physical inactivity, and considerable expenditures. Games, matches, tournaments, along with winning and losing are all off the radar. It’s my hope that this extra time might allow us to reconsider how we quantify success in sport for our youth. Winning and losing offer many lessons, but when they become the focal point – a mere result – then we’ve missed the mark, plus, opportunity for learning will have long been eliminated because kids quit long ago.

Specialization has turned into its own rat race. Regarding rat races, there are two distinguishing features: first, the chase never ends and, second, nobody wins. Right now, the chase has come to a standstill. It’s to re-evaluate how we quantify winning and losing because those are metrics that extend well beyond any scoreboard.

Shoutout to Chandler Maciel for providing feedback and some much-needed grammatical edits. Onward.

Synergy / Sense of Duty

It would feel trite to write something analogizing sports with the current events that have affected all of us. We don’t know where the finish line is, or if there even is one.

2015 Pine to Palm 100. Kadalak coming in clutch with the V8.

If there is anything I’ve learned in my endurance adventures, it’s that they’re not individual endeavors. Whether it’s a big day with friends on the trails or an unrelenting race, these accomplishments are the result of collective effort. The collective effort is a combination of synergy and sense of duty. Synergy because the miles become a little less insurmountable with others. Sense of duty because of the family and friends that are either rooting for you or literally there helping you along. If they’re not, then it extends to the countless encouragement that others provide out there and overly helpful aid-station volunteers,

2016 North Face 50. Parents were at the finish and brother Brit paced me the last bit. Perfect day.

Whenever I’ve raced, there’s this sense of duty that envelopes me late in a race. Whether my family and friends are there helping me in the thick of it or if they’re tracking from afar, it matters.

Some have been out there on the edge with me. They’ve done so voluntarily - catering to all of my needs - and encouraged me through. No doubt has that propelled me through the darkness of night. In those moments, it was about us, not me because me crumbling, complaining, or falling apart would let’s the team down.

Well, right now, we have no idea what lies ahead; but, all of us share a sense of duty and that’s to put others first. I hear people complaining and see many still choosing not to wear a mask to the grocery store. This takes zero effort. Okay, maybe just a little bit. After all, you’ve got to fold it and then tie it and cover your face. I guess, for some, that’s still too much to ask. To not share a smile nor be able to reciprocate one is a bummer. I get that; but this isn’t about you or me.

Humans are remarkable creatures of adaptation. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t be here. Soon enough, we’ll be able to connect with others in person and push each other and get better together; however, not just yet. That time will come just as much as the fact that this time will pass.

Onward.