Stingrays Swimming Newsletter
2/22/2024
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Congratulations to our AG State Swimmers this past weekend!
Our MVP of the meet was David Bryant!
He tied for 2nd place in most points scored in Boys 11-12. He was State Champion in the 50 fly, 100 IM, and 100 Fly. And broke the 21 year old record in the 11-12 50 Fly with a time of 24.90.
He is pictured below with Coach Ra.
Upcoming Meets
Southeastern Meet of Champions - March 7th-10th (Must Qualify)
Central Divisionals - March 22-24 (All Swimmers Eligible)
RAYS LC Invite - April 27th-28th (All Swimmers Eligible)
Link to register for meets here: https://www.gomotionapp.com/team/gsrays/page/events#/team-events/upcoming
Watch below to learn about Abbie Fish!
Celebrate Failure (and learn from it) - Jeff Raker
What if we celebrated failures more, and made those who try new things the heroes?
Failures are the stepping stones on the pathway to success. Intuitively, perhaps experientially, we know this. I rarely see it in practice.
Thomas Edison has 1,093 patents to his name.
Edison's perspective on failure is helpful to us. Asked by someone after the light bulb became a reality, "How did it feel to fail 1000 times?"
Edison is said to have replied: "I didn't fail 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps."
In the book Peak, Anders Ericsson and Robert Poole write:
"Getting out of your comfort zone means trying to do something that you couldn’t do before. Sometimes you may find it relatively easy to accomplish the new thing, and then you keep pushing on. But sometimes you run into something that stops you cold and it seems like you’ll never be able to do it. Finding ways around these barriers is one of the hidden keys to purposeful practice....Generally the solution is not “try harder” but rather “try differently.” It is a technique issue, in other words." (p. 19)
"Trying differently" is going to involve failure.
I'm not suggesting that we celebrate the one who keeps trying the same new thing over and over. That's trying harder, even with a new approach. I'm also not suggesting that athletes should be encouraged to try new things in the championship slice of the season. Once you get to that point, it's time to be locked in.
Experimenting, risking, being okay with finding ways it doesn't work in order to find the way it does work is the pathway to greater success.
This begs the question: What stops us from doing this? What stops you as a coach from celebrating failures? What stops athletes (and coaches) from leaning into experimentation this way?
My momentum down this pathway will stop....
IF failure is personalized - that I failed versus this attempt failed
IF failure is criticized
IF failure is laughed at (though when the athlete or coach who failed laughs at themselves it's actually helpful)
Failure is a great teacher if we will be great students.
What It Means to "Own Your Seat"
A few years back, I was working on a piece for Lion’s Roar, a magazine that focuses on ancient wisdom for modern times.
I don’t consider myself a particularly good Buddhist; the irony in that statement proves the point. In the piece I kept quoting from other thinkers.
After the second round of revisions, the editor wrote me: This is good, but I want to hear more about what YOU think. Not what Jack Kornfield or Tara Brach thinks, but what YOU think. Own your seat.
The last three words of her email have stuck with me ever since.
I was suffering from a classic case of imposter syndrome.
By this point in my career, I’d already published two books and written essays for The New York Times. It didn’t matter—this was a new publication, a wisdom publication. Who was I to offer wisdom?
When I was sharing my experience with a friend, she reminded me that anyone who says (and worse yet, genuinely believes) that they have it all figured out is probably a good person to run away from, and fast.
That I was hesitant about writing the piece wasn’t a bad thing. If anything, it was a good thing! The problem was that I was comparing myself to some illusory bar of enlightenment peddled almost exclusively by spiritual grifters and charlatans. The fact that I felt a bit uncertain was completely normal—after all, there are very few things about which we should feel certain.
What, then, did it mean to own my seat?
It meant realizing I’d done plenty of thinking, research, writing, and coaching on the piece’s topic. Perhaps I didn’t have it all figured out, but that’s because nobody does. Even so, I could be confident because I’d done the work. A good editor, coach, manager, mentor, or leader won’t call you up to bat until you are ready. It doesn’t mean the at-bat won’t be uncomfortable, but you can own your seat no less.
First, a lesson: confidence comes from evidence, and confidence allows you to own your seat. Owning your seat does not mean certainty, nor does it mean a total lack of impostor syndrome. It means taking your doubts with you and stepping into the arena no less, because you’ve done the work that is required to step into the arena.
Second, a paradox: the people who have no doubts and know the least tend to yell the loudest; the people who speak softly, tread lightly, and embrace the words “it depends” tend to know the most. Because the more you know, the more you realize how little you know.
Whereas arrogance and certainty almost always emerge out of insecurity, owning your seat means understanding that confidence comes from evidence, and that a bit of impostor syndrome is okay; it’s often a sign that you are exactly where you need to be.
In the end, I wrote the piece. (You can read it here.)
The best part wasn’t getting published in Lion’s Roar or the $300 I got paid. It was getting to wrestle with this idea of owning your seat. Nowadays, I frequently ask myself (and my coaching clients) Do you have what you need to own your seat? If so, own it. If not, what evidence do you need before you can?
Now you can wrestle with these questions too.
https://thegrowtheq.com/imposter-syndrome-and-owning-your-seat/
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