Coxswain’s Head Explodes. Too Much Boat Speed The Cause

(No offense to any coxswains, but isn’t that the type of news headline we would love to create?)

Let’s get down to it—we are after speed. Gut-busting, face-melting, head-exploding speed. Regardless if the racing is big time or something simple like trying to beat a time from the tree to the dock—speed is what we’re talking about.

And to get speed you need to be something special, you need to be fierce.

Be Fierce Then Speed Will Come

Several years ago Susan Scott wrote a thoughtful and popular book Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time. It detailed how people can better achieve success by having critical conversations, ones that she describes as fierce.

In the beginning of the book she elaborates on what fierce means to her:

“. . .  ‘fierce’ suggest menacing, cruel, barbarous, threatening . . . Sounds like raised voices, frowns, blood on the floor, no fun at all. In Roget’s Thesaurus, however, the word fierce has the following synonyms: robust, intense, strong, powerful, passionate, eager, unbridled, uncurbed, untamed.”

Those last 9 words describe being fierce beautifully. And more to the point, if you are fierce you are intense. You are strong. You are untamed. Those are 3 things you need to find speed.

For instance . . . on the Savannah plains in Africa a hungry lion chases an antelope. The lion runs for dinner, the antelope runs for her life. Let me ask you, of the two animals which is more fierce? Which is more intense, stronger, untamed?

Of course the king of the jungle—right? As fierce as they come.

Nope, the antelope is—by far. That antelope is sure as heck committed to generating as much speed as she possibly can. As untamed, strong and intense as she can be.

I guarantee that if there was such as thing as a commitment meter and we could put it on the two animals, the antelope would far surpass the lion.

She is the fierce one, and if not then the hunt ends not well for the antelope.

Does Being Fierce Make A Difference

So often as competitive athletes and coaches we follow what has come before us almost blindly. Focused so much on the end result(s) we ignore the process and in the end miss the results that we could have had.

Terry Laughlin, in his book Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster, and Easier, talks about how for years swimmers have done the exact same thing and “that the usual ‘swim-your-laps’ advice was not only ineffective; it could actually be harmful.” He is waking people up and revolutionizing swimming.

He is being intense, strong, untamed. He is going against the grain. That is where the speed is to be found.

Or we rationalize our desire for something and sell ourselves short. “Oh . . . I couldn’t do that because I’m (pick one here):

• too short
• too tall
• too old
• too young

(and the list goes on).

One of the main reasons we cannot find speed is that we are not fierce. And it is hard being fierce and there are so many reasons not to be fast. Yeah, well get over it and stop the excuse making. Let me tell you about one of the most fierce persons in the world.

His name is Bob. Bob Wieland.

Bob Wieland

Bob runs marathons. But boy is he slow. In fact he ran the New York City Marathon and finished dead last. Actually it took him over 4 days to finish—probably the slowest marathon in history.

So why does that make Bob fierce?

Bob has no legs. He lost both of them in the Vietnam war.

He ran the marathon on his hands. No wheelchair—on his hands. And he has run numerous other marathons, and ran across the United States. He has set world records in lifting and became a strength coach for the Green Bay Packers.

You see fierce means to take the steps that need to be taken to get you where you need to go. Bob wasn’t going to die. Bob was going to live. Bob took the steps he needed to take.

And many would say his time was the slowest marathon ever. I would counter that is was probably the fastest ever.

Bob is fierce. As heck.

How Can You Become Fierce About Speed

You can. It is not easy, but you can. In fact I’ve got a three-step process to help you become fierce.

We’ll get into that on Monday, along with introducing the details of a speed system you can start right away to help you this season.