|
First, any coach that takes an opposing athlete aside to lecture them about winning by too much over that coach's athlete should be fired. Seriously, that's just poor form all around. As both a coach and an athlete, I'm embarrassed by the simple thought. If I had been faced by a similar situation back in my competitive days, I would have probably either laughed in the coach's face or cursed them out. The fact that the athlete performed poorly means that the coach didn't do their job to have the athlete prepared. We compete for a reason - to find out who's better.
Back in the day, I was a a good enough runner to get scholarship offers and win some big races. I knew that on any given day, I could pretty much destroy anyone else in town on the track, with one glaring exception. If I did that while training for something else, no problem. I trained through most of the early meets of track season both my junior and senior years, but I was undefeated at most of my distances. There's no shame in not giving your all if that's what the microcycle calls for. If that means that you give up a few points or a few seconds to get the win, then so be it.
I've been on the flip side of the coin. My junior year of college, I spent the entire indoor season training for the outdoor 5k and 10k and didn't run the 5k indoors all year. Instead, I spent every single meet running nothing longer than a 1000m to work on speed, and I was dead last every single race. That sucked and was no fun, but it didn't reflect on me as a person, just as an althete trying to run that particular distance. If you're not prepared or able to compete at the level of your opponent, then you shouldn't be surprised or disappointed when you get beaten.
__________________
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo
|