Lessons from My Coaches (A Series: Part 2) - Lessons From Coach Hugo
We live in a culture that values the narrative of rugged individualism, pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps, and reaching success on your own. We model ourselves after successful individuals that tell stories about beating all odds, overcoming obstacles, and blazing a trail.
“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”
- Phil Jackson
This narrative is false, because any success that anyone has ever received, has come through the effort of others. The truth is, nothing we do, do we do on our own accord. That cultural cowboy narrative has highjacked the true narrative: Any success we have, anything we’ve accomplished, frankly, who we are, comes through the grace, the spirit, and the energy of others.
When I was nine years old, we moved to a new town, so my mom and dad signed me up for the local swim club to get me and my brother involved in something positive and meet some new friends. I had taken swim lessons at the YMCA when I was young, but couldn’t exactly figure out the different strokes, and had zero stamina.
However, over time, as I got more comfortable, and as I found myself in the water day after day, I began to find myself in the water.
It was there that I started to figure some things out, not just about swimming, but about life.
Rhythmic breathing started to become natural, I learned how to do the butterfly, and I got good a reading clocks (did you know reading secondhand clocks could be complicated?). Even though swimming is an individual sport, I began to realize that there wasn’t as much individual as what I thought.
One evening, as a ten-year-old, about a year into my new swimming career, I was having a great swim practice. As they say, I was feeling it. I was in the zone. We had just come off a set of doing five sets of 100 yards which was the longest I had ever swam before.
After the fifth 100-yard set was done, I said to my coach, Steve Hugo, “I’m feeling so good I could swim another set of five!”
That’s when my coach did something that I won’t ever forget. He capitalized on that excitement. He asked me, “What is your fastest 100-yard free time?” Of course, Coach Hugo knew my fastest time; he knew everyone’s fastest time. He just wanted to see if I knew it.
“One minute and seventeen seconds,” I replied.
“Okay,” he said. And then he said something that shocked me:
“Let’s beat that tonight.”
He then stopped practice, pulled everyone out of the water and stood me on the starting block. As I stood there, he made an announcement to everyone that was there: parents, members of the high school team, girls I thought were cute…
“Chris is feeling good tonight,” he said. “So, tonight he is going to break his personal record in the 100-yard free. And you’re going to help him do it.”
As I stood on that starting block, he continued, “You have one job: As he swims, yell as loud as you can! Go crazy! Go bananas! Don’t hold back! Lose your voice and I guarantee he will swim faster than he’s ever swam before! Let’s break a record tonight!”
The energy in that space was palpable. Everyone could feel it.
Coach Hugo said, “Chris, are you ready? Here we go.”
And with that he gave the command: “Take your mark. --- Go.”
I shot off the block and even as the water ran over me, I could still hear the noise in that space. For a little over a minute people screamed ‘til they couldn’t scream any longer. When I touched the wall at the end of that swim, the place went silent.
Coach Hugo looked at his watch, paused for dramatic effect, and everyone held their breath…
Then he shouted: “One minute and fifteen seconds! He broke his personal record by two whole seconds!”
The place went berserk! Kids were high fiving and hugging. Parents who were sitting in the bleachers waiting for their kids, cheered. Coach Hugo screamed and ran around the deck of the pool (and you’re not supposed to run around a pool!)
And I realized that I had not broken a personal record.
We had done it.
No world record was broken. No American record was broken. No state record was broken. No pool record was broken. No 10-year-old club record was broken.
It wasn’t on the news, on the Today show, talk shows, or ESPN. It wasn’t even in the local newspaper. Frankly, I’m not even sure if my parents know this story.
But that life-long lesson that I learned came to me in just 1:15 seconds, was this: If anyone to succeed, it going to take EVERYONE.
As you leader your business, your non-profit, your social enterprise, or your faith community, understand that no leader does anything on his or her own. Decisions are not made in a vacuum. Rugged individualism is a myth that tries to convince us that any success we can achieve is done on our own. However, in any organization, business, or team, the spirit, effort, and energy of everyone must be applied for individuals – and groups – to reach their personal and collective goals.