03-15-2020, 05:59 PM
My daughter is a fledgling water polo goalie, and has attended a few clinics hosted by Stanford great Jack Bowen. I was incredibly impressed with an email Jack sent out this afternoon and he gave me permission to share. Hope it helps keeps your kids focused while they're away from school. Jack also coaches water polo and teaches philosophy at the Menlo School.
"Hello Goalies,
This past weekend I had to cancel a Goalie Combine: it was the first session I’ve cancelled in 21 years of running them year-‘round. We had a full session (plus wait list) but seemed the responsible thing to do, given the news of this past week.
In all of the responses I received from goalies who missed the session, I saw two trends: First of all, our goalie community is immensely gracious and full of gratitude and truly a great community to be a part of; secondly, and my primary reason for writing, goalies just don’t know what to do over these next few weeks, and understandably so.
I do plan on running our Goalie Combines as soon as it seems viable, and will run extra sessions to accommodate the flood of increased interest over the past month.
Below I list 10 reflections and suggestions which I hope might be helpful during this time which I know is difficult for all of us, especially you as young, committed student-athletes.
1. The Injured Athlete Analogy
First, it’s worth framing where you, the age-group/high-school goalie, are in the midst of your career and training arc. To do so, I reference conversations I often have with athletes who have been injured and are out for weeks or months because of it. And this will frame the remaining comments below.
For a young person committed to their sport, as I know all of you are, a few weeks off can feel like a few months. Know that (except for those female high school goalies in Orange County who were in-season) this is the “best” time to have your sport taken away as we’re in what I call the off-off-season, with a lot of time to recover and prepare. So, that being said, we can flip our narrative and view this as a great opportunity.
When I had to sit out for 15 months my freshman and sophomore year at Stanford to recover from my goalie-related Tommy John surgery, I was fortunate enough to have this sort of mindset: and I returned Spring of my sophomore year better and stronger than I’d ever been.
Use this as a time to return better and stronger, physically and mentally and emotionally.
2. Habits
Now that I have your attention, before moving to the goalie-related comments, I want to point your attention elsewhere. A brobdingnagian majority of you have, at the least, a 21-28-day break from school along with nearly every water polo training and tournament having been canceled. This is a lot of time to do things which take a lot of time for which, until now, you didn’t have.
As much research shows, it takes 21 consecutive days to break a bad habit and form a good one. So, here’s your gift: find that habit you’ve wanted to form—whether it has to do with your nutrition, reading/writing, stretching—and do it. Start tomorrow.
3. Get ahead on your school work
You’re going to have work due from now through the summer and, now, you’ll have a lot more time to do that work and, more importantly, to get ahead on the work due when you return to school and training.
So, given that these hours are fixed—i.e. you have X hours of work to do in March and April whether you do it evenly over this time or not—and given that you’re going to want to be in the pool as much as possible when that becomes an option, front-load your work now in order to subtract from those fixed hours, and then you can get back to your training full-throttle when that time comes.
4. Focus on healthy eating
When I was in high school I attended a goalie clinic given by 3-time Olympic goalie, Craig Wilson. I remember one thing from this day: at some point, he discussed nutrition and said some version of, “I don’t drink soda. Never have. Soda is just terrible for your body and you’re trying to fuel your body.” So, I stopped drinking soda.
But, a more big-picture realization came from that: what you eat really does fuel your body. So, especiallywhen you’re not training, now is the time to really focus on that. And, given Point #2, above, doing this for 21 days can literally change your tastes so this habit can continue when you’re back to training. I experienced this 3 years ago when my wife and I decided to become plant-based. I felt like I was giving something up: that I’d have to “cheat” with a steak or hamburger every few weeks. But, now, those things look genuinely unappealing to me and a plate of whole grains, fresh vegetables, and lentils sounds like four-star high-end culinary excursion. The point being: pay attention to what you’re eating, especially when you’re trying to be your best in one of the toughest sports known.
5. Take care of your brain
As many of you have trained with our Bowen Goalie Combines for at least a year, you’ve likely done our goalie-meditation at least once (we do this during our Playoff Focus and then again during the Summer Goalie Focus prior to JO’s). We’ve done it for 21 years, and I did it with the 1996 Olympic Team repeatedly with our team psychologist in preparation for the Olympics and I even did it with my own high school team when in high school.
The science supporting meditation is ubiquitous: meditating—and not just sports-focused meditation—has proven benefits well beyond aiding someone in their pursuit of blocking water polo shots. I’d love to go into it here but to even start writing about the magic of the human brain would take a 5-page intro. Suffice it to say, the experts agree.
So, here’s another item which typically results in students saying, “I just don’t have the time.” Now, you do have 15 minutes per day. I highly recommend it."
"Hello Goalies,
This past weekend I had to cancel a Goalie Combine: it was the first session I’ve cancelled in 21 years of running them year-‘round. We had a full session (plus wait list) but seemed the responsible thing to do, given the news of this past week.
In all of the responses I received from goalies who missed the session, I saw two trends: First of all, our goalie community is immensely gracious and full of gratitude and truly a great community to be a part of; secondly, and my primary reason for writing, goalies just don’t know what to do over these next few weeks, and understandably so.
I do plan on running our Goalie Combines as soon as it seems viable, and will run extra sessions to accommodate the flood of increased interest over the past month.
Below I list 10 reflections and suggestions which I hope might be helpful during this time which I know is difficult for all of us, especially you as young, committed student-athletes.
1. The Injured Athlete Analogy
First, it’s worth framing where you, the age-group/high-school goalie, are in the midst of your career and training arc. To do so, I reference conversations I often have with athletes who have been injured and are out for weeks or months because of it. And this will frame the remaining comments below.
For a young person committed to their sport, as I know all of you are, a few weeks off can feel like a few months. Know that (except for those female high school goalies in Orange County who were in-season) this is the “best” time to have your sport taken away as we’re in what I call the off-off-season, with a lot of time to recover and prepare. So, that being said, we can flip our narrative and view this as a great opportunity.
When I had to sit out for 15 months my freshman and sophomore year at Stanford to recover from my goalie-related Tommy John surgery, I was fortunate enough to have this sort of mindset: and I returned Spring of my sophomore year better and stronger than I’d ever been.
Use this as a time to return better and stronger, physically and mentally and emotionally.
2. Habits
Now that I have your attention, before moving to the goalie-related comments, I want to point your attention elsewhere. A brobdingnagian majority of you have, at the least, a 21-28-day break from school along with nearly every water polo training and tournament having been canceled. This is a lot of time to do things which take a lot of time for which, until now, you didn’t have.
As much research shows, it takes 21 consecutive days to break a bad habit and form a good one. So, here’s your gift: find that habit you’ve wanted to form—whether it has to do with your nutrition, reading/writing, stretching—and do it. Start tomorrow.
3. Get ahead on your school work
You’re going to have work due from now through the summer and, now, you’ll have a lot more time to do that work and, more importantly, to get ahead on the work due when you return to school and training.
So, given that these hours are fixed—i.e. you have X hours of work to do in March and April whether you do it evenly over this time or not—and given that you’re going to want to be in the pool as much as possible when that becomes an option, front-load your work now in order to subtract from those fixed hours, and then you can get back to your training full-throttle when that time comes.
4. Focus on healthy eating
When I was in high school I attended a goalie clinic given by 3-time Olympic goalie, Craig Wilson. I remember one thing from this day: at some point, he discussed nutrition and said some version of, “I don’t drink soda. Never have. Soda is just terrible for your body and you’re trying to fuel your body.” So, I stopped drinking soda.
But, a more big-picture realization came from that: what you eat really does fuel your body. So, especiallywhen you’re not training, now is the time to really focus on that. And, given Point #2, above, doing this for 21 days can literally change your tastes so this habit can continue when you’re back to training. I experienced this 3 years ago when my wife and I decided to become plant-based. I felt like I was giving something up: that I’d have to “cheat” with a steak or hamburger every few weeks. But, now, those things look genuinely unappealing to me and a plate of whole grains, fresh vegetables, and lentils sounds like four-star high-end culinary excursion. The point being: pay attention to what you’re eating, especially when you’re trying to be your best in one of the toughest sports known.
5. Take care of your brain
As many of you have trained with our Bowen Goalie Combines for at least a year, you’ve likely done our goalie-meditation at least once (we do this during our Playoff Focus and then again during the Summer Goalie Focus prior to JO’s). We’ve done it for 21 years, and I did it with the 1996 Olympic Team repeatedly with our team psychologist in preparation for the Olympics and I even did it with my own high school team when in high school.
The science supporting meditation is ubiquitous: meditating—and not just sports-focused meditation—has proven benefits well beyond aiding someone in their pursuit of blocking water polo shots. I’d love to go into it here but to even start writing about the magic of the human brain would take a 5-page intro. Suffice it to say, the experts agree.
So, here’s another item which typically results in students saying, “I just don’t have the time.” Now, you do have 15 minutes per day. I highly recommend it."
Free Phogge!!!! And no, crimson doesn't refer to the Tide.