Seven Steps to Hurdle Heaven, Part Six
Men work together, I told him from the heart / whether they work together or apart.
-Robert Frost
Level Six: Hurdler as Visionary
For the Level Six hurdler, the expanding sense of awareness that began in Level Five continues, and intensifies. Where the Level Five hurdler is a Voice, sharing his knowledge, wisdom, and passion with the world so that all may benefit from it, the Level Six hurdler is a Visionary. Simply put, the Level Six hurdler can see things about hurdling that others can’t. Where the Level Five hurdler learns to see himself as an Artist, the Level Six hurdler sees everyone as a reflection of himself. He can see how he is connected to athletes in other events, athletes in other sports, to people involved in other artistic endeavors.
At Level Two, the hurdler was able to claim an identity as a hurdler. And his identity as a hurdler made him feel special, separating him from the commoners who merely sprint, jump, throw, or vault, as well as from athletes in other sports. The Level Two hurdler sees that being a hurdler makes him unique in comparison to other athletes.
[am4show not_have=”g5;”]
[/am4show][am4guest]
[/am4guest][am4show have=”g5;”]
Similarly, Level Six is largely all about identity, but on a much broader, borderline cosmic scope. The Level Six hurdler’s connections extend to all who give all of themselves to what they do, to all who aspire to master their chosen art form. Similar to how poet Walt Whitman uses the “Cosmic I” in his epic poem, Song of Myself, the Level Six hurdler understands that the notions of “I vs. You,” “Us vs. Them,” etc., don’t exist in reality, but only in the mind. In the end, we’re all here trying to do the same thing – bring out the best in ourselves through our chosen endeavor.
So the Level Six hurdler sees himself reflected in other athletes of all sports, in musicians, artists, writers, poets, teachers, surgeons, architects, engineers, everyone. At Level Six, you gain a clear understanding that because hurdling is at the center of your universe, it enables you to see everyone else as a “hurdler,” but just in a different form.
I remember one time about ten years ago, I was coaching a group of hurdlers on the track at North Carolina State University back in the days before their track was closed to the public. So the kids from our track club were out there training, a small group of professional track athletes was out there training, a road running club was out there working out, a Tai Chi class was practicing its moves on the infield, a couple NC State football players were practicing passing routes on the infield, and a group of NC State cheerleaders were practicing stunts on a different area of the infield. In addition to all that, there were plenty of people walking or jogging around the track on their own.
At first I felt annoyed by how congested the space was. We had our couple of lanes on the outside of the track, but for me as a coach I had nowhere to stand without being in somebody’s way. Finally I walked over to the bleachers and stood on the first row, where I could still see my hurdlers and give them instructions without getting myself run over.
At one point, I guess it was between reps of my athletes, I took a sort of panoramic view around the entire stadium, and was jolted by a moment of epiphany that filled me with a deep peace. Suddenly, instead of seeing all these other people as intruders on our space, I saw them as dancers who were dancing to the same song we were dancing too. The football players throwing and catching passes, the Tai Chi students, the cheerleaders, the distance runners, the joggers and walkers – all of us were part of the same movement. I could feel the energy of the place – of how everyone out there was unknowingly motivating and inspiring each other. Nobody was out there just to be out there. Nobody was just “having fun.” That’s why the track at NC State was such a fun place to train back then – there was always energy to feed off of, always a sense of connection to athletes from other sports.
This Level Six awareness can occur very early in a hurdler’s career, but crystallizes at Level Six. At lower levels, the focus is so much on oneself and one’s own goals and dreams that an awareness that others are on a similar path is something we are largely blind to. But even in the early stages of one’s development, the connections are evident. You might see a basketball player running suicides and think to yourself that would be a good way to work on drive phase and conditioning at the same time. You might see a long jumper doing single leg bounds and realize that would be a good way to work on getting good push into the hurdle. During the offseason you might train a couple times a week with athletes from other sports.
You might even train with rival hurdlers so that you can make each other better. I know that I often invite hurdlers from other schools to practice with my crew, and they always end up becoming good friends and learning from each other. Of course they want to beat each other on race day, and they talk much trash to each other during training sessions, but they value the opportunity to push each other in practice and to make each other better. Under such circumstances, the barriers between “us and them” melt away, and a sense of belonging to a larger community develops.
Some training groups are very guarded about not letting others know their “secrets,” about making sure they don’t let outsiders in. I understand the logic behind that attitude, since track is a very competitive sport and there’s only so much money and so many medals to go around. But to me, the us vs. them mentality prevents you from ever getting to the Level Six awareness. You can easily develop a “me against the world” mentality and devolve to the point where you don’t trust anyone, not even your own coaches and training partners. You’ll be stuck in a Level Three mentality forever, where winning justifies everything.
I know that for me as a coach, most of what has helped me to grow as a coach has come from avenues other than fellow track coaches. Phil Jackson’s book Sacred Hoops is almost like a Bible to me because of its emphasis on how love of the game conquers all ego-based motivation. Jackson’s approach to coaching is very practical. From him I learned the importance of trusting my athletes, of putting them in situations where they have to come through for themselves without my help, of teaching them to focus, to be calm and still inwardly even in the face of enormous pressures. Similarly, watching my man Cesar Millan on The Dog Whisperer reality TV show has taught me lessons about being a calm, assertive leader, of not allowing myself to dwell on past mistakes, of not allowing the negative chatter in my head to inform my decisions and behavior. People ask me sometimes why I watch that show when I don’t even own a dog. My response is that the show is about dog training in name only. It’s really about leadership skills, quieting the mind, learning to control one’s emotions in stressful environments. It’s about all the stuff that hurdling, and coaching hurdlers, is about.
Another aspect of the visionary Level Six mind is that the inner landscape of dreams, intuitions, and epiphanies becomes as valid a source of information as any training manuals, camps, clinics, YouTube videos, etc. The Level Six hurdler understands that any insights that come to him through the world of his inner landscape must be valid for the simple fact that they came to him. Nothing is too “crazy,” too far “out there” to try.
This is how the Level Five Artist and the Level Six Visionary complement each other: The Visionary Paul McCartney heard chords to “Yesterday” in a dream, and the Artist Paul McCartney turned that dream into an actual song. The Visionary George Harrison opened a book to a random page and saw the words “gently weeps.” The Artist George Harrison took that phrase and made it the foundation for the song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” The Visionary sees something that seems to make no sense, then the Artist makes sense out of the nonsense.
In my experience, it has often been the case that I have been the Visionary, and one of my hurdlers has been the Artist. Sometimes I’ll have an epiphany of a technical innovation to make, and then explain it to my athlete, then we experiment with it on the practice track, and a new style emerges from the old. We’ll even create new drills to fit the new ideas. This only works with hurdlers who aren’t inhibited by a fear of losing or by an obsessive desire to win. It only works with hurdlers who have an innate trust in me and in their own creative and athletic abilities. No matter how much success we’ve had in the past, we’re willing to tear down and rebuild in the name of discovery, in the spirit of adventure, and we never fear that what we’re doing won’t work. A man with a vision never doubts his vision, he never doubts what he can see in his mind, even if it has yet to appear in the training manuals and has yet to be taught at clinics and camps.
The Visionary mind comes to realize and accept that there is a finite amount of knowledge to be gained from the world around him, that ultimately he must turn to the world within to discover things that speak to his own personal Truth as he travels on his own personal journey. After a while, there are only so many clinics and camps you can attend, so many YouTube videos you can watch, so many training manuals you can read. At some point in your personal journey, you have to give validity to yourself – to who you are, what you think, what you feel, what you see when you close your eyes.
To the untrained eye, the Level Six hurdler seems to be arrogant, self-absorbed, highly egotistical. He seems to think he is above the world of small-minded people who fill up their time squabbling about small-minded things. But the paradox lies in the fact that by connecting more deeply with his own inner world and developing a deep trust in his inner wisdom, the Level Six hurdler connects more deeply and more meaningfully with the outer world. Instead of seeing a world full of enemies and opponents, he sees a world full of fellow travelers. He remains open to any lessons the outer world may provide, but he no longer relies on that world as the sole source, or even the primary source, of knowing. He also remains open to giving assistance to anyone and everyone who asks for it, regardless of whether they are willing or able to return the favor.
At Level Six, the barriers of “difference” disappear. The illusion of separateness disappears. You see reality. You see life for what it actually is. You see the interconnectedness of all mankind, through the lens of a hurdler.
[/am4show]
