Quotes Talk 1
I'm taking some of my favorite quotes and dissecting, discussing, and disavowing.
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Tiger Woods has been transformational for the game of golf in so many ways. That is indisputable. But he has proven to be just like every other figure who fell for the little guy with the pitchfork on his shoulder telling him, “It’s all good, no one will know, you can get away with it.” But that little guy on his shoulder didn’t tell him that in the real world, you don’t get away with it because even when you are the only one who knows, that is enough to destroy you.
--Doug Glanville
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The source: Doug Glanville is unique among major league players; in this era, a lot of players don't have a lot of time for education. Glanville graduated from Columbia University and went on to have a solid major league career.
The topic: Tiger Woods
My take: I found this quote interesting because it applies to a lot more than Tiger and his escapades with women. It's applicable to ALL athletes in terms of the consequences for cutting corners. If you're training alone, nobody is going to call you on it if you skip the last set of pull-ups, or run a sprint at 80%. Even with a team, it's pretty easy to slow up on the last step of a sprint and nobody will notice. In the long run, however, it's those last steps that make all the difference, both because they add up to better training and because they are the actualization of commitment.
Every moment that an athlete consciously chooses to continue doing something difficult when they know they can decrease their effort without immediately being called to account is a moment in which toughness grows. This is because intense competition provides a multitude of opportunities to decrease effort. Training help develop physical skills, but the mental part that develops is the habit of how one responds to unpleasantness. Unpleasantness can be pressure, pain, embarrassment, fear, or fatigue. Athletes are constantly deciding how to respond to these things. Their responses in practice reflect what their mindset will be in competition.