Ownership

Ownership is a theme that kept arising in my own running career, and I see the necessity for it now as I look at things from a coaching perspective. I always felt like as an athlete I took some sort of ownership in my training and racing. My high school coach instilled this in me and my teammates from on early age. He would ask us what we thought we needed for training, and he would take a back seat on race days. Instead of being the coach that was walking us through every step of our warmup and getting us to the line, he would check in with us a couple hours before the race, make sure we didn’t need anything, and then head to the top of the stands to observe until the race was over. This took me a few years to realize how genius this really was, but now that I have been a coach for a short while, I see what he was trying to do.

The COVID-19 pandemic really pushed me to take ownership in my own craft to a whole new level. I was now put in a position to have more say in my training, and what I wanted to do with my running during an indefinite period of no racing. Critically thinking about myself as an athlete, and considering areas of improvement, and mechanisms of improvement, helped propel my training to the next level. When reflecting on these things and taking responsibility for certain areas of training, I found myself more inclined to do all of the little things right, and to really believe in everything I was doing. Part of this was likely due to coming up with the ideas for certain areas of improvement myself. I saw the value in them because I put the time in to research and consider certain areas of training. Some of these areas included creating a pre run mobility routine, adding a once-a-week yoga routine, and implementing more mental training. But I highly encourage anyone to reflect on potential areas of improvement, and to create a sense of ownership in these facets of training which can help you break into new levels of performance.

When looking at things from a coaching perspective, an athlete that shows ownership in what they do seems to have more consistent and better results. Now, I have only been coaching for a short period of time, but this seems to have really stuck out as a major theme so far. The athlete that shows ownership in their craft often has better feedback, communicates more, and displays more belief in their process. These things all enhance coach-athlete relationships and they fuel new ideas and more learning (on both sides).

Ownership starts with critical reflection. And while this may seem obvious, being responsible enough to reflect on your training and racing is much more uncommon than one would think. When you pause to reflect, you are showing investment in your craft, which fuels new ideas, which fuels a sense of ownership in what you are doing. Finally, this whole process brings a sense of belief, which is one of the most important things for success at the highest levels (I’m sure I will write about this one day too).

So what can ownership look like?

• Keeping a running log was the most important thing for me. Whether this is on Strava, on paper, or in your notes app, a log forces you to reflect daily on what you felt like, how you respond to different stimuli, and keeps you thinking about process. Whether you’re writing your own training or not (I don’t), the process of reflecting drives an athlete to be a more active participant in their craft. Taking more ownership in one’s craft also, from my experience, leads to more buy-in and belief in the work as well.
• It can be taking the little things into your own hands. Sleep, nutrition, mental training, mobility, and core work are just a few specific ideas on how YOU can be responsible for a large portion of success.
• Ownership can be giving feedback to coaches. Feedback from the athlete is one of the most valuable pieces of information coaches can get, and the more you do this, the better that relationship, and your training will be.
• I could write for forever on what ownership can look like for you, but you really need to do the work yourself. So pause, reflect, and contemplate where you can be a more active participant in your craft!

Thanks for reading,
Owen

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