Episode 2 in my Good to GREAT series. Originally released on my Youtube Channel. on Thursday, April 13th. Click the video below to watch the full video. I've outlined the key take aways below.
The Boys of '36
Our story takes place in 1934, in the middle of the 'Great Depression', at the University of Washington. The (Men's) Rowing Team coached by Al Ubruckson; this coach has a vision of taking his team to a national championship - something that has never been done before. They've gotten close but never closed the deal. And if they are good enough to take them to the Olympics.
Like any good coach, that has that grand vision, what do you do? You start looking for the athletes, you start asking questions and bringing people in to help you create this team. Now, a big selling point to these young athletes was the University of Washington would help provide housing, jobs and meals to them if they joined the team.
The coach in 1934 brings a very talented class into the school. The big issue that arose was a clash between the Freshmen/Sophomores and the Junior/Seniors. Younger athletes were out performing the senior athletes and this brought a clash, a self competitiveness and disfunction. This creates a tension that now the coach has to balance.
1935 comes along and the coach thinks he's finally got the team and the talent to win a national championship. So he puts the team in the tournament and they don't win it. California wins it. They're frustrated and disappointed. The coach isn't sure what to do. So after awhile of thinking here's what the coach decided to do.
He decided that the team was going to have 6 practices a week! If you don't want to be apart of that, then you're not on the team. And it didn't matter how old you were, if you were a Freshmen, Sophomore, Junior or Senior ... you were going to EARN your way onto the team. If you wanted a spot you had to come early and leave late. He was putting the best players on the team. And they had to prove that they wanted to be on the team.
He was creating a higher standard within their culture. Players had to reach down inside of them and command more! The team ended up being consisted of lower and upper class-men.
And in 1936, they win the National Championship - the best Rowing Team in the country!
The question the coach asks is, "Are we good enough to go to the Olympics?" The coach thinks so and they head back to their University and start training.
One issue comes up, a leader on the team (Joe Ranz) starts to show inconstant performance. One day their great giving it their all and performing high and the next they've hit rock bottom and can't get anything out of them. It's this constant up and down ride.
The coach can't figure out what's going on. He's talked to his player and couldn't get through to him. So he confided in the aid of a mentor to see if he could get through to Joe. Turns out Joe's past wasn't the greatest. His mom died when he was 4 years old. It was him, his dad and his brothers growing up and he was the oldest. He had to work at a young age to help provide. When he was a young teenager his dad remarried and took off with his 2 younger brothers and left Joe to fend for himself. This athlete has experienced tremendous pain his whole life, has a lot of early childhood psychological issues of feeling unloved and trust issues within people/family.
The mentor figure was able get through to Joe. He says look, I understand your past and I don't know if I'll ever be able to relate to that but I can tell you one thing - if you don't trust your team, if you don't trust your coach, if you don't allow yourself to open up and you don't open to your team then you're never going to come together and reach your dream. You're a leader on this team; if you don't step up - then rest won't either.
It was up front and honest. And it worked. The team started clicking.
They go to the qualifiers for the Olympics and they get it. They set a new record and they're going to the Olympics to represent the USA in Rowing!
Finally, everything this coach had been reaching for in this team was happening!
Now, what was going on in the 1936 Olympics? Hitler was at large and wanted to show the world his leadership. Germany hosted this year's Olympics and it was the first time the Olympics would be broadcasted LIVE to the entire world! Hitler wanted this to be a production to the world of how grand and massive Germany was. He had brand, new massive stadium built, hired a documentary staff to paint the 'Olympic picture' in a German dominance way and had the best money could buy in every manner you could possibly think of. Swastikas were hanging every which way with the Nazi troops on every corner of Berlin. This is what the USA was walking into.
Now at this time they had to take a 'Titanic style' boat all the way over to Germany. On the way over there a couple of the athletes get sick. One in particular (Hume) develops a lung infection before the competition even starts!
They go into the prelims strong and take first to the finals. This exhausts Hume and doesn't help his infection. He doesn't know if he can compete in the finals. The night before the coach is seeing that Hume isn't looking good. He doesn't want to risk his players life and wants to put in an alternate.
The team came together and said Coach, if Hume doesn't row tomorrow then we're not rowing. We're a team and we've come this far together to quit now! Trust him, he'll find something within himself tomorrow to row and we'll support him and we'll find a way to make it work.
The coach can't deny the brotherhood this team has created. Even though, he doesn't want to rise his health, it's ultimate Hume's decision. The coach says okay.
75,000 people LIVE to watch them compete. On the day of the finals, the weather is horrible. It's rainy and windy. The outside lanes are the worst because there's nothing blocking the wind and the water gets choppy.
Guess who gets the outside lane? That's right, USA. Guess who gets the inside lane? Germany.
Other teams that are there ... The Italian team has been together for 10 years. 10 YEARS! The USA team has been together for 5 whole months; they had to build chemistry quick, they had to build trust quick. Where as the Italian team had been building for the past 10 years.
The British team - always in the top 3 for Rowing. And the Germans had just won 5 Gold Metals earlier that day. So the German's have all this momentum going into the race.
The race starts. The crowd is so loud that the USA doesn't hear the sound and reacts to everyone else's start. Their start is horrible.
A little back history, what the University of Washington (USA Team) was known for was starting off very patient, very slow and pacing themselves. The last half they would start sprinting and pass teams. This is how they got to the Olympics. This is what they were known for.
Hume ( the one with the lung infection ) is the first rower in the boat. He's the one in charge of setting the tempo and momentum for the team. The coxswain, who's at the tip of the boat, is the only one not rowing. He's in charge of steering the boat and guiding orders to the team.
Example of Coxswain and line up.
He notices that Hume is just not in it. He's trying everything to motivate him and get him to snap into the momentum of the team. But the boat just keeps falling back and all the others keep moving further.
All of a sudden, Hume comes alive. Something clicks and he snaps right into it. And he starts rowing faster and stronger he ever has before. The whole team feeds off that energy. They become one and start moving together. The USA teams starts moving past other teams.
America keeps coming up and are now tied with the Italians and the Germans. The finish line is coming up. They're all neck and neck.
THIRD Place - Germany
SECOND Place - Italy
FIRST Place - USA
By six-hundredths of a second, they pulled it off!
They shocked the world. In the footage (documentary) you see them just collapse from pure exhaustion after the race.
What can we take from this?
THREE THINGS
1. Coaching - every great team has great coaching. What is a great coach? A coach is someone who sees something that the athlete doesn't; but not just that - they're someone who knows the athlete. Someone who knows their mindset, their values and their beliefs and how to relate their message to their athlete.
Sometimes we have leaders or coaches that think their athletes understand what they're saying and they don't. Part of being a good coach is recognizing when your message is being received and when it is not; if not you got to adapt or either have another coach say it for you to resonate with your team. It's okay to ask for help because at the end of the day it's all about results and the betterment of the team.
2. Adaptability in Mindset - the ability to deal with adversity. This team specifically had to endure the Great Depression, the fighting within their team, the sickness of athletes, being in another country with Hitler at large, cameras filming everything for the first time, the weather being awful and they still FOUND A WAY to dig deep inside and produce the results they want.
Every great athlete, when presented with a problem, has always known how to side step it or use it to their advantage; to switch it from a negative to a positive. And the athletes that can do that, the businesses that can do that, the entrepreneurs who can do that are the ones that last and make a great impression on the world.
3. Culture that breeds trust - the one thing that was lacking in the team in the beginning was trust. No one was willing to be open and be vulnerable with each other. In order for a team to truly trust one another you have to be open, you have to be willing to admit that you don't know everything, you have to be selfless and do it for the team not yourself.
If you have an athlete that is selfish, that is only looking out for themselves, then that team is never going to go to the highest level because it's about the team. There needs to be only 1 Ego; it's the Team Ego. Have a culture that builds success and openness. You have to know your team and what they want and whats going on in their lives.
What kind of culture do you have and are you leading by example?
Thanks guys! Until next weeks episode.
- James Silvas
Peak Performance Coach for Athletes, Coaches & Sports Teams