Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #124: Gill1918 Presents Olympic Gold Medalist Latasha Colander Clark “Give Yourself the Grace to be Great” Powered by Coach O

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#124: Gill1918 Presents Olympic Gold Medalist Latasha Colander Clark “Give Yourself the Grace to be Great” Powered by Coach O · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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  coaches for coaches, powered by Gill Athletics.
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  Think of it as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
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  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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  you grow as a coach. This episode is part of the
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  Youth and Beginner Series, brought to you by Coach O.
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  In this series, we focus on topics relating to coaching
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  youth athletes, coaching beginner athletes of any age,
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  and supporting brand new coaches as they find their way.
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  With that in mind, let's grow. Hi, I am Olympic gold medalist
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  and Hall of Famer Latasha Kolander Clark.
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  I want to share with you about being an Olympian, being an
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  advocate for Youth and Sports, and how you can also learn to be
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  the best athlete you can be and also learn to enjoy the sport
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  that you're in for a lifetime. Many times when we first start
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  off in, in our sports, I know me as a sprinter, I started as a
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  hurler, I started as a hurdler in high school and I, I, I did
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  just made mainly the 200, but I was an exceptional athlete,
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  state champion in the sport, you know, a state champion every
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  year and that I competed in, in high school and, and in many
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  different events. But however, once I got
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  recruited, you know, recruited to a lot of the top schools, I
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  landed and picked the University of North Carolina at Chapel
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  Hill, where I had learned that, you know, Michael Jordan had
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  graduated. I had went there to visit.
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  And of course, you would see so many giants that were in the
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  world of professional sports from the university.
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  I graduated with ABA in mass communication and journalism.
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  And I went on to start my production company in latter
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  years. But I want you to know my
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  journey, my journey hasn't been, you know, it hasn't been where
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  it's been so fabulous and awesome.
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  Many times there have been struggles that helped me to
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  learn who I really was. And that's the that is the
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  essence of what I would like to share with the youth.
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  And that is don't get dismayed when your journey may have hard
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  times, when you may struggle, because that is the time that
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  you find out who you really are. I would also share with the next
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  generation is that I pray that we have advocates that know when
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  youth are developing and they're very young.
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  Maybe they didn't put the right location down and they're,
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  they're being, they're being, they're being monitored and
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  watched, but they, they are also being developed.
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  I, I think, I think I'm so thankful for the, you know, the
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  people who watch after the sport, who advocate for those
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  youth. And I, I hope that in these new
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  generate and we know these New Years and the new generations
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  that are coming in that we will be able to help the
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  developmental of the athlete. There are so many things,
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  whether it's mental health, whether it's making sure that
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  you are in the right location and doing those particular
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  things. Youth are youth, they are still
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  being developed. And we should not be so harsh on
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  the development, but assist, help, be there for athletes that
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  really need to still have time to develop.
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  That has been, you know, in many sports, everything has been
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  where the athlete has to be 100%.
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  Now when they come out of high school, they have to be
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  completely developed. And I know going back to the
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  times when I was coming up, we had coaches, We had people in
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  our lives. Many of those coaches, you know,
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  have gone on. You have coaches that have been
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  in the sport of track and field for so many years.
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  They have taught. I know that I have learned the,
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  you know, the essence of technique and skill when I was
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  running the the hurdles. And then I trans, I pivot and
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  transition into a sprinter in that latter years at the
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  University of North Carolina. But as I made the Olympic team,
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  I realized that I had to be developed.
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  I had coaches in my life that helped to develop me, to help me
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  to understand that you couldn't stay the same if you wanted
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  different results. If you wanted to go to the next
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  level, you would have to train at the next level.
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  That took another level of mental capacity.
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  And for a young athlete, it takes patience.
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  I've realized where in these years that instant development
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  from a, a, a young athlete in college to be able to be a pro,
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  they still need time mentally to see it, to understand the
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  travelling, being at one place and being at another location,
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  writing those things down, being responsible.
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  The world is moving so fast. But I I do remember those
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  technical sound days talking and being with a coach.
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  Being great did did not come overnight.
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  It took years to be an Olympian. Why would we expect for a young
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  athlete in college to be able to grasp everything?
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  Even if they went pro the next year after being in high school
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  their senior year and they graduate and they're going into
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  the pros. Our sport is one of the most
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  historical sports in the world and it takes time to be great.
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  And that is the essence of what I want to share and leave with
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  the next generation. Give yourself grace.
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  Give yourself time to develop, even if even if the world
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  doesn't give you time. And, and one thing I am leaving
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  with you is to speak up for those athletes that are still
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  developing their craft in the sprints.
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  You have to develop your craft. I, I had to learn from
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  transitioning from a a hurdler that if I wanted to be great in
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  the 400 meters where I achieved gold and in 2000 in the four by
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  four, I, I went into the 400 meters, but I was selected to
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  run in the four by 4 where I anchored the four by 4 relay
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  team to receive gold. And you and it's so many
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  athletes that run that run in those races.
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  Everybody's not the same. Everybody's journey is not the
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  same. Everybody's, everybody's.
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  The way they learn, the way they do things, the way they train
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  personally, It's all personal. It's not all lumped into the
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  same thing. And we have to respect those
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  athletes that when they've trained for so many years, even
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  if you were. I was also a 200m runner, top in
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  the world until I retired in 2006.
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  And those things that I learned how to be confident mentally, to
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  be able to travel, to give myself grace when I got there,
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  to warm up, let the jet lag be able to know the timing of when
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  to go to sleep, when to wake up in Europe, when to eat.
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  Those things are all a part of the package.
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  Give yourself grace. Give yourself the time that you
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  need to adapt. The even the body coming off of
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  an airplane and being able to run fast still needs time to
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  adapt. Give yourself grace, be there
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  for yourself and to know that those those are the things that
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  make an athlete. It is the athlete being able to
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  adapt, being able to mentally be strong, being able to ask
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  questions and knowing that even the coaches are not all perfect,
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  but you will find the way. You will find your answers.
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  You just ask the best coaches you know, ask coaches that are
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  credible, ask coaches the the best that you can and to make
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  sure that you do the right thing.
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  That's what I would leave with you and then let God do the rest
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  because you will become great when you put in that great work.
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  And I want to say that I was able to achieve those things
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  personally with my own personal confidence, my own personal
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  journey. But I always ask the Lord the
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  things that I can't see, the things that I can't control when
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  I do my best and I do it the right way, Cover me, cover me.
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  Let me be protected by you. Even when you're traveling, when
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  these athletes are traveling. Do you know that you know that
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  track and field athletes travel to Europe all the time.
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  Sometimes they travel by theirs, by themselves.
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  Do you know it's so much going on in the world today?
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  And we have, we travel a lot by ourselves.
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  We're, we're always making, we're, we're, we're traveling,
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  we're watching out. We're trying to make sure we go
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  to the right hotels, get in the right cars.
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  You know, we, we're, we're working with our agents to make
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  sure that everything that we're doing from point A to point B to
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  be able to run the fastest times.
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  We are going through a lot of logistics to make that happen.
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  The the world of track and field.
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  These athletes are exceptional compared to athletes that are
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  covered all the time with, you know, in teams.
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  We're not always in a team. We go there basically as a as an
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  athlete going to compete in Europe and we have to go through
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  a lot of logistics to get there. We do our best, but I do want to
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  encourage those to know that the victory is not only in the race,
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  it is you becoming you and believing in you.
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  And through all of that, evolving into the woman and the
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  man that you're going to become as you become one of the
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  greatest athletes in the world. And so I realized that loving
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  yourself, being able to develop, doing your best to put yourself
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  in the right position and then going out and enjoy enjoying
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  executing and join that journey so that you can really embrace
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  the travel, the competition, the PRS, and the essence of what
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  you're doing to be great, especially as an athlete.
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  And then, and also when you endeavor to become an Olympian
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  or Olympic gold medalist, make sure that you enjoy the journey
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  mentally, physically, you know, spiritually, you know, I, I have
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  enjoyed my years, but I've also always given the glory to God,
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  you know, in the name of Jesus, I've given the glory to say I've
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  done my best. I've done my best to finish the
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  race, to finish my course and to also pass it down to my legacy,
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  you know, my my children, my family.
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  And so I encourage everyone in these athletes today to have a
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  bigger picture of what they really want to achieve.
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  And so that when you are in your practice, whether it's in the,
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  the hurdles or the sprints, you know, I was also in the relays
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  that you also enjoy making sure that, you know, I always kept a
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  journal of, you know, my, my starts and you know how I
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  learned the skill of the craft of sprinting.
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  And then as I evolved, I became a better sprinter from a hurler.
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  You know, it was so many things I I wanted to do, but I was so
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  gifted from being a hurler that I could transition in the pros
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  to the sprints to the one and the two.
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  I remember in 2004 running the 100 meters and beating a lot of
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  the top people that I admired. I admired GAIL Devers.
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  I really admired these athletes and I still do to this day
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  because those athletes helped me to see that I could achieve it.
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  And so learning from even from learning the starts, being able
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  to learn and understand I have what it takes.
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  So believe in yourself, then know you can take those
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  individual parts of the race, you know, in the sprints, the
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  beginning of the start, learning how to learn the drive phase and
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  driving, creating power, learning the transition phase,
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  learning how to build your core so that you can hold your top
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  speed. Those are the things that I
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  really found that by studying and getting up early and putting
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  more time into my craft, being disciplined and becoming a
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  sprinter, I, I realized I enjoyed the sport.
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  I enjoyed my craft. And so those are the things that
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  I learned and when I ran in in 2004 to win the Olympic trials
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  and to make my second Olympic team, you know, running a 10.96,
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  I realized that wow, I came from being a hurler to a sprinter.
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  And then from there I definitely also was one of the top of you
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  know, 404 by 4 athletes as well. So I evolved and I want to share
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  that and and pass that on to the next generation that while you
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  are developing and give your sign yourself time and grace to
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  develop, remember that you are becoming the woman or the man
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  that you're going to be. And so make sure that you really
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  enjoy your craft. I hope you enjoyed this talk and
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  this these Nuggets, these golden Nuggets and May God bless you.
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  Thank you. Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here.
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  Thanks for joining us for this episode in the youth and
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  beginner series Powered by Coach O Powered by Coach O is more
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  than a platform. It's a movement to benefit track
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  and field by supporting coaches, athletes, parents, officials and
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  event directors and countless ways.
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  Find out more and get yourself plugged in to the Powered by
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  Coach O by visiting coacho.com today.