20. The Drift

It’s easy to get excited about what an athlete could become. You see their progress, look at the calendar, and start imagining what might be possible by October.

I do it, too.

But my excitement doesn’t tell me where that athlete is today. Neither does the plan I wrote for them.

The Drift is the gap between what a coach intends or expects and what is actually happening with the athletes. Nobody has to be doing something wrong for that gap to exist. Growth doesn’t happen exactly when or how we expect it to. The trouble begins when the gap goes unnoticed and we keep making decisions from an outdated picture.

I want to understand the athlete’s reality, even when it complicates a picture I was rather fond of.

They shouldn’t have to convince me that their experience is real.