TRIATHLON EDUCATION IV, ‘VACATIONING’

I have seen high performance institutes that have all what is needed to support athletes, except education.  The infrastructure is there including the human resources to support athletes at the highest level and sometimes they achieved “Gold.” This happens when the personnel is well trained and devoted to athletes.  Unfortunately, it is like taking a vacation trip for many athletes; a vacation trip that could last for years.  I discuss this with my patients also.  Some of my patients look “beautiful” when living with family, boyfriend, wife, husband, etc., but when they leave the relationship what we see is “horrible.”  We see just what the patient has; just think about Arnold Schwarzenegger and Florica (Floarea) Leonida http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florica_Leonida   

Retirement brings a lot of what we are after leaving the environment that helps us to develop “our talent.”  Tiger Woods is another example, even though he is not retired from golf but from his former family.  I know what my wife gives and what belongs to her and I would not be the same in her absence.  LIFE IS SO SIMPLE.  The champion depends on his/her environment.  I owe most of what I achieved to my family.  Education should help us to recognize what belongs to us or to somebody else.  When retired (in the sense of Tiger Woods), we come back to what we are and we can look horrible.  One of my patients used to tell me, the zip code comes back to me.  I have seen athletes in Cuba who gain tons of weight after retirement because they were just supported by the system but nothing belongs to them.  Educationally, nothing was gained by the athlete.

How to own what we practice and live is the key in this education and it comes from home at the beginning.  The problem in Mexico and many other countries is that after adolescence there is nothing that can support adolescents socially, and the infrastructure is very deficient to support something.  That is why Nicholas Romanov (Pose Tech) told me once: “In America, anybody can be a hero.”  He could not see that the infrastructure, considering coaches, environment around athletes and the system in general, makes the difference.