TRIATHLON EDUCATION V. Lying

We have spoken about the difficulties when growing up children and even more difficult to create champions.  A huge issue is when facing what I call the Denial of Saint Peter. 

Août 2012 Triathlon and the Denial of Saint Peter in this blog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter

Denial of Jesus by Peter

Main article: Denial of Peter

All four canonical gospels recount that, during the Last Supper, Jesus foretold that Peter would deny him three times before the following cockcrow ("before the cock crows twice" in Mark's account).

Most of the athletes and people in general do not want to face reality and start to “lie” to continue living and preparing for next day.  In order to be a champion this is a no-no.  We can postpone interventions or actions, but  not allowing lying to one self is the main benchmark of a champion.  I tell my athletes and patients: “The last thing you should do is to lie to yourself because that is being really crazy and it has no end.”  Our great Jacques Lacan used to say: “Love, love, love, that is why we invented the unconscious.”  He was too French to say that, that is why we lie to ourselves.  But it is not only love why we lie to ourselves. Nowadays, fear and laziness are the main reasons.  Of course, by definition, plain psychopaths do that.

It is incredible listening to Floyd Landis lying. Fortunately, he is facing the ICU for defamation.

http://www.insidethegames.biz/sports/summer/cycling/1011161-uci-wins-court-case-against-landis-following-armstrong-allegations

 

I wandered how much he had to lie to himself when growing up to get to his point.  It is scary to know how much lying has happened in cycling to get to this point.  But let´s speak about the Freudian lying, the one call unconscious lying.  My teacher Tom Szasz used to say: “I do not know who is more of a liar in the case of the patients and doctors; the patient, or who believes the lies of the patient.”  I will go beyond this. “It does not matter if it is unconscious or conscious we create the same damage.”  The last year Floyd competed, he was in Mexico with Rock Racing and we went to see the cycling teams downtown, to see Armstrong in particular.  Armstrong left without touching the dinner (it was too late).  A local bartender asked us about somebody passing by, it was Floyd.  He said: “He stayed all night long chasing girls in the bar.”  Floyd did not finish the race.  Big lies like the ones seen with Floyd come many years after “Freudian unconscious lies,” but they started in childhood.

But let´s continue with this Freudian-Lacanian lies.  By the way, Lacan separated from Freud to develop a totally different theory but he had the concept of unconscious.  WE WORK EVERYDAY WITH OUR KIDS TO STOP LIES AT ALL COST.  We spend our lives creating champions and we know that not lying is a Sine qua non of a champion.  If we get liars to become champions it is because the system supports to the maximum the individual and he/she is able to survive because of the system (family, organization, team, etc.).  As it was the case of Floyd. The younger the kid, the work is on his/her belief system to influence a reality oriented life.  Otherwise, the Freudian-Lacanian lies start to flourish.

 

Working on the belief system of a kid is exciting and rewarding, but sometimes we also lie to ourselves at times.  We believe that they are actually learning or are on the same page, but we do not want to see the signs that tell us the opposite.  So, in order to teach we need to be as free as possible of lies, ourselves.