Triathlon and Perseverance

Perseverance is a key element to accomplish something.  Einstein would say: “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” At the same time, he said: “The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.” How long should we perseverate trying to solve a problem?  That depends on the culture and experience.  I remembered a friend doing a fellowship at Harvard who found out that a patient forged a signature to obtain more psychotropics, the pharmacy called him up to inform him.  He wanted to speak to the patient regarding the matter, but the “boss” just told him to call the police because he could end up in jail without a license.  The boss knew by experience that the best solution was to call the police.  My friend wanted to perseverate with the patient to learn more about her.

We have a case of perseverance in triathlon that has cost a lot of dollars to Mexico without expected results.  Any other nation would stop trying the same format except that money for the Federation/organizer in Mexico would stop flowing.  The economic reasons for perseverating won even when “fake news” were needed to support the program.  At the end, the purpose of keeping the program even when using “fake news” was not sport related.  It is just like my friend who wanted to call the patient to know more about the situation and the patient, losing the purpose of helping the patient to overcome addictions (sometimes the police can help to put limits to the situation).  Remember what Einstein said: “The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.”

The Mexican State has supported Crisanto Grajales since he started practicing triathlon because he has been the Mexican Champion, he even won the National Amateur Sportsmanship in 2016.  Camps around the world for him and his crew were paid by the state; budget is justified by winning events like the Central American Events:

02 Sep
200641

2006 Lausanne ITU Triathlon World Championships

Junior Men01:01:5526 Aug
20063

2006 Veracruz ITU Triathlon Pan American Cup

Elite Men01:57:4011 Sep
200546

2005 Gamagori ITU Triathlon World Championships

Junior Men01:00:0227 Aug
200521

2005 Veracruz ITU Triathlon Pan American Cup

Elite Men02:02:3906 Aug
20053

2005 Bogota PATCO Triathlon Pan American Championships

18-19 Male AG01:04:2408 May
200431

2004 Madeira ITU Triathlon World Championships

Junior Men01:09:5906 Dec
200338

2003 Queenstown ITU Triathlon World Championships

Junior Men01:07:14

Recent Highlights

- 16th place at the 2017 ITU World Triathlon Leeds;
- 13th place at the 2017 ITU World Triathlon Gold Coast;
- 19th place at the 2017 ITU World Triathlon Yokohama;
- 24th place at the 2017 New Plymouth ITU Triathlon World Cup;
- 21st place at the 2017 ITU World Triathlon Abu Dhabi;
- 7th place at the 2016 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Cozumel; and 
- 12th place at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

 https://www.triathlon.org/athletes/profile/7503/crisanto_grajales

Resources are limited as well as time.  Ignorance allows "fake news" to be part of our History and our governing bodies believe in these news; people called it marketing effect.  The format we have used as a nation to create triathletes have failed long time ago and we continued using it because of economic reasons.

Triathlon Training for Beginners

The marketing on how to teach coaches triathlon training is just that, marketing.  The subject of teaching is related to the environment; it is not the same to teach in Afghanistan than in Norway.  To know the circumstances implies to know the level of understanding of the culture and education of the people receiving the training.

Like other advisers, Fontana, who served in a combat unit in the southern Afghan provinces of Zabul and Kandahar in 2011-12 as well as in Iraq, speaks admiringly of the fighting spirit of Afghan soldiers.

But he said the army is dogged by persistent problems with supplies, maintaining equipment and making sure units get proper support, issues which for years have been an obstacle to creating Afghan forces capable of standing on their own.

“They’re not scared of much, they will fight back fine, they’re good shots. Some of their soldiers are pretty crack,” Fontana told Reuters. “But it comes down to logistics and mission command.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-usa-training/new-u-s-training-unit-in-afghanistan-faces-old-problems-idUSKBN1L20D1

When dealing with this kind of education we have to know that teaching the basics is the only thing to do to improve training; it comes down to teaching logistics and mission command.  Logistics and mission command are not subjects to teach easily and they are not appealing for the ones receiving training; they are not marketable or paid for.  Unfortunately, these two subjects are necessary to be taught if we are on the task of creating champions in these cultures and countries.

We have another rude example of lack of knowledge regarding the circumstances surrounding a specific population:

The quotation, first attributed to Marie Antoinette in 1843, was claimed to have been uttered during one of the famines that occurred in France during the reign of her husband, Louis XVI. Upon being told that the people were suffering due to widespread bread shortages, the Queen is said to have replied, "Then let them eat brioche."^[4] Although this anecdote was never cited by opponents of the monarchy at the time of the French Revolution, it did acquire great symbolic importance in subsequent histories, when pro-revolutionary historians sought to demonstrate the obliviousness and selfishness of the French upper classes at that time. As one biographer of the Queen notes, it was a particularly useful phrase to cite because "the staple food of the French peasantry and the working class was bread, absorbing 50 percent of their income, as opposed to 5 percent on fuel; the whole topic of bread was therefore the result of obsessional national interest."^[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake

Our athletes become outliers because they receive this basic education at early age, and even with this knowledge and actions we have a high degree of failures.

Triathlon and Outliers

Looking at the last World Championship, Gold Coast 2018, we can see the triathlon outliers:  The winner of the female junior elite category; Hungary could spread its athletes’ data and it can be on the outskirts of the winning culture with its male athlete winning the junior category.   Cecilia Ramirez is clearly outside of Mexican expectations statistically.  She is an outlier.

An outlier is an observation that lies outside the overall pattern of a distribution (Moore and McCabe 1999). Usually, the presence of an outlier indicates some sort of problem. This can be a case which does not fit the model under study, or an error in measurement.

Outliers are often easy to spot in histograms. For example, the point on the far left in the above figure is an outlier.

A convenient definition of an outlier is a point which falls more than 1.5 times the interquartile range above the third quartile or below the first quartile.

Outliers can also occur when comparing relationships between two sets of data. Outliers of this type can be easily identified on a scatter diagram.

When performing least squares fitting to data, it is often best to discard outliers before computing the line of best fit. This is particularly true of outliers along the  direction, since these points may greatly influence the result.

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Outlier.html

The study of outliers gives unique information.  The case of the Italians immigrants living in Roseto, Penn has been studied, they were outliers when they first came to Pennsylvania; the coronary artery disease was no so prevalent as in the other immigrants from other ethnicities.   At the end of the study, the way of living made the difference.

It seemed like a virtual fountain of youth, with a heart attack mortality rate roughly half the rate of every surrounding community. Same water, same neighborhood, same occupational mix, same income level ranges, same races. So what was the difference and why?

Well, you had to ask the Rosetans for the answer, and the next question you ask should be, Who are the Rosetans?...

Part of the bargain: Rosetans, regardless of income and education, expressed themselves in a family-centered social life. There was a total absence of ostentation among the wealthy, meaning that those who had more money didn't flaunt it. There was nearly exclusive patronage of local businesses, even with nearby bigger shops and stores in other towns. The Italians intermarried in Roseto, from regional cities in Italy. Families were close knit, self-supportive and independent, but also relied...in bad times...on the greater community for well-defined assistance and friendly help…

In 1963, these investigators made a prescient observation: they believed that as Rosetans became more Americanized (meaning less close, less modest and less interdependent), they would also become less healthy. The wearing off of the now famous "Roseto" effect would be apparent within a generation. And so it was.

A relatively recent (1992) survey, as published in the American Journal of Public Health, confirmed this sad prediction. The officials of the AJPH, no doubt beguiled by Roseto's fate, descended on the town yet again. Again the investigators rifled through the death records of Roseto, and again they compared them with the surrounding towns of Nazareth and Bangor. The result: the Rosetans now suffer equally from the ravages of heart disease as every other town does, in the vicinity or not.

Cecilia is not doing the same as the rest of the Mexican triathlon culture.  Education for Outliers has taken place daily.  Does it exist?  We have mentioned it in the previous post.  Generic education should continue if we want to continue learning; otherwise, we are going to finish like the Rosetans, losing the advantage. Cecilia is a real outlier as well as the kids training with her.  We have written about it:

16 avr. 2014

Triathlon and Regression Toward the Mean

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_toward_the_mean

This is a very tricky subject.  I have touched it several times but never went over.  It is the main reason why we have to choose our partners; we can become as the ones we critized if we interact with them for a long time:

In statistics, regression toward (or to) the mean is the phenomenon that if a variable is extreme on its first measurement, it will tend to be closer to the average on its second measurement—and, paradoxically, if it is extreme on its second measurement, it will tend to have been closer to the average on its first.^[1][2][3] To avoid making wrong inferences, regression toward the mean must be considered when designing scientific experiments and interpreting data.

This concept has not a translation to Spanish.  IT IS SCARRY!  This is a basic concept when we think about things scientifically; it is a sin ne quo non in science.  It is very important what could happen due to luck or to what we consider a trend in science:

The concept of regression comes from genetics and was popularized by Sir Francis Galton during the late 19th century with the publication of Regression towards mediocrity in hereditary stature.^[6] Galton observed that extreme characteristics (e.g., height) in parents are not passed on completely to their offspring. Rather, the characteristics in the offspringregress towards a mediocre point (a point which has since been identified as the mean). By measuring the heights of hundreds of people, he was able to quantify regression to the mean, and estimate the size of the effect. Galton wrote that, “the average regression of the offspring is a constant fraction of their respective mid-parental deviations”.

https://deportes.televisa.com/otros-deportes/videos-cecilia-ramirez-experiencia-en-triatlon/

Triathlon and Basic Education

Basic education is the main ingredient for talent identification.   Our work with children probes, proves and teaches us how to proceed with our work.  We cannot have valuable triathletes without basic education since the get-go.

The British Council have been working very hard on this subject.  Human Beings need to know this initiative.  It is worldly, the solutions to the world’s problems should be worldly: worldly ocean pollution solution, worldly economy and migration solutions.  Worldly education, teaching basic skills (basic education) above all.  Worldly education is what could save what is left from this world.

https://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/core_skills_brochure_british-council_2016-17_1.pdf

The British Council’s focus Building therefore on the deep pedagogies framework and UNESCO’s transversal skills and in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders across our network, the British Council is championing the development of these core skills and competencies by supporting teachers to develop their pedagogy in the following areas:

• Critical thinking and problem solving: Promoting self-directed thinking that produces new and innovative ideas and solves problems; reflecting critically on learning experiences and processes and making effective decisions.

• Collaboration and communication: Fostering effective communication (orally, and in writing); actively listening to others in diverse and multi-lingual environments and understanding verbal and non-verbal communication; developing the ability to work in diverse international teams, including learning from and contributing to the learning of others, assuming shared responsibility, co-operating, leading, delegating and compromising to produce new and innovative ideas and solutions.

• Creativity and imagination: Promoting economic and social entrepreneurialism; imagining and pursuing novel ideas, judging value, developing innovation and curiosity.

• Citizenship: Developing active, globally aware citizens who have the skills, knowledge and motivation to address issues of human and environmental sustainability and work towards a fairer world in a spirit of mutual respect and open dialogue; developing an understanding of what it means to be a citizen of their own country and their own country’s values.

• Digital literacy: Developing the skills to discover, acquire and communicate knowledge and information in a globalized economy; using technology to reinforce, extend and deepen learning through international collaboration.

• Student leadership and personal development: Recognizing the importance of honesty and empathy; recognizing others’ needs and safety; fostering perseverance, resilience, and self-confidence; exploring leadership, self-regulation and responsibility, personal health and well-being, career and life skills; learning to learn and lifelong learning. In so doing, the British Council supports the argument that equal importance be given to the economic, social, cultural and civic dimensions of learning, as recently recalled and recontextualized in UNESCO’s Rethinking Education.

As David Graddol notes: The role of education in school is now seen as to provide the generic skills needed to acquire new knowledge and specialist skills in the future: learning how to learn. Literacy in the national language and, perhaps the mother tongue where that is different, remains a basic skill, as does numeracy. But information technology – how to use computers and applications such as word processors, spreadsheets and internet browsers – has become just as important in basic education.

Triathletes need to continue learning new skill, be able to learn from what they are experiencing.  The jump from juniors to senior elite level triathletes takes at least three years as in the case of the Brownlees, longer for Mola or Duffy.  Basic Education have played a role.  We have seen the opposite in many others who were junior champions.  Those athletes failed because they were not prepared educationally to jump from juniors to senior elite level.

In countries like Mexico we encounter problems at the level of basic education.  Education becomes information and at the end we have the confusion between entrepreneur and speculators.  They think that the two are the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0NQIMIlkIA

Triathlon Late Bloomer

It is funny and interesting to say that America is a late bloomer as a continent. Living in this continent is to be behind many conflicts and events played out someplace else before our time; World War I and II for example.  It is also a fact that experience is personal and it is difficult to be convinced about something if we have not experienced it or know a similar event.  Stephen Curry doubts that men were on the moon.  So, it is important for parents and civilization to show the know-how.  Many things can be part of the experience of an entire population if we “really learn from History.” Internet is playing a big role to show the know-how in order to appropriate a larger experience.  Idiosyncrasies are the difference in this globalized world and not the content of the experiences.  In a way, the Aztecs lost the war because of their idiosyncrasies regarding war and not because they were not apt for it.  Our team is a late bloomer because we learned from experience since triathlon started without being part of the triathlon history.  Mexico, except for the Aztecs and Mayas, has being out of the Universal History.  Learning from History is not an easy task.  We have to start with believing what we see as the first step to learn from History.

In our team, we started to review the “old testament” in order to have a better idea of human beings. “Nothing new under the sun,” says the Ecclesiastes.  “The old testament” gives the best “visual” written pictures to learn to believe in what we see.  When Cecilia Ramirez was asked by the Mexican TV if she was afraid of competing against the Brits, Americans, French etc., she just said: “I believe in myself and my team, and concentrated in myself during the race.”

https://deportes.televisa.com/otros-deportes/videos-cecilia-ramirez-experiencia-en-triatlon/

In order to create champions in Mexico, we have demystified many things.  The late bloomers need to believe in what they see and in themselves.

Triathlon and Cheerleaders II

I listened to Emma Coronel’s interview regarding her life with Joaquín Guzman.  Well, I could be listening to Sarah Sanders and her statements, they are the same:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/06/05/sarah-sanders-credibility-questioned/674886002/

Can we have champions in triathlon with this kind of thinking and education?

The type of education needed for champions is not what Sanders and Coronel have in mind.  What we learned from what they say is the scary reality of humanity; we went too far creating “monsters” that could destroy us.  There was not Nazi guard that felt bad for what he did, or bad about what he was living. Fortunately, they were not too many, but we are not in the same situation nowadays looking at people as Sarah and Emma.  Trump speaks about impeachment with the same insight as Sarah and Emma:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-i-cant-be-impeached-because-im-doing-a-great-job

If Donald Trump is starting to get worried about his position after his week from hell, he isn’t showing it. In a blustering interview with Fox & Friends broadcast Wednesday morning, the president claimed it would be impossible to impeach him—because he’s doing an “A+” job.

Well, Trump is not a champion and never would be.  Bankruptcies to earn money is not a strategy of a champion but it can give you money as it happened with Trump.  We will never see his tax filings.  The route to be a champion does not allow “fake news” and “fake information.”  It is just a matter of looking at Kristian Blummenfelt and we can see what is needed:  a lot of honest and hard work.  His work is in Strava.  Although, many people would believe that he made up mileage using his car.

http://diariodeltriatlon.es/not/12353/una-estrella-de-las-series-mundiales-pulveriza-el-record-del-mundo-ironman-70-3/

The Mexican walker, Lupita Gonzalez (Gold Medal in Rio because the Chinese was DQS for doping), gave positive for trenbolone; she claims it is from contaminated meat.  But from what we know, she made big changes after the Olympics and she could hardly tolerate needed training after a long haul rest; she most likely used this kind of help offered by ignorant and ill-advising people around her. This is not different from Emma Coronel, but Lupita has not money as it is the case of Emma.  This became a huge problem for Lupita and probably the real end of her career (money recipient).  Education to overcome this kind of hurdle is badly needed, the ability to know “who is who” in order to make decision regarding training and nutrition.

Emma and Donald speak quite the same.  These guys are historic figures to study to learn about human ignorance.  We have gone too far in democratizing thinking and behavior to the point of having these people making decision for many.  We continue to work with our kids to create something different; at least they should know “who is who.”

https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/politica/esto-es-lo-que-opina-emma-coronel-sobre-el-gobierno-de-amlo

Triathlon and Cheerleaders

We were giving the weekly reading to our athletes.  It is an article written by a physician regarding what is happening in Oncology.  Of course, this is happening in Medicine in general, because we are ruled by pharmaceuticals and we have plenty of doctors that functioned as buffoons or cheerleaders.

A new class of physician has emerged in the era of social media. I call them "Twitter cheerleaders." A Twitter cheerleader is someone who bestows lavish praise on a new cancer drug, paper, trial, or test, while an objective and impartial look at the data may suggest caution or, at a minimum, less exuberant language. Cheerleaders uncritically parrot drug company marketing. How can readers recognize cheerleaders? Here are some of my tips…

1. Cheerleaders celebrate press releases that don't contain information on the magnitude of benefit.

2.     Cheerleaders celebrate a paper without reading it.

3.     Cheerleaders call a drug that does not improve overall survival "miraculous."

4.     Cheerleaders think any drug, no matter how marginal or ineffective, will be useful and it is just a matter of patient selection or some yet-to-be-discovered combination.

5.     Cheerleaders re-tweet cost-effectiveness analyses sponsored by the maker of the cancer drug that show favorable results.

6.     Cheerleaders make frequent, lavish, hyperbolic claims about the future.

7.     Cheerleaders point to improvements in 5-year survival statistics as a measure of how good cancer drugs have become.

Instead of cheerleaders, what we desperately need from physicians are realistic appraisals of what has been accomplished. Clear statements of future cancer goals. Cancer research funding policies that are driven by evidence, and greater honesty daily in the examination room and on the wards. Take off the rose-tinted sunglasses with the Pharma logo, and see the world with your own eyes. We would all be better off with fewer cheerleaders and more true scientists.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/902027

Hey, we are not talking about Trump.  This is something to be aware of  Medicine in the USA.  This was present when I practiced there, but now they have megaphones (twitter) to do so.

Some Federations and related governing bodies practice marketing the same way the drug companies do.  They buy buffoons or cheerleaders to do the dirty job for them.  It is a matter of taking a look at our own environment and the way they twit or the way they do not twit.  Depending on the way of marketing we have the triathletes we deserve.  We do not twit at all.