Perfection of the Unknown


A recently uncovered fable from the renowned storyteller: Aesop.

The Impatient Coach and the Talented Athlete

The coach was working with their new athlete for a while and was starting to learn their strengths, their weaknesses. He was learning about their 'weapons', he was learning about their limitations. He was learning all the reasons why the athlete will never be a world champion, as well as some of the reasons they might.

Once he made these discoveries he had a choice - 'do I find a way to get this athlete over the line regardless of all the limitations, or do I move on to another athlete?'

So he started looking around. He started finding out about the next generation. He looked at the junior competitions. He saw amazing things, or maybe just glimpses of what could be amazing things, with just a tiny bit of polishing. He decided to  move on to another group of athletes who will be the ones. The ones would be make it.

He started working with them and remembered the excitement he used to have. He could see the talent. He could see those glimpses of brilliance. He could see some pieces which can be put together to achieve the ultimate success. Life was good.

But things didn't progress as fast as he thought they would. He started to see the limitations. And then he saw more. Some were trivial. Some less so. He started to see all reasons why his new athlete would never be a world champion.

Things were taking longer than he'd hoped with this new group. His manager was getting frustrated and started putting pressure on the coach to succeed. He push the athletes harder and harder than they improved but then they started to get injured. Now its going to take even longer! He had to do something.

So he started looking around. He started finding out about the next generation. He looked at the junior competitions. He saw amazing things, or maybe just glimpses of what could be amazing things, with just a tiny bit of polishing. He decided to  move on to another group of athletes who will be the ones. The ones would be make it.

He started working with them and remembered the excitement he used to have. He could see the talent. He could see those glimpses of brilliance. He could see some pieces which can be put together to achieve the ultimate success. Life was good.

(Photo Credit)

Comments

  1. Aesop's Fable still needs a moral - which could go something like:
    ............and so it came to pass that the Impatient Coach is still looking for his world champion athlete

    ReplyDelete
  2. or
    ....... and so it came to pass that the Impatient Coach finally looked inwards and realised he needed to improve his own coaching abilities rather than trying to find the magical athlete which turns into a world champion

    ReplyDelete
  3. or... the coach's program suffocated under the weight of half painted canvases, and after poor results at 3 consecutive major competitions, lost the level of funding they previously had.

    ReplyDelete

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