THE FUN FACTOR
Environment is everything when it comes to performance. I’ve experienced myriad environments since becoming a ‘real’ athlete some seventeen years ago. From the most peaceful and functional; to the radically dysfunctional and disruptive, I’ve pretty much experienced it all. I’ve learned, sometimes the hard way, key survival skills to make whatever and whoever I am surrounded by work. To be within a group of light-hearted, motivated and completely driven individuals is a gift and I find myself thinking frequently about my current team. The training group that I spend more time with, at times, than my husband, went through some changes this year. And what great changes they’ve been.
The result, for the most part, is a group that delights me to be a member of. The new guys in the group, though lacking in skating experience, have added so much with their work ethic and personalities. They have added the fun factor to our tired team and this ingredient has worked wonders.
I can’t remember laughing this much in any team environment. One of the stretching sessions the other week in the gymnastics gym at the University, with Ed Louie (massage therapist, stretching guru, gymnastics coach) found us working our flexibility. This incredible environment makes us look hopelessly tight juxtaposed with the limber gymnasts. It’s usually the men’s team in there during this time and we gawk and stare in awe for the hour, while stretching. When the real gymnasts left the facility, we found ourselves alone with Ed in the gym.
I don’t know who started it, but before any of us knew it we were doing hand-stands, jumping on the trampoline: in essence, we were playing. All of us were laughing (at times hysterically) and the next half hour, though we were exhausted, was filled with hyper-activity and tons of fun.
My husband Peter was there with us and on the jog home he noted to me how great it was to see us play. Peter said ‘it’s so important to be able to release like that, to really let-loose and have fun, unrestricted and unconditional’ and went on to say ‘you all train so hard and are most of the time exhausted, and if you can still find energy to laugh together and play, this is what will get you through anything and everything’.
That I have an environment that has, by means of the mixture of personalities and backgrounds, that fine balance of hard-core work ethic and playful immaturity when appropriate motivates me. It makes me happy to go to work each day, twice a day, with my ‘colleagues’.
With all of this fun, it’s easy to forget the pain and work that this job entails. What more could a person ask for?
