PR…personal records…who needs them? I mean come on, they are just numbers right? How is an athlete supposed to remember them anyway? If you truly are a track athlete these are the only numbers that matter. These numbers tell you whether you are improving or not. I know some of you think winning is everything. Others of you think winning comes secondary to how well you “played” the game. Guess what? PRs take care of both of those goals. If you strive to reach a personal record every time you step on to the track, on to the runway, or into the ring you will be “playing” the game to your best ability and you will be winning. You will win the battle against yourself.
If you determine your success by the place you get in a meet, you may never reach your capabilities. If you pick out the athlete you want to beat and work your strategy around that one athlete what happens if he/she is having a bad day? What if that athlete has a head cold, a case of the trots or even a hangnail and doesn’t compete to his usual level? How are you going to measure your success? Would you be happy winning, but running 5 seconds slower, jumping or throwing a half a foot less? We can’t control the other athletes and their performances we can only control our performances. So strive to improve every meet, every practice. Know your numbers…did you run your 450s faster today than last week’s times? Did you throw farther at practice today than yesterday? Do you really expect to throw great at a meet if you don’t get it done in practice? Are you going to jump farther than ever before in a meet when you only go through the motions at practice? Are you going to break that barrier in the 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, or 3200 by only doing 2 of the 5 reps at full speed? PRs start at practice.
Finally, when your varsity athletes are competing at the level ours are…if every week you are “PR-ing” you will be winning. Not only individual events, but winning meets. If you need to know your PR just ask your coach…they know them.
Coach P
