Trust The Process

"Trust the process" is a common refrain you hear from coaches in any sport. While I would always like athletes to trust and value my input, I don't want them to blindly believe that I know all the answers and that my ideas are always the best for all members of the training group.

Track and field is unique in the fact that is a lot of opportunity for training to be optimized for each athlete. But in order to effectively do so, there has to be a lot of open communication back and forth between athlete and coach.

Whenever I hear the phrase "trust the process" I would hope that athletes have a good understanding of what that process is and what are the measurement points or milestones along the way that best show that said process is/will be effective when it matters most.

We always talk about goals being specific and measurable, so the process of reaching those goals should be as well. In order to better "practice what I preach," I created a Process Scoresheet a couple of years ago where athletes could grade themselves on how well they trusted/followed the process during a specific practice session. Check it out below:

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Process Score Sheet Date:

Accountability | Respect | Integrity | Positivity | Teamwork

Did you complete your circle checklist? 25

Were you focused during training time? 15

Did you have 1 good throw today? 10

Was your internal communication positive? 20

Were you prepared for today’s training? Sleep, nutrition, sound mental state? 20

Did you give your best effort in training today? 10

What did you learn today?

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The goal was for each athlete to complete this score sheet after at least one practice session each week as a group, and ideally, they would do it on their own either formally on paper, or informally in their head, after each practice.

As a group, they would come up with 3-5 core values to focus on throughout the season. Those are referenced at the top to further emphasize the focus that particular week. Each scored item was something that we all felt is the process. Regardless of the training cycle, year of competition, ability level, etc, if you were able to score yourself highly in each of those items, you could feel confident that your practice was successful and you are on the right path to maximizing your potential. Even if the session was frustrating and distances were not what was expected, the athlete could leave on a positive note, or have a better understanding that the frustration they experienced during that particular session may have been self-inflicted because they lacked in one or more of those items for that session.

Everybody generally grades themselves pretty tough, but over time each athlete becomes more conscious of each area and starts to see improvements and scores begin to rise. As a coach it is a quick indicator to see who is struggling in what areas and where some adjustments may be made to the routine or to other programming.