Karma...Colorguad Style

I once heard an interview by an Olympic gymnast who had a less than stellar "All Around" performance and ended up NOT placing where she thought she would place, which was atop the medal stand. She didn't hear her country's national anthem played for her and she didn't go home with a medal she thought she had so richly deserved. In the interview,  she was asked this question, "What happened on that balance beam? Why did you lose control?" Her answer stunned me as I thought she would have given some excuse about her ability to focus or some technical reason related to balance and control. She simply said, "I believed my own press and didn't put the work in needed to handle the pressure of the world stage." She went on to talk about arrogance, missed opportunities, and the importance of the team. More than anything, she talked about pressure. Any Olympian will tell you that there is no greater pressure than that of the world stage. They can compete against the same athletes year round in competitions all over the world, but there is something about the pressure that comes with the Olympics. The whole world is watching and you better be prepared.

Colorguard is no different. It's just a different stage, with different athletes. Anyone who has taught long enough has seen that performer who believed their own press. They thought they were better than they were. They didn't believe the staff when they heard the word, "karma."

"I would be careful if I were you. Karma is a bitch to contend with in Dayton." 

Karma will hit you when you least expect it and will get you because you believed your own press. I love that phrase. "Don't believe your own press." I use to work for a company where the CEO would start every management meeting with, "We will not believe our own press. We can be beat. We are fallible and our press can go from positive to negative just by one simple misstep." She started every general staff meeting with that speech as well and then she challenged all of us to strive to be better and to continue to set the standard of excellence for non-profit organizations.

Applying that same theory to a colorguard headed into championships is paramount. It can apply to anyone. The high school guard just hoping to make finals at their local championships or the world guard hoping to medal in Dayton. Your luck can turn on a dime in the last week of the season and often times it's your own karma that did it to you; not the judges and not the audience.



So, back to the performer who we often say will face the hand of karma upon the most inopportune time. Will it be in prelims when every tenth counts? Will it be in finals when the video just happened to be on you at that moment of the big rifle catch that ends the sequential, that just happens to be on the subtle note that ends the phrase? Will it come in the form of a drop? A broken sabre hilt? A broken rifle strap? A sail before a big toss? When will it come and in what form will it take?

I use the word "karma" rather jokingly, as I'm not quite sure I believe in karma, as much as I believe in the failure to prepare and the power of arrogance to take over the mind. I believe in energy and how positive energy can create a performance that is fully assured and confident and how negative energy can create epic level nightmares on the arena floor in Dayton. Preparation takes all season and requires ongoing dedication to your team and commitment to the process.

When you spend your season bereft of dedication, arrogant and undisciplined, then the karma of championships will surely find you. There is no way to counter a season of waiting for others to do the work you were supposed to do. In those times when you should have been practicing, but played on the internet instead or the times when you blamed a teammate on a mistake that was really yours, then be careful of karma. When you prayed for the season to end soon and complained that the staff was too hard and going overboard, then watch out. In those moments when you thought, "I'm better than all of them and next year I'm marching with the "Grass Is Clearly Greener On The Other Side Guard," then duck and cover, because that level of arrogance can only be met with Biblical style, Old Testament retribution. 

You can't counter in one weekend and in one show, the pressure that is mounted upon a guard stepping on the floor for prelims. Your mind plays games with you. Thoughts of "This is our last performance" or "It all comes down to this one show," will haunt you all the way up to the announcement that starts with, "Next on the floor..." This is why preparation is vital. Preparation lies in your muscles reacting exactly the way they were trained and your mind creating positive energy around every second you're on the floor. 

So if you failed up to this point to give it everything you had and you have failed to be the best teammate possible and you used excuses to not be the best YOU that you can be, then step up today and admit to that. If you are going to Dayton you have one week. One week to perfect your mindset. Turn your mind into a force to be reckoned with. Use the power of positive thought. Use the power of the team. Professional level athletes don't let down the week before the world championships and they don't believe their own press (Denver Bronco's). They push harder. They manage their diet and sleep. They practice and practice hard. They push themselves and their teammates. They control their mind. They meditate. More and more athletes are talking about meditation to create positive energy and block distraction. One week until Dayton. In that week my friend...you can make the difference and that week is a lifetime in the world of competition and the tears that come won't be tears of regret, but tears that only come from that feeling of a season lived fully and spherically.