Brian Dawkins and "Dog"

The quotes used to create this post come from "How to Describe the Fiercest Players: Dawkins is Dogmatic" by Ashley Fox. The article was originally printed in the Philadelphia Inquirer on October 23, 2005.

Brian Dawkins is one of the greatest free safeties in football history. A lifetime Eagle, Dawkins will be playing in his 5th NFC Championship Game this weekend when the Eagles travel to Arizona to take on the Cardinals. Dawkins is in his 12th season with the Eagles, longer than any current player on the team and was selected to his 7th Pro Bowl in a season that began with wispers that he has lost a step and was closer to retirement than another Pro Bowl appearance. Dawkins plays with an amazing level of intensity that actually begins when he comes out for the pre-game introductions. Dawkins still hits as hard as any player in the league and is the unquestioned leader of the Eagles defense. Dawkins also has an amazing connection with Eagles fans, standing on the sideline at midfield after every Eagles score leading the crowd in a rendition of the Eagles Fight Song. The question begs, how does Dawkins play at such a high level for such a long period of time?

"You can't fake dog." Brian Dawkins is as intense a player as there is. From pregame introductions to the final whistle, Dawkins performs with a fearless flair that has earned him four Pro Bowl selections and a reputation as one of the toughest safeties in the NFL. But this week, Dawkins offered a little insight into his mental makeup, and it was as colorful a response as you'll hear. During his weekly media session on Wednesday, Dawkins was asked whether the Birds have a greater mental or physical challenge in improving their defense, which ranks 19th, allowing 327.0 yards per game, and will face the San Diego Chargers today "You either have dog in you or you don't," said Dawkins, who turned 32 earlier this month. "That's what we call it. You can't fake dog... and we have guys that have that."

Dawkins, here, is talking about his own version of playing (swimming) with a sense of urgency. However Dawkins knows that he is crazy to think that you can just turn on "dog" on game day:

"If you have that in you, then when it comes down to throwing down, when it comes down to fighting, you don't have to turn nothing on because it's in you and you aren't faking anything."

How to you get it "in you"? There are some people who are born with it; people who are naturally talented and naturally able to be great when they want to do so. Who are these people? Simply put, freaks of nature. There may be one person out of every 5,000 that actually has this trait. For the rest of us, there is a lot of hard work, sweat and pain that must go into developing dog. It takes a lot of time in the laboratory (READ: practice) to develop that perfect combination for you to be able to swim at your peak level in meets.

Swimming With Urgency: When Does It Begin?

Let's start by thinking back to what Dr. Alan Goldberg taught us in October. If you remember, he started his talk by explaining what goals are, how we should establish our goals, and (most importantly) when we should be reminding ourselves of our goals. He told everyone that "Goals are for practice, not for meets." If you are reminding yourself of your goals on meet day (especially when you are behind the blocks before a race) it will work against you. When Dr. Goldberg told us goals are for practice he meant that you have to remind yourself of your goals on a daily basis for motivation at practice. It really is not a mystery what the secret of success in swimming is: the more work you put into your training, the more you will get out of it in meet results. Coach Dan this year has even put it into equation form:

Practice Attendance + Practice Effort = Meet Performance

Everything you do in workouts on a daily basis leads to your meet performance. When you get to a meet you cannot just flip a switch and be a great swimmer. No one in this world is truly great without effort in practice. Thomas Edison made over 10,000 attempts at developing a more efficient incandescent light bulb before coming up with a design that actually worked well (NOTE: Edison did not invent the light bulb but greatly perfected its performance). A reporter asked Edison if he felt like a failure and Edison replied by saying that he was not a failure because he now knew of 10,000 ways not succeed. That kind of perseverance is what you need in the pool at practices if you truly want to become great.

There is a famous quote attributed to many different people, "You play how you practice." Most superstar athletes take this quote to heart and practice with the same tenacity and drive they take to game/meet day. Michael Jordan, in my opinion, is the greatest athlete of my generation. Jordan was famous for going all out in practice, even yelling at teammates who were not putting out the same effort he was. This is a guy who was making millions of dollars on the basketball court and in endorsements, who played 40 minutes a game at top speed and still had energy to go all out for a two hour practice on off days. Jordan knew his ability to play at the highest level came because he practiced with a sense of urgency. That is how Jordan went from being cut from his high school basketball team freshman year to becoming the greatest basketball player of all time.

What you can do to step up the urgency in practices:

• Most importantly, do what you are told to do. Nothing frustrates a coach more than a swimmer who is not following directions. When you are told to race, race. When you are told to work on technique, work on technique.
• When you are working on technique or drills do the drills exactly how the coaches tell you. Make sure you are continually thinking of how it relates to your full stroke. All drills have a purpose, make sure you are focusing on that while you are doing the drills.
• When it is time to work...DO IT! Swim that repeat in practice like it is the biggest race of your life. And then do it again, and again, and again...
• Do not be afraid to race in practice. If you are constantly holding back in practice you will never be able to fully swim with a sense of urgency in a meet. It is okay to race your teammates (as long as it is kept friendly) but most importantly you have to race the clock and yourself. You should be able to remember the times you do in different practice sets and compare them to times you have done in practice in the past. It would be most helpful to keep a daily practice journal where you write down some of the sets you did each day, what your times were in those sets, and how you felt while swimming them.

Swimming is a very technical sport. However everything will always boil down to racing. You have to put forth peak effort in practice every day if you are going to be the best you can be on meet day. If you are going to be able to swim with a sense of urgency in a meet you have to be able to do it in practice every day.

Next: Part 3 - Brian Dawkins and "Dog"

Swimming with a Sense of Urgency

We have reached the point of the season I like to refer to as "The Grind". Its a grind because we are coming down off of a high in competition (Pittsburgh Christmas Invitational and NJ State Meet) and training (Winter Break). The end of the season is now within sight but still a bit off on the horizon. We now face two months of training through conflicts and practice changes (see the calendar for this information) as well as several swim meets for which most swimmers will not rest at all. Some may say: what's the point?

The most important thing anyone can take from attending meets unrested is learning how to race tired. Imagine if you can do a best time tired...how much faster are you going to swim primed and ready for that meet? We need to go into each and every meet and each and every race at these meets ready to swim with a vengeance and, more importantly, a focused sense of urgency.

Swimming with a sense of urgency is a key ingredient to peak performance for a swimmer, perhaps the most important. There are many swimmers who are great in practice but when it comes to a meet something is missing. I want all swimmers on this team swimming each and every race like it is their last race ever...how would you want to go out? Hopefully you want to finish with a best time and, most importantly, a performance you can look back on and be proud of for years to come.

There are stories we hear every once in a while of people performing incredible feats of strength in times of dire circumstances; like the person who reaches down and lifts a car off of someone's legs to help save their life in a car accident. Its not that the person suddenly gained super-human strength...its that the urgency of the moment and the adrenaline coursing through their veins drove them to perform that feat of strength. The truth of these situations is that the ability to perform this feat was always in this person, it just took an extreme sense of urgency to bring it out of them.

Each and every single swimmer on this team has the ability to swim out of their mind...beyond what they believe they can do. Dan and I proved this at a Gold 2 practice in November when we allowed each group member to pick one of their events and race it in practice...if they did their lifetime best time they were allowed to get out of practice. That night the group went 20 for 22 in best times. TWENTY! The swimmers had a sense of urgency and were able to use that drive to bring the absolute best out of them. Everyone has this in them...we need to see it on a regular basis NOW!

Coming next, Part 2.