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I like to do puzzles.   Picture puzzles, crossword puzzles, sudokos, coaching . . . It's all the same. The trick, as in writing, is always to walk away when stuck. When I return, I can see things more clearly, pieces fall into place.

Well a few weeks ago I promised to write a piece about passion vs. reality. Not passion AND reality – but rather, when the two create a conflict within an athlete and how the individual response of the athlete is critical to success. Though I had the general ideas about what I wanted to say, how all the pieces fit together kept eluding me. I walked away and kept looking at it from a distance.

I'm glad I waited because Saturday, riding back from Boston I was half listening to NPR. The biggest question on my mind at the time was SAAB vs. Volvo – style vs. reliability – new car vs. poverty.   The radio was just white noise. The NPR topic was an article appearing Sunday in the New York Times by Daniel Coyle entitled “How to Grow a Super Athlete” Then I heard the word passion mentioned and my mind kicked into gear.

In a nutshell, Coyle went to the incubators of elite professional athletes to find out what made the difference. His supposition - more than specific regimens or training secrets, the most remarkable aspect of quality programs appeared to be the degree of institutional (my word) passion. Passion allowed the athletes to approach each day with positive anticipation, a mindset that helps an athlete through the constant repetition needed to become the best.   

I've always known that the mindset of my seniors is critical to the success of a team. If they are all focused on a goal, and can infuse the team with a positive outlook, they dramatically increase the chances of meeting their team goals. I call it a “critical mass” of winning attitude. You need enough positive energy so that any negative karma (and there's almost always going to be some) gets drowned out.

Over my career, it has become fairly easy to predict whether a team was going to exceed or fall short of expectations. My tell-tail is looking at how much the athletes want to be there. If it is hard to get them to leave practice, it's a good sign. If they ask the question, “Are we done yet?” – not so good!

It comes down to passion about what they are doing. Individuals can have passion, but if they are surrounded by the unmotivated, the ambivalent, the detractors, then the team can't flourish. They need a shared "team passion".

One of my coaching friends places two labels on his athletes. He considers them the “energy givers” and the “energy drainers.” People of passion provide energy to the team. You can guess what the drainers do. It is hard enough to compete at a high level without having to expend energy just to counteract the negative vibes. In fact, it doesn't have to be negative vibes. It could also be high maintenance athletes, unmotivated resume builders and prima donnas, any combination of which causes a team to lose focus.

Don't get me wrong. I realize that when you choose to coach at the high school level, especially in a non-cut sport, you are charged with getting the most out anyone and everyone that walks through the door. The coach's goal can't just be to win. A high school program should endeavor to have every athlete get something out of the sport.

Where am I going with this? Team passion is the sum total of individuals with a high degree of motivation.

Now I'm ready to talk about the subject that spurred my interest a few weeks back. Coaches have to walk a fine line between reality and passion. When developing a meet strategy, one needs to take into account as much tangible information as possible. How does the meet stack up? What would be the score if everyone performed their best? Has anyone shown in practice that they are ready for a breakthrough?

When coaches talk to athletes, it is necessary to be reasonable about expectations. If you tell a 5:50 miler that they can run 5:20, it won't take long to lose credibility. And even if you know an athlete is ready to step up their game, putting that pressure on them can sometimes backfire with feelings of failure if the breakthrough doesn't appear.

But the coach also has to temper reality so that he doesn't extinguish the fires of a passionate athlete. Past performances and observations in practice are great predictors of future performance. But they don't and can't predict the effects of passion.

I separate athletes into two categories, those who fall short of expectations and those who exceed them. By in large, those who exceed expectations are the athletes who hold passion and who are not held back by self-limiting perceptions. They are driven by high goals, thus creating their own reality – quite different from the one I'd imagined.

Until it arrives, the future has no bounds. Future realities are only a mental construct. The past was reality, the present is reality, but the future can be far different than anything imagined.

Here are a few examples.

At the state finals in the 800M in 1996, Emily Estey made a move with 200M to go that put her into the lead, only to be passed by two runners in the final 100M. She was third in the state. That became reality.

The following week she was ranked 5 th in the New England Championships. It was an especially hot day, well into the 90's and athletes were hiding under the Brown University bleachers to escape the sun. Based on the previous week, I was hoping she wouldn't make her move too early. I was concerned whether she would place at all. In my mind, she was more likely to finish 5th (her seed) than first. That is what I perceived as reality.

Throughout the first lap Emily sat back in sixth place. Entering the second lap she moved up to third. Emily came off the corner with 300M to go and made a bold move, opening up her stride and moving quickly to the front. With over 200M to go she was in full sprint opening a gap of probably 30M. With 100M to go a few athletes gave chase and even closed on her. But Emily had already stolen the race as she coasted to a new PR and a New England Championship. Her passion trumped my reality.

Ten years earlier I had an athlete names Melissa Golembewski who won the state championship in high jump. Missy also placed 3 rd in the 100M hurdles. I thought great things about Missy, but earlier in the season when she asked if she could run the 4X100 I gave her a blunt "no". In my explanation I used the words “you're not fast enough”. Ouch.

Missy wanted to prove me wrong, and asked if she could run the 100M some time. I told her there was no spot in the first heat, but she could run a non-scoring heat if she wanted. Missy ended up running 13.0, a pleasant surprise but it only put her on a par with other athletes, not convincing enough to take any member out of the team.

Then her opportunity came. The week leading into state finals I had to fill a spot on the relay because a runner would miss the meet to be in her brother's wedding. (Who plans a wedding during track season!?!) Long story short, Missy ran third leg on the team that won the state championship and went on to win the Eastern States Championship at Hofstra. The score: Passion 2 Estey 0

I could go on and on with examples of athletes with passion and determination who defied conventional wisdom and completely ignored logic on their way to incredible performances. Last year it was the 4X800 team that crashed and burned indoors, only to shatter the school record outdoors (9:36) and go on to place 7 th in New England. And from just this year - there is still no answer to how Kathleen Hennessey could come off an injury to PR and win a league championship in the 55M dash.

Passion vs. reality. A choice? Not really.

Over the years I've told many athletes that the “power comes from within”. That power is passion. When it comes to being the best, forget reality. Bring passion to practice and bring passion to races.   Don't keep it to yourself. Spread it around and before you know it your team will create a new reality that even your coach couldn't imagine.