(This is installment #9 of Lessons From the Passionist: How To Turn Passion Into Purpose To Create Greater Meaning and Joy in Your Life. Today we talk about the influence coaches can have on our passion, whether helping us find it or bring it back when it seems to be waning. Enjoy!)
For many people, coaches are a big influence in how they view and shape their lives. I’ve seen the impact in my own life and have heard countless stories about amazingly influential coaching relationships that have inspired lifelong passion in people. While the examples I highlight below are sports related, there are many other types of coaches who ignite people’s passion every day in business, relationships coaches, creative arts and many other areas of life. Coaches can be an important ingredient for living a passion-driven life.
The passion-stirring skill of many great coaches is well documented. Books have been written about them and movies made as well. Vince Lombardi willed the Green Bay Packers to greatness. Pat Riley created an NBA dynasty with the Los Angeles Lakers. Herb Brooks inspired a bunch of college kids on his 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey squad to find enough passion to beat a superior team of professional Russian hockey players in one of the biggest upsets in sports history, the “Miracle on Ice.” And Richard Williams could be considered one of the best tennis coaches in the world, having shaped TWO of his daughters, Venus and Serena, to be grand slam champions who are still at the top of the women’s game well into their thirties.
Coaches can help athletes, executives and other professionals see what they might be missing by being too close to the action every day, or they can help offer an alternative perspective of the things they are both seeing. High level performer always want that second opinion. Coaches can certainly help with technique, preparation, strategy and tactics. But they can also help inspire, instill and reinvigorate passion. Even the most passionate people cannot sustain their optimum level of passion all the time. Coaches can help identify when rest is needed or when a kick in the ass is needed. Great coaching is a vital source we can tap into to find and sustain passion throughout our lives. I would bet all of us has had a coach or two who helped us find a little more passion when we needed it most.
A few years ago, I was working on a project with a well know tennis coach and friend, John Eagleton. He had hired me to help write a book and direct a video series about Techne Tennis, a teaching method he had developed over his thirty years of working with players of all levels. Since I had experience as both a tennis player and a communication professional, I was able to translate his teaching into consumer/student friendly language, images and video footage. It was a fun collaboration that continues to this day.
John and I spent countless hours studying the movements of top tennis players and the movements of top athletes in other sports. We wanted to find a connection between the core athletic movements in tennis and those in other sports like baseball, football, volleyball, soccer, and boxing. That way, people who had played other sports could relate to and use these connections to learn tennis faster. Drawing these parallels proved to be a very effective teaching technique, and we’ve found that people learn very quickly this way.
One of the sports we had a particular interest in studying was boxing. Boxing has often been compared to tennis for its “mano-a- mano” nature, and the individual effort – not team effort – that dictates success or failure. They are both exhilarating games when you are winning, and extremely lonely games when you are not. But, while John and I were interested in the comparative mental aspects of the two sports, we were also keenly interested in comparing the rotational movements boxers make when they throw punches to the rotational movements tennis players make when they hit tennis balls (as it turns out, they are very similar).
One morning, John and I were having breakfast before heading to the tennis courts in Miami. Sitting next to us were two young athletic looking men in their mid-twenty’s. One of them asked us if we were tennis coaches (the Techne Tennis logo on our shirts and pile of racquets next to us must of given us away). “Yes,” we said, and we asked what they did. One of them was a professional boxer and the other a strength and conditioning coach. How fortuitous. Maybe we could get a good look at boxing up close?
It turned out that the boxer sitting next to us was not just any boxer, he was Olympic gold-medalist Luke Campbell. Luke represented England in the 2012 Olympic Games in London, and won the bantamweight gold medal. Now he is a professional looking to improve his craft and become world champion. Luke was in Miami because he was training for a few weeks with a well-respected Cuban boxing coach named Jorge Rubio. In boxing circles, Rubio is considered a master coach of southpaws (Luke is a left handed boxer), and has coached a few world champions.
Luke is no ordinary boxer. In fact, he is no ordinary person. While he has many great personal attributes, he possesses one quality common to all great champions. He has a never ending hunger to become better at his sport. This hunger led Luke to research and find Jorge Rubio in Miami. Jorge for years trained one of Luke’s favorite boxers, Guillermo Rigondeaux. Many boxing pundits consider Cuban-born Rigondeaux one the the best, if not the best, pound-for-pound boxers in the world. Luke’s working with Rubio was carefully calculated. If he wanted to be the best, Luke knew he needed the best coach, so he came to Miami from England a few times a year to learn what he could from one of the master coaches in his sport.
I asked Luke at breakfast if John and I could come watch him train with Rubio. He said of course, and told us a time and place. I was very excited to see the type of training Luke did, and to what degree it was applicable to the tennis training John and I were designing. But what I would ultimately see in Jorge Rubio the first morning we visited was even more fascinating, given my interest in studying people’s passion.
John and I showed up at Rubio’s gym at ten o’clock a few mornings after our initial meeting at breakfast. To call the place sparse would be an understatement. The gym was about the size of two garage bays, with a ring set up toward the center back of the space and taking up most of the available room. Along the right wall there were some hanging boxing bags and some homemade looking training contraptions made of out boating buoys and bungee cords. There was an old rowing machine and stationary bike in the corner, and a speed bag on the wall to the right as you walked through the garage door opening that served as the main entrance to the gym. It was summer in Miami, so it was hot. Stiflingly hot.
We saw Luke warming up for his workout and said hello. While John made boxing small talk with Luke, my attention turned to the silver-haired guy in the ring working with a young boxer. This man was fixated on the boxer, moving around him with cat-like quickness, and barking out instructions in Cuban-dialect Spanish. This short, wiry coach, seemed to move twice as fast as his young, fit, fearsome looking charge. It seemed like the older coach could have easily taken out the younger student with a flurry of quick shots that the younger boxer would not have even seen coming. This was Jorge Rubio. This was the man Luke had sought to improve his game in the ring and to make him a world champion.
When Rubio finished his session with the young boxer, he jumped out of the ring to greet Luke with a big hug and a smile. Luke introduced us and I could see the intensity in Rubio’s eyes. It was an intensity I had seen many times before in highly successful people. We chatted briefly, and then Luke and Rubio got down to work.
Luke is an English boxer. Jorge is a Cuban coach. Boxing is a religion in Cuba, also the country of origin for salsa music and dancing. The connection between boxing and dancing in not incidental. The two activities, it seems, are complementary. Cuban boxers dance around the ring and elude opponents while peppering them with fast, unseen punches from all angles. They are masters of deception and surprise. By contrast, English boxers tend to move methodically straight forward, attempting to overwhelm opponents with bravado and the willingness to absorb or evade punches while applying constant forward pressure. The contrasts in style are as different as the two country’s cuisines or languages. And yet, here I was watching a Cuban coach teach and English boxer. And it seemed to be a perfect fit.
Luke is great student. That morning I watched him listen intently to every word Jorge shouted, while studying every movement Jorge demonstrated. He repeated the moves – the Cuban boxing moves – over and over, sweat pouring out of every pore in the sweltering Miami summer heat. John and I noted the rotational movements Luke made when he threw his punches, and yes, they were the same as the tennis movements we were teaching. Our mission for the video content was accomplished. But what really grabbed my attention in that dingy, smelly, tiny gym was the passion of Jorge Rubio.
Here was a man who truly loved his job, who was so focused on the task at hand that a train could have driven through his gym, and as long as it didn’t disrupt the ring, he would not have noticed or cared. This was passion in action in the purest form possible. It was singular and joyful. Rubio’s energy was magnetic as he screamed “Aaayeee!” every time Luke got it right. This was the power of a great coach to harness the passion of a great athlete.
After Luke and Rubio finished their workout, I mentioned to Rubio that I had seen very few people in life with his focus and passion. He smiled and laughed as he said in his heavy Cuban accent,” Robert, I love boxing more than my wife. But it’s okay. She knows.” Not knowing Luke well at that time, and seeing the level of passion Jorge brought to sport, I thought to myself, “Luke has found an amazing coach who will definitely change his life in and out of the ring.”
Being a good host and lover of Miami, I spent quite a bit of time with Luke and his strength coach during the rest of that training camp. I showed them the sights of Miami, and ate a few meals with them. During that time, Luke expressed a keen interest in business, and was constantly asking about topics related to marketing and sports. He seemed like an intelligent and driven young man with a bright future, and clearly wanted to maximize his opportunities during and after his days in the ring.
We must have clicked, because a few weeks after he returned to England, Luke called me and asked if I would consider becoming his manager. It was a possibility for me, but I would need to know more about him and his support team and family before making a commitment. Athletes can be tricky to work with and the people they spend time with outside of the arena usually gives you an accurate picture of their character. So I flew to England to meet his family and friends. After a week in Hull, Luke and I agreed to work together.
My role as Luke’s manager would not involve the day-to-day organization of his life, as is the case with most managers. I would function more like mentor and business advisor, which was perfect for me. I didn’t accept the job for monetary gain, but rather to help Luke organize his thinking about his life and career during and after boxing. I had only the cursory knowledge about his sport that I picked up from the boxing sessions I did weekly for fitness over many years, and my observations of the sport as a fan. But I knew about high level sports training and competition from my years playing tennis. And Luke’s coaching situation bothered me from day one.
Rubio was only Luke’s part-time coach when we met. He still had a full-time coach at home in England, one he’d had since his Olympic training days. The full-time coach was the polar opposite of Rubio. He was a rather aloof, passionless Englishman, who seemed to have a clinical, detached style of working with Luke. It seemed to me, when I visited Luke in England and watched him train with that coach, that Luke was just another boxer in a long line of boxers he coached. It felt like he was doing a “job”, going through the motions to collect a paycheck.
In contrast, Rubio, the part-time coach, was an impassioned Cuban who lived and breathed boxing. His sole goal in life was to make world champions. His reward was winning. He guided Luke through his lessons the way a father imparts wisdom on a son, with a sense of urgency to pay close attention because the lesson could be life altering. His focus on getting Luke to do things right, and repeating them until he did, was unwavering. The contrast in coaching styles was stark.
As I got to know Luke better, and observed the dual-coach dynamic Luke was experiencing, I could see that it was creating tension in Luke’s mind, given that the two coaches had vastly different approaches to boxing. I was concerned for Luke, not because I knew much about boxing at the time, but because I knew it was hard for any athlete to have two coaches who each have different approaches and techniques. It’s like having two bosses at work giving two different sets of instructions on how to get your work done. Who do you listen to?
Luke’s next camp was the first of the camps where we had an athlete/manager relationship, and Luke stayed at my house in Miami while training. As expected, he was dedicated and disciplined, and trained hard six days a week. He was meticulous with his diet and sleep routine, and didn’t go out after 9pm or drink alcohol. He was focused on his passion – to be the best boxer possible and maybe world champion one day. But something seemed off one day during camp and I asked Luke, “When you are in the ring and faced with a tough situation, who’s voice are you listening to for guidance, Rob’s (his English coach) or Jorge’s?” He looked at me with a quizzical expression and said, “I don’t really know. They tell me to do different things.” Wow. Unfortunately, that was the answer I expected.
I sensed there might be a big problem with the coaching set up, but I didn’t pry further. I was just getting to know Luke and the sport of boxing, so I tried to stay in my lane as manager. I only mentioned to him that in the future, he might consider working with one coach full time (I had a strong bias for Rubio, but that was based on observing his passion and chemistry with Luke, not any special boxing insight that I had. I was new to boxing after all, and didn’t feel qualified yet to influence Luke in this area).
Six weeks of camp passed, and Luke returned to England to finish his preparations with his English coaching team. I spoke to Luke every few days to see how things were going. He sounded stressed and distracted leading up to the fight. Little, insignificant things were annoying him. His daily schedule seemed uncertain and he seemed unclear about his training and diet. I would normally go to the fight in England, but Luke called a few days before and said he hadn’t made any flight arrangements for me. Odd I thought. He was usually quite detail oriented with everything. So, I stayed in Miami.
The night of the fight I awaited news about the result. His opponent was an experienced French boxer named Ivan Mendy. Mendy was a tough opponent for Luke, a good test on his way to chasing a world title fight in a year or so. He was a cagey veteran fighter who could push Luke up a level, but was not expected to win by the boxing cognoscenti. Luke suffered his first loss as a professional that night, a twelve round decision for Mendy. Watching the fight on television, I could see that Luke looked vacant and slow, like he really did not show up to compete, let alone win. It was clear that something was amiss. I waited for his call.
The next day he called me. Luke was stung by the defeat, not so much because he lost but because he knew he had not prepared properly for the fight. The dual coach situation I feared had proven to be a big weakness that night and would be an unsustainable situation if he wanted to become a world champion.
He called me again a few days after the fight and said he was making some changes to his team. He was moving to Miami to train and was going to be working with Jorge Rubio full time. He was picking one coach to direct his training efforts, and he picked the one with amazing passion and personal commitment to winning titles. I was thrilled with his choice, because I knew the chemistry between Luke and Jorge could be the missing link for Luke, the thing that could propel him to the next level.
I suggested to Luke that I visit Rubio to deliver the news and to get a commitment that Luke would be his number one priority. At the time, Rubio was training a handful of other fighters that could have posed a distraction. Luke wanted full-time commitment – no more part time coaches. We wanted Rubio to use all of his passion to direct Luke’s ascent to the top of the sport.
As Rubio and I sat in his kitchen, he told me that his goal in life is to make world champions and that of all the fighters he was currently working with, Luke had the most potential to fulfill that level of achievement. He said that Luke would be his number one priority and that he was certain that he could take him to the top of the sport within a few years. I looked into his eyes and felt the serious intent and passion as he spoke. Ok, Rubio had the job. I called Luke and we made it official.
The first year and a half of Luke’s partnership with Rubio, Luke won five fights (four early or mid-round stoppages and one decision) against top-level opponents and two titles. He is now the leading contender for the WBC lightweight world title belt. Jorge and Luke are an amazing team. Jorge makes Luke laugh and dance salsa, and, most importantly, focus on improving his boxing skills. Luke lets Rubio impart his extensive boxing knowledge in every training session, passing his wisdom day after day and getting Luke prepared to become the world champion. Luke is like a sponge at the gym, soaking in the teaching of his incredible, passionate coach.
It’s been a perfect match of athlete and coach from day one. I’ve seen Luke’s passion and enjoyment of boxing soar, and I have watched his confidence grow with every victory. The continuing Luke Campbell/Jorge Rubio story is a great example of how a coach can help ignite and harness passion in an athlete, passion that might otherwise be stifled to a degree that prevents the athlete from ever fully leveraging his skills in pursuit of his dreams. I can’t wait to see how the rest of the story plays out!
So how about you? What coaches have you had that used their passion to make an impact in your life?
Take a few minutes to complete the exercise below and see how your coaches might have helped ignite passion in your life.
Passion Journey Exercise #4
Take out a piece of paper and write down the answers to these questions:
- In which ways have I been influenced by my coaches, and has that influence been positive or negative in my life?
- Name one or two coaches who have had the most influence in my pursuit of a passion in life. What is the passion and why is it so meaningful to me?
- Has a coach ever encouraged me to pursue or discouraged me from pursuing a particular passion?
- Have I ever had a coach who made a life-changing impact on my life?
- Have I ever observed a coaching relationship that clearly resulted in and exchange of passion? What can I learn from that exchange?
- Do I pursue any passions in my life today that I would not have pursued if not for a particular coach? What is that passion and who was that coach?
Use the answers to these question to explore your motivations for pursuing your passions. Is there a passion you have today that was stoked by a particular coach? How did they help you ignite that passion? Retrace those steps and see if you can rekindle the feeling that got you hooked on that passion. If it’s a passion you’ve set aside, but still have, see if this exercise can help you bring it back into your life. If you are a coach, maybe this exercise will help you ignite passion in the athletes, executives or other people you are helping.
(Come back next week when we will conclude Chapter 2 by exploring other influential people that have instilled or ignited passion in your life!)
Until then, let your passion create your life.
Robert (aka The Passionist)
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