FROM OLYMPIC DREAMS TO RESULTS - Chris Cook, British two-time Olympian swimmer

Alloutcoach

This special episode takes you on a dream journey in a recent conversation I had with a two-time British Olympian swimmer, global keynote speaker and executive coach, Chris Cook! He inspires us to experiment, dare to share with our competitors who are our greatest assets at times, reflect internally, and keep things simple in order to make the dreams of reaching the Olympics a reality in sports and in business. 1:49 – How did you become an athlete and a swimmer first before you became an Olympian? 1:58 - Adrian Morehouse, British Swimmer had won at the 1988 Olympics - that's when he decided he'd be an Olympic Swimmer and joined a swimming club within 2 weeks at age 9 3:52 – Who were the coaches that inspired you? 5:08 – Story of daring to share ideas with competitors and learning to become more confident and vulnerable. 6:27 – What was your first breakthrough in your career? 6:48 - #1 - His coach told him to break the world record when we has only 13 years old, which he did by swimming 1 lap at a time with a rest in between the 4 total laps. That made his goal achievable in his mind! 8:40 - #2 - Chris was struggling to break through the British ranks, finishing in the top 5. In one of the tournaments he made the European team made it to the semi-final in Ireland. 10:00 - Your competition can be your greatest asset! He started to compete with the top 5 in the world, not only in the UK! 10:14 - Did you appreciate that lesson about competition at the time when you were 21? 10:39 - Chris was deliberately be guarded against competitors. But he learned over time that competitors expose your weaknesses which is a huge benefit. We are looking for those 1% improvement over your personal best. 11:21 - At age 21, Chris considered his final frontier when he began to break down the walls. He went to a training camp in Australia along with his competitors. 12:53 - Follow up on the 4 lengths of the pool WR in the training session at age 13 - his coach with no swimming background experimented by training him on aerobics, yoga, etc. 13:42 - His lung condition was better than most other swimmers which he attributes to his experiments during training years before. 14:14 - Experiments do not fail, they just give you results! Its about what you do with the results! 15:04 - He failed during a practice and was frustrated. And this is when his coach shared his wisdom which he still remembers. He transported him from an emotive into a rational state. Chris' practice lacked only fitness and the last length of the race. 15:44 – They came up with this formula: "Ask it, answer it, action it!" 17:37 - How did you manage to continue to train regardless of your finishes? 20:09 - Conversation with Sports Psychologist Simon Hartley, who told him "you only have to swim two lengths of the pool - don't make it too complicated". 22:01 - As you become a star I imagine you realized who your real supporters were. How did you manage to have the most supportive team by your side? 25:03 - Throughout your journey did you find yourself motivating others through their journey or observing others as well? 29:51 - Swimming is a technical sport. What is your approach to getting ahead using technology while honoring sportsmanship? 33:50 - What are the areas of opportunity in which we can test the human capacity in swimming? 34:48 - Stars have some self-centeredness about them but in a positive way. Your body is your race car that you have to stay attuned to at all times. Sports and Business may be somewhat different in that athletes learn to recover better and faster than business people. 36:14 - When athletes train are they more likely to visualize the purpose of their hard work and practice than businesspeople who are too focused on the results? 37:36 - What do you enjoy about coaching business leaders vs athletes? 40:04 - Is most of your work in a particular geographic area or industry? 43:20 – What is your lesson or advice to listeners about leaving a legacy in life?