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Who was Coach
GP's most inspiring interviewee?...
“The crossover in
my career between broadcaster and coach, to me, is very interesting.
Having coached athletes, both professional and amateur, and having
interviewed professional athletes
such as those mentioned on this page - I have found their common
denominator to be their passion. Their passion takes the form of
an unswerving, unyielding drive toward their specific goals coupled, of
course, with their immense talent.
One of my personal broadcasting
highlights came when I interviewed the legendary Stanford University
Track & Field coach, Payton Jordan at age eighty-two. Payton had just
run 30.1 seconds for 200M at the 1997 National Masters Track & Field
Champ-ionships. Incredibly Payton was disappointed in his performance
and I asked him why he. He replied that his technical form let him down
at the start. “ I popped up too soon” he growled at me.
My main question to him... 'How
? How at age eighty-two can you run that fast?' He said, 'GP, it is
quite simple. Remember these five things.
1) Have fun, always have fun and love what you do.
2) Always work on your range of motion and flexibility: Always.
3) Work on your strength. Be it running stairs, hills or strength
training in the gym.
4) Always work on your breathing capacity. As I have grown older, I have
lost my breathing capacity but I work on it, I do breathing exercises
When I am sitting in traffic around Palo Alto, I breathe in for four
seconds and out for eight seconds. You can build up to this.
5) Finally, Speed, never ever stop working on speed……..do things fast,
fast fast fast !! ”
The man was
82 years old...now that's passion!
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