Best Job | P&G London 2012 Olympic Games Film

Procter & Gamble has a wonderful new advert celebrating mothers and especially the hard work that Mums do that leads to Olympic athletes. Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NScs_qX2Okk

Swimming: Phelps & Pride

I’ve (inadvertently) had a swimming-themed weekend. For the last few weeks I’ve been reading Micheal Phelps’ memoir No Limits: The Will to Succeed. The book charts his journey to swimming success, starting off from his childhood in Baltimore, Maryland in the US to his astounding feat of winning eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

I’ve always had a lot of respect for sports people and kind of regretted that I was not more of an athlete (but that couldn’t be helped – I was useless at virtually every sport I tried in school). The only thing I was sort of okay at was swimming and even that, I didn’t develop with any seriousness. So, it was interesting to read what it takes to become an Olympian and more so a gold medalist. The other sports memoirs and autobiographies, which I’ve read (Dara Torres’ Age is Just a Number and Andre Agassi’s Open) also gave a powerful insight into the demands on the athlete’s body, mind, will and lifestyle.

I think that participating in sports is a very good way to develop discipline, the ability to work hard, and learning to work in a team but yet be an individual (for instance, choosing to swim laps or practice your shots when everyone else is sleeping in). It is also a wonderful way to learn how to handle life’s vicissitudes. Sometimes you will win and other times, you will not. This fact is taken for granted in sports: today’s champion might have been yesterday’s underdog and almost surely will be knocked off their pedestal one day by a younger, faster and stronger challenger.

Anyway, back to the book by Michael Phelps, it was an engaging read. I was not impressed with the writing quality in the first chapter, but it became smoother with each page.

Each chapter is named for each of the events in which he won eight gold medals in Beijing and for a quality that helped him to the top e.g. “Perseverance: The 400 Individual Medley” and “Will: The 100 Fly.” Phelps is detailed in his description of his workout routines (I gasped at how much he swum each week). At 12 years old, a typical set could include 1,200 meters (1 length of an Olympic sized pool is 50m, so going one way and then back is 100m). When he started taking swimming more seriously in his mid-teens, a workout could comprise of 12,000 meters.

The physical preparation is obviously key. A champion has to be willing to go that extra step and do what all the others don’t. So, for instance, if other swimmers rested on Sundays, Phelps trained every blessed day of the week. However, what really differentiates a champion from everyone else is mental toughness: the ability to take loses in one’s stride (yes, learn from them and then put them out of your mind and move on). No Limits showed Phelps to be the type of person who didn’t allow mistakes to consume him, but to put them aside and to focus on the job at hand. This is a trait summed-up by his coach Bob Bowman’s acronym: What’s Important Now (W.I.N).

This mental strength was a strong feature in the 2007 film Pride. Directed by a first-time director Sunu Gonera and starring Terrence Howard and Bernie Mac, Pride tells the story of a college swimming star Jim Ellis (Howard) whose dreams of sporting glory are shattered by racism. Following a disastrous swim meet, when his Caucasian competitors refuse to participate in a race with a Black swimmer, he is ordered out off the pool grounds by the police. He explodes, lashes out at a policeman and is arrested for assaulting a police officer.


Fast forward a few years later and he finds himself, by a series of accidents, the coach of a group of teenagers in one of Philadelphia’s roughest neighbourhoods (the team is later known as PDR, named for the Philadeplhia Department of Recreation, but also suitably standing for Pride, Determination and Resilience). The swimmers, Ellis takes charge of have none of the advantages that Michael Phelps probably did. For many of them, swimming is not a sport that is highly regarded in the African American community (in fact, a common statement made about Black people is that most of us cannot swim).

So, Jim Ellis starts from the basics and gradually builds-up the physical strengths of his team. The bigger task, though, is getting their minds in the right state of discipline, self-respect and fearlessness. Youthful exuberance aside, these teenagers display very little sense of purpose, probably in part as a result of a lack of real-life mentors and role models.

It is unrealistic to expect that such a rag-tag bunch would win at their first swim meet and thankfully this film avoids the tendency for any unbelievable Hollywood-type triumph. In fact, you could say that their first experience of competition is downright disastrous with almost all the PDR swimmers coming in last in their races. One of them (Reggie) is unable to accurately gauge when he should turn and hits his head on the pool wall. The swimmers refuse to wear the swimming briefs provided by Coach Ellis and the result is embarrassing for another of the swimmers as his denim shorts, which he insists on swimming in come off mid-swim.

Gradually though, the swimmers start to take the sport more seriously, develop a stronger work ethic and coalesce into a team. They practice harder and get better at taking instruction. Slowly, the medals start trickling in. At the climax of the film, PDR participates in a major regional swim meet in Baltimore (hey, this could be the pool that Michael Phelps trained in). Although they are intimidated by the size of the competition pool (50 meters compared to their 25-yard pool), by this time they’ve started to learn the lesson of facing your fears squarely.

It’s obviously a feel good film, but one which is based on the real life story of Jim Ellis. I think swimmers would enjoy it for, aside from the swimming sequences, the film is replete with beautiful shots of glistening swimming pools.

Ian Thorpe's Swimming Comeback

Source: CNN

CNN's Becky Anderson talks to the filmmaker documenting Ian Thorpe's return to the pool and competitive swimming. This is probably of more interest to me now having just read about Dara Torres' swimming comeback. It's hard to return to a sport where you used to be champion and now you're regarded as a dinosaur.

Age is Just a Number - By Dara Torres

Year of Publication: 2009
Authors: Dara Torres and Elizabeth Weil


I know I have mentioned at some point how I find some of my favourite books. There’s absolutely nothing like wandering through the aisle of a bookshop and idly glancing through the shelves not really looking for anything and then having your eye arrested by a catchy cover or an interesting title. Then, you pick up the book and skim through the synopsis on the back and then decide quite suddenly that “I’ll take this!”

And then it turns out to be one of your best decisions ever!

Does that sound familiar? Yes? No?

Ah well, if it’s not, I hope you soon experience this joy. It’s true what they say: you find what you’re looking for when you’re not looking. (Well, sometimes this is true. And the other times, you need to have a carefully mapped-out action plan!)

So, I was wandering through a bookshop in Lagos, not really looking for anything and (everything else I said in the first paragraph………..). I took a second look at this book because the lady on the cover appeared to be standing in front of a huge swimming pool.

Is this a book about swimming or does she just happen to be posing in front of a pool? I wondered.

When I picked up the book, I discovered that it was by Olympian swimmer Dara Torres.

The other thing you might know if you read this blog is that I love swimming. I’m not saying I’m a fantastic swimmer, but I love water and swimming very much. The other thing is that although I love swimming, I don’t actually know any swimmers. So, Dara Torres was not a familiar name to me.

However, I turned to the first page and read: I’ve been old before. I was old when I was 27 and I got divorced. I was old when I was 35 and I couldn’t get pregnant. I was really old when I was 39 and my father died. But when I was 41 and I woke up in a dorm in the Olympic Village in Beijing, I didn’t feel old. I felt merely – and, yes, happily – middle-aged.

A story about someone who battles the odds? Oh yes, I totally love those! And this book Age is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life perfectly captures the experiences of having to live out your dreams in the face of naysayers and ‘conventional’ thinking that would seem to suggest that you are out of your mind for even daring to entertain the thoughts of said goal.

DT, as she’s affectionately known by her friends and family, is seemingly a strong tower in the ensuing maelstrom of disbelief when she decides, as a pregnant 38 year old, to try for her 5th Olympics.

I love her determination, but also her honesty when she admits to sometimes being shaken by peoples’ opinions and expectations. Wavering in the middle of difficulty is natural, but ultimately success comes from deciding what’s important to you and staying true to that. So, DT focuses on her goal and surrounds herself with the best team to help prepare her 40-something year old body for her 5th shot at Olympic glory – including her not-so secret weapon, but one which confounded even her coach at some point: her stretchers Anne and Steve.

The book is organized by themes in Dara’s life, for instance On Making a Comeback, On Being an Older Athlete, On Not Giving Up, On Being a Younger Athlete and not in a strictly linear manner from her childhood to adulthood. So, sometimes it was a little confusing for me, having to get used to the constant back and forth from teenage years to adulthood pre-baby to childhood, and back to adulthood post-baby. However, the chapters build-up quite nicely to the grand finale: the Olympic Trials and then to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I found myself speeding through the pages in anticipation of what would happen next: would she or wouldn’t she.

Obviously, if you like swimming, you will enjoy this book. And if you don’t like swimming, I think you will still enjoy this book.

While I really dislike the title of the book – Age is Just a Number – (I feel that this doesn’t fully capture what the book is all about), it does indicate how Dara’s story can inspire anyone at whatever stage of their life, who feels that their time to make their dreams come true has come and gone. In these pages, she shows that you can push beyond the accepted way of thinking and, with a lot of hard work and discipline, help birth your dreams into reality.

The National Stadium

Image credit: http://www.skyscrapercity.com

I paid a visit to the National Stadium today. My previous visits had been to attend Sunday services organised by God Bless Nigeria.

Today’s visit was actually sports-related. Following my recent decision to start a swim club, my love for the sport bubbled-up afresh within me and I decided to buy a kick board. A kick board is a rectangular board that swimmers (typically learners) hold on to while they practice their kicks. More experienced and competitive swimmers also use it for exercise and to improve their leg movements.

I’d been scouring Lagos’ sports shops (at Silverbird, the Palms, City Mall, the various Nike stores) looking for one to no avail. On a chance suggestion to try to stadium, I decided to give it a shot.

As I entered the complex, I looked around for the sports SHOP and instead I saw a square of several sports SHOPS. I was spoilt for choice. My sister and I parked and went into the first shop. They had a kick board … a child-sized board. We went into the next shop. The same story. Don’t adults use kick boards? Maybe they can all swim. Or more realistically – from my experience – maybe they can’t and can’t be bothered to learn.

Since we had a lot of options, I eventually found what I was looking for in one of the shops. I also met an acquaintance looking for tennis whites. The most amazing discovery for me was that this gem for sports people exists in Lagos. Each shop stocked a plethora of sports accouterments from equipment like punching bags, weights, balls, rackets, to machinery like treadmills to clothing to accessories like trophies and medals. Not only that, for the large part, the sales staff also seemed knowledgeable about their products. Then, of course the prices beat those I’d seen in island shops hands down!

The stadium has certainly fallen into quite a state of disrepair. Nevertheless, it was vibrant with activity as people abounded rollerblading, playing football, taking tennis lessons and running around the complex. It was heartening to see these activities even though institutional sports in Nigeria is much neglected and under-funded. One simple contribution that we can make – location permitting – is to check out and use the stadium facilities and to support the shops.

The Swim Club

Photo Credit

After my swimming lessons ended last November, quite unbelievably, I have not swum a single stroke. How that happened is rather like a mirage to me, but the hard fact is that it’s due to work (an incredibly busy schedule, not enough hours in the day – that kind of thing …).

My sole form of exercise these days is walking, which I do for 1 to 2 hours every Saturday morning. A friend joined my sister and I today and we discussed the local running/walking club, which meets unfailingly every Saturday to sprint/amble/crawl (it’s open to different levels of ability) around our estate.

I mentioned that I wished for a similar association for swimmers. My sister – ever practical – retorted “Well, why don’t you start one?”

Hmmm. Now, why didn’t I think of that?

So, I started to mull over the idea. Well, why not? The lack of a readily available (and let’s be honest, cheap) pool might be an obstacle. Then another potential problem could be that I know far more people who cannot swim than who can. What else? Well, among the few women I know who can swim, most don’t because they’re averse to ruining their carefully coiffed hair dos and often monstrously expensive weaves. On top of that, Thursday’s surprise and very heavy downpour reminded us that the rainy season is on its way.

However, once I’m sold on an idea I tend to look beyond the challenges and trust that God will make a way.

So, the long and short of this is that I’ve decided to start a swimming club. What will we do, one might wonder? You mean, aside from swimming?

Swimming is a wonderful activity, but one that can get boring when done alone and frequently. Often once I find my rhythm, I enjoy the routine of the strokes, however some days I swim a lap or two and then can’t get out of the pool fast enough.

Swimming with other people would certainly be a lot more fun – especially when you’re there to swim and not just chit-chat. Though if you want to chit-chat too, there could be time for that. Structured routines and healthy competition could improve swimming performance. Then, we could share techniques too. The benefits are endless …..

So, now all we need are people who love to swim and somewhere to swim. I suppose an idea of how to go about this would help too.

I follow several swimming blogs and some mention swimming groups. My favourite blogs are:

www.swimwellblog.com
rorylbuck.wordpress.com
swimmingiseasy.blogspot.com
www.goldmedalmel.typepad.com

If anyone has ideas, resources and favourite blogs/sites to check out, I would certainly love to hear them.

The Hope for Girls Project: Empowering Girls Through Basketball

Have I mentioned that Today on STV is one way in which I find out about things happening around town?

Well, on this morning's show a young lady and an older gentleman (shame, I can't remember their names now) were interviewed about an initiative, which they coordinate called the Hope for Girls Project. HFGP seeks to mentor and empower young women using basketball. This is about the second such project I have heard of in Nigeria using sports to reach out to young people (I heard about the first also on Today on STV, but that was focused on boys, if I remember correctly).

The very first time I heard about using sports to educate, empower and mentor young women was in Nairobi last year with the Binti Initiative, which brought young women together to play football matches, and afterwards shared with them information on sexual and reproductive health.

Back to the HFGP interview, the young lady called Bola used to play for the First Bank women's basketball team. She now works as a financial analyst for ESPN in the US, but is still involved with HFGP. This year they will hold their first basketball and empowerment camp for young women between 11 and 19 (I think!).

I was very impressed with the way she spoke about the need to impress on young Nigerian women of their worth, especially in a society that does not frequently appreciate them and where their value tends to stem from external factors like family, marriage and children.

Ireti Doyle countered that very often how we are treated is a direct result of how we carry ourselves and that perhaps Nigerian sportswomen weren't demanding for their rights. Bola responded that typically female athletes aren't in a position to demand for *anything* and this is even more so in Nigeria with its unequal treatment of men and women (And this is on top of the general lack of support for sports that affects both sexes).

More for information about the Hope for Girls Project, email hopeforgirls.ng@gmail.com or get in touch with Today at STV.

Update: A link found for this project, http://sportforchange.changemakers.net/node/16603