"You've got to be actively involved in the process yourself and you've got to listen carefully to what the coach is saying, take that on board yourself and implement what the coach is saying"
About this Quote
Davies is selling a version of coachability that has nothing to do with passive obedience and everything to do with ownership. The line keeps repeating "yourself" like a metronome, insisting that the athlete is not a vessel to be filled but an operator in the system. In sports culture, where people love the romance of the genius coach and the pliable protégé, he quietly flips the power dynamic: the coach can only offer information; the athlete has to convert it into behavior under pressure.
The specific intent is practical, almost procedural: be active, listen, internalize, execute. But the subtext is a warning against the most common failure mode in training environments - outsourcing responsibility. Plenty of athletes "listen" as a social ritual, nodding through feedback because it preserves ego and avoids the discomfort of change. Davies draws a hard line between hearing and implementing, the part that costs you: the tedious reps, the recalibration of muscle memory, the willingness to feel worse before you get better.
Context matters here. Davies, an Olympic-era long jumper, came up when technique, biomechanics, and marginal gains were becoming increasingly formalized. That world rewards athletes who treat advice like data, not like inspiration. The quote also reads as a gentle check on hero worship: a coach is not a magician. Progress is a collaboration, and the athlete is the one who has to live inside the adjustment when the crowd is loud and the runway is short.
The specific intent is practical, almost procedural: be active, listen, internalize, execute. But the subtext is a warning against the most common failure mode in training environments - outsourcing responsibility. Plenty of athletes "listen" as a social ritual, nodding through feedback because it preserves ego and avoids the discomfort of change. Davies draws a hard line between hearing and implementing, the part that costs you: the tedious reps, the recalibration of muscle memory, the willingness to feel worse before you get better.
Context matters here. Davies, an Olympic-era long jumper, came up when technique, biomechanics, and marginal gains were becoming increasingly formalized. That world rewards athletes who treat advice like data, not like inspiration. The quote also reads as a gentle check on hero worship: a coach is not a magician. Progress is a collaboration, and the athlete is the one who has to live inside the adjustment when the crowd is loud and the runway is short.
Quote Details
| Topic | Coaching |
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