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Bruce Williams has quite a story to tell, but like many Geezer Jocks he first marvels over others. This week's issue are quick reminders of who we are as people who move. Humility, respect, teamwork, being fluid, and leveraging skills are the subjects. Photo by Susan Williams.
By Ray Glier
It’s good for me—and you—to look back at what Geezer Jocks have reminded us of. As always, this is not meant to be preachy, just useful.
Don’t wait for life to be perfect.
This comes from Barbara Warren of Charleston, West Virginia, who had balky knees and had replacement surgery scheduled, but still competed, as long as there was no threat to permanent damage. While she waited for her surgery, Barbara, a scientist, labored around the track and finished last in some events, but she was out there exercising her heart.
How many of us turn around and go back inside with the hint of discomfort?
The leverage you didn’t know you had.
Patti Baker, a dancer, became a hammer thrower in track & field. She said this:
“I started out my track experience at age 67 with the javelin, then the throwing coach said he wanted me to try the hammer. He said since I was a dancer turning (my body) shouldn't be hard. I said ‘That thing (hammer) scares the hell out of me’." But I love the hammer. It's my favorite.”
That is leveraging skills you know you have.
Patti also practices her fundamentals in the javelin throwing arrows.
Oh, and Patti said this, "My trainer makes me work much harder than I would on my own."
Make your ego so small it fits in the toe of your shoe.
Bruce Williams, a world-record holder in Masters swimming, refuses to turn the camera toward himself for very long. He is not the standard-issue champion, not by a long shot.
You can ask him about his glorious weekend in Little Rock (Jan. 20-22) and what it meant to him to set two world marks (70-74) and tie another, and the conversation steers toward the Vietnam vet he saw swim the backstroke ..with one arm…10 years ago.
You ask Bruce to describe a particular win of his in the Little Rock pool and a moment later he is marveling over the story of the 80-year old swimmers who put back together their college relay team from 60 years earlier.
The scourge of ego cannot infect this man. Williams tells another story, before his own, this one about the man he watched swim the 200 breaststroke in Nashville ...with no arms.
Williams is obviously proud of his marks but, he can’t help it, he starts talking about others, like the elite Masters’ swimmers coming up behind him in the 70-74 age class. They will obliterate his records next year, he says.
Humility helps construct a realistic view of who we are. It helps us learn and it helps us seek and embrace change. Bruce shows that humility lets us respect the accomplishments of others. And it does this.
Being a Geezer Jock is fun can keep you out of trouble.
They played hardball in real life. Then a change of scenery—looking out from iron bars—helped change their view of what matters.
They were mobsters and they played softball as they grew older.
Training partners do not allow one to zig while the others zag.
There is a group of Masters track & field athletes in southern California who are ritualists and stick to their 30-minute warmup routine every Sunday and Thursday meeting. It is a consequential warm-up of muscles to start the two-hour practice session.
Four are over 70 years old and one is 67 and they are unanimous about not running one sprint, not heaving one shot, or jumping over one hurdle, without thewarmup.
Accountability?
“For sure,” said Jim Malin, 74, a thrower and one of the five Masters track stalwarts who meet in the San Diego area. “We’re accountable to each other. We don’t cheat on that warm-up.”
And there you have the first commandment of successful training, or exercise, with partners. Accountability.
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Jim Malin and his crew preach accountability. It is looking out for one another, not lording over them.
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