In case the title wasn't blatant enough, I'm pretty excited to get this thing rolling.
Today's post is centered around the competitive side of Cross Country Running.
If you're unfamiliar with how Cross Country works:
Races are typically 3.1 miles long (5K) over many different types of terrain. There are seven runners to a team, and only each team's top five runners score points. Each place number is equivalent to the amount of points that the runner earns, and the team with the lowest amount of points wins (think golf).
Here's the Wikipedia Page if you'd like to further educate yourself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_country_running#Strategy
Alright, now to the real meat and potatoes of this post; Communication!
There are many ways to run a race. As the race begins and you look around to your competition, you think to yourself, "Should I go out hard, lead the pack and mentally break the other runners? Or should I keep a steady pace throughout and pick off runners as they fall back? Maybe a combination of the two?" In either case it comes down to the non-verbal communication that ensues between you and the other runners.
In pacing along side someone you are saying "I'm here, good luck shaking me off, because when you start to waver I'm leaving your ass behind!" This method can either be grading or motivating on a runners perseverance, depending on the individual.
You could try to speed past someone and break their mental will to hold you off, or maybe even work with another runner to simultaneously motivate the both of you, with the hopes of ending the race in front of them. You may even try to silently sneak up behind someone so as to not tip them off of your proximity.
In any of these cases, a dialogue occurs between the two runners that can either make or break a race. In other sports, communication is verbal through trash talk, but Cross Country is largely through the body language. Is the runner showing signs of fatigue? Good form? Confidence? All of these tell competition something about a runner's mental state, when your goal is to break theirs.
As this is my first entry, I'm sure the format and content will vary as I become familiar with posting.
Finally, Here's a clip from "Get Him To the Greek" where P. Diddy explains the art of non-verbal communication discussed in today's blog.
I totally agree that non verbal communication is a major part of Cross Country Running. I believe that this sport taxes the mind of the athlete because its not easy with the type of hours of training this sport demands. The race is also not easy because the average person cannot run for that long.beign an athlete myself i believe that most competitors r not solely thinking about themselves but they are somewhat worried about what is going thru the other persons mind.. like what strategy r the goin 2 employ or how long it will take to shake or even if the can shake them.
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