Judgements about People and Reality
Daniel: Why didn't you tell me?
Miyagi: Tell what?
Daniel: That you knew karate.
Miyagi: You not ask.
- Taken from The Karate Kid
For the past year or so, there have been these random Japanese swimmers showing up for weeks on end to train. One of our coaches--referred to as Tako or Coach Tako--is from Japan, and he spends a great deal of time working with them when he isn't running our Master's workouts. So as time has gone on, people have begun to wonder about these swimmers that randomly show up, and rumors have been to build over time.
I think my favorite story is that these people that show up are doing the Japanese version of "Scared Straight." They may have been caught smoking pot, or took their parents' car out without asking. For such behavior, they are sent to Arizona to see how hard life can be outside of the loving confines of Japan. But that story doesn't make a whole lot of sense on a lot of levels. All I knew is that something was going and I didn't understand exactly what it was.
I got some clarity on this past Monday morning. A note was written on the workout board stating that one of Coach Tako's swimmers took first in the 100 Fly at Japanese Nationals. I'm not 100% sure, but I would guess that he will be going to the Olympics as part of the Japanese Olympic Team.
As it turns out, Tako is one of the elite swim coaches in all of Japan, and trains a handful of swimmers intermittently. They stay with him in his small apartment, run workouts when he is asked to do other things for the swim team, and first and foremost, swim. This whole story sounds like a movie waiting to happen.
Friday night The Karate Kid was on and it reminded me of Coach Tako and his random Japanese swimmers. The thing that really struck me is that Tako is a world-class swim coach, but unless you are told this, you would never guess it. His communication skills in English aren't so great, he tells most people "I don't know how to swim," and is known to yell out random age group swimmers names when they are goofing off in their own respective practice. Each day last summer, at least once per workout, Tako would yell out "JOOOOOOOHHHHHANNNNNN!" during the middle of our swim practice. After awhile, I started yelling it out randomly just to confuse the kid, and Tako as well, but I digress.
The point I was trying to make is that sometimes people who are truly exceptional or interesting, go un-noticed because that don't quite fit the mold of what we expect someone "great" to fit into.
Namaste
Miyagi: Tell what?
Daniel: That you knew karate.
Miyagi: You not ask.
- Taken from The Karate Kid
For the past year or so, there have been these random Japanese swimmers showing up for weeks on end to train. One of our coaches--referred to as Tako or Coach Tako--is from Japan, and he spends a great deal of time working with them when he isn't running our Master's workouts. So as time has gone on, people have begun to wonder about these swimmers that randomly show up, and rumors have been to build over time.
I think my favorite story is that these people that show up are doing the Japanese version of "Scared Straight." They may have been caught smoking pot, or took their parents' car out without asking. For such behavior, they are sent to Arizona to see how hard life can be outside of the loving confines of Japan. But that story doesn't make a whole lot of sense on a lot of levels. All I knew is that something was going and I didn't understand exactly what it was.
I got some clarity on this past Monday morning. A note was written on the workout board stating that one of Coach Tako's swimmers took first in the 100 Fly at Japanese Nationals. I'm not 100% sure, but I would guess that he will be going to the Olympics as part of the Japanese Olympic Team.
As it turns out, Tako is one of the elite swim coaches in all of Japan, and trains a handful of swimmers intermittently. They stay with him in his small apartment, run workouts when he is asked to do other things for the swim team, and first and foremost, swim. This whole story sounds like a movie waiting to happen.
Friday night The Karate Kid was on and it reminded me of Coach Tako and his random Japanese swimmers. The thing that really struck me is that Tako is a world-class swim coach, but unless you are told this, you would never guess it. His communication skills in English aren't so great, he tells most people "I don't know how to swim," and is known to yell out random age group swimmers names when they are goofing off in their own respective practice. Each day last summer, at least once per workout, Tako would yell out "JOOOOOOOHHHHHANNNNNN!" during the middle of our swim practice. After awhile, I started yelling it out randomly just to confuse the kid, and Tako as well, but I digress.
The point I was trying to make is that sometimes people who are truly exceptional or interesting, go un-noticed because that don't quite fit the mold of what we expect someone "great" to fit into.
Namaste
posted by Zen_Accountant at 9:39 AM
1 Comments:
Good post.
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