What an Olympic champion can teach us about learning in ‘safety’

Here’s a quote from US Olympic swimming star Katie Ledecky’s coach, Bruce Gemmell – “We’ll try a drill that she’s horrible at – something where she’ll start off in the poorer third of the group doing it. Then I’ll catch her sneaking practice time to get better at it, so within some period of time, she’s one of the best in the group. Some other swimmers, well, they try and they fail at it, and I have to cajole and beg them to try again”.

We don’t like to fail in public, do we? It doesn’t feel great. I love the idea of a multiple World and Olympic champion “sneaking” off to do some practice on her own. Apparently, she doesn’t like failing in public either! For some, failure can lead to an acceptance of lack of ability. Not Katie Ledecky. Failure lead her to find a ‘safe’ place to learn and do what’s needed to improve. Do you need to find a ‘safe’ place to learn when things don’t go to plan?

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