Have you ever been scared or intimidated by others in practice simply because they were so great or hard working?

This is actually really good one for right now because I'm kind of transitioning into training with a new group at Texas who where there are really people that are swimming a lot faster than me and working really hard. And I mean not that I didn't have that before but it's just different to be swimming breaststroke and how people that are going the same speed or faster than me. But I wouldn't necessarily say I'm intimidated or scared by that. I think that it can definitely be Be intimidating or scary. Unless you look at it as motivating because having people ahead of you or having people going the same speed as you makes you want to go harder, makes them want to go harder and the whole program, just improves.

Yes. As a matter of fact, I have when I showed up as a freshman, on the Harvard campus in 2006 in particular, there were two guys named Sam Wallner and Eric Lynch who were very intense, very badass. Hardworking, very talented athletes and they put me in my place pretty quickly, and I thought that was not something that I was used to. So, of course it was, A little scary as well intimidating. But you know what? When you're in that situation, you should be grateful for that because it's what you need, you need to be around people that are going to raise your bar and that are going to inspire you and motivate you to be more like them or to level up your work ethic yourself. So think of it as something to Aspire to not to be afraid of.

Have you ever been scared or intimidated by others because they were so great or hard-working? Absolutely. Yeah, I think as a coach, you know, my get intimidated by great athletes working with other great coaches because it just means I have to be even better. You know, that pushes me to my limits and I think that's why competition is so healthy because there is that little bit of mutual respect. And yeah, of course, if I've got an athlete racing agreement against another athlete who has Right coach, it make means me. I have to make, I have to be better. I have to work on myself development and it's normal to be intimidated. It's normal to walk into an Olympic Arena or a world championship in Rainier and feel slightly nervous, you know, because you're trying to think, have we done the right things, as our preparation being good. Have I made all the right choices, so it's completely normal and I know a lot of the athletes, no matter how good they are, they always feel the same but, you know, that the great ones always have confidence in what they've done. They're doing they have Ownership of their project and, you know, that's that, that pushes them to the next level. But, you know, to be scared or intimidated, it's completely normal. And, you know, I feel that that quite a lot of the time and that pushes me to be better.

Joe, this is a great question. And the answer is yes, plain and simply there have been times where I have been scared and intimidated. Like I think about starting swimming for the very first time when I was about 14 or 15 years, old of age, there were kids that have been swimming for years and years and years. And here I was no idea what I was doing. I had terrible stroke terrible, you know, everything was just bad but I had to learn how to do it and then coming from South Africa to the US and swimming at the University of Arizona and swimming amongst some really phenomenal athletes and not having a huge significant amount of development that had been afforded in the sport of swimming just by virtue of the fact that I started so late. That was scary or intimidating to degree. Never having lifted weights and remember, one of the first times I was in the weight room with Paulie. Tickles. And I had 135 pounds on the bar for bench, press, and I saw the way it came all the way down, but the way it never went back up and that in of itself when other people have been spending years, lifting was was intimidating. I think, ultimately though you get to the point where you understand that your journey is different to everybody else's where you are in relation to things is different, we can continuously compare ourselves to other people, but once again, Comparing ourselves to somebody else. It's an outside variable that we have absolutely no control over or we have control over on any given day is ourselves our effort, what we do, the small things that we do on a daily basis that we are doing well to allow afford for our greatest amount or greatest development.

Hi, Joe. Have you ever been scared or intimidated by others in practice simply because of the work that they were doing? No. Because in the squad that I was at, I guess I was the most accomplished swimmer. However, I should, I should at some point have left the squad that I was in to find that situation where I was challenged more and I just if I had it done that and typically I what I wanted to do was come to the United States to the Collegiate program where I am. You, I would have been matched up against better, swimmers, put myself in a situation where there's a whole lot more pressure, learning a lot more from swimmers that were more accomplished than me. So, I didn't because of the squad that I was in, but I wish him had of left that scored a little bit earlier, so that I could find myself in a situation that was more challenging