3.10 Mia Hamm: The Vision of a Champion

“The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when no one else is watching.” - Anson Dorrance

Would you be willing to push yourself to exhaustion when no one else is watching to achieve your goals?

Mia Hamm is one of the best female soccer players in the history of the sport.

Her legendary soccer coach, Anson Dorrance, has told an inspiring story about Mia’s thirst for greatness several times.

He said one cold, late winter morning while driving to work, he saw Mia doing a grueling conditioning workout all by herself where she ran cone drills, without a ball or teammates and coaches to push or celebrate her, to exhaustion.

Coach Dorrance secretly pulled over to watch her, and he said in between each sprint, he saw her bent over with sweat flying off her and hot air shooting from her lungs.

He said he was so impressed with what he saw that when he got to work, Coach Anson scribbled a note for Mia that said: “The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when no one else is watching.”

Coach Dorrance says, “The final measure of athletic greatness is not what you do in the training session with your peers and teammates; it’s basically what you do on your own.”

Mia has said when chasing greatness, “No one is watching you. The accountability is your own.”

You have to be disciplined and find creative ways to push yourself.

Reflection Questions: Who do you want to be and what do you have to commit to doing to become that? Are you willing to do what it takes?