Keys to Success

Keys to Success with Mark Gangloff

Mark Gangloff is a  two-time Olympian and a member of the 2010 U.S. Pan Pacific Championships Team. Here are the keys to his success.

1. Hard work. This one is always first and foremost. It’s plain and simple. You have to come to practice every day ready to get at it. Whether you feel good or not – it’s easy to work hard when you feel good – you have to push through it, especially on the hard days, and think, “Even though I don’t feel good today, I have to work as hard as I did yesterday.” It makes for a miserable practice, but you feel great after that.

2. Know the reward is there, even if it is beyond the horizon. For me, throughout my career in all that I have accomplished, the majority of my best successes have come after a couple of bad years. I remember in high school I came close to breaking the state record in the prelims as a sophomore – really close. I came close again and again, but didn’t even get it as a junior. Finally, my senior year at state, I missed it again in the morning. It was a big record, because Glenn Mills set it in the 1980s in the 100 breaststroke, and had even sent me a few letters asking me to break it. In the finals of my senior year at state, I did it. I broke that elusive record, because I never gave up.

3. Focus on the right things at the right moments. You always have to “reset” from time to time. When you are focused, stay focused. When I walk on the pool deck, I am focused and put everything else in the world on the back burner. But when I leave the pool I have to put the practice, workout or whatever it was, on the back burner and focus on a different aspect of my life.

4. Keep trying to find ways to move forward. Don’t be afraid to change. Throughout my career, I have had to change. I had to change my technique and my training style. I remember doing a swim clinic with Adam Ritter talking about how Frank Busch says in practice, “The same equals the same.” That means if you want different results, you might have to change something. This year, I had to change my kick, and I was committed to it not even knowing if it would work out. And it did, at the Paris Open.

5. Don’t be afraid to fail. It is okay to fail sometimes – everyone does. You in time are able to overcome that. But you have to realize that falling on your face is not a bad thing if you can learn from it, grow, and develop. That is making it a positive. I know my Olympic dream of 2012 is something I might not get. However, I also know I am going to lay it all out there and go for it, so if it doesn’t happen, I will never regret a moment of the journey taking me to that point. You have to be able to dream before you can go about making it into reality.