The Foil

In 11th grade English, my teacher used Romeo and Juliet to introduce the concept of a literary foil.

A foil, she explained, is a character whose traits contrast with another character's, in a way that makes both of them sharper and more visible. In this case, Benvolio is calm, measured, and a peacemaker. Mercutio is volatile, impulsive, funny, and reckless. Put them in the same scene and something happens that neither one could generate alone.

I've been thinking about that word — foil — a lot lately, in the context of coaching.

When I talk with an athlete before a race or big workout, I'm not just thinking about their power output or heart rate. I'm trying to read their energy and nudge them in the right direction. Some athletes arrive overconfident and need to be brought back to earth a little — reminded of the work still left to do. Others arrive anxious and scattered, needing someone to remind them how many hard miles they've already put in the bank. A few arrive flat, and the job is to find the spark.

The workouts, the data, the goal-setting — those are tools. But the real work is using those tools to become the right foil for the athlete in front of me: to leverage what they have to help them do things they didn't think they could.

Benvolio doesn't calm Mercutio down by accident. He does it by being exactly what Mercutio isn't.

That's the job.

See you next week,

— Steve

P.S. Hat-tip to MC, my 10th and 11th grade English teacher (who still reads these emails)!