La Salle Sentul Alumni Hockey, Kuala Lumpur (2026)

14/07/2026

Every athlete I've ever coached already knew what to do.

They knew the extra session mattered. They knew the early night beat the late scroll. They knew the recovery work, the food, the honest conversation with the coach, all of it. Knowledge was never the problem.

The gap is never knowing. The gap is doing it on the Tuesday in July when nobody's watching, you're tired, and there's no game for three weeks.

I spent 320 caps and four Olympic cycles learning one thing that didn't show up in any skills session: motivation is a liar. It turns up when conditions are perfect and disappears the second they're not. If your standards depend on how you feel, your standards aren't standards. They're moods.

The athletes who made it weren't the most motivated. They were the most consistent. They'd built a floor under their behaviour that didn't drop when the feeling did. Bad day, still did the work. No game on the horizon, still did the work.

That's the whole game. Not the inspiration. The floor.

You don't rise to your goals. You fall to the standard you hold when it's inconvenient.

So here's the honest question: what's the one thing you already know you should be doing and keep not doing because you're waiting to feel like it?