Episode 20: Dana Way | Trust & Elite Performance
52 mins
Dana Way is a Biomechanist and a veteran member of Canada’s national Athletics team. He has attended four Olympic Games, one Paralympic Games, five World Championships in Athletics, and several other major games and championships. Dana’s position on these national teams was not as a coach or an athlete but as a biomechanist (biomechanics is essentially physics with the human body). His role is to work with coaches to help them identify how to make athletes better, what kinds of things are making them worse, and how they can maximize their performance.
Dana is part of the larger IST or integrated support team surrounding an athlete and coach pairing in high-performance settings. The role of the IST is to elevate the athlete’s performance. One of the reasons Dana has impacted the national team setting and experienced the tenure he has is his ability to be patient and build trusting relationships telling us:
“Me going in there as a 23-year-old snot-nosed kid and saying, “Well, you know, based upon the angles and the release velocity of this athlete, they're not, you're not doing this correctly.” Now, try saying that to a coach that's been coaching for 30 years, you're not going to get anywhere; you're not even going to get in the room. So I think I learned very early on not to be a yes person and to do whatever people want, but to give people what they need, and then also to work on what I would like to accomplish with them. And sometimes that takes patience.”
Every day Dana has the opportunity to work with some of the best athletes and coaches in the world. In addition to chatting about trust and relationships, our discussion spanned several topics: How one becomes a biomechanist; The importance of knowing your role when the stakes are high, and how to retain a sense of awe, gratitude, and excitement when extraordinary things (like seeing a world championships 100m final) are at risk of seeming mundane. We hope you enjoy our discussion.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast platform.