"The legs feed the wolf..."

As I have confessed on a number of occasions, I am a huge fan of sports movies!  Today I want to talk about the 2004 movie, Miracle, a story about the 1980 U.S. Olympic Men's Hockey Team that beat the odds and won the gold medal.  The movie stars Kurt Russell in the title role of the legendary coach, Herb Brooks.  The movie is packed with lessons on leadership using the story of how a team of U.S. amateur hockey players beat perhaps the greatest "non-professional" men's hockey team of all time, the Russian National Team.  Brooks says at one point, "We may not be the best team out there, but we will be the BEST conditioned team."  Coach Brooks knew that the only way that his hockey players could beat the Russians (which they would have to do in order to win the gold medal) would be to play together as a team.  His hockey players would not win on talent - instead, they would win by working harder than everyone else, being better conditioned than everyone else, and playing together and achieving the kind of synergy where 1+1 = 3. 

While talent helps, it certainly is nowhere near enough.  Every single Olympic athlete is the among the best at his or her sport - but it is the athletes who work harder than everyone else that truly achieve greatness.  The gold medal winners are those athletes who work the hardest.

In one of my favorite scenes of the movie, Coach Brooks tells his players, "The legs feed the wolf, gentlemen."  Think about it.  What do wolves do to eat?  They hunt in packs - there is no such thing as a "lone wolf" who can survive in the wilderness.  Wolves live together, hunt together, and eat together.  How does a pack of wolves hunt?  They typically chase their prey for miles and miles until their prey tires out and drops to the ground out of fatigue.  The wolves outlast their prey.  They don't have to be faster to win - they just have to be able to run farther and longer than the animals that they hunt.  Strong legs can run farther than weak legs, so it is indeed the legs that feed the wolf.

I will leave you with another of my favorite scenes - Coach Brooks' pre-game speech that he delivers before the United States plays the Russians.  It is a great speech.  Enjoy it.  And remember.  "The legs feed the wolf."