Golfing fits bobsledders’ Olympic mindset to a tee
Canadian hopefuls Kripps and Spring use the links to sharpen their training
I liked where his head was at, getting something in the off-season to train our mental game, our focus.
How’s their driving?
Rumbling down a bobsled track at speeds nearing 150 km/h and with broad-shouldered brakemen squished behind them like sardines, Canada’s Justin Kripps and Chris Spring are two of the best in the world.
Standing over a tiny Titleist on a tee, sizing up a strip of short grass with sand traps or trees or other trouble spots on either side? Well, that’s another story.
“Driving a golf ball, I think, is much harder than driving a bobsled — to be consistent, anyway,” Spring said. “The funny thing about golf is I’ll be on the tee and I’ll shank a ball or something and I’m like, ‘Let me tee that one up again.’ I feel like I do the exact same thing — same setup, same mental approach, same backswing, same connect … and the difference is, like, 200 yards. And I’m like, ‘What the … ?’ This is what I really struggle to understand in golf.
“With bobsled, I understand the mistakes. It makes sense. Golf, man, it’s a mystery. And I think that’s why a lot of people keep coming back, because you keep learning.”
If Kripps or Spring (or both) step on the podium later this month at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, it could have something to do with the lessons they learned as divot-digging duffers in the summer of 2016.
Lyndon Rush, a bronze medallist at Vancouver 2010 and now a coach for the national program, was doing another sort of driving — the commute from his home in Sylvan Lake to Calgary — when it occurred to him that bogeys and bobsled might be a beneficial mix.
The World Cup season was barely in the rear-view mirror and Rush was brainstorming ways to fast-track the progress of some of Canada’s top pilots. On Rush’s radio, sportscaster Jim Rome was interviewing English golfer Danny Willett, who had just been fitted for a green jacket as winner of the Masters, thefirstmajoronthePGA Tour’s annual calendar.
“Jim Rome was saying, ‘You’re standing over that putt. How are you not completely melting down?’” Rush said. “And (Willett) said, ‘I could see why people would think that,’ but then he explained his process — how he practises his process, how he thinks about what he controls and he blocks everything else out.
“And that’s a good success formula, I think, in any sport. That’s something I had to learn to do, I remember, when I was a driver. So I was thinking if we could help our pilots work on that in the offseason. And I thought, ‘Wait, we should get these guys playing golf to work on the mental side of their game.’ That was the idea.”
KrippsandSpringwereplanning to live and train together that summer in Whistler, B.C.
Suddenly, there was another sport on their itinerary, one that would test their toughness in a completely different way.
“I liked where his head was at, getting something in the offseason to train our mental game, our focus and also deal with frustration when things aren’t going well,” Kripps said. “Because if you want to play a game where you’re going to get frustrated, golf is the one for you.”
That’s a reality that millions can relate to.
The bobsledding buffs estimate they played 25-30 rounds that summer at the scenic Fairmont Chateau Whistler Golf Club.
They had lessons from a PGA of Canada professional.
At the urging of Rush, they signed up for a two-day event on the Vancouver Golf Tour. (“That,” Kripps said with a smile, “didn’t go very well for me.”)
“It’s one of those things. I don’t know the difference between why the ball is flying well and why it’s not half the time,” Kripps said. “But for me, the timing couldn’t havebeenbetterbecauseafterthat summer we did that mental training, I had an absolutely terrible World Cup season. We couldn’t get the equipment right and we just weren’t doing well. We really had no chance of winning.
“But as a team, we came together and we would go into races assuming we could win, so that we’d still get that sharpening of our focus. And then when we did get it figured out, we ended up winning a medal at world championships that year. So it really worked for us.” Hopefully it still does. The 31-year-old Kripps, who hails from B.C.’s Okanagan Valley but has been based in Calgary for the past dozen years, piloted the fastest two-man sled on the World Cup circuit this winter. With the help of brakemen Alex Kopacz and Jesse Lumsden, he collected five medals: one gold, three silver and a bronze. His worst result in eight races was fourth.
Raised in Australia before becoming a Canadian citizen in 2013, the 33-year-old Spring finished third in the season-long standings, buoyed by a pair of podium placings.
Inthefour-manrankings, Kripps and Co. checked in at fourth and Spring was sixth.
On the women’s side, Kaillie Humphries of Calgary — now teamed with Phylicia George, a standout hurdler before switching sports — won another Crystal Globe as the World Cup leader and arrives in Pyeongchang as an obvious favourite for an unprecedented Olympic three-peat.
“If you look at the World Cup season from this year, which is basically the same field we’ll be competing against at the Olympics, there must have been 15 to 20 teams that won medals,” said Spring, who previously lived in Priddis, Alta., but now calls Whistler his home base.
“Everyone has the ability to be topthree. Themen’sfieldissodeep. But what will separate us to be one of those top three out of those 20 or30teamsattheOlympicsonthat day? Honestly, itwillcomedownto how my head is and what thoughts are going through my head.
“I’ve often said that if the brakemen knew what I was thinking about, they would never get in the sledwithme. Ithinkbygolfingthat year and having a very good mindset, not just golfing, but living with Justin and helping each other on and off the course, that has definitely helped for us to build and go into the Olympic Games with some confidence.”
Just like a high-level golf tournament, the Olympic bobsledding competition is four rounds, er, runs. And no mulligans. Don’t expect to see Kripps or Spring on the PGA Tour, but a gold medal would be their green jacket.
“There are so many similarities, especially because I’m not that great at golf,” Spring said. “Say you hit a bad shot and you take a divot outoryou’rehittingoutofthesand, but then your next shot you’re still in the sand. This happens all the time, in a different sense, going down the bobsled track. I’m too high in the entrance of this corner, flop out of that corner, so then I’m going late into the next corner and trying to get things back on track. Similarly to golf, where one shot can get you back on track, it’s the same with bobsled.”
Echoed Kripps: “You have to just focus on the process and fight through. If you’d given up when the times were tough, then you wouldn’t be in a position to win or make par or even a birdie.”