Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was angry. Look at her when she faced a significant defeat by Dalilah Muhammad in the 2019 USA Championship in Des Moines. What did she do? She decided to turn around and seek the necessary changes. Sydney and then coach Joanna Hayes looked for some tactical changes in the techniques. Sydney found the techniques from Jackie Joyner’s coach, Bob Kersee. Bob’s initial bits of advice worked like magic in Sydney’s track and field training. However, Bobby was not her coach yet. 

Not only these techniques, but Bob also worked on the mental toughness she showed when she opened up to Bob for the first time. After her defeat to Dalilah in Des Moines, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was drowning again with fear of losing. As anyone can expect from one of the best hurdlers, she turned the table for good. She made a major decision to change her coach—from Joanna Hayes to hurdle specialist Bob Kersee. But there was an initial weird impression from Bob Kersee that left Sydney much to think about. 

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s stray feelings found their words

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was at UCLA just after COVID restrictions had loosened. Bob Kersee was not her coach yet. One day, Bobby saw something was wrong with her. He asked about it to Sydney. Sydney lamely replied, “Nothing.” Bob Kersee knew that was not true and slightly pushed her. Looking for answers, Sydney McLaughlin couldn’t hold her back and opened up to him about the down feeling she was facing. “I feel like I’m going backward. I’ve always prided myself on progressing every year, but for some reason I really feel like I’m moving in the wrong direction,” she wrote in her biography, Far Beyond Gold.

Hearing Sydney’s confession about the feeling she was stuck in, Bob Kersee said nothing at first—the oddest way of responding. He turned back and went to his backpack and brought back a tool. “It was a wheel with different emotions labeled on it. More common emotions were in the middle: angry, happy, sad, mad. The farther from the center of the wheel it went, the more specific the words got to describe the feeling. Bobby handed it to me.” Handed over the emotion wheel, Bob returned to his pupils. 

Sharing such personal insight made Sydney embarrassed. Surely, the care Bob Kersee showed her made her feel some intriguing emotions—a weird yet affectionate encounter. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wrote, “At first, I was embarrassed. Here I was bawling my eyes out to the most decorated coach I’d ever met, and he barely even knew me. Yet I was encouraged that, even with a lack of history, he felt compelled to come over and see what was going on and offer some help.”

With that gift, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone found the actual feeling she needed to describe to herself. In the night, she was looking for that answer. “Finally, we got to the heart of it when I reached the last column. The word was resentful. This word, though true in the moment, was not something I was proud of.”

Bob Kersee learned from his own experience that solidified his intervention during such a mental condition in Sydney. For Sydney McLaughlin, it was very helpful, as it helped her get into the line with her messy feelings. After this deep encounter with her future coach, Sydney thought about changing the coach a little more, and finally, she decided to go for this new partnership. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone talked to Bob Kersee at length about her difficulties on the track. Bob Kersee listened carefully and suggested what she needed to do. “There’s just one thing: I’m going to need your full trust in my plan. You have to be all in.” Bobby told her, and she accepted wholeheartedly. Bob knew how to get along in difficult situations that Sydney encountered afterward. 

Coach Bob Kersee’s training felt quirky to Sydney

There was a time when Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone found coach Bob’s instructions perplexing her. She named it “pointless commands.” His training instruction made Sydney McLaughlin restless during the training times. ‘Stand up,’ ‘wait a minute,’ and ‘take the lap run’—Bob Kersee instructed the track and field GOAT Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. That helped her in the hectic time before the Tokyo Olympics. USATF Legend Coach knows what the pupil needs. Even when there was a surge of athletes who occupied most of the track to practice. Bobby was there to help Sydney.

For his pupil, Bob Kersee can do anything. Whenever there is a scarcity of tracks, he sometimes snuck Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone onto tracks. Bobby knows the practice should be going on no matter what. “During one particularly frustrating day, when we couldn’t find anywhere to train, Bobby brought pliers and cut a hole in a fence so we could sneak onto a track,” confessed the iconic track and field Olympian Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. 

Moreover, in Bob Kersee’s teaching, Sydney became invincible. But there was a situation when Bob and McLaughlin felt that this wasn’t working. But switching coaches is a no-no for Sydney. At that time, she was living in Arizona with her boyfriend and now husband, Andre Levrone Jr. Bob Kersee, to maintain the training, often took flights from L.A. to train one of the best hurdlers at her place. After some trying, the quintessential hurdler returned to Bobby’s home city. Their bond and Sydney’s skills have only grown with Bob as her coach. What are your thoughts about the coach-mentee duo? Let us know in the comments down below.