In football, they refer to it simply as the Dustbin Run.
As author Mike Calvin told Sky Sports, the training exercise requires its participants to complete "300-yard" shuttle runs from a makeshift start line to a "council bin" at the opposite end of a field, with no fixed timescale.
Its purpose is not to enhance a young player's agility, acceleration and sprint speed, or to boost their endurance levels—but to make them vomit.
It is at that point, as their breakfast becomes a fertiliser, when the decision lies with the player: Do they have the guts to continue, or do they cry for mercy?
Such a routine can provide the tormentors otherwise known as coaches with more information about their squad than facts, figures and statistics ever could, for it offers what Calvin calls a test of "character," an indication of whether the will to succeed outweighs the very act of success itself.
In the dying minutes of a match—when bodies are bent and broken, skill is stripped away, finesse is futile and talent is trivial—just who can a manager rely upon to summon the strength to drag his team to victory? And who will be among those signalling to the substitutes' bench, missing in action and searching for a way out?
The value of spirit and determination can often be overlooked—and sometimes dismissed as prehistorical—on the highly scientific landscape of modern sport, where events seem to follow the course of a predefined script shaped by "data."
Yet character and human nature, even in as systematic a sport as Formula One, remain vital as Daniil Kvyat prepares to return to the Singapore Grand Prix, the scene of his own Dustbin Run in 2014.
A problem with his Toro Rosso ahead of last year's race forced Kvyat to enter the most physically challenging event on the calendar—due to its 23 corners, 61 laps, 80 percent humidity and ambient temperatures of up to 35 degrees centigrade, per Pirelli's official website—without the aid of his in-car drink supply.
Rather than simply coping with the situation with minimal complaints, however—in the style of Kevin Magnussen, a fellow rookie, who after heaving his McLaren to 10th place received medical treatment for back burns, per BBC Sport's Andrew Benson--Kvyat allowed the problem to dictate his entire race.
He allowed the issue to place a psychological restriction on what he could achieve, to the point where he was pleading to withdraw from the grand prix.
"We need to stop!" he screeched over the pit-to-car radio 17 laps from the chequered flag, per F1 Fanatic's Keith Collantine, reporting he was on the verge of "dying" just seconds later and claiming he couldn't "drive any more" on the penultimate lap, so near yet so far from salvation.
And on an evening when his team-mate, Jean-Eric Vergne, produced his best performance of the season to finish sixth, Kvyat got exactly what his self-pity deserved: Nothing.
In a distinctly impressive rookie season, in which he became the youngest-ever point-scorer in F1 history in his debut race, this was the first time Kvyat's youth and inexperience told and his status as a future world champion could be called into question.
He could chase a driver of Kimi Raikkonen's calibre around Albert Park, driving with the serenity of someone who belonged at the summit. He could complete the final lap at Monza, the fastest circuit in F1, with no brakes. And he could somehow take his Toro Rosso to fifth on the grid in his home race at Sochi.
But when circumstance conspired against him and he needed to rely on more than car control, did he have the substance, the resilience, the character to achieve greatness?
This year, however, it is a very different Daniil Kvyat who arrives at Singapore, and the 23 turns that minced his muscles 12 months ago will favour the Russian and Red Bull Racing, who promoted him to replace four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel just 13 days after the meltdown of Marina Bay.
Unable to challenge for podiums and victories on a regular basis in 2015, due to the RB11 car's lack of straight-line speed, Red Bull have long targeted Singapore as a season-defining race, a chance to remember what it feels like to compete with Mercedes and Ferrari on even ground.
With the twists and turns of Singapore set to disguise the team's power deficit and provide a stringent test of their new aerodynamic philosophy—per Motorsport.com's Giorgio Piola, the days of running the car "as low as possible to the ground" are over—Red Bull should be on course for their best performance in some time this weekend.
And it may be left to Kvyat, who told the team's official website how he feels "much better prepared from a physical point of view," to lead their charge.
After an unflattering start to his first year as a Red Bull driver, which saw him score just five points in the opening five races, Kvyat has become the team's most confident, aggressive and spectacular performer in recent months and currently leads team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, a three-time grand prix winner, in the drivers' standings.
Fourth-place finishes in Monaco and Belgium have been behind his change in fortune, but it is his maiden podium finish in Hungary, where he claimed second place from seventh on the grid, that remains the defining race of his season thus far.
From the moment he clambered from the cockpit at the Hungaroring, Kvyat knew he had gained not only a podium but a life lesson—something he could carry with him for the rest of his career—having recovered from a first-corner lockup to secure his best-ever finish, telling ESPN F1's Nate Saunders:
After Turn 1 I thought my race was over...I could hardly stay on track. Then the team told me to keep pushing. Some people say "never give up" but they don't know what they're saying. Until today I didn't know what it means really, but today I really learned what it means not to give up because it can always come your way.
Defeated and demoralised by the dustbin and without the stomach for a fight a year ago, the boy who cried help should become a man in Singapore this weekend.
via http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2566459-why-daniil-kvyat-will-be-the-driver-to-watch-at-the-2015-singapore-grand-prix
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