On the way home from our training camp and tournaments in Puerto Rico this past June; I attended a sport performance summit in NYC. The summit was a gathering of many of the highest achieving sport performance professionals in the world. I believe there were roughly 300 in attendance. The summit centered on interviewing some of the outliers, the people that have consistently built organizations and produce athletes that exceed and set the standard for their particular sport organization or team.
I took pages of notes and recorded a few of the better presentations. One I looked forward to was the interview of Bob Bowman Michael Phelps coach; and Firas Zahabi, who is currently coaching the UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St Pierre. It was as if someone catered this interview for me. First there’s Bob, who I’ve known for years and been on an Olympic staff with; then there’s Firas, one of the most intense humans I have ever been in contact with, who also happens to be dominating the leadership of a combat sport. They did not disappoint.
As at any conference, I always seek not only new information, but hope to get reinforcement in what I do and believe to be the best way to support performance. Again, this was the talk to hear!
The main subject for the interview was the make-up of a champion; really delving into the ingredients of what makes athletes like Phelps and St. Pierre so much better than their competitors. I will refer to it as the Checklist for High Performance Delivery.
Checklist for High Performance Delivery:
· Biomechanics:
o Something they have in their genetic make-up that provides an advantage. In swimming you see it all the time: butterfliers have great combination of strength and flexibility throughout all joints; breaststrokers have a natural wide open angle at their hips, knees and ankles; backstrokers have hyper-extended elbows and knees; distance swimmers have off-the-charts VO2 max levels (ability to use oxygen efficiently) and large lung capacities to support it. Each one of those genetic attributes gives them advantage. When you get to the world stage though, most of the athletes seem to share these characteristics. Then, how does one win consistently? This is only 1/6th of the equation.
· Skills:
o The best athletes work on their skills obsessively and demand skill work from their coaching at all times. These athletes also have coaches that take no short path to skill acquisition. They spend the time it takes to truly master a skill, then keep it sharp through repetition. Now we are 1/2 of the way to winning!
· Athletics:
o There are great swimmers and boxers out there that everyone wonders why they never made it to the top. Maybe they only trained for swimming or boxing. The best in the world see themselves and treat themselves as athletes, not swimmers, not boxers. How fast is your 40 meter sprint on the track? How many 20 mile rides did you do last week on the bike? How are your reps and max weights in strength and conditioning? What is your golf score? How many times can you kick a hacky sack without dropping it? How long can you do and unassisted handstand? These people can answer those questions. They not only are better at training for swimming or boxing, they do more than anyone else and they work on mastering all of the other sports they are involved in. Now they have 3/5ths of what it takes.
· Technique:
o Anybody can learn the skill of shooting a hockey puck into an unguarded net. But only Wayne Gretsky could do it the way he did it. He took a skill, like passing the puck to a team mate, and built a technique for using that skill that to this day is still unmatched. He decided to not only know where the team-mate or defenseman is so he could pass the puck, he figured out where they were going to be when they got the puck. This way, he knew how much spin to put on the puck, how fast to pass the puck, and he rarely let down a team-mate in this situation. This is a technique. It requires more than skill. 2/3rds of the way to greatness!
· Tactics:
o This one is among the real signs of greatness in sport. It goes beyond having a plan for a race or a bout. It gets into the logic; all of the if/then scenarios. If a jab gets through; then I will counter a specific way. That is a specific tactic. A larger tactic is something more along the lines of planning how to rest throughout a tournament to be at your best for each bout. Planning nutrition throughout a tournament in order to maintain weight and keep optimal hydration and energy. It’s knowing everything there is to know about your opponent and how they attack and defend an attack so they become under your control in a bout. It’s how you control your emotions so you never give away your strengths or weaknesses to your opponents. We are now 5/6ths of the way to having a Michael Phelps! Hardly!
· Mentality:
o The final piece to mention is that the greatest athletes possess is a mentality that permits the achievement of full potential. The coaches talked about the athlete’s mentality like it was the glue that held together the other 4 attributes on the checklist. They keep an even temper about how difficult things get. They keep an even temper on how good things get. They keep a focus on both the details and the big picture all the time. They hate losing more than they like winning and that it their motivator.
Possessing any one or a combination of these attributes will probably take someone pretty far in their sport, but every once in a while, we are treated to that rare athlete that comes along and finds themselves in the right gym or the right pool at the right time, with the right coach; where it can all come together. They work together like painter and brush, switching roles back and forth with egos in check; trusting that the other is filling any gaps left on the canvas. They avoid all short paths to the goal as this leads to medals made of silver or bronze. They are not in it for anyone or anyTHINGS; they are in it to be better than anyone else. They are in it to get there first. They are in it to get their best. They are in it to get that Gold.
