"Z" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

In this final installment we will look at "Z" characteristics, and specifically the Z-Health movement system and how elite athletes move so well. So what is Z-Health? Z-Health is essentially a system of simple movement exercises devoted to helping you move better, which means with less pain, and more coordination, efficiency, power, strength, range of motion. Z-Health is the creation of Dr. Eric Cobb, a chiropractor, trainer and martial artist.
The foundation of Z-Health is subtle isolated joint movements done in a very precise, controlled and mindful manner. These exercises directly target the central nervous system, and the results are therefore often immediate and dramatic.
Elite athletes have the ability to make the the difficult look easy. I believe the Z system is basically the how elite athletes move fluidly, effortlessly and efficiently. If you want to move better, feel better and perform like an elite athlete check out Z-Health.
Well this is the end of the Elite Athlete series and its hard to believe that it has been over 6 months since this series started. But the timing seems to be good as we will launch a new website and blog in the next few weeks at www.manofsteelesports.com so come by and check out what new materiel we will have on board.

"Y" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

The Yearning for mastery of their skills is the main drive that motivates the elite athlete. That internal, indescribable, itch, urge or yearning to excel is the separation of the men from the boys. That indefinable power to go on longer, harder and faster than the competition is a mysterious phenomenon to some, but to the elite it is as natural as food, water or spirit, it is their makeup. The yearning to achieve goes on for years and years and years and if an athlete has found his purpose in sport it will last a lifetime.

"X" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

The "X" factor of elite athletes. Do the elite have an X factor that other athletes don't have? I think they do, if they didn't there would be a whole lot more athletes doing extraordinary things. What then is this X factor and how does one attain it. I believe that the X factor is not one single thing but a unique combination of characteristics that when put together bring about elite performances. What are some of the characteristics? At the top of the list I would put the ability to perform extremely difficult work more intensely and longer than others, another trait that seems to be evident across the board is the ability to be relaxed under the most intense pressure. It seems that the old saying about falling to our training or rising to our expectations seems right on. The elite seem to be able train at such a high level that when the pressure is at its highest they know that their training was enough to sustain their effort and allow them to be relaxed. The elite have the ability to make very difficult things look easy while lesser athletes can sometimes make easy things look very hard. So to recap, the X factor is not one single trait but different traits in differing proportions depending on the athlete, but one thing is for sure the elite most certainly have what it takes to be the best of the best.

"W" Characteristictics of Elite Athletes

In this blog we have talked almost from the start about work and work ethic and how the elite have the ability to get an enormous of work done in a deliberate, concentrated, and disciplined fashion. And with all the topics discussed throughout the year, in all reality deliberate practice, the ability to do the work is the most important trait the elite possess. The quality and quantity of the work is what separates hard workers from the elite. In order to practice with the intensity that gives the elite the results that yield success it requires the athlete to endure frustration and pain that the average or even world class athlete is not capable of doing. The elite athlete leaves clues as to their success, unfortunately we don't get to see the day in day out work that the elite do, which sometimes misleads us into thinking that the elite are just more talented than the rest,while they really do possess traits that the average athlete does not, it really is the trait that allows them to do work in a very specific way.

"V" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

V for victorious, V for vicious, no, how about V for visual and vestibular? While those last two may not sound as sexy as victorious or vicious, the elite have better skills than most in the areas of visual and vestibular expertise. The amount of information that is gathered through the eyes is staggering, and what is even more amazing is how it all gets processed, organized and put to use to make the elite what they are. Most people assume that you are born with great visual skills or you are not. Science is now showing that not only don't you have to be born with great physical skills you don't have to be born with great visual skills either. Training is not just for the physical anymore. There are many different types of skills that relate to visual excellence. Most people just think of the obvious ones, eye or foot coordination or tracking, but there are a multitude of others, ranging from looming and peripheral awareness to vergence and dynamic visual acuity, all of which can be trained to the levels of the elite. What about the vestibular? What are vestibular skills anyway? Why balance of course. The elite all have an incredible ability to know which way they are going and which way is up. In the hierarchy of the nervous system the visual system reigns supreme followed by the vestibular system and then ultimately the proprioceptive system. The vestibular is really quite remarkable for it can detect the slightest amounts of movement in any direction and on any plane and have the body make an adjustment in order to maintain balance. Just like with the visual system most people think you must be born with great balance, not so, the vestibular system is capable of getting better and better with training. If you want to have more victories or seem a little more vicious on the field then you might want start training the V's, the visual and vestibular systems.

"U" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

The elite athlete is the is the ultimate competitor. And by ultimate I mean that they love being in the competitive arena, the rushes of adrenalin, the ups and downs of the battle, the challenge of testing their skills against another who is at their best and when the stakes are the highest. The elite have an unshakable belief in their own abilities and have an unfailing work ethic that allows them to perfect their craft as very few others can.

"T" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

Well coincidentally today is Tax day here in the USA, and while that is one thing that most elite athletes do have in common, that they pay alot in taxes, it is however not one of the characteristics I'm going to talk about. I'm going to talk about Talent, first and foremost. There is this presumption that all elite are elite only because of talent. While it is true that all of the elite are blessed with some rather freakish genetics athletically, it is not this talent that puts them in the stratosphere of athletics. There are plenty of very talented athletes who are bagging groceries rather than bagging gold medals or world championships. What makes the elite different is that they actually have the ability to withstand great amounts of pain and frustration in order to practice the necessary skills. Which puts that athletic talent to use to make them successful. That follows along right into the second trait which is toughness, it is not how tough you are, it is how long you can be tough that sets them apart. I know that mental toughness gets alot of play these days especially in the people who are looking for a short cut to the actual job of doing the work. It is really about physical toughness that is where you learn to become mentally tough. A great ball coach in the 60's had a great quote that went something like this " Fatigue makes cowards of us all" that says about all that is necessary about being tough, you become resilient and tough through the amount of hard physical training you can endure.

"S" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

The SAID principle is something the elite athlete does so well but may know nothing about. SAID stands for "specific adaptation to imposed demands." Dr.Eric Cobb, of Z-Health adds "exactly and always" to the meaning of the SAID principle. Our bodies will adapt to exactly and always to what we're doing. A huge part of that adaptation is the speed at which it happens in the nervous system. Signals are being sent at 300miles per hour. Giving almost immediate feedback to the brain. The elite athlete is able to take that information and use it to adapt to improving one's performance. Athletes earn the bodies and level of skill that they have because of the SAID principle, they get what they have because of what they repeatedly do. So if you want greatness you must practice greatness with precision and focus.

"R" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

Repetition repetition repetition did I say repetition? Once again it comes down to the elite having the ability to reliably repeat their motor patterns in practice so that under the pressure of competition the skill is performed properly. The 3 stages of motor learning are 1) cognitive, in which the skill must be thought out each repetition this phase takes anywhere from 1 to 1,000 repetitions. 2) associative. this stages starts to combine the elements of the cognitive stage with the more relaxed and less thought about parts of other skills, this phase is 1,000 to 10,000 repetitions in length. 3) Autonomous, this is the premiere stage where skills are performed in near automatic like fashion, this stage takes between 100,000 to 300,000 repetitions. The caveat to all this repetition is that they must be done exactly the same manner, precision is everything. The perfect rep principle states that you have earned the skill that you currently have by the precision of the practice you have previously done. Practice does not make perfect but a lot of precision practice can make you elite!

"Q" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

Quality or quantity? Paper or plastic? What to choose? Do the elite have better quality or more quantity? It's a bit of a trick question, elite athletes simply have more and better repetitions than do lesser athletes. The fact is that the elite have the ability to do more high quality repetitions than the rest is a huge part of why they can dominate and perform so well under immense pressure. It had been thought that purely getting 10 years or 10,000 repetitions in would be enough to make the grade. Now, however, it is not only is the number of repetitions but the quality of those repetitions. Most athletes cannot maintain focus or endure the pain both emotionally, mentally and physically that is required to make one perfect repetition after another. So next time you go to practice it's not paper or plastic, it's bring your own quality recyclable bag, so you can fill it over and over again!

"P" Charactersistics of Elite Athletes

Under the heading of "P" there are so many characteristics that is will be hard to keep this post short enough, so lets get to it. Practice, practice, practice it takes 10 years of deliberate practice to acquire skill mastery. Deliberate practice is systematic, sustained, specific, and takes focused effort to improve your skills. The elite have the ability to practice in a way lesser competitors can't. A big reason the elite can practice in this way is that they have an incredible ability to work through pain. Often pain becomes a signal that most athletes see as a time to stop practice, now I'm not talking about pain from injury, I'm talking about the discomfort that comes from training at the highest intensity. This persistence to stay with the task at hand is what enables the elite to make practice deliberate, which is the key to successful skill acquisition. So if you want to improve your skill level, hundreds of thousands of repetitions are needed in a planned out, specific, intense manner. In order to do this you must be persistent enough to work through the pain and discomfort involved with the practice.

"O" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

This topic is sometimes considered unhealthy and unnatural but to the elite athlete it is as normal as taking a breath. I am talking about being obsessed with performance, the greatest have an obsession to make themselves better. They take every opportunity to take chance out of they picture. They want to be able to control all of the variables that they can. Another characteristic that people miss is that the elite are not like the ordinary. Ordinary people don't have the same thought processes, same discipline, same energy, or else they would be elite. The elite are not just ordinary people who do great things, they possess skills that are extraordinary and obsessive.

"N" Charateristices of Elite Athletes

Neuroplasticity...what the heck is that? And what does it have to do with elite athletes? Well as you may know neuroplasticity refers to the ability of our brains to change. The ability for the brain to reorganize itself by making new neural connections. Elite athletes are constantly developing and learning within their sport which keeps their brain working on making new connections. These new connections increase the likelihood that the athlete can associate one event to another thus having more experiences to draw from thereby increasing performance. It was always thought that our brains were hardwired and couldn't change. We are finding out that our brains can change and grow with each new experience. Which is what the Elite do better than most, which is to use the past to better the present.

"M" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

Happy New Year everyone! We are at the half way point in the characteristics series and find our selves on New Years day with the letter "M". On this day of resolutions, the word that first comes to mind is motivation. While the word conjures up all kinds of images of goal sheets and to do lists, it is really not any of these that the elite have in terms of motivation. I am sure that the elite do use some of these items in some form or another, but, what I believe the elite have is the ability to take actions that move them closer to the outcomes they are looking for, be it improvement of a skill or the analysis of a competitors game. In short they work toward their goals when others don't. As some marketing guru at Nike said "Just Do It" and that is what the elite certainly do!

"L" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

In this edition of characteristics of the elite athlete, we look at the letter "L". The first thing that comes to mind for most people is that the elite have a love for their sport, I have never really bought into that idea that you must love your sport in order to excel in it and obviously after reading Andre Agassi's book and the comments of many other elite athletes that a love for the game is not a prerequisite for excellence. One characteristic that I know is a factor in creating excellence is that other "L" word Labor. As has been said and will be said many times in the weeks ahead hard work is required across the board for high achievement. The elite are in no way shape or form lazy and if during any time in their careers they seem to get a little lazy their performance suffers. From all the labor that these athletes do they seem to create another word that gets thrown around a lot and that is luck. When opportunity and preparation collide in the battleground one athlete is deemed to be lucky to have gotten a break, when in fact had the athlete not learned the value of laboring in his craft the opportunity for success would have merely floated by.

"K" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

Probably the most notable trait that the average sportsman attributes to the elite is, that of possessing a so called killer instinct. While there may be something in our genetic make up that would enable some to kill their prey without any hesitation, in athletics I'm not sure that this scenario would fully apply. The elite all have a great sense of competition and knowing when their opponent is weakening or doubting ones abilities. In this way the so called killer instinct would be very prevalent, but the elite don't want to kill their opponents they want to have a good competitive effort, so that they may test their own skills under the toughest conditions. They also have a keen knowledge of their opponents weakness's and strengths and try to minimize their own inadequacies and capitalize on their opponents thus defeating them and reaching the goal of the elite which is to compete.

"J" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

Job noun 1. An action requiring some exertion; an undertaking. If we look at this definition of a job rather than the usual definition of an activity performed for a fee, it fits the elite athlete in a much different way. We have all seen athletes who treat their sport in a very job like manner. Punching in punching out. While putting in time is an essential part of becoming an elite athlete, just putting in time is no guarantee of success. The elite know that the key word in the definition of a job is exertion. There must be an extreme amount of exertion in the time that is being put into the job.

"I" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

Just like a Hollywood real estate agent talking about location, location, location as the most important thing to selling a home. Elite athletes are all about intensity, intensity, intensity. Intensity is important for a few reasons. First being, that in order to create top level motor patterns the intensity of the sequential firing of motor neurons must be intense. The harder,the more repetitive the firing of the electrical impulses the more mylenization occurs, which in turn makes the impulse less susceptible to interference. That means that under pressure the elite are more likely to still perform to the highest levels. Second, the elite know that the more game like that they can make practice the less the big stage will seem out of the ordinary to them. So if you want to improve your performance start by trying to be as game like in terms of intensity as you can, it will not only improve your skill set it will improve your ability to control yourself in competition as well.

"H" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

The head and the heart are two very different parts of the body in terms of performance in athletics, and there are no elite level athletes that are weak in the use of the head and the use of the heart. I'm not sure who to credit for this quote but it is quite true "Talent is a cheap commodity. What really matters is what goes on between your ears and in the middle of your chest" Elite athletes seem on the outside to be regular people who just happen to be great at whatever sport they are doing. But the more you get to know and talk with the elite athletes you start to see how very different they view competition and all the variables that go along with their sport. The more in depth you look the more you realize that their perspective is anything but normal or average. While the heart is sometimes a much easier thing to see outwardly than the head, it is by no means more or less important. The elites have an unbelievable ability to dig into their own will and summon strength enough to go through situations that most athletes cant even comprehend. On the outside there are a lot of athletes that look like they are fighting and trying but in reality it is just a bluff so that it appears that they gave a good effort. The elite care only about getting the best out of the ability they have and not what others may think of their performance.

"G" Characteristics of Elite Athletes

Goal driven... that's it that is possibly the most defining characteristic of the elite. They take on many different forms and types. Some write them down, some just in their head. Some long term, some just short. Some very detailed, some very simple. Some put them where they can see them all the time, some in a place that is seldom looked at. Some make them public for all to see, some keep them to themselves. Some have help doing them, some do them alone. Some don't even know that they are doing them, but all elite level athletes are driven to succeed by their goals!