"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.