The 7 Secrets to Developing the Complete Athlete
Let me ask you a few questions. How does Tiger Woods consistently play his last hole as strong as his first? How is it that Michael Jordan could consider a comeback in the NBA, and play successfully, at an age when most professional athletes are stuck in their armchair counting their pension checks? Three words.Superior physical conditioning.Compare two athletes in any sport. Given equal talent and skill, the player with superior physical conditioning will win every single time.If you’re serious about your sport, you must know and live by these 7 principles that I call the 7 Secrets to Developing the Complete Athlete1. Identify the abilities of the ideal athlete in your sport. The easiest way to initiate this part of the process is to picture the top athlete in your chosen sport. Ask yourself what abilities they possess that make them the best at what they do. Abilities are thi Drop Tuning ngs like flexibility, strength, endurance, power, balance, reaction time, coordination, speed, and agility.Don’t confuse abilities with skills that are specific to the chosen sport. For instance, a basketball player must be able to dribble while running up the court. That’s a sport-specific skill, not an ability. The abilities are what underlie each skill. Now, examine each ability more closely. Think of the extreme of each ability and rate that level of ability a 10 on a zero to 10 scale. For instance, if you are examining flexibility, who are the most flexible athletes in the world?Gymnasts! So gymnasts require a number 10 level of flexibility for successful performance. Olympic weightlifters would be a 10 for power. Power lifters would be a 10 for strength and so on for each ability. Next, take your chosen sport and compare it to the extreme. Let’s use Lacrosse as an example.