The 2nd Key to Beating Big Shots is Conditioning
Here’s where you find out if you are just a big talker or are serious. This is where coaches find out if their team has what it take to be champions. In the conditioning process you find out how deep theirdesire is…are they just talkers or do they really have what it takes because here is where you really start to earn it.
If you cut corners here, you won’t have a chance. You won’t be able to keep up. It will be obvious to you and everyone else.
If you are physically weaker, you won’t be as mentally sharp either. You’ll find yourself making mistakes you never made before.
Pay the price of pain to get the gain
To reach peak conditioning you have to push yourself. You have to drive past previous barriers and do it over and over again. A couple of trips to the gym is not going to make you look like an Olympic athlete.
Michael Phelps won 8 Gold Medals swimming at the China Olympics. How did that happen? Well, for starters the years of hitting the pool with his coach at 5 am in the morning, doing drills, practicing each and every aspect of swimming for hours and hours EVERY day, 7 days a week might have a little to do with it. Want to beat Michael Phelps, son? See you at the pool at 5 am.
No shortcuts to developing critical skills
Elite fitness is available for whoever will pay the price. It doesn’t matter if someone has more athletic talent than you, if they won’t pay the price to get fit, they are going to get beat.
It’s not just conditioning. It’s developing all the specific skills and techniques required in each sport. You may have been born with incredible talent but it won’t do you any good until it’s developed and refined into championship level skill.
No one falls out of the crib being able to shoot a basketball like Michael Jordan or swing a golf club like Tiger Woods.
Remember this…to become Great, NO ONE ESCAPES THE REPETITIONS.
By the time Tiger Woods won the Masters at age 21 he had been playing golf almost every day for 19 years. That was because at age 2 he had learned how to call his dad at work and ask if they could go to the driving range after he got off work.
So how can you ever catch and beat them?
It’s because things change in the world…nothing stays the same and opportunities always pop up to win if you are ready.
- People get older—Arnold Schwarzenegger, once “Conan the Barbarian,” doesn’t look so good in a bathing suit anymore
- They have injuries and surguries—Notice how Tiger Woods doesn’t have the same swagger after multiple knee operations?
- Success softens them—Almost NO team repeats after winning a college or professional sports championship.
- Life happens to them, changing their priorities—They marry, have kids, get interested in other things
Conditioning can give you the edge you need to win
If you are in better shape you’ll have the best chance to get the most out of your ability. You don’t want to be running out of energy at the end of the game because the more energy you have, the clearer you’ll be thinking at the critical times…also you’ll be more confident.
If on the other hand you show up and immediately see your competition is in dramatically better shape than you, you are beat before you start.
