I've been reflecting on sporting success. Having studied many of the great sporting professionals of our era, I have noticed a few commonalities that seem to repeat themselves over and over and I wanted to try and compile these commonalities into a repeatable framework, a blueprint if you will, that people can follow to achieve the same success.
It's taken me some time to put together and it may need refining in the future as my understanding and perceptions improve further.
From my observations, these traits or factors build on one another but are equally as important for success. Without the previous trait, there would not be any success. However, as we move up the tiers of the pyramid, success becomes inevitable as the compounding effects of the previous tiers drives results exponentially.
I have coined this my Secrets to Sporting Success Pyramid - a blueprint for aspiring elite althletes.
At the very base of the pyramid, tier 1, is mindset. It forms the foundations of any great athlete. From a young age, these athletes typically know they are bound for greatness and have an intense passion and desire to succeed. They are willing to devote their lives to their sport and make the required sacrifices.
This mindset cannot be taught or learnt. It is intrinsic. A part of their DNA.
Tier 2 has three distinct but key areas that athletes need to optimise in order to progress.
They are:
1) Training
2) Nutrition
3) Recovery
All three must be correct, refined and dialled in consistently to succeed. If any of them falter, so to does their hopes of achieving success.
Tier 3 is where the real compounding effects of Tier 2 are elevated into the stratosphere. Tier 3 oversees all the key areas within tier 2 and allows for continued progression and improvement.
It involves support and accountability from a quality coach who can collect and analyse that individuals data and make objective corrections and improvements to each of the 3 key areas - training, nutrition and recovery.
Over time, with more data and gradual improvements, the individual becomes exponentially better at their sport as each progression builds on previous foundations.
This is why it's so important to have the correct training plan to follow, the correct baseline nutrition - including specific nutrient timings around training, the correct supplements for you, specific nutrition protocols for events and the correct recovery tools in place.
Then, when you get a coach who can look at your nutrition, training and recovery objectively and give you real-time suggestions and changes as to how to improve, your performance will skyrocket. And, the more you work with these professionals, the more your results get better and better as you're building on the previous foundations.
I hope this analogy is clear. It has certainly opened my eyes and has given me a clear roadmap to follow. I'm going to be uploading a visual version of the this to my website - myathleticcompendium.com - if you want to see a more detailed outline.
Now I have a clear roadmap to success and know where the bottlenecks lie within my 3 key areas, I'm going to really ramp things up over the next few months and let the power of compounding take effect. These things take time but that is where the secret sauce lies - in giving things enough time.
As ever, I'll keep you updated with the progress.
Until next time, stay hybrid and fuel for life, I'll see you in the next.