Accessing (the Second Part of) Performance

Performance is only part skill and talent acquisition. Your attributes, per se, are only part of the equation, regardless of the sport. A wakeboarder, baseball player, CrossFit athlete, or a trail runner’s performance is just partially decided by his or her, speed, strength, athleticism, or sport specific skill. The other components are intangibles that carry more weight than we often give credit for. For example, an athlete’s ability to operate in the moment, unclouded by past failures or make believe future pressures, enables him or her to tap into resources more completely than an athlete who’s plenty capable, but feeling down about how the season is going.

If you’re a higher level athlete, congratulations. Your top end potential is greater than intermediates and beginners with budding attributes that can’t hold a candle to your abilities. This is only a piece of the pie, though. Performance on game day is ability and execution. Intentions don’t win ball games and they don’t get results in the gym.

Remember that talent expression is just as important as your attributes. What’s the use in having abilities you can’t use, after all? Most of this expression of your potential is made or broken with mental skills. The key to accessing your talents is rooted in controlling that which you can control and disassociating with that which you can’t.

Our mental skills coaches in college and with the San Diego Padres often would ask us to create lists of the elements that affect our performance. As a hitter my list would look something like this:

–The umpire

–The weather

-My approach

–The pitch

–The pitcher’s stuff (movement, MPH, location)

-Confidence

–Weather

–Place in the lineup

-My preparation

-My attitude

–The quality of stadium lights

–Fatigue

–Whether I’m in a slump, or not

–The opposing defense

–The scorekeeper’s judgment

Then, almost as expected, we’d be asked to cross out the elements that are out of our control. As corny as it sounds, you’ve got no business wasting any negative energy on it if it’s crossed out. While this list can be longer, shorter, more detailed, or less, the results are always about the same. You’re in control of your preparation, your effort, and your attitude. That’s it.

Luckily, performance is a black and white arena. While I can understand that your feelings, mood, or external concerns are powerful forces, they yield nothing in the way of performance.

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach