10 Lessons I Learned from Elite Athletes, and How to Implement Them
I had a bit of different route to getting where I am today than most powerlifting coaches did, and I think that has been to my benefit. I had the advantage of cutting my teeth as a strength and conditioning coach as an intern in my junior year at the University of Nebraska. Coming from being a student studying exercise who always had an interest in lifting weights, I was immediately thrust into being surrounded by athletes of the highest caliber, and that more than anything helped shape me into who I am today. I spent four years surrounded by D1 athletes, many of whom went on to play professionally in leagues like the MLB and NBA, or compete in world-level championships. I encountered and worked with multiple professionals at the time too, and was in the company of more than one Olympian during my time there.
The athletes who would go the furthest shared several important qualities, but it wasn’t until I had left the collegiate realm and started working with the general population that I began to realize what those traits were, because they were suddenly much harder to come by. Today, where the bulk of my clients are powerlifters, I still see these qualities innately present in some. For others it has been more of a learning process to acquire them, but I truly believe that they can be learned and ingrained over time. Here are the most important qualities I can identify about high-performing athletes, and some ways you can work towards developing them in yourself.
1. Elite Athletes Are Highly Motivated
They are singularly focussed, and that comes from having a vision and a goal—usually a title or championship in the short term, and a career and a legacy in the long run. This goal is always in sight, and motivates them to attack each day with vigor.
What Can We Learn From This?
Set goals for yourself, both long term and short term, and write them down. Motivation comes and goes, but when the goal is plainly laid out before you, it becomes much easier to do the little things you need to do to reach it.
2. Elite Athletes Are Disciplined
For practices or early morning lifts, they didn’t show up late. They didn’t complain, even when their teammates did. We never had to worry about them flunking out or deviating from their nutrition plans, because they understood the important weight that these things in the grand scheme of their goals.
What Can We Learn From This?
Understand that the big things you want to achieve are all comprised of the little day to day tasks that happen along the way. It becomes much easier to wake up at a certain time, or resist a cheat meal, when you remember that what is at stake is the thing you want most of all.
3. Elite Athletes Are Habitual Creatures
It is said that excellence is not a state of being, but a process. High performers recognize that having excellent habits will mean excellent outcomes.
What Can We Learn From This?
Much like training, we need to put ourselves in a position to succeed. We can’t expect good things to happen to us if we do not create the conditions for them to present themselves. If you are staying up all night, eating garbage nightly, and carrying stress with you at all times—do you really think these are ideal conditions to hit your next PR?
4. Elite Athletes Are Resilient
Adversity is an unavoidable part of sport. Injuries happen even in the presence of the best coaches and trainers that science can produce and money can buy. Losses happen to even the best teams in history. For elite performers, an injury or a loss is an obstacle to be overcome, or an opportunity to improve—never a reason to abandon faith.
What Can We Learn From This?
Resiliency will go a long way in a sport like powerlifting, where progress can be slow and unpredictable. Reframe setbacks, injuries, and plateaus as lessons to be learned from, and you will notice that they don’t seem to be as devastating or as demoralizing as they used to be.
5. Elite Athletes Are Consistent
Showing up is half the battle. Elite athletes don’t miss practices, lifts, or meetings, because these are all opportunities for them to improve and get closer to their goals.
What Can We Learn From This?
Would you expect a raise if you only showed up to work 50% of the time? Then stop expecting progress if you only complete 50% of your planned sessions, or adhere to 50% of your meal plan. Consistency reigns supreme when it comes to making progress in the gym, and no special program, drug, or supplement can replace it.
6. Elite Athletes Give Their Highest Effort
Seems simple right? But even at a D1 school, you don’t have to look far to see athletes sandbagging reps on sprints or weights, or half-assing drills. The exceptions are the players who go the furthest, who understand the importance of committing their best effort to the task at hand.
What Can We Learn From This?
Who do you think will make better progress—the guy giving 100% to a bare bones program, or the guy giving 50% effort to the best program on earth? The best coach or program can’t replace your own effort, and that applies to every aspect of training. Was that set REALLY an RPE 9? Or are you just going through the motions and expecting the same results as someone working harder than you?
7. Elite Athletes Are Extremely Competitive
This one should go without saying, but I don’t think people really grasp just how competitive the top guys are. They HATE losing. It hurts them. They don’t see it as an option when they are down in the fourth quarter, or behind in a race. The pain of losing, to them, is worse than anything they could endure on the way to victory.
What Can We Learn From This?
If you have a team, or lift with training partners, competition is already probably an integral part of your sessions. Even if it isn’t about the weight being moved, it can be about the execution, the bar speed, even the effort. Most powerlifters train alone, and even they can benefit from being competitive with themselves. And I don’t mean that in a wishy-washy way either—look back at your videos from last week. How can you beat that guy? How can you do it better than he did?
8. Elite Athletes Are Highly Coachable
When you say jump, they ask how high. When you tell them to go, they go. The best athletes don’t think they know better than their coaches, they take what they are told and apply it to the very best of their ability right away.
What Can We Learn From This?
One of the things that holds lifters back is doubt. There is a lot of information out there in the internet age, and its very easy to find conflicting advice about every topic under the sun. Rather than getting caught up trying to find the absolute BEST approach (if there is such thing), it’s much better to trust the plan you have written or been given, and focus on putting your best effort into it.
9. Elite Athletes Are Process-Oriented
The best athletes in the world love to win, but not more than they love their sport. They understand the value of training and practice, and are able to keep the goal in sight while not glossing over the stepping stones on the path that will lead them there.
What Can We Learn From This?
Lift because you love to lift, eat healthy because you love how it makes you feel. All the spite, motivational videos, and locker room pump up speeches can’t replace the love of the process. If you only care about the destination, the journey will be an unrewarding one.
10. Elite Athletes Are Supremely Confident
They don’t doubt themselves or their own abilities, or question if they will have what it takes when it matters. They take pride in their work ethic, their training, and their capabilities. They don’t get bogged down in self doubt, they don’t let worries stress them out, and they don’t let insignificant things waiver their confidence.
What Can We Learn From This?
Trust in yourself! Remember that your outcomes are the result the work you put in along the way. If you’ve truly done everything to the best of your ability, you won’t ever be disappointed in yourself.
With all that being said…
Very few people are born with all of these qualities—perhaps no one is. But when you have identified your potential, and have set your mind towards your goals, each and every one of these qualities that you can hone and sharpen within yourself will get you one step closer to them.
