Mantal Edge: How to reach your athletic potential

What separates elite athletes from the rest?

Talent? Many talented athletes never lived up to their potential.

Technical skills? All the technical skills in the world will not help if you are unable to perform those skills in the heat of competition.

Natural athleticism?

There are many examples in sports where less talented athletes became elite, and physically gifted athletes failed to succeed. So what is the special ingredient that produces elite athletic performances? The biggest contributor to elite performances is mindset after all the training and talent is baked in. Mindset is your mental outlook and how it helps or hinders your performance in competition. Some gifted athletes rely on their natural abilities. These athletes believe they can flip the switch and magically perform their best against tough competition. Sometimes these gifted athletes can pull off a high-level performance against top competition, but these athletes rarely perform at a high level on a consistent basis. Furthermore, athletes that merely rely on their natural ability tend to under perform against lesser ranked opponents.

Athletes that think natural ability is good enough will fall well short of their potential. On the other hand, an elite athlete has the ‘next level’ mindset. Elite athletes constantly look to challenge themselves on a daily basis. Of course elite athletes have talent, but these athletes work to improve their skills daily. Elite athletes push themselves during each practice, pay attention to the little things on a consistent basis and continually focus on positive work habits and building a Mental Toughness Mindset!

All these factors help elite athlete consistently perform at a high level.