More Than an Athlete: Creating the Conditions for Sustained Peak Performance

The 2015 Grand Slam season has concluded and on the men’s side, Novak Djokovic walked away with the U.S. Open trophy, defeating Roger Federer in four sets. Both Novak and Roger have had consistently solid years. They are both poster boys for the thread which I have woven into my articles during the previous year: More Than An Athlete (MTAA). Person first, every time.

MTAA means bringing your whole self to the performance. When a competitor jointly brings “who they are” (the person) to “what they do” (the athlete) in a competition, the sum of these parts is always greater than just bringing one dimension.

Let’s look at Djokovic. He allows the fans to see his fun, quirky and vulnerable side. He can often be seen laughing and performing player imitations. Other times, he is talking about his gluten-free diet. And yet other times, he talks about how he sets the conditions for calm by meditating and stretching through yoga. Clearly Novak brings more than talent, technique and skill to the court. He brings his personal side, story, spirit and vulnerabilities to the table.

Federer does the same. Remember back when he lost to Rafael Nadal at the 2009 Australian Open men’s finals and wept uncontrollably upon receiving his runners up trophy? Many thought this was a display of weakness. He quickly cleared up that misperception by winning the next three Grand Slams. Roger shared his heart from a very authentic place. By sharing his personal side, in combination with his talent, he helped remove a weight from his shoulders so he could just play.

How do you bring your whole self to the court? In order to sustain your own intrinsic drive and continue to assess, push and ride the ups-and-downs during competition? Answering these five key questions will start you on the way!

1. What is your Big Why for competing?
Without a personal “Big Why,” it can be very easy to give up, rather than push through difficult situations. With a crystal clear understanding of your Big Why, it becomes easier to face adversity, challenges and obstacles head on. In any competition, you will face difficult situations, your Big Why will provide you with the purpose, perseverance and passion to intrinsically propel you forward.

2. What is it about yourself that, rather than make you better or worse than someone, makes you who you are
Everything you have experienced and learned during your journey fuels you during competition. Your experiences are what make you who you are, both on and off the playing field. This is your “More.” Traditional thought says when you step on the court or field, you are only an athlete. This is not true. You are a person, playing a sport.

3. What do you do to create the conditions which help you settle and play from a place of present moment awareness, the place where you are calm on the inside and aware on the outside?
Many players have pre-match or game rituals. The idea is to warm up so that you can enter from a state of calm. Novak often talks about using family time, yoga, meditation and diet to help him settle down. I have developed an exercise called “gradual acceleration.” The idea is to help competitors not only warm up the physical side of the game, but to warm up the “other side,” the all-important mental part.

4. Where are you?
This seems like a rhetorical question, maybe even a sarcastic question! However, it is imperative to know where you are before, during and after competition. Think of a wave, where the low end is zero and the top end is 10. In a perfect world, the idea would be to maintain a fairly stable level during competition, without huge fluctuations … maybe between a three and a seven. The ability to do this allows you to stay inside your zone within your range of tolerance. From this place, you can better focus on the present and what you can control and let go of what you cannot. Oftentimes, players spiral out of control and reach a level of 10 and then beyond, this is where fight or flight occurs. Usually what follows next is that “deer in the headlights” look or freeze state. This is where the player loses control and spirals down the rabbit hole into the negative numbers. There will always be fluctuations in competition especially when adversity strikes. The idea is to stay within a range of tolerance that allows you to manage adversity.

5. What do you need from yourself and from others?
This is a big question! I remember watching a documentary on Roger Federer. They asked, what is it that makes Roger so good? The answer was simple, even obvious: He knows what he needs! In other words, he knows where he is in any given situation, based on this, he knows when to slow things down, collect his thoughts and when to speed up to continue his momentum. Equally important, he knows when to continue as is and stay the course to allow the impending storm to pass.

There are many techniques to help a player ride the waves (speed up, slow down or stay the course). This is for another article and workshop. However, per this entire MTAA series, what’s important is to understand that everything starts with the unique person within the athlete. When you bring who you are (your story and your spirit) to what you do (your skill), that’s where the magic happens. This organic and authentic union allows a player to reach well beyond what anyone thought was possible.

Just like a combination lock, you must have all of the numbers in place to unlock the lock and reveal the paradoxical secret to peak performance.

More than an athlete … person first—every time.