042 Characteristics of High Performance Athletes

It is not enough to be motivated if you are going to fulfil your talent. You must also be able to show immense commitment, where the promises you make to yourself and others you follow through with and do what you say you will do. Especially, through the tough times.

In this episode, Mark Bennett MBE and I go on to discuss the differences in commitment levels between leisure and high-performance athletes. How coaches can get the best out of their athletes, and parents can best support talented children. Mark's tagline - Performance is a Behaviour, not an Outcome is also debated.

Key Learning Points:

• Whether you are a leisure or a high-performance athlete, it has nothing to do with technical ability, physicality or skill, it is all to do with your behaviours and the attitude you take to your craft each and every day.
• A high-performance athlete is somebody that will do what they need to do to be the best they can be supervised or unsupervised 24/7.
• The high-performance athlete will ask themselves questions such as "What do I need to do?" How much sleep do I need?" "What am I going to eat the next day? "What's my plan for the week ahead?"
• For high-performance coaches, they'll be looking at the everyday behaviours of the athlete and won't get caught up in their technical ability in the moment of what they see.
• The coach will seek to understand the athlete's everyday behaviours, to understand where their mindset is and what their commitment is to their goal.
• On learning from mistakes, we expect people to make effective decisions, under different levels of pressure without getting caught up in the outcome but often they don't get taught how to reflect and evaluate.
• For parents, when considering being the best parent that you can be to support your child, have you pre-agreed certain behaviours for yourself as a parent, and for your child that you both agree on?
• For parents after training or matches, it's not about asking questions about did you win or how did you do or how many minutes did you play on the pitch? It is about asking "did you enjoy the match?" "What was the most challenging thing that you experienced today?" "What did you learn today?"

Connect with Mark Bennett MBE

LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook

Performance Development Systems, PDS Coaching Website

Connect with David Charlton

Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN

Other Resources to Help You

THE FOCUSED ATHLETE CHECKLIST

Podcast Ep36: David Charlton - How to Improve Your Intensity when Training and Competing

Podcast Ep15: Nick Grantham – Essential Elements of Rest and Recovery

Podcast Ep02: Steve Judge – How to Deal with Adversity

Blog: Developing your Mental Game in your Downtime

Blog: Training Hard Vs Training Smart | I Must Work Harder

Blog: Are you Motivated or Committed