The Greatest

A young boy learns to cycle his bike without stabilisers for the very first time, having tried and tried for months on end. Faint scars on both knees and elbows show just how hard he has tried to reach this milestone without ever even considering that it might not be possible. He now proclaims with a big smile beaming across his face ‘Look at me Mam, I’m the greatest !’

A teenager stumbles awkwardly in the front door of his home, clip clopping in slippery cleats on a tiled floor. He is saturated from head to toe. He is barely recognisable to even his own mother. His face is completely covered in grit, grime and forty shades of brown mud. He would be unrecognisable but for the beaming smile across his face. Finally after many months of trying he has managed to hang on to the Sunday morning group and to be there for the sprint at the end. ‘I even led it out before they all came flying past!’ he proclaims proudly. ‘I am the greatest!’ he declares to his mother as they both share a broad smile.

A young man crosses a finish line. It’s the National championship. The pinnacle of the cycling year. He has crashed. He is cut, battered and bruised. His brand new shorts are torn. His brand new club jersey is torn. His bike is dented and scratched. What was new white bar tape is now ripped and stained with blood. Both Ultegra levers are scratched and the hoods are torn.

Tears are streaming down his face as his mother puts a comforting arm around him.

‘I can’t believe it Mam’ he sobs ‘I can’t believe it’

‘I can’t believe I’m the National Champion’

‘Believe it son’ she says ‘You’re the greatest!

What does it take to become good or even great at something, anything?

In a nutshell it takes a whole lot of hard work and persistence. There are very few shortcuts to achieving anything worthwhile. Every champion has trained body and mind to levels beyond which ordinary people are willing to make the effort to reach.

There is a theory called the 10,000 hours to success, where studies have been done on elite level sportspeople and musicians. It was found that in over 80% of cases it was when the person reached the 10,000 hour mark of training and practicing their chosen sport or musical instrument that they reached a level in the top 1% worldwide.

Time spent in focused training and practice outweighed almost any form of exceptional natural talent. That is not to say that those who did the 10,000 hours were not talented, just that hard work and dedication led to more sustained and successful results than any amount of natural talent that was not combined with hard work.

Self belief is also hugely important. Having the training and hard work done leads to that form of self belief. Expect to win and you have a 90% better chance of winning than those who expect to lose.

Who competes and expects to lose I hear you ask?

Just listen to the talk in any dressing room or sign on hall before a domestic race.

I’m not going well at all.
I’m just back after a crash.
I’m wicked busy at work.
I’m not getting out much lately.

This added to the following:

Bikes that are not clean or well maintained.
Items of kit forgotten as the bag was packed 3 minutes before heading out the door.
Poorly executed pre race nutrition and hydration.

All excuses we give ourselves to fall back on in advance of a poor performance. There are those who will tell you that it’s just a bit of cuteness, but just think who the very first person who hears the excuse is and who gives it the most thought. To find the answer just look in the mirror.

We don’t want to be disappointed so don’t build up our expectations.

Go back over the story at the beginning and think about what the child was telling himself from a young age and the result at the end. Then consider that whilst this may sound like a nice story, it’s loosely based around something that actually happened.

Tell yourself your great, tell yourself that you can achieve anything that you set your mind on, even if it’s just inside your head. Then see for yourself what happens if you combine it with some hard work.

What have you got to lose?

Barry

thecyclingblog.com