The Talent Syndrome

Are you too talented to train hard? Odd question, but unfortunately many emerging and highly talented athletes consciously or subconsciously subscribe to this philosophy. Having worked and consulted with world class athletes, I have seen this mistake time and again. I found myself holding an impromptu lecture with a team mate of one ASP alum/team member #38 Marcus Dowtin LB for the University of Georgia on my recent visit to watch the Bulldogs take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. We spoke about some nagging injuries he had with his hamstrings, to which I responded that most people fail to train their posterior chain and thus suffer such injuries. His response to that was that that made sense, but because of his natural talent he did not see the purpose of training legs..........the classic, "I Hate Training Legs!" My challenge to him was what if by failing to comprehensively train his legs, he might actually not be taking full advantage of his performance potential. I took it a step further and proposed, what if by simply failing to train your hamstrings that you lower your draft status and thus cost yourself millions of dollars? It was funny to watch his face freeze up as he considered the prospect.

This example just illustrates how the perspective of highly talented athletes view their training and performance. Most athletes with a superior level of talent wait until they have suffered injury, or their talent begin to diminish before their take a serious look at their conditioning program. Think about professional athletes that are drafted high but quickly wash out of their respective leagues, as compared to those taken in later rounds but work hard to become stars for years to come. Consider athletes that peak on the amateur level and because they did not put in the work to refine their abilities, are quickly forgotten? When deciding whether you want to train today think about how many millions of people across the world aspire to the same goal that you seek to achieve? Are you working harder than them? Are you studying as diligently as they are? Have you reached 10,000 hours as proposed by Malcolm Gladwell in the book Outliers?

Team Lloyd Irvin lives by the philosophy, "Hard work always beats talent, when talent refuses to work hard!" This statement sums up how important it is to constantly improve. As I always remind my clients, there is no maintaining. You are either improving or moving backwards as the world/competition surpasses you. Never take talent for granted and always remember that there is some one somewhere working to take you spot.

Improve 1% Everyday!