Don’t rest on your laurels.
Champions are never satisfied, always looking to tinker with things and improve. At the top level of any endeavour it’s all about fine margins. The best of the best have an insatiable appetite to improve their skills, even when it seems they have mastered them, never allowing themselves to settle for second best.
In the 1960s psychologists documented the three stages of learning a performer goes through when developing a new skill:
Stage 1: the ‘cognitive’ phase (this is when you have to really think about what you’re doing while you do it)
Stage 2: the ‘associative’ phase (this is when things become a little more natural, with fewer errors)
Stage 3: the ‘autonomous’ phase (this is when things happen naturally without having to think about the move)
One of the biggest traps an athlete can encounter is when they settle – “I’m pretty good at this skill now, I can focus my attention elsewhere.” Let me tell you, there is no such thing as mastering a skill. YOU ARE NEVER GOOD ENOUGH. YOU CAN ALWAYS IMPROVE.
At IFS we never allow our athletes to settle in the autonomous phase, we are constantly asking for more, challenging them to step outside their comfort zone and try things.
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