Everyone, regardless of his or her job or role in society, is striving to follow a pathway to achieve success. In the case of sport, there is not the exception. It is clear that when it relates to sport, every athlete could just wake up every morning and do any fitness regime they feel like. At the end of the day they are burning a good number of calories, and boosting their endorphins. In the long term, however, this will never take them to achieve performance success. Due to the random nature of the movements across different sports, the chances of them reaching their best version of themselves are very slim, and the possibility of falling into injury are high. This is why there are 2 things needed to achieve success: Having a well-developed plan and being disciplined enough to keep consistency in completing the sessions.
From a coaching perspective, it has to be said that a proper training program is not only made from the weekly sessions planned for each athlete but from a well-developed strategy made with long term thinking in place. Every program is made of different sets of cycles (varying from 1 week all the way to a 6-12 month cycle.) Each cycle has an objective and each session serves a function in achieving this objective. A coach will do their best to leave nothing to chance. By following a good plan you will not only enhance your efficiency but will also improve your recovery and will reach your objective goal in much better shape.
The other side of the coin is the athlete’s discipline. It is not unusual to see sports commentators or the public opinion expressed towards a new talent as an overnight success. This could not be further from the truth in fact, as they are not seeing what has been happening before that moment happened. This type of comment sells the idea that success is just for some lucky, talented people. But in reality for most human beings, success is about keeping consistency. American author Stephen King, has a quote used and followed by people from all around the world, “Talent is cheaper than table salt, what separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” This is a way of saying that the real success comes from following a process for as long as it is needed rather than having the talent inside.
So the next time you see an athlete getting a medal, getting into the World Championship team, or achieving their life-long dream, think of it as a person who took on and listened to their coach for many years prior to their event. Their Coach was there to help plan the hours of specific training, the strength and conditioning classes, recovery and mobility, the development of a program fully adjusted to them, their hard work and sacrifice and building for years and years for their ‘overnight success’.