The amateur performer thinks it all boils down to skill acquisition.
The professional does too.
An athlete I was working with sent me a video of a Major League Baseball coach explicitly instructing a starting Major League first baseman on how he wanted him to catch. Just like a little league practice.
The comments under the video were predictable:
“Fundamentals. Fundamentals. Fundamentals.”
“Even the greats need help with the basics.”
What I saw was a total waste of time. That players fielding percentage was over 99%.
What’s more likely… technical advice from someone who has never completed even the simplest of tasks with that first baseman’s body, is going up that players fielding percentage… or lower it?
What’s more likely… the coach has the secrets to unlock that last %, or the player does?
It’s the same on every professional practice field and court. Professionals practicing technique. Running the same drills… having the same conversations as the amateurs.
“Elbow here.”
“When this happens do that.”
You may think I’ve gotten that backwards. That the amateurs are doing what the pros are doing.
Nope. Before all those characters were pros and pro coaches, they were amateurs. They are doing what they’ve always done.
Like Sisyphus, they are cursed to push the rock of skills acquisition till their end of days.
At one point in my life I could trade shots with the best of the best. You would have been hard pressed to find flaws in my skills. Problem was… I couldn’t perform with the best of the best. I can’t tell you how many times my beautiful skills came completely unglued when I needed them most.
And every time it happened I would go directly from my match to the practice court to exorcise the demons from the offending skill(s). No one was going to outwork me.
Nothing changed.
It took me a long time to figure out that the problem is NOT the acquisition of skillz. Too long. The trick to all performance is the ability to retain access to your skills.
And no one is teaching that.
What? You think sports psychologists are?
Nah. Their gig is teaching you to deal with stress. I’m talking about eliminating it.
It sounds impossible. Doesn’t it?
That’s only because you are the product of an environment that believes stress and performance anxiety to be incontrovertible facts of life.
They are not. They are the by-products of a twisted view of it.