How does a champion think?

What goes through their mind before and during a challenge, compared to a regular person?

When two people are competing at the same level of skill, talent and experience, I have found that this is what will separate the two at the end of the day.

In fact, thought processes are regarded as so powerful nowadays that many consider that one mind can influence another – for example, if an excellent swimmer 'hangs around' with a champion for long enough, they will eventually take on that swimmer's habits, training methods, thought processes and behaviour, which should eventually bring similar-type results! Personally, I don’t think that merely copying a champion will get you there nor will simply embracing similar techniques. More is required.

Great champions seem to possess an almost innate ability to handle pressure, control doubt and negative thoughts, and come through when the chips are down. Some of these skills seem inborn but I think, more often, these skills are learned along the way.

Were it enough to simply copy our heroes then we would all have the attributes most of us desire - those intangible qualities that make a true champion. The reason we don’t is that there is so much more to learn.

To continue the swimming analogy, Australian swim star Kieren Perkins was up against huge odds after a bad heat swim in the 1500m at the Atlanta Olympics. He struggled with major nagging doubts and incessant negative thoughts during the 24 hours before the final, so he opted to read a book constantly during this period to cleanse his mind of the nagging doubts. Does this mean we can all achieve the same result by reading a book?

Perkins also provided an insight to his mental preparation for that Olympic final, and about his thoughts during the race itself. To quote a newspaper article at the time, he said "I visualised exactly what was going to happen tonight". "It's hard to explain, but when you are focused you almost have no thought. Sitting behind the blocks I was 100 per cent focused and I didn't have a single thing in my mind. I knew what I had to do and it was just a matter of letting my instincts take over". Does this mean we can all achieve similar results by visualising the perfect outcome?

The answer to both questions, logically, must be no. There is more to being a champion than simply engaging in similar behaviour or employing similar techniques. How does the champion know what behaviour is the right one for them? How does the champion know what technique is the correct one to employ? How does the champion know in what field they can excel? Why do they seem to get so much right where many of us seem only capable of getting so much wrong? The answers are not found in any examination of those techniques, behaviours or choices; the answers are found in the thinking that goes on behind them – the top two inches.

I found most champions thought patterns are characterised by 4 key components that separate them from the masses. What surprised me is that three of them are common to the masses and crucial in achieving any kind of success whether it is sporting, business or life. It is only when combined with the elusive fourth quality that a champion is born!
1. Passion

Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.
Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali is not only one of the greatest boxers the world has ever seen but also one of the greatest champions. One of the reasons he was so great was because he intuitively understood the first shared characteristic of champions; you have to want to do it! Some might call it, as Ali does, a dream or desire or vision, but in reality it is passion.

Passion is difficult to quantify as it isn’t about science or numbers and it can’t be adequately measured. Yet without passion all of us can only achieve average performance at best and dismal failure at worst. It may sound silly but none of us can succeed unless we truly want to and none of us can achieve a given end unless we are passionate about that end. As Carl Sandburg says “Nothing happens unless first we dream.”

The problem is that too many of us try to succeed and achieve in the fields of other’s dreams. It is not our choice to pursue a goal but rather the result of the pressuring influence of our parents or friends or peers. Champions are not beholden to the dreams of others but rather governed by their own burning desire to succeed. Perhaps none illustrate this better than the great Muhammad Ali.

In 1954 in Louisville, Kentucky, 12-year-old Cassius Marcellus Clay’s bike was stolen while he and a friend were at the Columbia Auditorium. Young Cassius found a cop in a gym, Joe Martin, and boiling with youthful rage, told Martin he was going to "whup" whoever stole his bike. Martin admonished, "You better learn to box first." Within weeks, 89-pound Cassius had his first bout and his first win.
For the next 27 years, Cassius would be in that ring. Even in his youth, he had dreams of being heavyweight champion of the world. Young Cassius dedicated himself to boxing with fervor unmatched by other young boxers. Indeed, it was his only activity. As a teenager, he never worked. He boxed and trained. He had 108 amateur bouts. According to Joe Martin, Clay set himself apart from the other boys by two things: He was "sassy," and he outworked all the other boys. The work paid off: 6 Kentucky Golden Gloves championships; two National Golden Gloves championships; two National AAU titles before he was 18 years old. And the son of Odessa, whom he lovingly referred to as "Bird," and Cassius senior, "Cash," to everyone, won the Olympic Gold Medal in 1960 in Rome months after his 18th birthday.
Cassius Clay of course would later become Muhammad Ali and throughout his career what distinguished Ali from everyone else was that he was different. While he may have learned technique and behavior from others his passion was his own. That passion was the crucial starting point to his long career as well as what sustained him through its many ups and downs. Though he won the gold medal at the Rome Olympics in 1960, at the time the experts didn’t think much of his boxing skills. Nor did they approve of his personal behavior: the self-promotions, his affiliation with the Muslims and giving up his “slave name” for Muhammad Ali, the poetry or the quips.
The public, as well, had a hard time accepting him. His fight for the heavyweight championship in Miami against Sonny Liston was sparsely attended. Indeed public sentiment was for Liston! Then, of course, three years after Ali defended the championship, there came the public vilification for his refusal to join the Army during the Vietnam War. The government prosecuted him for draft dodging, and the boxing commissions took away his license. Through it all his passion burned, his desire never wavered, his dream continued.
Ali was asked on a television show what he would have done with his life, given a choice. After an awkward pause - a rare thing, indeed - he admitted he couldn't think of anything other than boxing. That is all he had ever wanted or wished for. He couldn't imagine anything else. It was his life.
Champions think differently and the first thing that makes them truly different is that passion. Whatever it is that they are doing they want to do it. They can’t imagine doing anything else. They are not constrained by the dreams of others and in Ali’s own words they don’t have to be what you want them to be they are free to be what they want.
Still, passion (while a vital ingredient) is not enough on its own. If that were the case then everyone could be good at what they are passionate about and, sadly, that is not the case. There is more required to be a champion.
2. High expectations.
If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Whatever a champion is called to do they do it to the very best of their ability. They set high expectations for themselves not only in terms of the goals or standards they may strive for but also in terms of how difficult they think the task might be.
Most of us do the exact opposite. We are told not to get our hopes up. We are encouraged to have realistic expectations. We either under or overestimate the difficulty of the hill we have chosen to climb and give up as a result. The champions don’t!
Champions set the highest goals for themselves and push beyond their limits but are realistic about the effort and commitment required to achieve those goals. They also recognize that in order to be the best in anything you must first start by recognizing that you can’t be.
Sounds weird doesn’t it? The reason it sounds weird is because most of us think of “best” as an objective measure. We think of “best” as defined by first, second and third or by world records broken or consecutive home runs hit. But “best” is actually a subjective measure. “Best” is whatever you decide it is and “best” is determined not by winning (although often a by-product) but rather by continuously improving your own standards and levels of achievement. That is why in order to be the “best” you must start by recognizing that you can’t be. Whenever a champion achieves what they previously considered their best high expectations demands that they raise the bar again. Consequently, the champion is always chasing an elusive target and always trying to improve. Sure, there might be victories and celebrations along the way but as Martina Navratilova, the greatest women’s tennis player in the history of the sport once said:
“The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else”
I found that it is the continuous stride for improvement that drives the champion. It is the push to better today than they were yesterday and have it surpassed by tomorrow that allows them to win not once but over and over again. Although the examples are many perhaps the best of them is Vince Lombardi.
Vince Lombardi, at the age of 45, when most pro football luminaries have made their mark and passed from the scene of a young man's game, was embarking on the dual adventure of being Head Coach and General Manager of the Green Bay Packers.

His previous NFL experience consisted of five years as an assistant coach with the New York Giants. Amazingly, Vince basked in the limelight for only one decade. Cancer struck him down just as he seemingly was about to create a "second miracle," the rejuvenation of the Washington Redskins. In remarkably few years, Lombardi became the symbol of excellence for an entire sport.

There have been few teams in pro football history in a more downtrodden state than the Packers were when Lombardi was first approached about the coaching job in 1959. Vince had gained a reputation with the Giants for his stylish, thorough, and imaginative craftsmanship on offense. He seemed to have all the credentials to be a successful head coach.

Lombardi, realistic about the difficulty of the task ahead, insisted on a five-year contract to give his building program a fair chance but he set his plan into action at his very first team meeting. "I have never been on a losing team, gentlemen, and I do not intend to start now!" The Packers improved from 1-10-1 in 1958 to 7-5 in 1959. The next eight years, the Packers were in a class by themselves, winning six divisional and five NFL championships and achieving victories in Super Bowls I and II.

In 1968, Vince retired as the Packers coach but retained his general manager's duties. He found the hours "out of action" boring and, in 1969, moved to Washington, where the Redskins were struggling much the way the Packers had 10 years earlier. Remarkably, in his first season with the Redskins, Lombardi created an equally amazing result – a 7-5-2 record.

How he did it is perhaps best summed up in his own words about the expectations he had of himself and everyone around him:
"Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he's got to play from the ground up — from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's O.K. You've got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second.”

High expectations, whether you be a street sweeper or the greatest NFL coach of all time, requires total commitment. For the champion to push themselves beyond their previously imagined limits they must set for themselves the highest of standards, the loftiest of goals and fully appreciate exactly what will be required of them in terms of effort and personal sacrifice to get there. It is that degree of effort and sacrifice that gives rise to the third common characteristic shared by champions:

3. Perseverance

“First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations--explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon--if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.”
John F. Kennedy

With these words on May 25, 1961, then President John F. Kennedy set in motion an initiative that would see American Astronauts successfully land on, and return from, the moon before the decade was out. Certainly, there was an expression of desire or vision or passion. Certainly there were high expectations in seeking to master a hitherto unconquerable and lofty peak as well as a realistic assessment of what it would take to do it. But these qualities of passion and high expectation were not enough on their own to guarantee the success of the mission. As the thousands of brilliant men and women who believed in Kennedy’s vision came together to make this dream of a moon landing a reality their greatest challenge would not be the daunting technical requirements but rather the need to stay the course, to overcome adversity and to persevere.

So it then fell to NASA and other organizations of the Federal Government to accomplish the task set out in a few short paragraphs by President Kennedy and it was dubbed the Apollo Program. The first challenge NASA leaders faced in meeting the presidential mandate was securing funding. While Congress enthusiastically appropriated funding for Apollo immediately after the president's announcement, NASA Administrator James E. Webb was rightly concerned that the momentary sense of crisis would subside and that the political consensus present for Apollo in 1961 would abate. He tried, albeit without much success, to lock the presidency and the Congress into a long-term obligation to support the program. For seven years after Kennedy's Apollo decision, through October 1968, James Webb politicked, coaxed, cajoled, and manoeuvred for NASA in Washington.

Perseverance.

On 27 January 1967, Apollo-Saturn (AS) 204, scheduled to be the first spaceflight with astronauts aboard the capsule, was on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, moving through simulation tests. The three astronauts to fly on this mission - "Gus" Grissom, Edward White, and Roger B. Chaffee - were aboard running through a mock launch sequence. At 6:31 p.m., after several hours of work, a fire broke out in the spacecraft and the pure oxygen atmosphere intended for the flight helped it burn with intensity. In a flash, flames engulfed the capsule and the astronauts died of asphyxiation. It took the ground crew five minutes to open the hatch. When they did so they found three bodies. Although three other astronauts had been killed before this time - all in plane crashes - these were the first deaths directly attributable to the U.S. space program. Shock gripped NASA and the world in the days that followed but they persevered and recovered from that disaster 10 missions later when on the 16th of July 1969 Apollo 11 lifted off and began the three day trip to the moon. On the 20th of July 1969, astronaut Neil A. Armstrong set foot on the surface telling the millions who saw and heard him on Earth that it was “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Perseverance.

There is an old Japanese proverb which simply states “Fall seven times, stand up eight”. This is simply what perseverance demands. Champions are as prone to failure as anyone but they get up. Albert Einstein once claimed that he wasn’t smart, he just stuck with problems longer than anyone else and, in truth, most champions are of the same ilk. They are not necessarily more talented than anyone else; they just set their goals higher, want it more and stick with it.

These traits of passion, high expectation and perseverance, however, are common. Indeed, I would expect that most people reading this book to be imbued with them if not all the time then at least part of the time. You cannot succeed in any endeavor without them. Yet, they are not enough on their own to make for a champion. The champion has a fourth overriding factor which tempers everything else, allows them to think differently and make the right choices. It is a factor that almost always surprises people because it is so simple; it is honesty.

4. Honesty
“The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”
Norman Vincent Peale

It is honesty and in particular the ability to be honest with themselves that separates the champions from the masses. The champion is brutally honest with themselves. They know what they are good at. They know what they are not good at and they know what they need to do to compensate for their weaknesses and to overcome them. Crucially, it is a two-pronged strategy. The champion cannot rely on simply eliminating their weakness because that takes time and time usually isn’t available in abundance. Because time marches on the champion must develop ways of compensating for their weaknesses so that they have less relevance. For example, a champion sprinter who has a strong start but a weak finish will certainly try to improve it but knowing how long that may take they will also make their strong start even stronger.

When Larry Bird played for the Celtics, each off-season he picked one particular weakness and devoted almost his entire training regimen to that weakness. If he had a great season shooting three-pointers but struggled with his post play, unlike most players, he spent his summer focusing on his weakness. Whether it was during his individual workouts or scrimmages, he dedicated himself to working only on his post game. Is it any wonder that the Hall of Famer went on to become one of the most complete players of all time?

Of course in order to be able to compensate for, or overcome, a weakness you have to able to recognise that you have one. That is why honesty is so important. The champion lives by a simple maxim – that of ultimate responsibility:
Whatever happens to you, good or bad, at some point you had the opportunity to change the outcome.
That is a tough rule to live by but that is how the champion lives. Each of us makes a contribution to our own fate. When circumstances conspire against us it may be a small contribution but it will be the difference between success and failure. Because they are honest with themselves the champion can identify that contribution and capitalize on it. The champion can look back on an outcome and ask themselves “How could I have done better?” They have positive hindsight. They can identify where they contributed to their success so that if circumstances repeat themselves they have the best chance of repeating that success. Equally, they can identify where they contributed to their failure so that if circumstances repeat themselves they have the best chance of changing the outcome. Taking ultimate responsibility and being honest, however difficult, is the key to being a champion.

Those who cannot be honest with themselves do not have hindsight. They have bad luck, bad karma, blame and a tendency to attribute their misfortune to all but themselves while repeating their mistakes. If late for work due to traffic being banked up on the turnpike they will curse the rush hour, the government, the weather… and so on. The champion knows they could have left earlier or taken a different route. The champion will get stuck in traffic in those same circumstances only once while the rest of us repeat the experience every time those circumstances arise.

Honesty.

One of the best examples of this at work is the famed “Miracle on Ice”. The story begins with Herb Brooks, NCAA coach and student of international hockey. Brooks had played for his country at two Olympics, and was the last man cut from the 1960 team, which won America’s first Olympic gold medal in hockey. He spent the 1970s as head coach at the University of Minnesota, leading the team to three NCAA titles and earning notice for his prickly personality and fanatical preparation.

The USSR, emerging from several major defeats in the mid-1970s, was back on top of the hockey world going into the 1980 Games at Lake Placid. The previous year, the national team had crushed the NHL All Stars 6-0 in the deciding game of a challenge series. The Soviet domination of the 1979 World Championship was absolute. The veterans – Boris Mikhailov, Valeri Kharlamov, Alexander Maltsev, Vladimir Petrov – were still in peak form, while exciting young players like Sergei Makarov and Vladimir Krutov brought a new, fearsome edge. Behind them, as always, was the great Vladislav Tretiak in net.

The romantic notion that a bunch of college scrubs felled the world’s greatest team through sheer pluck and determination is misguided. Brooks spent a year-and-a-half nurturing the team. He held numerous tryout camps, which included psychological testing, before selecting a roster from several hundred prospects. The team then spent four months playing a grinding schedule of exhibition games across Europe and North America. The players included Neal Broten, Dave Christian, Mark Johnson, Ken Morrow and Mike Ramsey, who would go on to impressive NHL careers.

There was no matching the Europeans in skill. So Brooks emphasized speed, conditioning and discipline. Knowing how luck plays a large role in short tournaments, he wanted a team that could grab whatever opportunities came its way. Regional and college rivalries ran high among the players, most of whom hailed from Minnesota or Massachusetts. Brooks worked to unite them, often against himself. He challenged them physically, but also verbally, questioning whether they were good enough, tough enough, worthy of the task. A few confrontations ended in shouting matches. Brooks’ tactical moves must also be credited. Shortly before the Olympics, seeing the need for more mobility on the blue line, he asked Dave Christian to switch from forward to defense. His quest for speed produced a trio of centers – Broten, Johnson, Mark Pavelich – that could skate with anyone. By luck or design, he managed to get goaltender Jim Craig to peak at exactly the right time.

The Americans were underdogs, but they were competitive. Brooks suggested that a bronze medal was within reach. Then came a pre-Olympic exhibition game against the Soviets. The wide-eyed Americans were manhandled 10-3. Brooks blamed himself, saying his game plan was too conservative.
At Lake Placid, Team USA began tentatively against Sweden, but a last-minute goal by Bill Baker salvaged a 2-2 tie. A 7-3 win over Czechoslovakia boosted confidence. The momentum grew with victories against Norway and Romania and a 4-2 comeback win over Germany.

The Soviets went undefeated in their group, of course, although they fell behind against Finland and Canada before rallying late to win each game. Such stumbles appeared little cause for concern. The group standings set up the scenario the Americans had been hoping to avoid: their first opponent in the medal round was the USSR.

All the preparation, the tough selections, the hard training, the compensation for a lack of skill with speed, discipline and conditioning came together and with ten minutes to go the USA, rank outsiders, lead the USSR 4-3. As the Soviets mounted a final charge, broadcaster Al Michaels delivered the most famous call in American sport: "Eleven seconds. You got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now. Five seconds left in the game! Do you believe in miracles? Yes!"

The USA went on to play Finland in the final game and win the gold medal – the most unlikely of Olympic champions.

Brooks was brutal in his honest assessment of both his players and himself. It flamed their passion and desire, heightened their expectations and drove their perseverance. It gave them positive hindsight and allowed them to learn from their mistakes. It made the difference between success and failure and labeled them forever more as champions.

Passion, High Expectations, Perseverance, Honesty. If the top two inches are what matter then I think that these four characteristics are what fill them.

Incidentally, as they seem to do with all great stories these days, they made a film about that miracle on ice and called it… “Miracle”. In it Brooks is played by Kurt Russell and the following speech is as good a way to sum up as any:

“Great moments... are born from great opportunity. And that's what you have here, tonight, boys. That's what you've earned here tonight. One game. If we played 'em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight. Tonight, we skate with them. Tonight, we stay with them. And we shut them down because we can! Tonight, WE are the greatest hockey team in the world. You were born to be hockey players. Every one of you. And you were meant to be here tonight. This is your time. Their time is done. It's over. I'm sick and tired of hearing about what a great hockey team the Soviets have. Screw 'em. This is your time. Now go out there and take it.”

Substitute the Soviets for anything of your choice… and go out there and take it!

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