Coaches usually talk about this famous revelation whereas soon they meet an athlete, they knew they have a future champion in their hands. All of it sounds like a myth and perpetuates the idea that a very high performance athlete would have a distinct talent.
In endurance, talent detection is a very questionable status. General athletic qualities don’t allow to predict the future, since they don’t allow to know his disposal to develop himself. It is the psychologic qualities that often make the difference. We have to talk about the temperament, quality in judgement. This explains why some athletes that initially seem athletically better sometimes end up not being able anymore to follow requirements during their development.
In other words, and about the needs of an athlete in an endurance sport, to succeed, you need to acquire a behaviour accordingly. The athlete has to be unfailing on behaviour, self-judgment and motivation; involving innate prerequisites or some that will have to be acquired.
Dev #1 The Barriers of Success
Dev #2 Common Attributes of an Elites’s Success
Some coaches have this will to learn and are really aware about this topic and some aren’t. Behaviour remains an undeniable necessity for a talent that wants to reach his potential. However, behaviour is not a substitute for talent… Sport is a vector of values but high-performance sport is not always (rarely) meritocratic even if all of instructors would like it to be.
So, what to expect about an athlete? What behaviour must we detect in an athlete? There is no international recipe but thanks to our experience, we can easily make the distinction between the one who’s about to demotivate himself and the one who will show a behaviour to get back on track. It’s all about confidence.
Vulnerable confidence |
All-time confidence |
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I always make the same mistakes. I hope this will change. |
Making mistakes is normal, it’s up to me to learn not to make them again. |
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I’m wondering if it’s worth it to continue. |
If I continue to work hard, this will pay! |
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This training session seems too hard to do it all. |
Nothing is impossible. |
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I don’t know if I’m still good enough. |
If I keep training up, I’ll succeed. |
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I didn’t have a good race, let’s forget about it. I don’t want to talk about it. |
I didn’t have a good race, can we watch my mistakes together and how can we adapt my trainings to overcome them? |
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With this result, I must have disappointed people. I don’t deserve their trust. I’d rather not tell them all of it. |
I don’t have anything to hide, it’s because I’m honest that I’ll keep my relatives trust. |
Easily said than done, it’s up to you to act accordingly.