Extreme Athletes: The Greatest Athletes in the World

Over the past few years I’ve become increasingly interested in extreme sports. Like most people I enjoy watching some of the daredevil type acrobatics that these athletes are able to achieve. Athletes such as Tony Hawk, Laird Hamilton, Travis Pastrana, and Shawn White have come along and completely redefined our perception of what is possible. Being that I rode dirt-bikes growing up and currently surf I have some vague idea of the level that guys like Pastrana and Hamilton are reaching and even though I have almost zero interest in skate or snowboarding I am still glued to my tv when Tony Hawk and Shawn White are performing. In fact watching Tony Hawk’s 900 at the ESPN X-Games or Laird Hamilton’s ride at Teahupoo ranks right up there with some of the greatest athletic moments I’ve ever seen.

So how can a guy who has no interest at all in skateboarding rank Tony Hawk’s 900 as one of his favorite all-time athletic moments? When I initially saw Tony Hawk’s 900 I was blown away by the perseverance it took to accomplish this feat. You could see the look of determination in his face, the single pointed focus he had, and what he was doing to focus his mind to accomplish what many had deemed impossible. This single even launched my fascination with the extreme athlete. As I had done to so many athletes in the past I began to study how these athletes thought, trained, and viewed their sport. The more I learned the more I gained a greater appreciation and admiration for these amazing individuals. So much so that I now believe that these athletes are the greatest and most complete athletes in the world. They have found what most major sports including baseball is lacking. The have found that in order to be successful and take their sport to higher levels that they must train their body, mind, and spirit. Why? Quite frankly because their life depends on it!

Unlike in baseball where a mechanical flaw, a cluttered mind, or an ego centered spirit will lead to a hitter striking out or a pitcher giving up a homerun, extreme athletes must deal with the reality that a mistake or lack of focus might equal death. In addition I love how these athletes are continually rewriting our perception of what’s possible. This has lead me to study their training techniques and use these techniques on myself and my athletes. I always think it’s funny how people in baseball are quick to call something impossible. They’re quick to say you can’t teach a person to hit as if mastering the physical skill of hitting is some mystical, God given ability. Yet here we have extreme athletes learning complex physical movements on a regular basis. Once someone accomplishes the “impossible” these athletes then take the impossible movement even farther. Obviously they know something we don’t. Obviously they have figured out how to get their body and mind to do what they want and then perform these skills time and time again.

So what can we learn from them? What is it that we can apply to our sport that will enable us to take our personal game to higher levels and at the same time raise the level of play of baseball across the globe?

• A lack of egoic thinking- Oh sure these athletes are driven to be the best and it can be argued that they walk around with a certain level of arrogance. However unlike most baseball players many of the world’s best extreme athletes see their performance as serving something more, something greater then themselves. Maybe it’s because they’ve been striving for so long to make their sport mainstream but it seems as though they feel a certain level of responsibility to their sport. Many of them in their interviews can be heard saying that what they just accomplished is great because it helps their sport gain more exposure. At the same time they appreciate the feats of their fellow competitors. While they are driven to be the best and genuinely want to win their event they also appreciate when their competitors take the sport to higher levels. You often see professional skateboarders applauding their opponent’s performance. Unlike in baseball where many times we are more concerned with our stats, our results, our playing time these athletes see their sport as bigger then themselves. Sometimes they even take it a step further and feel like great performance was a gift given to them by some higher power. They feel gratitude that they were able to perform at such a high level which ultimately allows them to continue to perform at this level and allows them to continually be blessed with great experiences. Many times after a great game we are quick to think that we did it, that we are the man, and it’s because we are better then everyone else that we were able to produce such an amazing result. In the movie Riding Giants Laird Hamilton was asked about his ride at Teahupoo and his response was, “I was honored to be given the opportunity to have such an amazing experience.” Clearly an absence of egoic thinking, playing for something more then yourself, can lead to higher and higher levels of performance.

• A Holistic Approach to Training- Unlike many of us in baseball or other mainstream sports these athletes have discovered that in order to reach for and beyond the impossible you must train your entire self. They understand that we are only as strong as our weakest link and physical skills are meaningless without a strong mind and spirit. They understand the power of connectivity and how everything is connected, weakness in one creates weakness in another. Many times you can find these athletes engaged in meditation to clear and strengthen their mind, visualization so they can see and mentally practice a new trick or skill (you often hear them comment that, “You must first see the trick in your mind long before you can ever do it physically”), weight training to strengthen their body and allow them to handle the pounding that they must go through, and yoga to maintain or increase the body’s flexibility so they can gain greater range of motion and more control over their limbs. They don’t leave anything out and as such are some of the most well balanced athletes on the planet.

• Detailed, Step by Step, and Progressive Approach to Skill Development- Since the skills these athletes perform are so dangerous and so complex they take the time to break their movements down in easily manageable and safe parts. They take an entire skill break it down into parts, practice and master each part individually, and then put the whole thing together. Compare that to how we tend to learn how to hit or pitch. In hitting we’ll get on a tee or off of a machine and take full swings. Then you get a coach or even yourself to tell you what adjustments to make and you then try to make that adjustment and master that part of the swing while you are engaged in performing your swing in it’s entirety. If you aren’t able to learn it you are then, “just not a born or natural hitter.” Crazy right? In the grand scheme of things a mechanically sound swing or good pitching mechanics are far easier to learn then Shawn White’s Double Front Side 1080 you just need to break the movement down and master it one step at a time. Since poor head position, or a flaw in your posture is enough in extreme sports to get you docked major points or even cause you to be unable to pull off a trick these athletes are very detail oriented and very aware of what their body is doing at all times. Unlike baseball where we have a tendency to not pay attention to what our body is doing or where our posture is in space these athletes know what their body must do in order to pull off their particular trick. Once again they see the connection between poor head position and their body’s ability to perform. Finally they are progressive. They take their time gradually increasing the difficulty of their movements and slowly pushing the limits of their sport. They don’t have a time table like we often do in baseball. We have this belief that if we aren’t so good by such and such a date then we’ll never make it. This adds unneeded stress and negativity to our game and as a result inhibits our development. When Tony Hawk pulled off the 900 he had been trying to land the trick for approximately 20 years. Laird Hamilton didn’t just wake up one day and say, “Hey let’s go surf a 60 foot wave.” He had been in the water his whole life, gradually increasing the difficulty of his skills until a 60 foot was the logical next step. In our sport when we place deadlines we create frustration, comparison, and stress, all of which will slow and prevent your overall development and performance.

• They Perform in “The Moment” and are Process Oriented- In baseball we have a tendency to focus on outcomes. We concern ourselves with our numbers, getting hits, getting strikeouts, but rarely do we take the time to focus on the steps necessary to produce the results we desire. Extreme athletes have figured out that great performance is nothing more then an accumulation of single moments strung together. Why is this? Well once again, if they don’t focus on the moment, if they allow their mind to focus on the future or the past, looking forward to an outcome, or back to a failure, they might die! When Laird Hamilton rode his wave at Teahupoo he was 100% focused on what the wave was doing at the precise moment. As a result he was able to spontaneously come up with what he needed to do in order to stay on the wave. He had to do something he had never done before or had never even practiced before but being focused on the moment allowed his mind to remain clear which allowed him to create and execute the movement. The end result of surfing one of the toughest and most dangerous waves ever ridden was just the accumulation of these singular moments. If we applied this same mentality to baseball not only would we perform at higher levels but we would perform with far greater consistency. How many at bats it’s been since your last hit wouldn’t matter, what a particular hitter has done against you in his career would be meaningless, a bad call from an umpire wouldn’t effect an at bat, and you would be focused on executing the mental skills and physical movements that produce success and wouldn’t be focused on the success itself.

These are just some of the things I have learned from watching and studying extreme athletes. In my opinion due to their approach to their training, to their sport, and by the simple fact that failure results in serious injury or death these athletes are the greatest athletes in the world. Don’t make the mistake of believing that just because they don’t play a sport that has a ball that they aren’t as athletic as we are or that we can’t learn from them and apply these lessons to our sport. I believe that if we did we would not only experience greater personal success on the field but the state of our game and how it is played would be greatly improved. If you want to take your game to higher levels begin to watch and learn from these athletes. Maybe something they do or say will enable you to play at levels you once only dreamed of.

The Application of Knowledge is Power

With the start of the high school season I’ve had the opportunity to get out and watch some of my athletes in game situations. The more games I attend and the more I speak with my athletes I’ve found that rarely to they use many of the mental skills we work on during our sessions. Frustrated by this I’ve thought a lot about why an athlete wouldn’t consciously decide to use the physical and mental skills we work on? Why, when it’s left up to them do they just assume that success will just magically happen? They almost have this idea that success on the field is left up to chance. They go into each game with the intention and hope of performing well but when it’s game time they don’t take the steps necessary to allow themselves to produce the results they desire. The more I thought about this the more I began to realize that the reason that they aren’t able to translate the knowledge they learn in our sessions is that they are stuck in their old way of thinking. It’s easy for them to see the improvements that they’re making but once it’s game time they have a difficult time thinking like the new player that they’ve become.

You see, before a player is introduced to proper hitting or pitching mechanics their entire game is left up to chance. They have flaws in their fundamentals so there are certain things they can’t do and they don’t have the knowledge of what steps they need to take in order to become successful. Once they are exposed to the knowledge they need to be successful they are still stuck in the old way of thinking and as a result have a tendency to believe that the knowledge they have obtained and the work that they’ve put in is enough to translate this knowledge out on the field and magically create the level of performance that they desire to create. But what they don’t realize is success is a process. Success is not something that just happens but is a result of steps you take and the application of the knowledge you’ve gained.

Too often players get into a game and become reactionary. They “see ball, hit ball” and react to whatever comes their way which puts the athlete in a constant state of feeling defensive. When in this defensive state they feel unsure, they lack confidence, and become tense. This tension prevents the athlete from executing the new mechanics they’ve been working on. It’s important that athletes realize that success is not created by chance, fate, or good luck. Success isn’t created by “natural talent” or some kind of God given ability. Success is a creation of physical and mental processes. In order for an athlete to achieve the level of performance that they desire they must be able to detach themselves from their reaction mentality. They must not allow the stress of the moment to cloud their thinking and stay focused on going through the process that leads to success step by step. Athletes must begin to apply the knowledge that they gain in their lessons and practices if they ever hope to achieve success. They must focus on what they need to do to create the success they desire and avoid hoping that they’ll succeed. When an athlete begins to become process oriented and apply the knowledge they’ve learned their performance will skyrocket and become much more consistent. If you find yourself in a game hoping that you will be successful take a step back. Remember what you’ve worked on and begin to apply this knowledge to your game. Don’t get so caught up in the moment that you forget what you’ve learned and just leave your success up to chance. Remember, success is a process and you have the ability to choose to take the steps necessary to succeed.

How Much Does Strength Training Really Help

I was in Vitamin Shoppe the other day and saw a couple players from a local high school shopping for the newest and latest supplement that will to transform a mere mortal into superman. Instantly taking these athletes to high levels of performance. It reminded me of my own career. I, like everyone else, believed that if I busted my butt in the weight room and became the strongest guy on the field then that would mean that I would be the best hitter or the best player. I took all the hot supplements at the time, I took my protein, my creatine, and considered taking andro. I got strong, really strong, and yet my performance on the field never improved. I didn’t hit the ball any farther or harder, I didn’t throw any harder, I didn’t really run any faster.

I see this today with some of the athletes I know. Athletes who workout at the gym I workout at who don’t invest their time in learning proper swing or throwing mechanics. I see these athletes transform physically. They make huge gains in strength tests in the gym, they put on weight, and hardly resemble the athletes they were just a few months earlier. Yet they don’t hit the ball any better and they don’t throw any harder. The question then becomes, Why? Why is it that this strength isn’t translating to better and better performance? The answer has to do with their mechanics. If you are not mechanically sound then gains in strength and size will not help very much if at all.

One of my own athletes proves this all the time. He is small, very small. He might be 135 pounds soaking wet, doesn’t lift weights consistently, yet he produces the most power of any of my athletes. Why? Because he is the most mechanically sound. His bat gets into his strongest possible position at the point of contact. At that moment he and the bat become one. Allowing all 135 pounds and all of the energy he’s created up to that point and all of the strength that he has to instantaneously meet with the ball at the same time, producing much more power then his larger teammates. You compare that to one of my strong, 200 pound athletes and maybe they aren’t as far along developmentally. They don’t get into the same position at the point of contact and as a result maybe they only use 100 pounds of their weight at the point of contact, plus their energy and strength is wasted because they never get to that strong position and the bat and the body never merge as one. Think of a 120 pound person hitting a baseball with an aluminum bat while a 200 pound person hits a baseball with a whiffle ball bat. The 120 pound person will hit the ball farther because the bat is harder and more dense where as the whiffle ball bat doesn’t have any strength behind it. It doesn’t matter how big the athlete is or how fast their bat speed is. If they are swinging with a weaker bat the ball still won’t go anywhere. Essentially what I am talking about is the same thing. If a bigger, stronger athlete never gets to that optimal position at the point of contact they are basically hitting with the whiffle ball bat.

So am I saying not to workout? Absolutely not! There are some tremendous benefits to strength training. Being stronger does allow you to run faster and explode faster. It will help you stay healthy throughout the grind of a season and it does help develop your athleticism. It will also allow you to get away with more mistakes. You might be able to “muscle” a few balls through the infield when your swing breaks down. What I am saying is don’t sacrifice your mechanics for strength. Don’t think by spending hours in the weightroom that this is sufficient to helping you develop as a baseball player. Don’t ignore developing your mechanics simply because you think lifting is going to help. Begin to think of baseball more like golf instead of football. In football being bigger, stronger, and faster clearly helps you, but baseball is a skill sport like golf. Being able to execute skills is far more important then being buff and strong. So if you have to decide between developing your mechanics or developing your muscles choose mechanics. Ideally the combination of both is what will help propel you to higher levels of performance but don’t think that taking creatine is going to get you to the levels you desire to reach. It is only through physical and mental mastery that we can reach the highest levels of performance. Strength training is a good supplement to help us get there it’s just not the answer. Do you need to work hard in the gym? Yes! Just understand that if you are not mechanically sound you won’t gain the benefits of your hard work. Make mastering your mechanics your priority and you will find that you won’t be wasting the hard work you put in the weightroom.

Development Requires Patience

I get asked all the time, “When are the mechanics going to translate into a game?” My honest answer is “I don’t know.” Everyone has a different development schedule. Some athletes are able to learn a skill very quickly while others it takes a while. However it’s important to remember that when you are trying to learn hitting, pitching, or anything else in baseball that you are essentially only learning a movement pattern or skill. Just like every other movement pattern or skill you’ve learned throughout your life, so if you were able to learn those skills then there is no doubt you can learn and master your mechanics. So when I’m asked “When are the mechanics going to translate?” I really don’t know. However, I do know that with consistent deliberate practice it WILL happen, I just can’t tell you when.

What inhibits our development?

What we tend to do as parents or athletes is look at the other athletes on the field and compare them to ourselves or our child. If another athlete happens to be farther along developmentally we then classify that athlete as “more talented” and we then expect to be able to ascend to their level of performance quickly and when we can’t we blame it on our genetics, our ability level, or any other excuse that takes our focus away from our development. You need to remember that athletes can be farther along for a number of reasons, maybe the other athlete was exposed to the proper mechanics at an earlier age, or maybe they for whatever reason they just naturally executed proper mechanics, whatever the reason it has absolutely nothing to do with you or your athlete’s “natural ability”.

Consider the “Ten Year Rule” that is discussed in Geoff Colvin’s book “Talent is Overrated”. Studies have shown that it takes approximately 10 years of deliberate practice to reach the “expert” level of mastery over a skill. Unfortunately some athletes aren’t exposed to proper mechanics at a young age and even though they may have been practicing their sport for years they haven’t been deliberately practicing and as such their 10 year clock hasn’t even started yet. Think of two athletes: The first athlete is 15 years of age and the second athlete is 5 years of age. They both begin working with me at the same time and as such are both exposed to the same information, drills, and correction, they work with me for 10 years and by the time the first athlete reaches 25 he has achieved mastery over hitting and is one of the top major league hitters. While the second athlete reaches the same level of mastery at the age of 15. Now the 15 year old isn’t as physically mature as the 25 year old however he is dominating his high school competition and is being looked upon as a future first round pick. If you were to compare these two athletes at the same age the second athlete would be much farther along then the first and would probably start being called a “natural”. People would assume that the second athlete is far more gifted then the first but is this true? Reality is that they both started at the same place and got to the same place in the same amount of time. One isn’t more talented then the other, one just had the benefit of learning the skill at an earlier age. I tell my clients to think of this whenever they begin to feel as though their mechanics won’t translate. They aspire to play at a certain level and even though they’ve practiced all of their life they haven’t really practiced until they started seeing me and learning the proper mechanics. So if it takes 10 years from that point then how can they ever expect it to be perfected after only a month or two.

Another common thing we do to inhibit our development is putting time limits on it. Many times athletes and parents feel that the athlete must reach a certain level of performance by a certain time or they can kiss that D1 scholarship goodbye. While this might be true there is nothing you can do to speed up the athlete’s development so worrying about it is counter productive. Maybe you are in the unfortunate situation of learning the proper mechanics at an older age. While this sucks it doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to realize your dream of playing in college. First of all, there are so many colleges out there, just because Texas isn’t banging down your door doesn’t mean you won’t get the opportunity to play in college. It’s important that you relax and give yourself the time necessary to develop. If you have to go to a JC for two years then fine, give yourself that time, if you have to go to a smaller school then fine. Do whatever you need to do to allow yourself time to develop and if you do that and focus on developing and mastering your skills everyday there is no reason why you can’t end up in the big leagues. Remember it doesn’t matter where you start it only matters where you finish.

I know this from personal experience. I worked and worked and worked my entire career but was never exposed to the proper skills or mechanics. As a result I never experienced the performance I knew I could experience. Then I began to figure things out at the tender age of 27 and so for the past 5 years I have been finally practicing deliberately. The development I’ve made over that time has been remarkable, to the point where I have become far better as a hitter then I had ever even imagined. The exciting part is I still have 5 more years before I reach the “expert” level of mastery. This couldn’t of happened until I made development my focus. I stopped placing time tables on my development and just focused on improving and achieving mastery over my body and mind in order to become the hitter I wanted to become. If you apply the same mentality to your career there is no limit to how good you can become. Remember that developing as a baseball player is like growing a plant. You plant the seed, water the plant, and give the plant sun light and just relax and wait for it to grow. You don’t rush the growth of the plant, you don’t get up and stress out each day because the plant hasn’t grown yet, you simply do what’s necessary to allow the plant to grow and allow it to develop in it’s own time.

Our Perceptions Shape Our Performance

It’s funny sometimes to see and listen to how different individuals perceive different situations. On the baseball field it’s no different and many times I’ve discovered that it’s these perceptions that lead to both good and bad performances and how athletes approach different situations on the field or how they approach their work habits. Take some of the best athletes of all time, the Kobe Bryant’s, the Derek Jeter’s, and the Tom Brady’s of the world. What allows them to perform in situations that cause other athletes to fail? The situations are the same but they simply perceive the situation completely different then say a lesser athlete.

So where am I going with this? Well, I want to challenge you to look at the way you do things on the field in a completely new light. I want you to change the way you see things in order to maximize the infinite potential you have. Many times simply changing the way you look at things will completely change your ability to execute mechanics, it can change the way you feel (eliminating fear of failure, etc.), and it can drastically improve your athleticism.

We live in a “doing” society. What I mean is we have this belief that people who are currently experiencing more success than we are must be doing more then we’re doing. They must be working harder, trying harder, or playing harder than we are, I mean what else can explain their extraordinary level of success? This belief then shapes how we practice and play. We begin to play harder, try harder, or work harder. We put more effort into what we are doing in the hopes that this will allow us to reach the same level of success that the other person has reached. We use words and phrases that confirm our perceptions. We say things like, “He really stepped it up!” “That guy raises his game to another level in clutch situations!” and “They just wanted it more then we did!” All of this leads us to believe that the great athletes have another level. That they choose to try just a little harder in pressure situations and that is enough to propel them to their levels of success. As if the guy on the other side doesn’t want it or isn’t trying. These perceptions lead to numerous athletes trying hard, working hard, and playing hard and when they don’t reach the levels of success they desire to reach they try harder and harder and harder only producing worse and worse results.

Just for a moment lets consider that our perceptions are completely wrong. Let’s try and see the other side of the coin. What if players who excel in clutch situations aren’t taking it up another notch at all? What if everyone around them is trying harder and working harder and they simply stay the same? What if instead of the clutch athlete speeding up they actually slow themselves down? I know, I know, “But Ryan we see these guys move faster and perform better then everyone else on the field.” Yes, I know, but I’m asking you to ask yourself, “How is it they’re able to do this?” Consider for a moment that clutch players don’t speed up, they slow down in an effort to keep their muscles and mind relaxed. Maybe everyone around them is speeding up, exerting more effort, and as a result becoming slower and more inefficient. Maybe the clutch athlete stays the same as they are in practice while everyone else is trying to take it up a notch.

Sounds crazy right? But think for a moment about your own performance. Why is it that in a cage with no one around you can hit like Albert Pujols but then can’t translate that to the field? What has changed? The goal is still the same, you still need to execute your mechanics the same, but yet you’re unable to have the same level of success you had in the cage. The only thing that has changed is your perception of the situation. Maybe scouts and recruiters are around and you want to show them that you can play at the next level. Maybe your coach is around and you want to show him that you deserve to start. Whatever the case might be, the only thing that has changed is your perception of the situation. In order to perform at the same level that you are capable of all you need to do is change the way you perceive the situation or change the way you perceive how you need to handle the situation. Instead of trying harder make a conscious effort to slow yourself down. Take your focus away from “doing” and bring it more toward “allowing”. Allow yourself to be successful, allow your mechanics to work and produce the results that you desire.

I encourage you to try and question the perceptions you have created. Try and see the other side of the coin. Maybe the reason you aren’t having the success you desire is not because you aren’t “doing” enough, maybe it’s because you are “doing” too much. Be willing to change the way you do things. Remember one of my favorite quotes, “If you do things the way you’ve always done them, you will get the results you’ve always gotten.” ~Tony Robbins

The Benefits of Yoga

For the past year or so I have been practicing yoga. As most athletes I was a little skeptical at first but was motivated due to my lack of flexibility. I was interested in yoga to help me loosen up my hips and shoulders primarily so it would feel better when I ran and threw. I couldn’t have predicted just how much I would enjoy and ultimately become addicted to yoga.

From the first yoga class I took I immediately felt better then I had ever felt in my life. My shoulders, hips, hamstrings, and low back all opened up more then I had ever experienced in my life. When I threw the ball I noticed that my shoulder felt very free and I could throw with far less effort and didn’t fatigue as quickly. My immediate thought was that I had just found the missing link in my training. It was like yoga bridged the gap between my training and my performance.

Like most athletes I like to train hard. I like to push myself with running, weights, or any other training method I can come up with. The downside has always been that training this hard left me feeling tight, bound up, and un-athletic. Yoga immediately increased my range of motion far greater then it had ever been. The strength gains I made with weights began to translate on the field better because I felt like I could move. I felt like I could move effortlessly and started to see greater control over my body. When I would run my hips were more open which allowed me greater range of motion when I ran. This allowed be to put more force into every stride effectively utilizing the strength gains I had made in the weight room.

When it came to hitting I noticed a jump in my power production because of the greater range of motion in my hips. I was able to generate more hip separation which leads to greater torque and greater force generated into the ball. Defensively I felt like I could make more acrobatic plays due to how open my entire body was. I was no longer limited by the range of motion in my joints and as such could make plays I once only dreamed of.

Aside from the physical aspects yoga helped me develop many of the mental skills I teach in my lessons. It taught me how to slow my breathing, stay in the moment, and clear my mind. The ability to clear one’s mind allows for mechanical repeatability which only benefits you on the field.

Overall Yoga has been an amazing experience. I feel like I can perform at higher and higher levels, I sleep better, and am able to handle day to day experiences much better. I would recommend yoga to everyone but especially for any athlete looking to take their game to high levels.