The #1 Reason Why the Off-Season is How Elite Athletes Become Elite
During the season most good athletes have very similar routines. There is a significant amount of structure around training, practice, and competitions. Practically every day is planned out by a coach. This is not the time when elite athletes separate themselves from the good athletes.
Instead, elite athletes separate themselves from the pack in the off-season. It’s the off-season when an athlete’s choices can change the trajectory of their career. The famous words of Gretchen Rubin sums up perfectly the choice that results in elite athletes becoming elite.
What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while.
In the off-season, good athletes work on their craft once in a while. On the other hand, elite athletes do something every day. Furthermore, small steps of progress made daily take you further than large steps taken once in a while. In other words, an athlete who only does a one or two week camp all summer and that’s it, will never gain on an athlete who trains one hour a day every day of the summer.
Athletes don’t become elite because of natural talent, camps, training partners, and coaching. Those things help. However, those things alone won’t propel an athlete from good to great. Indeed, you will find that what makes an athlete truly elite is within their daily habits. Particularly, the choices they make with their daily habits in the off-season.