Become a student of the game.
What separates the talented from the great?
It seems to me that the greats move beyond their strengths, their ‘A game’, as this will only take them so far. There are many examples of prodigious talents emerging onto the scene only to fall short in fulfilling their potential.
For some, they realize, often painfully that their best in its current formulation is not sufficient, they need to become a student of the game to reduce their shortcomings to reach the top, and stay there.
One interesting example is Rafa Nadal, here is a player that bludgeoned his opponents from the back of the court with an intensity, weight of shot and amount of topspin, never seen before.
This however is not where he stayed, as he began to suffer injuries from his punishing style he and his coaches began to look for ways to shorten points and likewise lengthen his career.
A stat about his efficiency at net shows how the perception of him as a slugger is misplaced. His volleying numbers aren’t just good he regularly operates at the top of the sport in net points won %!
From the outside it is obvious to win more you need to round out your game but who does it and is truly committed to it when they are as successful as Nadal was earlier in his career?
This level of ability does not come from a few additional drills as part of his training, it takes a huge force of will, one which he brings to bear on his opponents and has resulted in 20 grand slam wins during perhaps the most competitive period in the history of men’s tennis with two other super champions playing in it.
For some athletes it’s not about learning to be competent in a certain phase of the game per se but having faith in team mates when they are the most dominant individual force in a sport of high performing teams.
Michael Jordan was a revelation in his early years at the Chicago Bulls, his scoring ability and athleticism allowed him to take over games virtually single handedly. Several high performing seasons passed without any silverware to speak of however.
It wasn’t until Jordan began to lean into the team game all star head coach Phil Jackson was asking for that the Bulls began to win titles. Jordan spoke about learning to have faith in his teammates allowing for the team to rise to the top of the sport.
He learned to maximize his ability to hurt opponents by drawing multiple defender’s attention before finding the unmarked teammate to take the easy shot.
This development required Jordan to become a student of the game of basketball, to become a better captain, to better apply his great talent to inspire his teammates to greater heights.
Finally we come to my main example, a recent series of boxing matches highlight the overall point of this article. One of the competitors was largely successful due to one element of fighting, the other having a multifaceted approach and understanding of the game they both play. Deontay Wilder is not a great boxer but a great puncher.
Before this series of fights he has knocked out every opponent he has faced, it didn’t matter if his opponents had a better strategy, had better footwork, had a deeper understanding of the sweet science, they still lost.
What this success allowed him however was a chance to succeed without becoming a student of the game, he was never forced to win another way, and so he didn’t. This ultimately led to stagnation and an over reliance on his huge right hand.
His opponent it must be said is from a different school, not only is Tyson Fury good from long range as you would expect from a 6 foot 9 inch man mountain, he is equally effective in the mid and even at close range. Someone that size and length doesn’t become proficient at close range on a whim or in a short amount of time, this takes a dedication to the craft of boxing.
The three fights between these two very different boxers was full of drama and lessons to be learned, for our purposes we will discuss how the deeper knowledge of the different ranges and strategies of boxing allowed Fury to win in the end.
In the first fight Fury decided to box the puncher, using his sophisticated feinting game, his superior footwork, his excellent upper body movement to evade Wilder’s great power, to hit and not get hit. This was almost undone with one almighty right hand and follow up left hook that floored Fury in the final round only for him to miraculously beat the count and spend the rest of the round pushing Wilder back.
The judges scored the fight a draw, even though the majority of observers scored it for Fury.
When the rematch happened some two years later Wilder was in all intents and purposes the same man, however Fury would this time come into the fight with a completely different strategy, one that most people thought was suicide. For his rematch Fury had decided to go at Wilder, to lean on him, to push him back and maul him with the aim of stopping him.
He had sensed in the final round of the first fight that Wilder was extremely limited when he was forced onto the back foot. Wilder had never been forced into fighting differently, his ‘A game’ was always enough, until it wasn’t.
Fury ended up winning the 2nd fight by stoppage doing what most people thought wasn’t possible, he bullied Wilder, exhausted him in the close range exchanges dropping him twice before his corner threw in the towel.
In their recent 3rd fight we saw Wilder target Fury’s body early however this began to reduce as the fight progressed. Although this fight was a more back and forth contest than the one sided 2nd fight we essentially saw a limited fighter again get beaten by a more well schooled and more skilled opponent.
Of course between the 2nd and 3rd fight Wilder would be furiously working on becoming a student of the game, rounding out his style to give him a better chance at victory in the rematch. Unfortunately for him the later in a career these changes are usually made the easier they are forgotten under the pressure of high level sport as was the case in the 3rd fight.
Fury comes from a family of boxers so he would have been exposed to a far richer library of techniques in his youth so much so that he would be a competent close range fighter even though he stood 6 foot 9 and was blessed with long arms and legs.
What these three examples show to my mind is that a commitment to studying your craft is a prerequisite for high performance in the long term, additionally the earlier this happens and the more sincere the commitment to it, the higher the performance ceiling is.
In other words commit to your chosen craft, seek to understand its facets, never stop learning and aim at mastery rather than learning just enough to be successful. Everyday is a school day and there is a whole lot to learn even about the subject that you know the most about.
Do you need help becoming a student of your game? leave a comment below and lets set up a chat about what is holding you back.