Another dramatic example of this phenomena occurred during the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal where Japanese gymnast Shun Fujimoto did the impossible. The Soviet Union was easily favored to win the men’s team gymnastic’s gold medal. On his last tumbling run of the floor competition, Fujimoto felt a deep pain shoot through his right knee. He had broken his kneecap.
This is an extraordinarily painful injury because every time the thigh muscles contract, they pull on the broken bone. Rather than saying anything to his teammates or coaches about the injury, which he reasoned might distract them or cause them to despair, Shun persevered through the pain as best he could in an attempt to earn the points his team so desperately needed. His next event was the pommel horse and, somehow, he was able to complete the routine with a score of 9.5 out of 10. The landing, however, not only hurt, it did additional damage to his knee. Still, he tried to conceal the pain and prepare himself for the next event, the rings.
If dismounting from a pommel horse caused additional damage to his knee, dismounting from the rings promised a whole new world of pain and suffering. Just dropping from the nine foot high rings seemed inconceivable with a broken kneecap. Imagine the mental discipline and focus it required not to think ahead to the triple summersault dismount! Already in great pain, Shun was lifted up to the rings and began his routine. At this point those who had become aware of the injury held their breath. How could a man with a broken kneecap absorb ten times his body weight upon landing from that height? He flew through the air on his dismount, spinning at high speed. Then, not only did he land on both legs, but he nailed it! He scored a 9.7 out of 10 which was the highest score he had ever recorded on the rings!
However, he paid a price. On landing he also dislocated his kneecap and tore ligaments in his knee. The doctors who treated him after the event said, “It is inconceivable that anyone with this injury could have landed that dismount without collapsing into screams.” Although Shun was forced to withdraw from the competition after successfully completing the rings, the Japanese team was so inspired by his courage and perseverance that they went on to defeat the heavily favored Soviets by the closest margin in Olympic history. Shun insisted that he be with his teammates for the gold medal ceremony and true to form, he climbed the podium without assistance!
Another legendary peak performer who overcame injury and adversity to win Olympic gold was discus great, Al Oerter. He was never the favorite to win. In fact, he never won the U.S. Olympic Trials! In 1956 at the age of twenty, no one thought much of his chances to place at the Melbourne Games but on his first throw he shocked the crowd when he broke the Olympic record and won the gold medal with a throw of 184’11”! Shortly after the Melbourne Games he almost died in a devastating car accident and many thought that he would never fully recover. Despite the odds stacked against him, Al found a way to win the 1960 Rome Olympic Games gold medal and break the record on his final throw of 194’2”. Once again injury struck just prior to the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo when he tore a large part of cartilage from his rib cage. Doctors advised that the injury would require at least six weeks to heal and recommended that he not compete in the Games. With ribs taped, Al not only competed but won the gold medal and broke the Olympic record with a personal best throw of 200’1” on his fifth throw. The injury had been so severe and painful that he could not take his sixth and final throw. Al was forced to watch as the then world record holder Babka took his final throw in an attempt to best him. Babka fell short and Al was the victor. Despite the injury, Al became the first man to ever throw the discus over 200’! By the time the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games rolled around, Al was considered too old to be competitive as many others had passed him by. To make matters worse, he had injured several vertebrae in his neck. While wearing a neck brace, he went on to win the 1968 Mexico Games gold medal and break the Olympic record with a throw of 212’6”. Four consecutive Olympic games, four golds, four records, four peak performances, each a surprise. What are you capable of doing?
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How often have you enjoyed watching all of the amazing highlights from your favorite NFL players? I have personally witnessed many of these peak performances with athletes that I have worked with, but one that stands out in particular was made by Andre Collins who seven years earlier had been the starting weak-side linebacker for the Washington Redskins when they won Super Bowl XXVI. Interestingly the peak performance I am referring to occurred towards the end of his ten year career while playing for the Chicago Bears. At this point in his career, Andre did not get much playing time but he was dedicated to making the most of what he had left to give. He approached each down like it was the last one he would ever play. He made it a point to focus 100 percent of his abilities on the task at hand and to appreciate the joy and privilege of just playing one more play. As I watched him come onto the field at Ravens’ Stadium in Baltimore for one of the few reps he would get in that game, I was touched by his great humility and in some strange way reminded of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. There was something peaceful and deliberate about his presence on the field.
The ball was snapped and the quarterback dropped back to pass. As he released it, one of the defensive linemen jumped up and tipped the ball. It spun in a high arc toward the sideline about two or three yards behind the line of scrimmage. No one was within fifteen yards of the spot where it would land. Andre had been so focused and absorbed on the ball that he instantaneously began sprinting after it. It was clear that the ball was just too far away for Andre to come near it, but he sprinted like I had never seen him move before and did not let up despite the ball being well out of reach. He just kept coming, absorbed in seeing every detail on the ball, until his fingers wrapped around it about two inches off the turf. No one could believe their eyes. Andre somehow kept his balance, pulled the ball in while bent in half, and continued running at full speed. A second later he crossed the goal-line, touchdown!
Andre went on to tie a Bears’ club record for linebackers that season with three interceptions, not including the two he made in pre-season, despite getting only about 25 percent of the playing time. He would often say to me, “I can only imagine what I would have played like at the beginning of my career if I knew then what I know now.” This is from a Super Bowl Champion!
If you were on a team with Andre, you would be pretty excited to play with him. You would have a sense that with a peak performer like Andre, you could win any game. If you can imagine the impact of one teammate like him, now imagine an entire team of peak performers, including you! You might think, “That’s not possible.” Why not? If one can do it, why not two? Why not three, or four, or five, or an entire team? One time when I was speaking to members of a Division I football team, I said, “Picture right now, on your team, a player who is going to perform in today’s game with all of his skills, talents, and abilities coming out right at the moment they were most desired. What kind of effect would that have on the game?” Every player in the room agreed that, “We would probably win the game.” Then I said, “What would happen if eleven players walked onto the field today and one hundred percent of all their skills, talents, and abilities came out during the game? How would that team play?” They answered, “That team would be unbeatable!” As you begin to see and create peak performances in your own life, consider what life would be like if everyone in your family, at your work or on your team, joined in your commitment to using all of their skills, talents, and abilities in everything they did.
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Since peak performances appear to happen regularly and are performed by individuals of all abilities, why don’t they happen all the time? Or more importantly, why don’t they happen when you would like them to? The first five chapters of this book go a long way in explaining why they are so rare. Certain things get in your way that can prevent your peak performances from happening.
Imagine that there are two, twenty-foot, parallel lines on the floor, about twelve inches apart. You are standing at one en
d of the lines, and at the other end a dollar bill lies on the floor. You’re asked to walk across the floor, staying within the somewhat narrow lines, and pick up the dollar at the other end. You would probably look at me and ask, “What’s the catch? It can’t be this easy.” I assure you that there are no tricks so you walk across, pick up the dollar and step off the end. You probably would have a puzzled look on your face that said, “What was that all about?”
First, how hard was that? Not hard at all. As a matter of fact it was ridiculously easy. Now imagine that the lines on the floor are a beam spanning across two skyscrapers, 110 floors up. Would you walk across that beam, given the same exact conditions, and pick up the dollar on the other side? No way. Maybe for a big pile of money you might consider it, but not for a dollar. Even then you would most likely wobble along with your arms out trying not to fall off or you might drop to your hands and knees and try crawling across. But why would you hesitate to walk across the beam when it was so ridiculously easy for you to do it the first time? One significant reason might be that you looked over the edge and saw the little cars and people down below. You think, “I could fall off and die!” But you had no problem walking across the lines on the floor the first time. In fact, it was so easy that you were thinking there must have been something more to it. It just seemed too easy. And it was! Without having to think about it, you were doing two things. You were looking at the beam and you were feeling your body move: left, right, left, right all the way across, saw the dollar, picked it up, and stepped off on the other side.
What happens on the skyscraper is that even though you have the same hundred percent to give, it’s not being directed into seeing the beam and feeling your body as you move across it. You put nearly a hundred percent of your focus on the little cars and people far below which leads to focusing on the feared and fatal consequence of falling off and being killed. Even if you attempt to walk across it, there’s now a good chance that you would fall, because you’re not focused on what it actually takes to walk across the beam (seeing the beam and feeling your body).
You may have experienced the frustration of not performing at your best. Somehow it felt like you didn’t give all that you had to give. Can you ever be sure that you gave 100 percent to what you were doing? The most you can hope for when performing is that your whole hundred percent will come out when you want it to come out. The key is to know what it is that you want to focus on and then put your entire 100 percent of attention on those things.
Let’s take basketball for example. You’re on the foul line with only seconds left on the clock and your team is down by one point. The only thing that can help you right now to sink the shot is seeing the rim and feeling your body move through the right positions. If you put 100 percent of your focus and awareness on those two things, that’s as good as it gets. But think about what often happens.
You go to the foul line, wanting and intending to give your 100 percent. In the background you can hear your coach yelling instructions about what you should do after the shot. Wait a second, what does that have to do with seeing the rim and feeling your body? Nothing, take away 10 percent for that thought. Then you think, “Mom and Dad are in the stands with the video camera.” What does that have to do with seeing the rim and feeling your body? Nothing, take away 15 percent of your focus for that thought. The guy next to you starts trash-talking. What does that have to do with seeing the rim and feeling your body? Nothing, take away another 15 percent of your attention. You suddenly remember, “I missed my last two foul shots.” Ouch, what does that have to do with seeing the rim and feeling your body? Nothing, take away 25 percent of your focus for that thought.
Add them up. Sixty-five percent of your focus is on other things that have nothing to do with seeing the rim and feeling your body. You are now standing on the foul line sincerely believing that you are putting 100 percent of your focus on the task at hand. In reality you are standing there with only thirty-five percent of your ability on the two things that will ensure you make the shot, seeing the rim and feeling your body. With only 35 percent of your focus on the things that can help you to shoot at your best, there is a good chance that you will miss the shot. That is why your peak performance doesn’t come out when you want it to. Instead of focusing, in ever deepening detail, on the task at hand, you end up focusing on the consequence—good or bad—rather than the act itself. Thinking about the consequences of failure, or even of success, instead of the action often leads to the very outcome you hoped to avoid.
TAKE AWAY
Peak performances are possible. They happen every day. And you are capable of experiencing them more often than you think. Detail, detail, detail. The more you try to see, the more absorbed you become. It is the secret of performing “in the zone.”
One-hundred percent. That’s it. You can’t give 110 percent. There is no secret slice under the pie! Using 100 percent of your attention to focus on the task at hand, only on the things that are involved with what you are currently doing, guarantees that you will perform at your best in each present moment for the rest of your life. The good news is that there is more—much more—for you to learn that will dramatically improve all that you do.
CHAPTER 7
INSTANT REPLAY
WE’VE seen that peak performances tend to happen when you least expect them, and that often the only way you know that you had a peak performance is after it is gone. Imagine, however, if you were not only able to create a peak performance, but over time became proficient at reproducing them on demand. It’s possible, but it requires that you become intentional in seeking them, have resolve and strength of purpose, possess an awareness of what you are doing, develop an intense focus on the task at hand, and remain in the present moment. That may sound like a tall order but you can do it! Although each little section in this chapter is far from all-inclusive, they will start you off in the right direction toward creating and reproducing peak performances in your life.
Start by reading the sentence in the box above one time. Finished? I realize it may not make a lot of sense to you now but go back to it and this time count all the letter “F”s in the sentence.
Did you find at least three? Four? Five? How about six? Yes, there are six. If you didn’t find six, go back now and see if you can see them. Still no? Then look for the three times of is repeated. Remarkable! They now look like an inverted of triangle jumping out at you!
Think of how much you expect from yourself and others with whom you play and work with each day. Consider the complexities of sport including strategies, plays, rules, and so much more. But here you were only asked to find six letter F’s in four lines and still you may not have been able to do it. Think of the times you have judged others or have been critical of a performance that required far more complexity. How was it possible that you did not see those F’s?
Sometimes we can allow biases or preconceived notions to obscure our view and prevent us from seeing the truth. Instead of seeing reality, the details of the present moment, we see what we wanted to see or what we expected to see, rather than simply seeing what was actually there. Peak performance begins with being so absorbed in the present moment that we see every detail with perfect clarity. This requires the awareness to know that we want to focus, and then the ability to actually do it.
FOCUS AND ATTENTION DRILLS, TECHNIQUES AND EXAMPLES
To give you some idea of what is meant by the word “focus,” look at the picture of Babe Ruth speaking with one of the Belmont Abbey College students during one of his annual visits to the College. In the background to the right of Babe Ruth is a young man with light colored hair and a baseball cap set back on his head. Look closely at that young man’s left ear and determine if there is any space between the bottom edge of his ear and Babe Ruth’s right shoulder. Look carefully. Really look. Okay, were you just thinking about work? Dinner? Of course not. For whatever time you spent trying to see the edge of his ear, your entire mind, body, and spirit was in tha
t tiny little space. You were completely absorbed. You didn’t even know that you were in the room. Your entire being for a moment was in that small space. That is what is meant by the word focus.
One of the challenges to doing this often and for extended periods of time is that the activity you are trying to improve in eventually becomes commonplace. You no longer notice the details. If you play golf for example, you have probably seen thousands of golf balls. Over time, they have become little white fuzzy things. But really focus on seeing the detail on each and every ball, and your game will improve. With continued awareness and persistence, you will be amazed by how much better you are able to perform any task.
There is another tremendous benefit in seeing reality with clarity and precision. In addition to allowing 100 percent of your attention to be applied to the task at hand, it also enables you to prepare for future peak performances by accurately visualizing what you will do. When asked how he was able to make such accurate shots and perform so consistently, legendary golfer Jack Nicholas said:
I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head. It’s like a color movie. First I “see” the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes and I “see” the ball going there: its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behavior on landing. There is a sort of fadeout, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality.
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