Driver
Development Diary
THE MAKING OF A CHAMPION - July 5, 2010
I ran across a brilliant quote the other day from legendary boxer Muhammad
Ali. The quote said, "Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are
made from something they
have deep inside them -- a desire… a dream… a vision."
Pausing to think about that quote for a moment, I realized this applies to any profession, not just boxing. It really applies to life as a whole.
Think about it… the mental and physical act of teaching your body and mind to do something successfully is just that - it is developing proper learning technique. But what makes the difference between being good at something and being the best comes down to how you see yourself in relation to what you're doing.
I was at a race track some time ago testing with one of our Team Full Throttle racers when a touring series late model racer pulled in to do some testing of his own. The first thing the race team did when they rolled the car out of the hauler is change the rear end. I thought, "Didn't they know they had to do that before they left the shop?"
Obviously you should always come to the track prepared to test or race at your highest level. They wasted nearly an hour of their available track time doing work that could have already been done before they left home.
That racer was not operating in the mindset of someone who has the goal of being "in the race" and becoming a champion. That's the mindset of someone whose goal is being "at the race" and just making laps.
You have to treat your racing as a business. You need to prepare to be the best before you can actually be the best. That means going the extra mile to not only prepare the race car, but to prepare yourself as well.
Think ahead. Know where your weaknesses are and seek the proper help to overcome them. The difference between being average and being the best comes down to having a plan. Make a decision to maximize your potential and then have the discipline to make it a part of your daily existence.
Tiger Woods' former Golf instructor, John Encelmo, once commented about Tiger, "He had what I call inner talent. He started practicing every night at a very young age and just kept doing it for years. He wanted to achieve something."
That's the discipline I'm talking about.
Being physically fit is understood by most high-level racers to be critical. You have to work out regularly and put the right "fuel" (food and drink) into your body on a daily basis. But fewer racers think about being mentally and emotionally fit.
If you have not taken the time to learn the proper fundamentals and technique for practicing and learning a new track, for example, you won't be mentally prepared to be successful in a touring series. You only get a limited amount of practice time at each race in many series, so you have to have a system to get up to speed quickly but smoothly and be able to communicate the right adjustments to your crew in order to be successful. That system is not instinctive. It's a learned skill.
If you find yourself getting frustrated when things don't go as well as you expected, you probably won't get past the level you're at now. You have to adjust your emotion detector to "neutral" if you want to perform your best on race day. Winning a race or a points title will not in and of itself make you a champion. Thinking and preparing like a champion is what allows you to have the mental, physical, and emotional competence to win those races and points titles and be successful at the highest levels for the longest period of time.
Champions are built from the inside out.