SOUL OF A CHAMPION

Came across an article in USA Today titled Soul of a Champion: Athletes share common competitive thread by Erik Brady.  The article highlights various interviews and quotes from numerous champions within different sports.

Joe Dumars: "I think soul of a champion means what's inside of you," he says.  "How much you are willing to do, how much you are willing to sacrifice. ... I think that determines and defines the soul of a champion."

Mia Hamm: "It takes great skill for Tiger to hit a 2-iron 260 yards over water," she says.  "But it also takes the courage to go for that shot.  He doesn't think about failure.  That's what's so impressive." Hamm goes on to say "I don't put myself in a category with Jordan and Tiger.  Their skills are unbelievable.  But I know how hard they work.  They are always finding a way to get better — physically, technically and psychologically."

"I think the great athletes go back to their childhood," Wayne Gretzky says.  "They go back to their love of the game...It never left me," Gretzky says.  "Even when I became a champion, I always had the same feeling I had in the backyard."

Patrick Cohn, sports psychologist and president of Peak Performance Sports, suggests four mental and emotional characteristics common to champion athletes:

• Competitiveness: "This is someone who loves the heat of battle," Cohn says. "They're motivated by testing their skills against the next person. Obviously, they love to win and hate to lose.  You need that.  People might think, 'Well, isn't everyone competitive?'  The answer is 'no.' The really competitive person digs deeper than the next guy."

• Confidence: "Self-confidence is probably the No. 1 mental skill that championship athletes possess," Cohn says.  "Simply put, it is their belief in their ability to perform.  They see themselves as winners.  They think, act and behave in very confident ways, sometimes to the point it can turn people off."

• Composure: "This one has a couple of connotations," Cohn says.  "The first is: Can you keep it together under pressure at crunchtime?  It's the last minute of the game, and you're trailing by three: It's how well you can stay under control emotionally and can perform when you need to. 

"The other component is how well you deal with mistakes.  Can you stay composed and forget about them?  Or do you get upset and frustrated and thrown off your game?  Athletes who are composed don't get rattled and compound one mistake into many."

• Focus: "The idea is to give focus and attention to what's most important — and, when you do get distracted, to refocus quickly," Cohn says. "This is the key component to success in sports such as gymnastics and diving, but it's important in all sports."

Williams interviewed 1,500 people for a book on Jordan and found unanimity that Jordan had an uncanny "ability to block out distractions, zero in on what's important. It was like he was in a total vacuum — totally zoned in.  I think that's the hallmark, really, of a champion ... focus, focus, focus."

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