Читать книгу The Performance Mindset - Anthony J. Klarica - Страница 17

Take another example, this time from a team sport. Sam Mitchell is a retired Australian rules football player who was appointed coach for 2022 of the team he'd had most success with — the Hawthorn Football Club. Hawthorn played in four consecutive Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Finals, winning three in a row from 2013 to 2015. This feat deserves special recognition due to the equalisation policies of player and staff salary caps and drafting policy that the AFL introduced in the late eighties. Since equalisation, 14 teams have won premierships while only two have won three consecutively, which makes the Hawks' achievement even more impressive.

In this winning team, Sam won the AFL Brownlow Medal in 2012. The Brownlow is arguably the game's most prestigious individual honour. It is awarded to the ‘best and fairest’ player in the entire competition in any given season. By the time he retired in 2017, Sam was the third highest total vote scorer in the history of the medal. He had won four premierships, played the third most games in Hawthorn's history and won five club champion awards. In addition, Sam captained the club from 2008 to 2010, with ’08 yielding a premiership.

What's interesting is that Sam was overlooked altogether in the 2000 draft, then was selected in 2001 with draft pick 36. So, in the year of his draft, he was overlooked by every club in the AFL before he was selected in the third round with Hawthorn's fifth pick.

One strength Sam had was his capacity to kick with either left or right foot. He wasn't especially tall or quick. His endurance wasn't necessarily the greatest either. But he had a reputation for his skill and decision making. His proficiency on both sides of his body was so evident that commentators often remarked on the difficulty of distinguishing which his ‘natural’ side was. When I interviewed him late in 2021, Sam said, ‘We had no sporting background in our family at all. Dad actually bought some books about football to learn the game. When I was quite young, Dad had a person working with him, Bill, who had some experience and skill in football, and he said it would be good to alternate one left‐foot kick and one right‐foot kick when I went for a kick.’ Sam took it as gospel. He adopted the principle, and it stuck. ‘I still find it natural to alternate left–right and it actually felt weird right through my career if I had a few kicks on one side of my body before using the other side. It was a learned skill.’ Bill's unsolicited advice many years before Sam was drafted helped make him the champion footballer he became. It was a spark that developed one of his key football skills. And his commitment to practice developed this weapon for him.

Regarding talent, Sam said, ‘Some genetic factors help, but I think the ratio of importance of talent to development is about 10:90. Skill development hasn't got a lot to do with talent. I believe that if you have long‐term commitment, focus and desire, year after year, your development will be strong. Sometimes starting with a lot of talent doesn't help because you become reliant on current skills and don't have to work as hard. You grow in the direction of your focus.’