To be the best at the sport(s) you choose requires a few specific character development traits that when harnessed correctly, can take you to the top. In every sport the best of the best have a few identical characteristics that have gotten them to the top of their sport. Here is the first one.

1)      Predicting the Unknown

Elite athletes can predict things in their sport clearer and quicker than their competition. This can happen within the competition or before the competition depending on the sport. It takes 0.40 seconds for a MLB pitcher to send the ball 60some feet to the catcher. Keeping your “eye on the ball” at that level isn’t physiologically possible. What MLB batters use their eyes for is predicting the unknown by watching the pitcher. They base their swing off of the pitcher’s movement pattern, primarily, by the way they release the ball. Major league sluggers are experts at pitcher-watching. The only way to develop this skill set is to receive pitches at that level. No amount of time hitting 90mph balls out of a pitching machine will help you hit an 85mph MLB curveball.

NFL quarterbacks are also exceptionally skilled at predicting the unknown. They typically perform two types of prediction every play: a pre-prediction based off of defensive formation and a more reactive-prediction once the ball is snapped. This whole double prediction process takes 10ish seconds depending on how long the play lasts. This why the audible was invented, for elite predictors that can see the future of the play based on the variables present.

Chess grandmasters…obviously good predictors of the unknown. There was an interesting study done where grandmasters were pitted against novices in a test where they were each given three seconds to view a chessboard. The grandmasters could memorize the location of the pieces on the board in that three seconds while the novices could not. But when the pieces were placed in a random order that didn’t conform to the rules of chess, they were no better than the novices. The grandmasters could gather a large amount of information in a short amount of time by grouping the information together where they could act upon it. They could perform this feat on multiple cognitive levels of the game, predicting far into the future the direction of their moves and their opponents.

The way these individuals can predict the unknown is by spending time predicting the unknown. They have donated a large portion of their life to mastering the skills it takes to be the best at their sport. Their minds are sharp and forged like a sword. They understand their sport like no other and #TrainBIG to do things no one else can. Predicting the unknown is the first characteristic of elite athletes.

Schaudt is out!