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And Again!

WEEK 5 MAY 2011

 

Repetition.  You heard it last week and now you will hear it again and again – just to reinforce you even more!

Repetition is so important to be Extraordinary – to stand out from the rest, to excel, and to be your best.  Are you doing all the repetitions it takes to succeed?

When teaching sports skills, it is said to take 30,000 repetitions to master that skill, to create a muscle memory.  How many repetitions are you doing to be your best day in and day out?  One very minor change to a technique also takes 30,000 repetitions too!  Get to work!  And you wondered why athletes practice so hard when their skill level is already outstanding!


I remember Monica Seles practising at my court at home every day during one of the Australian Opens she won and she practiced one cross court drop shot for hours on end (you would be lucky to hit one or two such shots in a match) but that is the level of repetition it takes to be the best.  Are you doing all you can do to win in what you do, even when you are in the heat of the battle?

It is not just your skills you need to keep repeating either. It is all you do to perform. Take current world Number one player, Rafael Nadal who is now en route in Pairs to his sixth French Open.  This is what he does before every one of his matches.

Before every match, I try to isolate myself from everybody with my iPod.  It’s like a ritual I have before playing and it’s absolutely necessary for me to listen to one of the songs from the Phantom of the Opera.

What do you need to keep repeating to prepare to win and to stand out?  I have been beside my athletes through the days, weeks, months and years and years of practices doing all the repetitions.  It might sound wonderful travelling all over the world to compete but behind all those performances are repetition, repetition and more repetition, every single day – even in the middle of a Grand Slam! It is one of the key ingredients to success.

Repeat, repeat, and repeat!
And don’t forget to make it fun too!

 

Wishing you quintessential success always

 

Ann
Ann Quinn, Ph.D Peak Performance Specialist

 

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