Hunger games

VITHAL C NADKARNI
Dropouts from the groves of academe sometimes luck out as standouts in life. Steve Jobs of Apple fame is a noted example. The same, alas, isn’t true of sports standouts.

Dropouts from the track and field are shorn of laurel wreaths! And when you do line up the top five finishers of major events such as Ironman Championships or the Tour de France, you find that they are all physically gifted and equally hungry for glory!

The difference between the first and fifth place among elite athletes comes down to the mental side rather than the physical, writes noted sports producer and anchor John Brenkus in The Perfection Point, his best-selling study on predicting the absolute limits of human performance.

The ability to stay relaxed under intense pressure is critical to peak performance, Brenkus adds. Self-confidence is equally important. The Mahabharata provides a poignant example of this in the story of Arjuna and Karna. The latter was unable to resist the mental hex put on him by an irate guru; hence, he fell despite having superlative genes and superior skills.

In contrast, Arjuna had total trust in his mentor: he triumphed because of his grace under pressure. Sports, too, is littered with the remains of superbly-conditioned athletes who were so unsure of themselves that they manufactured excuses for losing even before the competitions began.

Worry about losing instead of getting excited about winning produces that effect. Champions always want the ball, Brenkus emphasises; more vitally, they are never afraid of looking bad!