During a recent Seat Time podcast I hosted with Trey Canard, he began talking about The Complete Athlete. I really gravitated toward this phrase because it seems like an amazing term for a framework, or a topic to continue to have with other athletes, competitors and coaches. Since it’s continued to circle around in my brain, I’m here overthinking another topic in hopes it rounds out knowledge for me, while also helping others find their way toward a more “complete athlete”.
What is a Complete Athlete?
A Complete Athlete is someone who has the ability to hold themselves accountable for their actions. They understand their actions, or reactions, are the only thing they have control over in the moment, in training, and in life. They don’t allow setbacks to be a hindrance, but a reframing of the path forward.
A Complete Athlete measures what matters, and adjusts based on reality, not feeling. This does not mean feelings are irrelevant. It means they are validated against baseline and topline metrics.
A Complete Athlete understands their current placement in their sport or competition, but also doesn’t allow a result to influence their future potential. Things can happen in the moment, and the training you’ve done leading up to that moment is what prepares you, and your reactions, to said moment. Once the moment has passed, it can no longer affect the future unless you let it.
A Complete Athlete understands the support group they create is one of the most influential parts of their training and performance. These are the coaches, the partners, and the specific professionals who know how to leave their own ego out of an athlete’s growth. These team members are there for unbiased accountability, knowing their job is to work within their athletes’ boundaries of acceptable feedback, so the athlete continues to grow and perform.
A Complete Athlete knows nutrition and hydration is the key to training and performance. The body needs energy to perform, and that energy comes from the food we consume and when we consume it. Fad diets and marketing terms have no place within their program. They know new supplements, foods, or programs should be tried, but they need to be based around non-competition timelines. These athletes do not see proper hydration as an electrolyte supplement haphazardly tossed into a water bottle. They understand their sweat rate and the proper water and minerals needed for the body to function for their sport and competition duration.
A Complete Athlete knows when to take a few steps back to move forward. Recovery often feels boring, as if you are doing nothing, which is hard for a competitor whose default is to always do more. Recovery is training, and it should be treated as just as important as the rest of the program. The goal is not to rest randomly, but to recover with the same intention you bring to hard sessions.
A Complete Athlete understands they have to be selfish, but they can not be egotistical. They have to build a confidence within their ability that proves to themselves without doubt that they are prepared to perform. This is an earned confidence from doing the work they know they need to continue to grow into a complete athlete. They do not allow their ego to become inflated, which has a tendency to be accompanied by arrogance and to exaggerate their achievements. They have the ability to be humble towards others, while standing tall within their own abilities. This is very important when circling back to your support group. You do not want to push them away due to selfish actions or unchecked ego.
A Complete Athlete understands every rule of their sport. They understand the boundaries those rules create, and deliberately explore the edges where performance gains are found. They know how to operate right at the limit without letting ego push them past what is useful or sustainable. Find the edge, and perform your best at it.
A Complete Athlete understands there is no perfect and there is no done. When these athletes feel as though they have mastered a specific topic or training modality, they circle back to relearning and fine-tuning the basics. The basics are the foundation of peak performance. If you overwork a specific area or modality, plateaus and injuries can occur, causing more immediate setbacks than the perceived setback of revisiting the basics.
If you oversharpen a pencil, the tip eventually breaks off. Sometimes you need to start fresh to fine-tune the next 1%.
I don’t believe what I have written here for The Complete Athlete should be considered an end all be all toward “better”. I believe it is an accountability reminder. It’s very easy to find something that keeps an athlete comfortable, and happy, within their training and performance. The problem is when an athlete, or a coach, doesn’t check in to make sure this hasn’t created a plateau or stagnation in an athlete.
The true goal of becoming a complete athlete is finding yourself on the path that works for you, not for others. There will always be crossovers from what has worked for others from the past, and those mostly live at the bottom 75-90% of an athlete’s capability. As you progress toward the top of your sport, you will need to fine-tune training, tools, and people to work best for the outcomes you desire.
The name The Complete Athlete can sound like an athlete who is done or finished progressing, but that is not the point. It is not about being finished. It is a reminder that completeness is a direction, not a destination. If you have other naming ideas that fit this idea of progress without an endpoint, I would love to hear them.
What do you think? What did I miss? How would you add, or remove, from this in its current state?