Is Tiger Woods an ATHLETE?
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008If you’re a sports fan like me, the past five days have been something close to nirvana.
Thursday night we saw the Celtics pull off the greatest comeback in NBA playoff history with Paul Pierce leading the way.
Sunday, Tiger and Rocco played to a tie in the US Open.
Sunday night the Celtics-Lakers game went down to the wire, with Kobe Bryant making a Michael Jordan-esque steal and dunk to cement the win at home.
Then yesterday…oh lordy…Tiger took home his 14th major championship on the 19th hole of sudden death.
Sports fans - it doesn’t get much better than this.
We’re watching three of the greatest sports performers of all time do their thing on the most pressure-packed stages.
Now, I imagine some of you will disagree with me on this, but I don’t put golfers and basketball players in the same athletic category.
Tiger’s an athlete, for sure, but golf is not the most trying athletic endeavor. It requires great hand-eye coordination, but not much in the way of real physical athletic prowess.
Look no further than Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Craig Stadler (the ‘walrus’ - won the Masters in ‘82) and the cigarette smoking, beer drinking, ‘grip-it-and-rip-it’ Jon Daly who won the PGA in ‘91 and the British Open in ‘95.
None of those guys could run a mile in under 8 minutes, probably can’t bench their own weight and, in what I consider the ultimate test of athleticism - the decathalon - they’d get their butts kicked by most highschool basketball players, let alone the pros.
Contrast that to the 6% bodyfat, 40″ vertical leap, 300lb bench, turn on a dime, explosive speed, non-stop running, twisting in midair, slam-dunking basketball players like Michael, Kobe, Paul Pierce, etc. and, well…you can see there’s a WIDE divide in athleticism - by my definition, at least.
So, athletic prowess aside, what do Kobe, Paul Pierce and Tiger have in common? What do they DO that separates them from their peers more so than anything else?
If you saw the AWESOME little bio-snippet they ran a few times during the US Open featuring Tiger and his Dad, you know the answer.
In that bio-piece, you hear Tiger’s dad talking about how, when he’d practice with Tiger during his youth, he’d make noise during Tiger’s backswing - dropping the bag of clubs and basically do anything he could to disrupt his son’s concentration.
After years of these shenanigans, Tiger learned to shut it all out…and focus…like a laser.
Tiger’s dad said to him, “You will never meet another person with the mental toughness you have.” “And he never did.”
Personally, I don’t like Kobe Bryant. I think he’s a diva. But I respect the hell out of his skill and his killer instinct. Reminds me of Michael. Paul Pierce is the same way. He single-handedly carried Boston when he had to. And Tiger, well, we all know there’s probably nobody better on the golf course - ever - in the ‘clutch’.
These guys are mental giants. They have mastered their minds. And that’s the ultimate mastery. Far more impressive to me than physical mastery. But when you put the two together, as all three of these guys have - you get an unstoppable force.
For many of us in this industry, because fitness is such a big part of our lives, we almost take for granted what we do to achieve physical mastery - to get and stay in top shape.
But the same discipline that makes you fit and healthy is easily translated into financial success. That’s what it boils down to…the discipline to do the right things at the right times…consistently.
Because then those actions become habits.
The problem for so many fitness professionals, possibly including you, is that you KNOW what you need to do to get and stay physically fit. You know the exercise protocols, you understand the nutrition - and so it’s easy to apply to your life.
But when it comes to the business side of fitness, you’re uncertain about the actions to take, the decisions to make. You don’t have a clear path forward. And that confusion results in either inefficient or improper action and decisions.
That’s why we put together a guide for you. It’s called DEEP CORE Fitness Marketing Secrets: How To Never Run Out Of Leads.
It’s f.r.e.e. along with a 60-minute audio CD Sean and I recorded explaining the fundamentals of effective marketing. You can get them both without co.st or oblig.ation right here:
Go Celtics,
Eric Ruth
P.S. On pages 9-14 of the guide, we show you the 6 steps for building your fitness business into a marketing machine. Now you’ll have the clarity - the precise path forward - you need. Then it just becomes a function of discipline to the system. And you’ve already proven, by your success in fitness, you have the necessary discipline. Get the guide and the audio here:
P.P.S. This has started a raging debate - lots of opinions about how to categorize an ATHLETE. Post your comments below (just click the little link).