Why Professional Athletes Do Not Realize Their Potential
A human practices X, Y, and Z.
He puts in the time.
He impresses those around him.
He lives a life of discipline.
These are not bad things.
But the question is not whether they are good or bad.
The question is . . .
What is the Payoff?
What have coaches been teaching people?
Whether they are athletes
Meditators
Or businessmen?
Morning routines.
Daily meditation.
Healthy diet.
Hard work.
Lee Trevino, one of the greatest golfers of all time,
Made the statement:
“Give me a Coca Cola and a bucket of fried chicken,
And I will kick your butt on the course.”
Is Coca Cola
And a bucket of fried chicken
The diet of a hall-of-fame athlete?
Is Coca Cola
And a bucket of fried chicken
What the team physician
Or the team trainer
Or the “on-staff-fully-certified dietician”
Would recommend?
All around the world
The professional athlete
Is being destroyed.
For he is trained by those
Who value principle
Rather than Truth.
A team practice
In professional sports
Or in the Olympic environment,
Is a spectacle to behold.
It is a herding of circus animals,
Rather than the sharpening of talent.
It is a one-legged race at the county fair,
Rather than a heightening of performance.
How can the most famous and celebrated coaches in the world,
Training the most famous and celebrated athletes in the world,
Be not only wrong,
But tragically and destructively wrong?
The fact is,
Almost no one will be able to bring themselves
To accept even the possibility of such a thing,
Much less the thing itself.
What does “practice”
Have to do with The Game?
What do drills and formations
Have to do with performance on game day?
The dirty little secret
Is that the practice sessions
And two-a-day’s
And gym-day’s
And All day’s
That these coaches create . . .
Are not created to secure in-game performance.
They are created
To satisfy in-practice principles.
Imagine a professional basketball player.
He is an expert at performing a jump shot.
Very well.
Why would he wake up in the morning
Have his breakfast
Drive to the stadium
Lace up his sneakers . . .
To “practice” a jump shot?
This sort of question
Is easily grasped
By even a mentally-challenged individual.
But it is beyond the comprehension
Of famous and celebrated coaches.
Do you go to the bathroom each day
And practice brushing your teeth
For 7 hours a day?
But if there were medals for the best brushing performance,
You would like hire a coach.
And indeed practice brushing for 7 hours a day . . .
Practice
Has no meaning.
This is something the Buddhists don’t understand.
Practice
Has no meaning.
What of the athletes who become great?
They become great Despite the coaching
Not because of it.
The real question is,
How much Greater could they have been
If their talent and performance was enlivened by Truth,
Rather than interfered-with.
If an athlete is trained
According to Truth,
His talent soars.
If any human being is trained
According to Truth,
His heights go through the sky.
Principle
Is a societal thing.
He who is trained societally,
Naturally becomes more . . .
Societal.
This is why those who are supremely talented
Rarely, if ever . . .
Live up to their potential.
Namaste.
Kapil Gupta is a personal advisor to Kings, Queens, CEO’s, Professional Athletes, Celebrities, and Performing Artists around the world.
His books include:
Atmamun: The Path To Achieving The Bliss Of The Himalayan Swamis. And The Freedom Of A Living God
A Master’s Secret Whispers: For those who abhor the noise and seek The Truth about life and living
Direct Truth: Uncompromising, non-prescriptive truths to the enduring questions of life