Attention

There are benefits to being flexible and mobile.

Your capacity to endure, and then produce mass amounts of force in a short amount of time is useful.

However, the most important component in your physical practice is none of the above.

It is attention.

An athlete paying attention trains appropriately within their capacity, allowing them to make sustained strength gains.

They are less likely to injure themselves as they notice unfavourable deviations in their movement patterns relative to their flexibility and mobility.

If you are paying attention, you make the right decisions on the right day – whether it is to go long and endure, or short, explosive and powerful.

You should treat your attention during a physical practice as sacred and protect it at all costs.

Turn your phone on aeroplane mode – don’t scroll between sets. Engage with others when appropriate, but put your head down when it is time. Prior to work, think about what needs to be done and then execute.

Yes, there are benefits to being physically and physiologically competent.

But if you are not paying attention, you are missing the most valuable component to your progress.