The One Percent Rule

By: Lorena Martín

Take a moment and think about one of your favorites athletes, those that are in the top of the world rankings, breaking records, and winning titles.

What makes them so special? How are they different than the rest of human beings?

It is because they are the one percent of super humans with incredible skills for sports. But how do they get there?

It is not debatable that somebody like Usain Bolt was born with a gift, or that Rafael Nadal did know how to swing a racket since he was a kid. But there is something special that separates them to the rest, it is the One Percent Rule.

My coach says, that to be a One percent Special you have to be able to train like that.

Taking care of the details is the base to perform to the top of any major athlete. The one percent is everything outside of the training time: Rest, recovery, eating, psichology, hydration, injuries and techinique.

The athletes that are able to control all of these fields, combining them with a quality load of training and do it consistently, are the special ones.

Nowadays, the forms of rest and recovery have improve inmensily, including them is crucial. Ice bathing once per week has shown in multiple academic research to improve the blood flood to fasten recovery. A popular way to warm up and cool down in United States involves using foam rollers to auto massage the muscles to loose them up.

Eating is very important, fueling the body and replenish with the nutrients necessary to perform at a high level, includes in most of the cases to increase the intake of proteins and suplements such as iron and another vitamins. Without forgetting about hydration, not only with water but electrolytes.

To me, the most important part of a training cycle or competition is the Psychology barriers.

One of the best advices I have get from my coach is a set of 10 rules made by legendary NCAA coach, Joe Vigil, on how to develop mental toughness: Be Self motivated and Self Directed, Be positive but realistic, Be in control of your Emotions, Be calm and Relaxed under fire, Be highly energetic and ready for action, Be determined, Be mentally alert and focused, Be doggedly self confident, Be truly responsable, and Develop, Live and Create team commitment.

Lastly, Motivation is what determines who an athlete is, it is important to find a “Why”, whats the goal and go to pursue.

One of the masters of this discipline is Mr. Connor Mcgregor, UFC champion.

To end this article I would like to finish with his best quote, because it is so relevant with everything explained above

“ There is not talent here, this is hard work. This is an obsesion, talent does not exist. We are all equal as human beings. You could be anybody if you put in the time. You will reach the top. I am not talented, I am obsessed.”