Toughness by Jay Bilas

Author:Jay Bilas [Bilas, Jay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101599020
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2013-03-05T05:00:00+00:00

Pushing Limits

Persistence is not just about pushing forward; it is about pushing through to reach a new height, exceeding a limit you thought you had. Everybody limits themselves in some way, whether it is to manage expectations and avoid disappointment, or to avoid the physical pain and discomfort that accompanies the reach for a new limit, a higher standard. It takes toughness to push your limits, to push through being tired, to push past muscle fatigue to muscle failure. Are you, individually and as a team, tough enough to push past what you think is a breaking point and reach a new height? Pushing your limits is a critical element of toughness.

Mia Hamm is quick to cite former teammate Michelle Akers as the toughest player she has ever been around. Akers suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome and finished every game and practice absolutely exhausted, often requiring intravenous fluids.

Akers understood playing in pain and fighting through real fatigue. And she taught Hamm and her teammates how to be true pros. “Michelle made soccer her life. It was twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for her,” Hamm said. “Part of that was because she wanted to, but part of that was because she had to. With her chronic fatigue, she constantly had to figure out what she needed to do to prepare herself and be at her best.”

Akers had a nutritionist to squeeze every ounce of energy out of her body, and a strength and conditioning coach to teach her how to train efficiently when she had the energy. But the thing that really stuck out to Hamm about Akers’s toughness was her willingness and persistence to study and perfect her craft.

Hamm joined the U.S. National Team straight from college, and at that point in her career, she couldn’t imagine staying for an hour or two after practice to get extra work in. For Akers, that was the norm, and it made a profound impact on Hamm and her teammates.

“I would show up to training early, thinking I was this hard worker, and Akers would have already been there for over an hour,” Julie Foudy said. “She’s already drenched in sweat, back when we wore the gray old cotton T-shirts, and it would be drenched. She was out there banging balls, working.”

Foudy knows that Akers had terrific natural talent and ability, but that wasn’t the reason she was such a great player. “She was the first one out there and the last one to leave. That’s why she was great,” Foudy said. “That is mental toughness, discipline, commitment and wanting to win.”

Akers not only controlled her fitness; she controlled and took complete ownership of her skill level, including working hard to make her nondominant foot just as good and capable as her dominant foot. “For most of us, it was just a given that your nondominant foot was not going to be as good,” Hamm said. “But that wasn’t good enough for Michelle.”

Akers told Hamm she couldn’t control the circumstances

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