For Christmas of 2008, my dad had given me the book Beyond the Final Score written by the legendary college football coach Tom Osborne. Having come from Nebraska, where college football is the leading news story even in April, I was raised with the deepest respect for Coach Osborne. Admits all that was going on in my life, one night I picked up the book that my dad had given me and began to read it. I had never been a reader up that point, but I guess boredom had gotten to me.
As I read Tom Osborne’s book, I noticed that he kept making references to another book called, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey. It was quite apparent to me that this book had made a significant impact on Coach Osborne, by the way he talked about the book and its ideas. I thought to myself “This must be some great book, if it made this type of impression on a guy like Coach Osborne.” I began to think, if this book had made an impact on guy like Coach Osborne, who had accomplished great things in his life such as winning three National Championships and becoming a United States Congressman, “I wonder what it would do for me?”
The very next day, I went to the closest Borders and bought that book. I had to know what it had inside. Looking back, that day was a turning moment in my life. I wish I knew the exact date because I would make it my own personal holiday. The very first day I began reading the book I was hit with an idea that had never really occurred to me before.
“How have I never realized this!” For some reason or another I had never even considered this thought. This was a theory of life was something new to me, and from that moment on, I took a new view on life. Four years later my life, although I’m far from perfect and I still have my moments, my quality of life is unbelievably better. All these things in life have change, solely because my philosophy changed.
Another part of this principle deals with the competition arena. Something that has had a dramatic effect on me is taking 100 percent responsibility for what happens on the mat. I used to think in a reactive voice such as “My opponent x…” or “My opponent did y…” While however in reality this may be true but instilling separate perception can be a powerful tool. I know think of ways like “I let my opponent do x…” or “I allowed him to do y…” This simple change in viewing the situation can have a powerful effect on your psyche. This instills an empowering mind set. Give yourself total control over your opponent. This match is yours not his. This match is dictated by you not him. Your opponent can do nothing without your permission.
The Legendary Wrestler and Coach, Dan Gable, lived this theory. Gable said “I shoot, I score. He shoots, I score.” Gable took 100 percent responsibility of the match. To Gable, the opponent was only there for Gable to beat him. He would not give permission to his opponent to have any say of how the match progressed. The one collegiate loss that Gable suffered was to Larry Owings, in 1970. After the match, Gable was quoted saying:
“All I worried about was what (Owings) was doing to me, instead of what I was doing to him. When you start worrying about that stuff, you're going down the wrong path.”
Take another look at that quote. Can you see how his statement can be translated, as he didn’t have 100 percent control of the match? This quote has stood out to me for a long time. How can an athlete who hadn’t lost in 180 collegiate matches all of the sudden given the control to his opponent and became reactive instead of proactive? It happens, none of us are perfect. Perfection is something we strive for, not something we obtain. However, learn from Dan Gable’s remark. The next time you are on the mat at a competition remember your opponent needs your permission to do anything.
Gable is not the only top athlete who takes this attitude on to mat. The first instructional DVD that I ever bought was Marcelo Garcia’s Winning Techniques of Submission Wrestling. Throughout this whole video Marcelo emphasizes imposing his will on his opponent and always dictating the match. At the time, these words were just that, words. Now I am a firm believer that simply instilling this type of attitude makes the difference between winning and losing or improving and coasting.
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