clydebrolin.com
  • Home
  • Books
    • In The Zone
    • Overdrive >
      • OverdriveF1.com
  • Reviews
  • Quotes
  • Blog
  • Contact

Sport's greats show the true power of dreams

14/8/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
If we want to understand the power of dreams – and how greatness always starts in our own heads – the all-time greats of sport provide all the evidence we need.
 
The world’s most decorated Olympian Michael Phelps collected 28 swimming medals over a record-shattering period lasting a day shy of 12 years. Of those, 23 were gold: he won his first on this day (August 14) at the 2004 Athens Games and his last in Rio on August 13, 2016.
 
The foundation to his success was a brutal training schedule of countless repetitions – averaging seven miles a day, 365 days a year. Phelps started young too, spending his early years permanently around a pool. By the age of 11 he was swimming two and a half hours every day. He was just 15 when he made his Olympic debut at Sydney in 2000, reaching the 200-metre butterfly final but missing the medals. Just months later he broke that world record and the deluge began: his total now tops the entire collection of over 150 Olympic nations.
 
The American was fortunate to grow up into the perfect physique for swimming – a long trunk and a wide arm span – but it’s in his head that he shines brightest.

Such a staggering, history-altering career would never have come to fruition if Phelps hadn’t worked tirelessly to create vivid images of his races in advance, then steer his future accordingly. Thanks to rigorous mental training with coach Bob Bowman he learned to write his goals down, specifying each target time to a hundredth of a second. Even in his early teens he soon found himself hitting them precisely.
 
‘I started visualising when I was about 14,’ Phelps tells me in the book In The Zone. ‘It was all about thinking how a race could go, how you want it to go and how you don’t want it to go so you’re ready for anything. I found it could really help me to prepare. Visualisation is important so you don’t have any surprises. That means you can always stay relaxed. That was a big key in everything we did. Starting it at a very young age really helped me throughout my career.’
 
Visualisation is not just about being prepared for anything, it’s about shaping the future to fit the mould of your private vision. The greats start with a big vision, then they map out their route towards it by dividing it into smaller, more manageable goal-sized images.
 
It helped that Phelps was also taught never to believe in limits. As such he always dreamt big, not settling for gold alone: ‘It’s crazy when I look back on my career because to me it feels like I’ve been living a dream come true,’ he smiles. ‘This is everything I thought about and dreamt of as a kid. It’s like: “This is real?” And it’s wild. Everything I’ve been able to accomplish is something I’ve always wanted and I’ve done everything I ever wanted to achieve. I wanted to change the sport of swimming and take it to a new level – and I have.’
 
Before his racing retirement Phelps, now a father to Boomer, started a foundation aimed at promoting water safety: ‘I still swim, but now it’s more for peace of mind. But there is still a lot I want to achieve. Spending time with kids is a passion of mine. Putting a smile on a kid’s face and seeing them having fun always puts a real smile on my face too. Now I want to help kids accomplish their dreams.’
 
The fact these successful ‘dream achievers’ are so keen to share out the secret is a lesson in itself… One thing the greats can’t help but learn en route to the top is that we are not merely passive beings being battered around the universe. Now they are desperate for the rest of us to realise we all - without exception - have the power within us to shape our own future.
 
So where will your dream take you?
 
Click here to hear more about the power of visualisation in Clyde Brolin’s interview on the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show with Chris Evans
0 Comments
    Picture

    Author

    Clyde Brolin spent over a decade working in F1 before moving on to the wider world of sport - all in a bid to discover the untapped power of the human mind.

    His first book Overdrive was shortlisted for Best New Writer at the 2011 British Sports Book Awards.

    In The Zone - featuring 100 interviews with the greats of world sport - is out now...

    Picture

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017

    Categories

    All
    Action Sports
    Adventure
    Air Racing
    Athletics
    Audiobook
    BASE Jumping
    Basketball
    BMX
    Business
    Charity
    Climbing
    Creativity
    Cricket
    Cycling
    Deals
    Dreams
    Endurance
    Football
    Formula 1
    Golf
    Hurling
    Indy 500
    Ironman
    Kitesurfing
    Land Speed Record
    Marathon
    Media
    Meditation
    Mental Strength
    Mindfulness
    Motocross
    Motorcycling
    Motor Sport
    Mountaineering
    Olympics
    Out Of Body Experience
    Out-of-Body Experience
    Paralympics
    Podcasts
    Politics
    Psychology
    Rally
    Religion
    Resilience
    Reviews
    Rowing
    Rugby Union
    Running
    Science
    Skiing
    Skydiving
    Spirituality
    Surfing
    Swimming
    Teamwork
    Technology
    Tennis
    Triathlon
    TV
    Visualisation
    Windsurfing
    Work Ethic
    World Cup

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
Site powered by Weebly. Managed by Easy Internet Solutions LTD
  • Home
  • Books
    • In The Zone
    • Overdrive >
      • OverdriveF1.com
  • Reviews
  • Quotes
  • Blog
  • Contact