David Hemery sets a World Record in the 1968 Mexico Olympics finals.
Hemery discusses competitiveness in Sporting Excellence. He shares numerous examples:
"From my point of view, the enjoyment was managing to achieve the new record breaking performance; the number was almost irrelevant."
Runner Steve Cram said, "I'm awful. I time myself driving to training every day." Arnold Palmer said that he was out playing with a club from the age of three. I can recall breaking 50 (for nine holes) for the first time and breaking 40 for the first time." Ed Moses "would challenge himself to see how many books he could read over the summer holidays."
How about us? What drives excellence? How many 'push the envelope', challenging ourselves to exceed personal bests?
- As a young player, I'd practice to make twenty consecutive layups in the Mikan Drill
- I tracked free throws made per 100, finally eclipsing 100 (144) in the Indoor Athletic Building at Harvard circa 1974.
- In "Around the World" (10 shots out and 10 in), the goal is always to have zero misses. The same applies for "Around the Key." I've done both dozens of times.
- In "251" as an old man, I'm stuck at 79 (from 18 feet). Buddy Hield initially held the record of 251 which is much higher now.
- Pitching against a spray-painted strike zone on a wall at home, I worked to make the Perfect Pitch, 'painting' the inside corner at the knees with a baseball with nails driven into it to add weight.
- Some challenge themselves to risk management. At a golf tournament, Warren Buffett was asked for a $10 entry fee, a chance to win $10,000 for a hole-in-one. He declined. "If I'm not disciplined in the small things, how can I be disciplined with big ones?"
- Larry Bird took 500 free throws before school.
- Kobe Bryant took 1,000 shots a day during the summer "off-season."
- And Isiah Thomas played for eight hours a day on hardscrabble playgrounds.