I make a living out of my passion for training elite athletes, because my passion has always been for competitive sports. Any time I can, I’ll have a game going on TV or the radio. Nothing beats the energy of the competition. I travel a lot to work with guys like Kasey Kahne or sprint car Champion Joey Saldana and I get the opportunity to sample a lot of live sports on the radio. Baseball especially is one I hear a great diversity of because these days there are major league and minor league games within radio distance everywhere in the country.
There is a distinct deviation between how an announcer for a major league team sounds v. an announcer for a minor league team. Each has a firm grasp of the game on par with the other and the enthusiasm for the game is equally as evident. The thing that stands out is that the minor league announcer normally hasn’t listened to Himself. If he had, he would have sensed what the audience already senses. You notice them and what they are saying and you are critiquing them mentally. I liken it to an “embarrassed for him” feeling you get when someone at the family Christmas party has had a few too many and says something off base.
I believe wholeheartedly that the major league announcer is no more gifted towards the job than the minor league announcer. There are many great talkers out there who are also sports fans who aspire to reach the heights of doing play by play for a major league team. It is clear that that the big time took the extraordinary step of all of the elite achievers in any area of life. They took the time and the ego blow of listening to themselves and then listening to others bludgeon their style or technique and were absolutely willing to do what it takes to be better.
The winner takes harsh criticism. When I work with my racer clients and I take them on the mental and physical ride of my unique fitness training for racers and motorcycle drivers, I will also critique their performance in the gym harshly. The Racers Workout is the results of that give and take experience. What works is included what fails to achieve results isn’t. I was on the receiving end of that harsh criticism because I don’t believe someone who isn’t willing to strip down to that level of nakedness, while losing the ego, can ever be elite.
Russ Bohaty, The Racers Trainer, is the Personal Fitness Trainer for NASCAR’s Kasey Kahne and The Kasey Kahne Racing Team. His Free 6-Week Mental Fitness program geared to reach your peak performance is available at www.racerstrainer.com.
