I got 99 pebbles but a.....ya you get the picture.

There are three usual suspects to hindering our progress. They are as follows:

Mental 

Technical

Physical 

You really do have to work all of these equally if you want to realize your full potential in this sport (and most others for that matter). Imagine your full potential as 99 pebbles in your hand. Each of these three things have an equal amount and you start with none and begin to pick them up one by one. The first ten or twenty are easy to grab and you can grab more of one type than the other but as your hand begins to get full they become more and more difficult to pick up. Keep in mind that only a few people in the world will ever be able to actually pick up and hold all 99. Now what happens when you have spent all your time focusing on one type of pebble and you are severely lacking in the others? As they say, you are only as strong as your weakest link. Now that we know the importance of balance, lets talk about the pebbles individually.

 The mental will be spoken about in more detail in the following post (critical mass) and is probably the most difficult to change because it can't really be quantified and is almost impossible teach. To work on it you need to learn to trust yourself and make sure your inner dialogue is always a positive one and more often than not, a little cocky. You will never see a timid champion. True they often come with reserved personalities outside the arena but give me one champion that doesn't show the killer instinct on the platform and I'll show you a great actor.

"Technique moves the bar" This is a quote I got from C.J. Stockel who does the USAW Level 1 classes in Flowery Branch, GA. Probably the simplest and best line I have ever heard in regards to technique and its importance. I don't care how strong you are, you are not going to be able to lift 300lb. over your head without some sort of technical ability. The more you know about your body and how it moves the better equipped you will be to move the bar which can actually spill over into your mental toughness as well. If you know what you are doing wrong and ignore it, you are destined for failure. If you don't know what you are doing wrong find someone who does. End of story.

 Your first assumption is probably that the Physical portion is referring strength, but you'd only be partially correct. Yes strength is important, you have to have both the actual muscle fibers to contract and a healthy Central Nervous System with the ability to recruit them, but you also need the ability to get into the positions needed to be most effective according to your body type which spills into technique(starting to see an interlinking trend between pebbles here?). I am talking about mobility. Funny, this is one of the easiest things to fix most of the time, however it is probably the most over looked. If you started your athletic career ignoring it, it will most likely be brought to your attention one of two ways. Either during your search to improve after everything else fails, or by your orthopedic doctor when he tells you your broken and need surgery. Yes it is that important. Listen to old athletes when they tell you to work on mobility, it's most likely because they didn't when they were in your shoes and regret it now.

That's it. Go gather.