We often marvel with wonder and awestruck at incredibly talented athletes across a multitude of sports, disciplines, and competitions and ask ourselves…what exactly makes a super-athlete? We may not always know how to define it, explain it, or characterize it, but we always know a super-athlete when we see one. This could range from the high-profile athletes of today such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Connor McDavid, to athletes from yesteryear such as Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky.

We all have our own preconceived notions of what makes an athlete dominant in their craft. Is it their physical attributes? Perhaps it’s their vigorous training regimen or just merely being a product of their environment. Maybe it’s a certain mentality and mindset? In reality, the answer may not always be so straightforward as it is a combination of many things.

In my personal opinion, a super-athlete is an individual that has a wide-range of motion and skills, they have a certain finesse, mobility, and flexibility to their work that allows them to take over and stand-alone against the competition. We can classify this attribute as “movement quality or movement efficiency.” Movement efficiency is the backbone of athletic success regardless of the sport you play or your particular skill set. It’s important to note however that movement efficiency is nothing without control. A good way to think about this is a race car.

A race car can have a superior engine and be the quickest car in a race, but if it doesn’t have the ability to go through turns effortlessly or the ability to manoeuvre between other vehicles, its movement efficiency won’t mean much. The same applies to super-athletes. When super-athletes have movement quality and efficiency combined with control, they’re able to not only elevate their game to a high standard, but they’ll also have the ability to recover and recoup if a certain situation goes awry.

It certainly doesn’t matter if they’re in an unfavourable position, where they are on the field, or what the particular play is; they have the capacity and talent to solve the problem almost instantaneously. An ice hockey player losing a puck and chasing down an opponent to regain it back for instance is an example of this attribute. That in my opinion is what truly defies not only a great athlete, but a super-athlete. As I often like to say, “a super-athlete has the ability to come out of a bad position really fast.”

A talking point that customarily gets brought up regarding great athletes is whether this ingrained talent and ability is taught and learned over time, or if some individuals are just naturally born with it. While there is no exact formula or secret to unlock an athlete’s full potential, I’d argue that the foundation of being a really great athlete assuredly almost always begins very early in life. The sooner we’re able to experience different types of movement in response to certain stimuli, the better. This is the bedrock of motor control and motor learning. To put this into context, we’re all born without the ability to walk, but after some time, we have the innate desire to stand up on our own two feet. Research has shown that when infants are ready to take on those first crucial steps and begin to stand on their own, it’s best for parents to let them attempt to do so without the aid of themselves or a baby-walker. The best practice is to allow them to learn on their own and at their own pace.

When an infant is eventually ready to stand up they’ll figure that out. Once we’re able to stand up, other skills begin to be acquired as we’re constantly learning different motions. As infants, our brains are continuously flooded with new and persistent information. This is precisely why babies need so much sleep throughout the day. Learning new motor skills throughout infancy is not only mentally draining and exhaustive, but it requires a lot of energy. Processing all of this new information takes its toll on our brains, and for that reason our brains need to rest. There are also numerous studies that show that infants develop their motor skills whilst they sleep. This process soon begins to take on a snowball effect. We begin to learn how to run, how to jump, how to skip, how to swim, how to stand on one foot, how to tippy-toe, and so on.

We also begin to learn which hand or foot is more dominant, which side of our brains are more developed, and how to react to certain situations. The more you challenge and develop each side of the body the greater probability that you’ll become a super- athlete. Think of the soccer player who can dribble effortlessly with both feet, the boxer with a powerful jab with either fist, or the basketball player who can pass or shoot with both their dominant or weaker hand. The earlier in life that someone can begin the process of challenging themselves by using their non-dominant foot or hand, the better overall athlete that they will become later in life. Movement with regards to our ability creates more learning as time goes on which it’s why it’s so important to do many different sports when you’re young and for as long as you can, before you ultimately decide to specialize.