Every athlete must do it! Every golfer, every footballer, ever tennis player…every sports competitor alive must do it. It’s a non negotiable must. It’s a critical essential. It must be part of your performance culture, it must be part of your coaching culture. If you don’t do it be prepared to be left behind. Everyone should profile the next level – here’s how.

What does better look like? What does it feel like? Faster? Stronger? Higher? Further?

What behaviours are related to better? Is there someone you regularly watch who plays at the level up from you? What are they doing? How are they preparing? What are they thinking? What are they saying? How do they hold themselves? When do they get up? When do they go to bed? What do they read? What, who, how, why, where?

What, who, how, why, where?

Questions, questions – make this an intellectual endeavour. The next level up isn’t an impossibility – it’s just a set of mini behaviours that you are yet to learn, that you are yet to execute under pressure.

That’s all skill is – a set of mini behaviours strung together in a seamless pattern of exquisite motion. And if you work hard enough, if you focus as you practice the new, then you too will ingrain these mini behaviours. You too will accomplish the next level.

Beg, steal and borrow these new behaviours. Look closely. Be sharp with your eyes. Uncover the clues from a variety of sources. Champions have eyes of hawks and wings like eagles. They prey, they see, they hone in and then they soar!

But be warned. Take it slow. Inch by inch sport’s a cinch. Yard by yard you make it hard. a half second off, half a shot less, 10 places higher, 2 more goals – the small targets eventually meet the big objectives – eventually meet the next level.

Profile the next level. Be relentless. Be determined. Be disciplined. Be committed. Motivation is for when you can be bothered – commitment is for everyday for every week for every month for every year for a career!

Profile the next level – that’s great sport psychology. That’s essential spot psychology!