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Mark Jennings // 03 14:48

Vlad // 11 22:46

Dave // 06 09:34

Olympics and Your Strength Zone....Part 2
2010-03-06 09:32:04

I received some questions from readers on last week's blog so I decided to do an Olympics Part 2 and answer a few of them.

Questions:

1. What does an athlete do about an area of weakness?

2. Can the weakness just be ignored?

3. How does this apply to teams?

Answer #1: An athlete has a number of options when it comes to areas of weakness. I have detailed two options but I am sure that there are more.

a) They can work extremely hard in their area of weakness to get a little bit stronger. Depending on the level of weakness and how it impacts their performance, this may actually produce the results they need. However, it is more probable that the effort required to improve to a level that matches their peers is not possible.

Strength Zone Application - definitely review any area of weakness you have but keep in mind that you are probably better off developing your areas of strength than you are trying to improve in an area of weakness. The exceptions to this would be issues with basic competence, issues in character or issues with integrity.

b) They can look at another area of their "game" that is a strength area and concentrate on making this even stronger to compensate for their weakness. For example, a speed skater may not be the best in the world at getting off the starting line. However, they may be very strong in maintaining their top speed once they hit it. This skater has a few choices.....they can work really hard at getting a little faster off the start (where return on their effort might be minimal) or they can work at being able to achieve an even higher top speed that they can maintain for the duration of the race. It is here that the athlete will probably see the greatest results.

Strength Zone Application - this approach is almost always the best "bang for the buck". Using this approach we can leverage our strengths as much as possible while avoiding areas that we know we are simply not good. For example, someone that struggles with sales but is excellent at design work should stick with design work. Someone that is excellent in leading and dealing with others should not take a role that places them in a cubicle in the back room somewhere.

Answer #2: Most of the time an athlete cannot just ignore his weakness. They need to address the weakness and determine how it impacts their performance. Once this impact assessment is completed, the athlete can determine if this area of weakness has to be improved or if another part of their game can compensate for it.

Strength Zone Application - always evaluate your performance in any role and identify your strengths and weaknesses. Spend time evaluating your weaknesses and complete a plan that allows you to be successful without stumbling over the area of weakness. Spend more time developing your areas of strength and determining how you can apply these to enhance your performance.

Answer #3: In team sports, each player has unique strengths and weaknesses. Although each player has a basic level of competence that is usually much greater than the average person's best performance in the sport, the players also have unique strengths that they have developed. These strengths are then leveraged as part of a team approach. Some hockey players are great left wingers but can't play center and some players are great forwards but can't play defence. Some players are great at one on one play and others rely on their size and strength to muscle the puck out of the corners. We would not want Crosby to have to be grinding in the corners every game against the 230 pounders in the NHL. This would be a waste of his talent as a finesse player and scoring phenomena. The roles that players are assigned to is the job of the team coach. It takes great leadership to assess players strengths and set up a team for success and optimum performance.

Strength Zone Application - most people play in a team environment in today's world. Very few of us are independent islands. We need to truly understand our strengths and weaknesses and then sit down as a team to discuss this. Make sure that your team is balanced and that you have people to cover for your area of weaknesses and you can use your strengths to help out others that have a weakness in that area. This is what teamwork is all about....get everyone working in their area of strength and build a dynamic, powerful, unstoppable team!

Tags: Olympic, , strengths, , strength, zone, , weaknesses, , athlete, , hockey, , crosby
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