AAGS 2021

36 A lot of that stuff happens at training. Maybe I’d be interested to hear from Luis when it happens over several games. And one thing that’s interesting that I’ll say is often people talk about peak performance and how do people maintain a high level so long. What’s fascinating is the definition of a peak is that there’s a slope on both sides. Nobody’s graph is totally linear going up, or it’s not a peak. To have that slope on the other side, I think is a couple of things, either a mental problem or a physical problem, you get injured or you get burned out. I think the key is its kind of like the stock market. Your graph will go up and down but keep that average linear positive. What that down part is, if it’s not an injury to me, it’s rest. It’s taking that time off to refocus, taking that time to, when you are faced with a challenge, learn and make that second kind of peak go at the right time. How do you manage the pressure of competition? Scola: Pressure is something that brings you confidence. People want you to be feeling a certain way and you’re not always in, and you’re not going to be there constantly. People will be criticizing you, but then yet at one time I read an interview from abroad and it said, I played bad. They were criticizing me. And I like that because that means that they are expecting a lot from you, so you are fighting hard your whole life to reach these levels. When you arrive at these levels, the microscope would, where people are looking, get bigger and bigger. So, at a bigger, higher resolution they get to see everything because you are on the stage, the lights are on you. They will see things that when you were in the shade, they’re not able to. That’s where you want to be, and you have to be to deal with that. You need to be able to enjoy that because you are right to the point where you wanted to be in the first place, and it will be uncomfortable. It will be hard. It will be difficult because if you would have not been any of those things, nobody would chase these. Being comfortable in this uncomfortable situation is huge. At the same time, how do you deal with those? We need to learn how to feel comfortable, but also learn how to detach the outside things from our actual performance. You are going to work very, very hard. You’re going to be ready. You’re going to do all these things that you have to do. Sometimes you’re going to be at a peak, sometimes you’ve got to be in a valley, and that’s going to be part of the process. And the line in the middle, the average that is drawn after it’s all said and done, is what’s going to define you. You are going to be able to accept those peaks and valleys, as long as you are mentally, physically prepared for that particular task. In the NBA, a lot of teams have what is called the “so what” mentality. You have a good game, so what? You score daily, so what? You lose by 40 and you played very badly, so what? They waive you from a team, they didn’t give you the contract you expected, you had to take a bit of a pay cut, so what? You got a max deal, you became a mediator, so what? There is always a game tomorrow that you have to play, there’s always a championship next month that you have to compete in. And whatever you did before is not very important after you did it. You know, what are you going to do for me tomorrow is what we all care about. And this, “so what” mentality helps you detach the actual result to the process, the process is what’s important. The process is practicing consistency is what defines this line in the middle, this average line in the middle which, hopefully is like a positive line that will define your career. Obviously, it’s a big challenge, but this is okay because we are trying to do big things. You can’t just expect it to be easy, you can expect to be a small change, and it has to be something difficult and it has to be hard. There are differences between team and individual sports. Do you feel lonely in the decathlon as opposed to a team sport? Eaton: Short answer is no; I was not lonely. The question is why is that? Is it