You're good. You may even show flashes of greatness. But you are not a champion. Not yet. ‘A champion,’ says James Citrin, author of The Dynamic Path, http://etrader.kalahari.net/referral.asp?linkid=5&partnerid=5526&sku=30537976 ‘is someone who has become the greatest individual contributor he can be.’

That applies to business as well as sports. As a senior director at Spencer Stuart, a leading executive-recruitment firm with branches worldwide, Citrin works with champions of the business world, helping the big-money bosses place CEOs and board directors at dozens of companies such as Yahoo, Motorola and Microsoft.

To write The Dynamic Path, Citrin, an American, sat down with some of his country's top sports champions, from Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods to Lance Armstrong and Magic Johnson, and looked for key components that make a champion. He also looked for the ingredients that make a champion evolve into a leader and, eventually, a legacy-builder.

Champion-grade performance starts with the basics you probably already know: work ethic, mental toughness, dedication to the job at hand. But there's more, says Citrin. Whether your game is golf, cycling or accounting, there's always more. Here are six crucial training points you must remember as you strive to become a champion in your chosen arena.

1. Burn that last one percent in any competition, holding something in reserve is a sign that you're afraid to fail, says Citrin. How so? It's difficult for some people to admit that they may not be as good as the competition. If you give your absolute all and still lose, then you're not the best and you have to face that. But by holding something back, you allow yourself to say, ‘Well, I'll just work harder next time.’ Wrong. Champions hate to lose, but they're never afraid to lose.

2. Reinvent yourself. A champion knows he won't find the zone by staying in a rut. He takes the difficult steps of unlearning and relearning. As good as he already was, Tiger Woods reinvented his golf swing not once but twice in his career. And those weren't just tweaks, says Citrin. Woods recognized that the only way to take his game to an even higher level was to start over and master something new. The result? ‘His tournament-winning percentage is now close to 60 percent,’ says Citrin. ‘He's playing better golf now and is as mentally tough as he's ever been.’

3. Use 'Directed' practice. Any golfer can play a practice round. Any cyclist player can enjoy a gentle ride out in the country. But championship-level play requires a stronger approach, says Citrin.

Bjorn Borg, one of tennis's greatest champions, practiced in a way that was designed to eliminate his mind from the equation: he worked on one specific shot until he could perform it automatically, in any situation, and then moved on to another shot. In a match, muscle memory and reflexes directed Borg's stroke without letting his brain get in the way of the shot. For golfers, Citrin offers this driving-range prescription: ‘Hit a pitching wedge towards a flag 100m away 200 times with the goal of getting the ball within 10m 80 percent of the time,’ he says. ‘Do that for a couple of hours every weekend until you reach your goal.’ Then move on to another shot.

4. Stop going for the glory shot. That amazing, winning shot makes you mentally rigid, not mentally tough, says Citrin. You're putting tremendous pressure on yourself to perform perfectly, especially if you've just made a mistake and want to recover. ‘Stop trying to win by trying to win,’ says Citrin. ‘The greatest competitors just let it happen.’ Citrin, an avid tennis player, notes that even at the most advanced levels, only about 20 percent of points are won with outright winning shots. The same holds true in golf: in a 72-hole tournament, a pro sinks only 15 to 20 birdies, or about 25 percent of all shots. The key to mental toughness and clear concentration is to play consistently and capitalize on opportunities instead of forcing them. Woods, says Citrin, is a master of this.

5. Prepare for the crossroads before you see them. True champions realize there will come times in their lives when they must evolve. After all, an athlete's skills eventually erode. He will have to transform himself into something else. Take Jonty Rhodes who, upon retiring from professional cricket, took a position as an account executive for a leading South African bank. He has managed to keep a foot in the world of sport and business, and is still very involved in cricket through coaching and sponsorship.

Being able to evolve is even more crucial in a non-athletic career: you've become a champion-level performer in your field. Now you must take the next step. ‘There are questions you can ask yourself at any time: am I still learning and growing? Am I still motivated? Passionate? Are the big projects or opportunities still coming my way?’ says Citrin.

6. Transition into a leadership role. What happens to champions who refuse to evolve? They fall, says Citrin. Just look at Mike Tyson. But the great ones move on to become great leaders. Don't think about leadership after you get the promotion, Citrin says. Plan now.

The most unexpected and inspiring example of this is, in Citrin's opinion, American professional skateboarder Tony Hawk. Although Hawk no longer competes, he still skates in exhibitions and has leveraged his celebrity to create the Tony Hawk Foundation, which helps build skate parks in inner-city neighborhoods to help at-risk kids.

‘He grew with his sport and helped millions of young people get into it, all of them exercising outside in a social environment. Hawk made skateboarding socially acceptable. His impact is huge.’ And that defines how a champion evolves into a leader: changing your focus to making those around you successful and, in turn, perpetuating your own championship-level success.

Sandra Prior runs her own bodybuilding website at http://bodybuild.rr.nu
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