I thought on Labor Day I would revisit one of my pet peeves working with athletes, work ethic. I am amazed how many athletes think that pure talent will get them to reach the highest level of competition. In today’s sports landscape talent is maybe 50% of the success equation. There are many talented athletes, but few who will work at their game with total dedication to achieve greatness. Don’t get me wrong if an athlete just wants to have fun with their sport then practice is not necessary; however when athletes tell me their dreams of what they want to accomplish and yet balk at the work needed to achieve them, then we have a problem. There are some mental game coaches that think the athlete will achieve their dreams by simply dreaming. Guess what, it doesn’t work. This leads to disgruntled athletes who tell me they are not achieving their dream. I ask about their work ethic and I get, “I am working harder then the other athletes I know”. That may be true, but the answer I am looking for is, “I am working harder and smarter then all the other athletes, known and unknown.” I guarantee there is someone out there working harder than you are. It comes down to choices. If you want to achieve greatness in your sport, then hard work is needed, if you want to be good then less work is needed. It is up to you how hard you want to work.