How do marginal gains help good athletes become the best?

What makes the best athletes stand out from others and how do they achieve this? There are thousands of professional athletes, each with their own story of how they got to the top. Becoming the best is a very personal journey, however, I think that an increasingly successful way is by the process of marginal gains. There are a few themes that stand out for me, that include physical, mental, and technical aspects of athletes' performance.

The British Olympic cycling team completely changed their results at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and matched this at London 2012 Olympics, winning 7 out of the 10 gold medals available. A huge difference from previous Olympics where they had won a total of 2 gold medals in the previous 76 years. Sir Dave Brailsford became the head of British cycling in 2002 and introduced the theory of marginal gains. This is the theory that if you take every aspect involved in cycling - physical, mental and technical and improved it by 1% then you will have a significant increase when you put them all together – enough to win multiple gold medals. One advantage of this theory is that the greatest athletic goals can be broken down into smaller, more achievable goals, which can be worked on individually.

Firstly, it is important to have natural athletic talent as this provides the basis for the creation of a ‘good’ athlete and can later help them become the ‘best’. However, to become the ‘best’, it is not enough to just have natural talent. From a physical aspect, an athlete will have a significant advantage if they are even the slightest bit fitter than their competitor. Being fit is quite a broad term as there are many aspects to fitness and many ways an athlete needs to be fit do their specific sport. This is where achieving marginal gains can have a big impact. If an athlete can improve every aspect of their fitness relevant to their sport by a small margin, the theory is that they will achieve a greater overall gain. For example, Mo Farah, a quadruple Olympic gold medalist, trained at altitude in Ethiopia. He did this to increase the oxygen capacity in his blood; this proved to be a significant endurance gain that helped him be the ‘best’.

Secondly, as athletes progress towards the top of their profession they will have many more setbacks than successes. They will be told they’re not good enough, they will have bad days, and these are the times that can be harder to overcome than any physical barrier.

These stressful situations can show whether they have the mental strength to be the best. To overcome

them they need motivation, concentration, an ability to manage their emotions, a positive outlook and, crucially, an ability to work well under pressure.

I think it is vitally important to have these qualities because no matter how good they are on paper or how athletic they are, in the moment if they can’t handle stress or nerves then they will not be able to get to the top. An example of this is Maddie Hinch’s approach to her profession. She is considered the best hockey goalkeeper in the world and certainly a top athlete. She has been England’s first choice keeper since 2013 and has been to two Olympics, winning gold and bronze. After achieving all this she said:

“The most important thing was to have a relentless attitude and be strong minded.”

Top athletes’ coaching teams often include psychologists to help with their mental approaches. This support is designed to provide the gain in composure and other important mental qualities that can be the difference between a win or loss.

Moreover, a vital part of marginal gains are the technical aspects which can be broadly split into two groups – training and monitoring, and athletes’ technical equipment. A large part of becoming the ‘best’ athlete is the quality of the training regime – frequently giving a big advantage if an individual or team have the best training facilities and monitoring equipment. For example, the England rugby team use individual performance monitoring vests that can help optimize individual training plans and make them personal to the athlete. On top of this, during competition the athletes that have the best equipment often have a significant advantage. For instance, when David Brailsford was evaluating the British cycling team, he made every aspect of the bike 1% better. As well as improving the bikes, he changed the cyclists’ suits. Using modern technology, the combined improvement ended up increasing the cyclist’s performance by 5%.

These three aspects can all be improved by marginal gains. However, it’s not just the athletes’ efforts that make them the best, it is vital to have a strong team of coaches and support staff that can focus athletic performance. Therefore, consequently, having sufficient funding does become an important aspect of achieving top performance too. I think that it is often the mental aspect of marginal gains that makes the difference between a ‘good’ athlete and the ‘best’, but I think all three parts are important. They work together and are largely interdependent on each other. It shows how making small improvements, such as having a psychologist or having better equipment can make a

huge difference when put together. Though this concept is very useful in sports it can easily be related to many other situations and areas as well. It can be used in businesses when they are trying to be the most efficient and profitable or, a bit closer to home, it can be used in schools. For example, it can be used when someone is trying to improve their teaching, putting on a play or even the food. Overall, I think the theory of marginal gains has real benefits when it comes to being the ‘best’.

By Eloise B (Re)