Kelly Slater, 11 time world champion surfing legend, was recently on a podcast with Joe Rogan (found here).
He is the oldest pro surfer on the tour (ever), now at 46 years old.
“No-one’s ever been my age on tour.”
The next oldest is 38 (and is retiring)
I often state to friends that I believe that surfing is the best sport in the world (I’ll save the reasoning for another post, but happily engage in a debate with anyone interested) and I’ve had a long time appreciation for Kelly’s journey.
Joe asks a great question: “What separates you from the other surfers – is it the strength and conditioning, the training…?”
We often expect those at the top to be training the hardest.
Yet, Kelly describes that his secret is to not to over-exert himself very much.
“I don’t burn myself out.”
“The oldest people in the world aren’t athletes.” – says arguable one of the best athletes in the world.
So, we learn about his priority of conserving energy.
A rare paradox of one of the greatest athletes moving counter to much of the modern fitness and athletic industry (which largely is designed around the “image” of the athlete and is built on the concept of burning as much energy as possible in varied time-frames, then cultivating mental grit to keep going in the long term)
However, to play the long game, we might choose a different path.
We dive into each task: “What’s it for?”
We train a little easier, use minimum effective dose, remain aware of effort, minimise strain, cultivate skills, live well and enjoy the journey.
I highly recommend the entire interview*.
*Interestingly, at the end of the interview Joe talks about how he is trying to dominate his friends in a competition by training 3-5 hours in the day and burning 4,000 calories. A slightly different approach.
