Fitness is the foundation on which all great athletic endeavours are built.  It is the base that carries all teams and athletes forward.  It is an necessary starting point.  The quickest way to turn around an unsuccessful sports team is to radically change the way athletes approach fitness and change the culture around working out.  The fact is that the vast majority of athletes are not willing to pay the physical price to achieve any measure of greatness in sport.  Sport is full of stories of coaches who enter situations and quickly let athletes go or cause athletes to get in better shape or work harder and then the team suddenly begins to enjoy success.  The gauntlet is thrown down immediately.  People will be in shape or they will not be welcome.  The athletes that buy in right away begin to enjoy success and as the others see the success enjoyed by those athletes, it motivates them to join in the revolution.  Soon the atmosphere has changed and working out is a must if an athlete wishes to fit in with their teammates.  Fitness testing becomes part of the norm and the chance to measure one's work, drives some athletes to work even harder.  The lower the level of sport, the more basic the training can be, but is essential to have a focus on training if a coach wishes to be successful.  

It may be easy to see why the focus on fitness is important, but how is it the most important?  First and foremost, the emphasis on fitness instills a sense of discipline into what the athletes are doing.  Work-outs become a focal point of the day and the way in which a player's body responds is measurable and easily felt.  If one can be taught, led, or otherwise brought to develop a work ethic around physical training, it begins to grow into proper nutrition and many other areas as the athlete starts to feel better and craves to further that feeling.  This all requires work and effort directed in the right way.  All hallmarks of discipline.  A coach can easily tell if their players are committed to training, if they are being productive.  Athletes that complain about the work it requires to play are often tipping off the coach to the fact that they will resent hard work in practice and game situations and that they may lack the discipline or focus to be successful in the long run.  The establishment of discipline that goes along with commitment to training is a great first step to success.

Vince Lombardi famously said, "Fatigue makes cowards of us all."  This is a crucial statement to the importance of training and physical development to coaching.  Athletes rely on confidence to a great degree to be successful.  The difference between two very talented players in a competition is never who wants it more, but rather who believes more that they will get it.  What is the foundation of this confidence?  I have always believed that confidence flows from preparation.  An athlete who feels totally prepared will be, by extension, more positive about their ability to achieve.  Competing requires a tremendous effort, in a way that being noncompetitive does not.  If the athlete feels they have paid the right price to be where they are, then they are more likely to respond positively when they are in a difficult situation.  They are not going to shrink from the moment.  This may be the true importance of physical training.  Although some athletes may have deep rooted feelings of inadequacy that may cause them to fail at key moments, most of these feelings can be overcome through proper preparation.  Most athletes succeed because in the end they feel they have gone through too much to fail.  Tough physical work-outs help to build that sense in athletes at every level.  The fitter the team, the less likely it is to "choke."

 Finally, in order to show the true importance of physical conditioning over mental work, one has only to ask what happens when the physical breaks down?  Athletes can have the most elaborate mental routines and exercises to keep them on track, but if they fatigue, the only thought passing through their mind will be, "I am exhausted!"  It is easier to suppress fatigue as a factor if you have continually, and in many different ways, worked your body past your preconceived notions of your limits.  Every person has notions about what they can and cannot endure.  The breaking of these limits is essential to any athlete reaching success.  The human body is a wonderful machine that can endure and adapt.  If it is stressed in one way, it will work to compensate and that will allow it to be stressed further the next time.  Muscle development, flexibility training, aerobic work, all forms of physical fitness are all about stress and growth.  As each potential barrier is met and shattered, athletes get the sense that if they are willing they can accomplish anything and that fatigue is a mental state that can be overcome.  In some sense this is an exercise of mind over body, but the mind needs the physical work in order to form this conclusion.  

Still need a little more convincing?  We have all watched The Last Dance, with the great Bulls teams and Michael Jordan. Think back to the Bulls and when everything changed and they decided they would beat the Pistons and be champions.  It all started with the athletes as a group, becoming dedicated to the weight room and working out at a level they had never experienced before.  It gave them the strength, endurance and confidence to leave all their former doubts behind and become champions.  It all started with a dedication to physical training.

In the end, the lack of physical preparation for an athlete is decisive in outcomes.  If you want to be a good coach, or player, the starting point is always physical prep and helping to motivate your athletes to pursue their best state of physical readiness.  This is the foundation from which all other achievement is possible.  Mental and spiritual development can only follow when the body is in order.  For these reasons, all good coaching starts with a focus on physical fitness.