
Remember algebra class?
To balance an equation, you’d isolate the variable. Cross the bridge. Change the sign. Don’t worry it wasn’t my (Coach Brant’s) favourite class either, but perhaps we can learn something here!
It wasn’t just about math—it was about perspective. To get the right outcome, you had to move things around.
Most athletes? They forget that.
They get stuck in single-variable thinking:
- One missed shift = I’m useless.
- One blown rep = I’m not fit.
- One off game = I’ve lost it.
But elite performance is never just one thing. It’s multi-variable.
For example, one of my national team track athletes runs a few seconds off goal pace and panics. But when we zoom out, we find the full picture:
- Weather was brutal.
- Effort was spot-on.
- Pacing was smart.
- Sleep was off.
- Pressure was high—and they still competed.
Similarly, I was recently working with a AAA hockey player who stormed off after a tough shift and muttered, “I’m blowing it today.”
Except… he wasn’t.
Not only did his analytics show he was winning puck battles, driving play, and creating chances. But his personal scorecard, a tool we use at CEP to score what matters most: mindset, effort, leadership and engagement were all off the charts!
He was solving the wrong equation.
So we trained him to zoom out—to scan the full game, not just the stat line or the single variable of did I score or not!
Cross the bridge. Change the sign.
Instead of judging his performance on one variable (goal = good, no goal = bad), he started reading the whole situation!
And everything changed.
Elite athletes don’t just train harder. They analyze smarter.
Before you jump to judgment before, during or after a race, game, or play—ask yourself:
Am I looking at and considering all the variables?