How bout preparing such that he realized his true potential at all those major competitions when he didn’t. Then he’d have both.
Charlie of course hated this topic, but in the years before Bolt, Asafa himself said that he “panicked.”
2003 DQFS
2004 only 5th
2005 groin injury
2006 no outdoor championships
2007 Tysonphobia
2008-on Bolt
One of those years, he damaged himself doing negatives in the gym and had to take a bunch of time off from damaging his pecs as I recall. Another of those years, Charlie made the statement that Asafa “spent his wad in the prelims” (2007?).
You could, of course, say that Gatlin panicked in the finals last year, and that he “spent his wad in the prelims”. Asafa doesn’t have any ownership of the matter. When YOU are the WR holder, I don’t understand why you would fear anyone else: Just go out and run your race, and dare everyone else to stay with you (until the emergence of Bolt). When you are the WR holder, YOU don’t have any reason to “make a statement” in the prelims. But Asafa really never did respond with the best of his abilities in a championship format.
Indeed, I remember the discussions we had on the matter. Charlie was very much a proponent of optimal training being synonymous with all the psychological preparation an athlete needs.
I maintain a different position, however. It has been my experience that the majority of individual, team, combat sports, and (surprising to many people) military special operations, not only leave much to question regarding what is actually done, or not done, in training; in addition, have little to no direction in the area of psychological preparation apart from what can be accomplished through physical training.
One many observe the emergence of specialty positions (mental skills specialist, psychological skills specialist, cognitive skills specialist, sport psychologist…) related to various sport and military realms; however, it continues to be my experience that, similar to most coaches, these professionals are also victims of misdirected and/or misguided education.