There’s an old saying among aikido practitioners: “The master is the one who stays on the mat five minutes longer every day than anybody else.”
During his near-40-year engagement with the sport, George Leonard observed this pattern plenty of times — and not just in aikido. In his book Mastery, Leonard relates a time when he visited the Seattle Seahawks NFL training camp in 1988:
“When the morning practice session was over, the players shambled off the field to the dressing room—all of the players except two, that is. One of the two kept running out, then wheeling suddenly to take a pass from the other. Again and again, he ran the same pattern, caught the same pass.”
While everyone else was showering, these two kept practicing. Leonard thought this must surely be some rookie, trying to prove himself. Lo and behold, it was Steve Largent, “the leading receiver in the history of the National Football League,” a man who held all major records in his category by the time he retired.
Whether it’s Michael Jordan showing up early for sessions — even during his failed baseball career — Larry Bird making shots while sitting on the sidelines for an hour before a game, or you staying behind to finish something no one else will finish: Masters keep practicing, and in the long run, perhaps all it takes is practicing five minutes more every day than anybody else.