11:30am, July 15th 2018- watched by several million people, Serb tennis legend Novak Djokovic has just defeated 6-foot-8 Kevin Anderson on the most renowned grass court in the world. Novak is no stranger to victory, especially in slam tournaments, but there is something special about this win… This is not only the culmination of a phenomenal comeback after being absent from the tour for 6 months following elbow surgery but Wimbledon, as Djokovic explains, is a “sacred place for tennis” and holding this ultimate classic tournament’s trophy, three times now, was beyond his wildest dreams.

Since 1884, the best male and female tennis players in the world meet at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon for arguably the most famous tennis tournament in the world. Over the years, the white dress code, the customary strawberries and cream as well as Royal family appearances have consistently given Wimbledon its British class and its charm. But it has also evolved to produce some of the best tennis we have seen over the past few years. While many tennis legends such as Pete Sampras, Steffi Graff or Bjorn Borg have stepped onto the Wimbledon courts in the past, today’s champions demonstrate a whole new level of inspiration, preparation, and commitment to their sport.

Natural picks for this year are the usual suspects in the men with Swiss star Roger Federer, last year’s winner Novak Djokovic and Spanish giant Rafael Nadal all hard to see past. In the ladies, leading contenders are fronted by Serena Williams and the one who defeated her last year, German champion Angelique Kerber. However, the hundreds of other professional tennis players will not be deterred and will enter the court this Monday with one thought in their mind: upsetting the odds and winning that trophy.

As they put on their pristine white sports kit in the locker room, they won’t be thinking about injury, about a bad streak they’ve had, or how their opponent has a better ranking. The clarity of mind that the best players will experience will come from a methodical, well planned and focused preparation giving them full control and ownership of their upcoming performance.

For Spanish champion and winner of the 2019 French Open Rafael Nadal, the planning is even more critical in allowing him to focus and perform consistently following a recent injury. Nadal explained in an interview with Fox Sports last Monday the cause of his recent challenges: ” After many months without playing on grass the first day, I had a muscular overload because the grass is a little more unstable. So we decided to stop and continue with the training on both Wednesday and Thursday normally.” There is no doubt however that the Spaniard knows the importance of sticking diligently to the plan crafted by himself and his trusted team. Sticking to the plan and focusing on adapting his game to be best placed for the famous grass surface will make sure he is on top of his game.

Indeed, the historic lawn tennis courts are a critical factor for every player with them being considered to be the second fastest-playing surface of the grand slams after hardcourts. “Playing on the grass of Wimbledon after playing on clay is the most radical transition there is in tennis.”, added Rafael Nadal in his interview with Fox Sports. Grass courts are the oldest type of courts: the balls react in a very unique way on this surface. Bounces are lower and quicker, making it more difficult for players to reach the ball in time. The so called “living surface” not only gets wet quite often (becoming even faster and more slippery) but also evolves every day as the tournament goes.

37-year-olds Roger Federer and Feliciano López have claimed the last two grass court ATP tournaments leading up to Wimbledon, showing younger players how it’s done. Coming into next week’s tournament, there is no way to predict who will be lifting the Golden Trophy and waving to the crowd from the winners’ balcony. The one thing we can be sure about is that this person, in each category, will exemplify the determination, perseverance and preparation tennis players need to succeed in this new era of elite sports performance.

Today, hundreds of thousands of young elite athletes throughout the world strive to be successful both in their sport and in the classroom. It can be quite challenging for teenagers and young adults to find the right balance between education, personal life and sports. Even the most dedicated young person will eventually have to make a choice between getting a paycheck or trophies. In the meantime, they need to adapt to a fast-paced, intense and competitive lifestyle.

Berlin, 6:15 am: 18-year-old Olympic diver Elena Wassen wakes up before digging into her large bowl of Muesli as usual. She is going to need all the energy she can get for the day: practice at 8 am, class at 11:30 am, training at 2:30 pm followed by a physiotherapy appointment and a study session. She will most likely eat a quick snack on her way to school and won’t get to sit down and relax for another 12 hours. But Elena is used to the rush, her life has been that way ever since she started diving at 4 years old.. Armed with a strong sense of purpose and determination, from Aachen, the town where she grew up, to a sporting school in Berlin, she was able to overcome the many challenges presented to her to become a role model for divers in Germany and across the world.

Just like Lionel Messi has in soccer, 6-foot tall Elena broke the stereotype of physiological predisposition to be successful in her sport. The Baesweiler born diver’s record speaks for itself: semi-finalist in the 2016 Olympics as the youngest member of the German delegation at the age of 15, 2016 Youth World Champion, runner up in the 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympic games in mixed synchro and many more wins and trophies and medals on her shelf. But being the flag bearer for Germany at the Youth Olympics at 17 years old comes at a cost, with a successfully executed preparation plan having its drawbacks: “ It is not always easy being away from my family, I am not able to spend as much time with friends as I wish and managing my time can be tricky sometimes – but again, it has been that way all my life so I am used to it”, says Elena.

Platform diving is a very physically and mentally challenging sport, with many hours spent at the pool but also on the road. With a lot of travelling involved, school sometimes falls behind: “I miss quite a lot of school and I have to study and catch up on a lot when I am back from a competition. We always have our notebooks with us in competitions and even have to take exams while on a trip sometimes!”

Elena’s plans for the future are quite clear: “Even with 24 hours of training a week, I still want to pursue my education, studying at University; and if everything works out well, my goal is to compete in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo next year.“ But how does such an ambitious, yet young athlete manage to untangle the layers of complexity in elite student-athlete preparation? Elena explains: “ I always make sure to be very efficient, I don’t postpone. The key is to get everything done straight away, that way I can have clarity of mind and focus when I need to. Thankfully, I have had the same coach since I was 4 and she is very understanding: on a few occasions when I have had a lot on my mind she was able to guide me and ensure that I was doing less physically and mentally demanding dives at practice. “Being a student-athlete is both rewarding and challenging. Competing in sports from a young age teaches independence, perseverance and self-discipline and even more so when performing at the highest level. The lessons young athletes learn throughout the years will be anchored inside of them for the future, whether they decide to become a banker, a doctor, a computer programmer or a goalkeeper in the future. Elite athletes need to take pride in their achievements and use them to build confidence in their future performance, but they also have to accept that with competitive sports comes sacrifices.

Elena Wassen was willing to make these sacrifices from early on: “ I am not able to go on vacation very often, I really don’t have much free time and because I am a student-athlete, school was stretched by 2 additional years for me. But it has paid off so far, I am used to it and to be honest they no longer feel like sacrifices.”

There is no age to be a champion: with different generations of elite athletes come different challenges, yet those challenges experienced by Elena and her student-athlete peers should not be undermined. The amount of preparation it takes to reach the top of the performance pyramid, where stand the world’s most determined leaders of youth sports, is tremendous. In addition to the stress factors these young athletes experience on a daily basis in their respective sports, school takes up a lot of their time and energy, forcing them to be very methodical and efficient in all parts of their lives. As Elena Wassen steps onto the diving platform on competition day, she is ready to perform. At this moment, there is no chaos in her mind, no disruptive thoughts, no doubt: just absolute clarity for her next dive.

Sports legends: that’s what we call sports professionals like Michael Phelps, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods, Mia Hamm, Tom Brady, Usain Bolt, and Michael Jordan. These athletes do not just play a sport; they are the face of their respective sports, a source of inspiration for present and future generations, the reason why many kids spend their weekends sitting a couple of inches from the TV, hands clenched with excitement and eyes shining with admiration. To us “average people”, they are natural born winners, prodigies who were destined to animate crowds and always win. But while we admire them for their technical and physical abilities, we can’t help but recognize their limitless determination to be perfectly prepared to perform on game day.

In the debate of Nature vs. Nurture, it is undeniable that some people are genetically predetermined to certain sports. Being 6ft5 doesn’t mean you’ll become an NBA player, but it will give you an initial competitive advantage over many others. However, physical advantages represent a tiny portion of someone’s chances of performing at the highest level.

Another element of genetic predisposition to performance is talent. Talent is defined as a “natural aptitude or skill”: most people are born with some form of talent in a specific area, making the skill acquisition process much faster for them. However, talent isn’t universal and even the most talented athletes will struggle in other areas: Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes had an unbelievable talent for picking a cross-field pass or scoring a goal from 20 yards, but the defensive component of his game came less naturally. There is definitely an argument for people being naturally “destined” for a specific sport but is talent enough?

While someone’s natural ability to progress quickly in a sport was historically a good predictor of that person becoming a success, times have changed when it comes to elite sports performance. Today, talent is not enough. Today for elite athletes, performing at the highest level is not a matter of “ what can I do?” but a matter of “what will I do?”. An athlete needs to consider and manage all the moving parts that come into their personal preparation for game night, such as, skills training, physiotherapy appointments, strength and conditioning, nutrition monitoring, sports psychology programs, personal commitments and many more. The management of all these elements can create a chaotic and cluttered landscape in the mind of the athlete. Many struggle under the various pressures, with a significant increase in the risk of both mental and physical injury.

From a coaching perspective, when it comes to scouting new talent, the first thing that many coaches look for in an athlete is attitude, determination, intelligence and discipline. The athlete who has executed on their personal plan, who arrives on game day with clarity, certainty and calm is without any doubt more likely to execute when it counts. On the other hand, the most ‘talented’ player who doesn’t accept that talent is not enough, who doesn’t incorporate some form of a planned and methodical approach to performance, who operates in a noisy, cluttered and chaotic world will struggle to perform consistently within the current demands of elite sport.

In this new era of elite sports performance, winning now depends on experiencing absolute clarity in the moments that matter. Players and teams need an edge: the best prepared are most likely to succeed, not the most talented. Getting to this level of preparation requires an enormous amount of effort, the kind of effort that the likes of Michael Phelps, Serena Williams, Tom Brady, and Usain Bolt have committed to making every day. And the results speak for themselves, they are legends of their own sports.

70 caps for Ireland, 229 for Ulster (still the most capped Ulster player ever) and more tries than one could count in a Rugby career: Andrew Trimble’s record speaks for itself. The Coleraine born rugby child prodigy has animated crowds from Ravenhill stadium in Belfast, to Soldier Field in Chicago to the Stade de France, where he scored three tries during the 2014 Six Nations Championship including the final try in Paris that sealed the Championship victory for Ireland.

In June 2018, Trimble decided to say farewell to the place he called home for a decade and a half and move on to new adventures “It felt like it was the right time. I was lucky enough to retire on my own terms. Not everyone gets to do that. I played for 14 years so it was time for a change and after completing a Masters in Finance I wanted to put my learning and my passion to use.”, he says.

And new challenges were indeed coming his way: during his last year of competing, Andrew took the time to reflect on his career and the difficulties he faced as an Elite athlete: “I used to get really nervous on game night. The uncertainty left me unsure as to whether I would be able to perform to the best of my ability and I was never sure as to what kind of performance I would be able to put together. I found a lot of value in taking the team schedule for the week, identifying the items that included me and redrafting my own individual schedule. “

In a fast-paced, ever-changing elite sports environment, player and team schedules alongside other requirements can create chaos in the mind of the professional athlete. Andrew believed in an engineered approach to performance, where the athlete creates and follows a detailed, thorough and easily adapted performance plan in order to be perfectly prepared to execute on game day.

“This allowed me to see exactly what steps I needed to follow during that week. I then added my own personal skill ‘extras’ to team training sessions, S&C targets and medical/rehab/soft tissue requirements to my plan. When I got to game night I felt like I had completed a really thorough performance plan and as a result, felt much more confident that I would be able to execute under pressure. I had done everything I could do to put myself in the best possible position to perform.”

“Getting to this level of preparation requires an enormous amount of effort. I had calls to make, texts to send and schedules to draft and redraft. This is where I came up with the idea of developing an app that can offer tools to elite athletes so they can design and engineer their own plan in the same way I did.”

Thankfully, Andrew Trimble has the boots and the brains. He pursued his education for years whilst playing elite high-level rugby. The Northern Irish winger studied Theology, Management, and Finance without ever knowing exactly what he wanted to do. When he retired, Andrew decided it was a good time to make the leap and go full time with the Kairos project.

Andrew met Gareth Quinn through the Ireland Funds, a charity where they both sit on the Belfast Committee together, a couple of years before he retired from rugby. Being the founder and Managing Director of Belfast’s leading business and technology event, Digital DNA, Gareth had the local and international industry network and knowledge that complemented Andrew’s in getting started on the platform.

“I asked Gareth how I would go about creating something like Kairos. He asked me what other teams were using and we set about validating the market opportunity. We wanted to make sure that this problem wasn’t just one that existed in my life, Ulster Rugby or even just rugby”, Andrew explains.

Together, they found that the challenges Andrew faced as a professional rugby player were reflected on a broader scale in the elite sports world. Many sports clubs find it difficult to communicate training programmes, schedules and requirements simply or effectively. The Kairos platform was built to help sports clubs streamline planning and optimize the performance of their athletes.

When asked about his ambitions for the new sports tech company, Andrew explained: “We want to make this solution drive success within top level football and rugby teams in UK and Ireland initially. However, we believe this can seamlessly adapt to any elite or professional sport and any region, so we also intend to widen our reach into Europe, North America and even as far as Australia.”

Kairos has already convinced elite sports teams, such as Sacramento Kings in California and Manchester United FC of its benefits. The Kairos team has also been working in collaboration with the IRFU to develop the platform and make perfectly adapted to elite sports professionals ( athletes, physios, coaches and administrators). Ulster Rugby adopted and integrates Kairos during the 2018/2019 season, and players and staff are now all using the app on a daily basis. The club has described Kairos as a “critical and effective solution to manage their daily schedules.”

In this new era of sports performance, Kairos was created by an elite athlete for elite athletes. It is now an indispensable solution for players to maximize and perfect preparation and help them experience clarity in the moment that matters most: game night!