Refocusing on these core habits can transform how you feel and perform
It’s a phrase you hear at the highest levels of sport – world-class basics. Former British Lions coach Sir Ian McGeechan has repeatedly used it as a performance principle he applied in the highest pressure situations
On the Performance People podcast, Max Verstappen’s former fitness coach, Bradley Scanes, referenced it as a daily philosophy relied on by multiple world champions.
Performance coach Chris Tombs is an advocate for applying these world-class basics to our own lives, so we too can find elite performance in whatever field we are in.
So what does the phrase actually mean? And how can we apply it?
Why the Basics Matter More Than Ever
The idea is simple. Before you chase marginal gains, minute details and complicated training plans, ask a more important question: are you consistently doing the fundamentals well?
In a world where advanced information is accessible to all of us and where optimisation has become a sub-culture, it’s surprisingly easy to overlook the baseline habits which really matter.
At its simplest, performance has the same definition, athlete or not. For Tombs, it isn’t about feeling perfect every day.
“Human performance is about optimally showing up day after day,” he says, “not necessarily always feeling 100%, but being in the right 75 to 100% of your personal capacity most of the time.”
To try to up our game, we get so caught up in detail that we often ignore the fact we might be under-fuelled, dehydrated and chronically tired.
Tombs's experience spans elite sport, but the principles he applies to professional athletes are increasingly relevant to everyone else trying to perform well at work, in training and in everyday life.
The Eight Question Reset
When athletes complained about fatigue or poor performance, he started to notice a pattern. As he puts it: “If the answer to any of these questions was no, then the challenge was: don’t blame the training programme.”
Are you hydrated in the morning?
Are you eating real food for breakfast?
Are you eating real food consistently?
Is your diet high in protein?
Are you doing recovery work?
Are you getting regular soft tissue work?
Are you unwinding at night?
Are you consistently getting between seven and nine hours of sleep?
"The rewards for applying these principles are compelling.You feel better. You recover faster. You think more clearly."
If there’s one non-negotiable in Tombs’ philosophy, it’s sleep.
Long before sleep science became mainstream, he built his life around it. “I really prioritised my sleep when I was younger,” he says. In his twenties and thirties he went to bed at 9pm because he noticed how much better he performed the following day.
When sleep suffers, everything else tends to slide. “If you’re sleep deprived, you and I both know you’re reaching for stimulants. You’re reaching for probably the wrong foods.”
That’s where the downward spirals begin. Poor sleep leads to poor decisions, which lead to lower energy, worse recovery and reduced performance.
The Everyday Edge
Given elite athletes need reminding on the importance of these fundamentals, imagine the gains the rest of us can make by applying these same principles.
The same principles that help an athlete win championships are often the same ones that help a business leader, entrepreneur or creative perform at their best.
But unlike elite athletes, most people don’t have coaches, chefs or recovery teams. Which makes mastering the basics even more effective.
The Simplicity of High Performance
Over time, Tombs simplified his philosophy even further into what he calls an 8-to-1 approach. The formula looks like this:
8 hours of sleep
7 days of movement
6 mobility sessions a week
5 hydration opportunities a day
4 meals with protein a day
3 strength sessions a week
2 aerobic sessions a week
1 hobby in your free time
It’s by no means a simple checklist to achieve, but it offers a framework that’s easy to understand and achievable if we set our mind to it.
These are the habits that quietly determine whether your energy and performance trend upward or downward over time.
The rewards for applying it are compelling.You feel better. You recover faster. You think more clearly. Ignore them and you’re constantly trying to compensate: more caffeine and compensation, more struggling through to the next firefight.
Ultimately, Tombs believes achieving these world class basics comes down to two factors: consistency and routine.
Elite performers don’t occasionally do the right things. They do them every day. Away from sport, Tombs points to musician Dave Grohl as an example of someone whose career reflects elite-level performance thinking.
Grohl’s work ethic, resilience and discipline reflect the same psychological qualities you would expect from top athletes.
Get the basics right and performance becomes a habit in itself.
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