The relationship between difficulty and performance is still poorly understood, especially when you want to examine the subjective perception of difficulty. “Impossible is nothing” is the motto of a multinational sports company, on the one hand it is not true because we will never be able to run as fast as a cheetah, but it is equally true that “records are made to be beaten” and to do so we must overcome that limit beyond which no one has gone before.
This was the case for Roger Bannister, who on May 6, 1954 was the first to accomplish a feat considered impossible by doctors: running the English mile (1609.23 meters) under 4 minutes (3’59″4). His record lasted just 46 days, the Australian John Landy brought it to 3’58″0, this was possible because Bannister had broken an insurmountable door beyond which there are all passed and summarized his feat with these few words: “The secret is always that, the ability to bring out what you do not have or do not know you have.
The same was true for Reinhold Messner when on August 20, 1980 he became the first man to accomplish another feat considered impossible by science, climbing Everest (8.848 meters) without the use of oxygen, and then going on to climb all 14 eight-thousand with this approach.
The experiences of these athletes seem to support the value of having specific goals as mediators between difficulty and performance. It consists of a person’s belief that he or she will achieve the set goal. Therefore, the choice of difficulty level will depend on how comfortable an athlete is with choosing moderate, high, or extreme difficulty goals and this will depend on how convinced he or she feels in his or her condition.
