The Pyramid of Joy

MUSINGS FROM A COACH - 11 NOVEMBER '25

Lee McCormack is a Mountain Bike Coach and expert in the field of teaching athletes how to ride better. He has crafted and perfected his process over the years and provides a very unique way of looking at how to improve one's mountain biking skills. He's a super nice guy, a genuine lover of mountain biking and almost has a natural zen-like philosophy to his teachings. I was fortunate to spend an entire day with him years ago learning everything I could.

In an email from leelikesbikes.com, Lee references a chart he made that I've included below. I love this chart for just the fact that it should make anyone think a bit differently on just how powerful our "mind" is in sports over the physiology and "science" of training. I'm not saying it replaces it or even "is" it, but it should make you think more about the emotional side of sport and the unknown (and scientifically unquantifiable) power the mindset has on our daily training and racing.

Lee calls his chart, "The Pyramid of Joy". See above! I love this chart for highlighting the most important part of all of sport: the mind. And that the "mindset" is not only the foundation of performance but its importance far outways everything else. I love this chart because it succinctly expresses this in a simple picture. To put this philosophy in a question (fictitious and slightly odd admittedly), answer this:

If science could clone the greatest athlete ever - that is, make an identical copy of every physical part of that athlete - would that clone be as good?

My answer would be "no". There's no way to "clone" the mindset. It has been formed from a lifetime of experiences and is unique to that individual. The mindset can't be explained away in a lab, algorithms, proprietary measuring equipment, etc. Yet, it is the foundation of all of performance.

In Lee's process of teaching the sometimes dangerous and daunting sport of mountain biking, he promotes teaching each athlete to work on their mindset to learn and overcome both the universal mechanics and the sport-specific skills that is required to improve performance (i.e. the outcome). And a big part of his teaching is the discovery and cultivation of JOY.Right on, Lee.  Mark

CEO Team MPI