I wrote about this in another thread. It is very, very hard to be great without out working your opponents. And this is true in sports as it is in life.
I made a decision early in my legal career that no attorney would ever be more prepared than me going into a trial. This meant I literally wrote out every question of my direct and cross examinations, and scripted my Opening and Closing statements. Of course I had to be able to go off script when the circumstances dictate, but being over prepared and more prepared than my opponent gave my a distinct advantage. I recommend the same to every young attorney; some take the advice and some look at me like I am an alien.
I asked in another thread how much our players loves football, and whether they eat, sleep and breath football. I still believe this is the only method to achieve maximum success. Sure there maybe some freak athletes who get away with less, but 99.9% will not. Mario knows this and is looking for that same attitude. Obviously the results are still in doubt.