Mark Spitz once said, “Practice is 90% physical and 10% mental and competition is 10% physical and 90% mental.”
How true!
There is a vicious cycle that occurs without the help of mental strength. There’s a trigger—it could be a missed catch, a dropped pass or a missed putt. Whatever it is, this event gets anchored into the psyche of the athlete. You don’t have to be a professional for this to happen. This can happen to a weekend warrior, amateur or semi-pro athlete.
What happens is this trigger event causes all sorts of chatter in the mind. This chatter takes the athlete's focus away from what they can control (i.e. their specific sports skill) and puts it on the outcome (i.e. winning the game/match).
When an athlete becomes outcome-focused (e.g. win the event or what will happen if I do or don’t win), this leads to distraction in performance. When the athlete becomes performance-focused (e.g. how can perform this technique the better?), this will lead to a peak performance.
When a player focuses on the “right” things, there are no distractions.
So, how does an athlete focus on the “right” things?
Taking Back Control
By becoming aware of this chatter and by using the power of the mind to enhance performance, athletes will flex their mental strength and start to take back control of their thinking.
Your mind and its power can either enhance or disrupt performance. It’s up to you, when you take back control.
When athletes finds themselves in a situation where they’ve come off their game and they try to use self-talk to stop struggling in their performance, they actually create more struggle. What you focus on expands. What you resist, persists.
Any attempt to control an out of control mind and its thoughts will lead to distraction.
By shifting to empowering performance and in-control thoughts, this will lead to peak performance.
This is why it is so important to set-up a pre-game ritual as well as an intra-game ritual. If the athlete can go into the competition feeling confident in their abilities and NOT the outcome of the game, they’re more likely to have a peak performance.
Two critical items that will spiral an athlete out of control are:
1) Destructive self-talk (disempowering inner coaching)
2) Focus of concentration on what’s wrong or not working
It's guaranteed that by paying attention to these two things an athlete will not have a stellar game.
Again, the first action to resolve these two factors is awareness of inner coaching. Is the self-talk supportive or destructive? Also, where is the focus of concentration before and during the event? Is it on performance and what’s working, or is it on what’s not working and trying to win?
It’s also good to look at what the trigger is for the destructive self-talk? Then there are several processes that can assist in “naturalizing” the thoughts associated with the event.
Remember with self-talk you get what you expect, so say it the way you want it.
When an athlete is involved with destructive self-talk, there is a direct connection to the body that is manifested as nervousness, stress or anxiety. These states cause:
- Tight muscles
- Inefficient and shallow breathing
- Cold extremities (hands and feet)
- Blood flows to ‘deeper’ muscles (fight or flight—parasympathetic)
- Can ‘sense’ the object (e.g. ball, club, bat, stick, etc.)
The power of the mind must be respected for how it affects the body.
Try this:
Sit up straight. Now turn your head as far as you can to the right looking over your right shoulder behind you. Pick a spot to mark your position. It could be a picture on the wall, a lamp, or anything that will let you know how far you’ve turned your head.
Got it?
Okay, bring your head back forward and close your eyes.
Now, imagine turning your head again to the right. This time, imagine yourself turning your head past the reference point you picked…way past. Really see past the point your picked, feel what it’s like to have this flexibility. Enjoy being this flexible and going way past your previous point.
Great…now open your eyes and turn your head to the right again.
How far did you go this time?
Amazing, right!
That’s just a small sample of the power of your mind and how it affects your body. Now imagine what you’re doing when you’re thinking about all the things that are going wrong?
Your body will respond!
You can use your mind to lower the quality of your game or you can use your mind to raise your performance.
This reminds me of the Native American story about two wolves that live inside everyone of us.
An old Cherokee chief is teaching his grandson about life:
"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.
"One is evil—he is fear, doubt, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.
"The other is good—he is confidence, self-assurance, joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
"This same fight is going on inside you—and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old chief simply replied, "The one you feed."
Which one do you feed before and during your event?
