Post by Turso on Aug 12, 2012 11:15:59 GMT -8
How often have you heard these? “We choked today.” “We started out flat.” “We play down to our competition.” Or these…”We were in the zone.” “Things just clicked.” “It was as if I knew what was about to happen.” All of these statements reflect on a team’s mental performance…how the brain affects outcome. Many times, a restless brain gets in the way of performance.
Your body obeys dual voices from your brain:
The Hero- Your body carries out quiet instructions from the brain. When this happens, you usually play in the zone.
The Bully- the chatty and negative voice that tears you down after any mistake. It’s never happy, and it lets you know it. It degrades you, globalizes negative events, is shallow and sensitive.
Think of the process of trying to make a tackle in football. A very stern internal voice is barking at you for missing the last tackle. When you see the ball carrier come your way again, you get nervous. Fear, rage, embarrassment, sadness, envy, hope, disappointment — all muck with your nervous system. You start thinking ‘what if I miss’ and other nasty thoughts. The mind is not quiet, and the body gets tight. It stiffens muscles that should be lose and makes you rush your tackling sequence so that you’re out of step. As a result, you do in fact miss. Then you generalize (‘I’m not a good tackler”) and maybe even globalize (“I’ve never been good at anything”), and then you’re done.
However, in reality, nothing has changed. You’re still the same good player who has put in hours of practice, who knows what to do if the mind would just be quiet and get out of the way. What went through your head are just thoughts, and thoughts are not real. Just because you think something doesn’t mean it’s important. Thoughts are like whispy little clouds, and you are a mountain. You get to analyze whether they’re real or not, and the more you look at your thoughts, the more you’ll realize that your brain sometimes acts like a spoiled little brat.
The best way to stop “The Bully”, to quiet the mind, and to increase focus is meditation. Call it ‘mental fitness’, call it ‘mental conditioning’, whatever it takes to get self-conscious athletes over the hump
Another way – minimize ego. When you play with ego, you increase your stress. Every play, every point, and every mistake is a statement of your identity. There are times you will shine and your ego will expand, but for the most part, you live in fear — fear of missing a tackle, dropping a pass, or letting down yourself and your teammates. Ego lives off of comparison, and it is often a harsh critic. Ego is a roller coaster of hope and fear, and it’s not a very fun ride.
One way to minimize ego is to place the team front and center. Most players join a football team to experience something larger than themselves, to achieve goals that they couldn’t do alone, and to feel a sense of camaraderie with their fellow teammates.
Another way to deflate ego is just to observe it, like a scientist looking at an experiment. When you think something like “I’m not good at this” you don’t have to believe it. Instead, just label it ‘thinking’ and observe how it tried to wrap your mind. You’ll soon see that your thoughts are not as sophisticated as you once thought. If you need to analyze your performance, stick to the facts. Don’t say to yourself “I’m awful at open-field tackling.” Say “I missed the last tackle.” The first statement is an opinion, the second one is fact. Stay with the facts, because the ego is a master at deception and distortion when it comes to opinion.
Quiet the mind; get the brain out of the way to let the body do what it already knows how to do.
Your body obeys dual voices from your brain:
The Hero- Your body carries out quiet instructions from the brain. When this happens, you usually play in the zone.
The Bully- the chatty and negative voice that tears you down after any mistake. It’s never happy, and it lets you know it. It degrades you, globalizes negative events, is shallow and sensitive.
Think of the process of trying to make a tackle in football. A very stern internal voice is barking at you for missing the last tackle. When you see the ball carrier come your way again, you get nervous. Fear, rage, embarrassment, sadness, envy, hope, disappointment — all muck with your nervous system. You start thinking ‘what if I miss’ and other nasty thoughts. The mind is not quiet, and the body gets tight. It stiffens muscles that should be lose and makes you rush your tackling sequence so that you’re out of step. As a result, you do in fact miss. Then you generalize (‘I’m not a good tackler”) and maybe even globalize (“I’ve never been good at anything”), and then you’re done.
However, in reality, nothing has changed. You’re still the same good player who has put in hours of practice, who knows what to do if the mind would just be quiet and get out of the way. What went through your head are just thoughts, and thoughts are not real. Just because you think something doesn’t mean it’s important. Thoughts are like whispy little clouds, and you are a mountain. You get to analyze whether they’re real or not, and the more you look at your thoughts, the more you’ll realize that your brain sometimes acts like a spoiled little brat.
The best way to stop “The Bully”, to quiet the mind, and to increase focus is meditation. Call it ‘mental fitness’, call it ‘mental conditioning’, whatever it takes to get self-conscious athletes over the hump
Another way – minimize ego. When you play with ego, you increase your stress. Every play, every point, and every mistake is a statement of your identity. There are times you will shine and your ego will expand, but for the most part, you live in fear — fear of missing a tackle, dropping a pass, or letting down yourself and your teammates. Ego lives off of comparison, and it is often a harsh critic. Ego is a roller coaster of hope and fear, and it’s not a very fun ride.
One way to minimize ego is to place the team front and center. Most players join a football team to experience something larger than themselves, to achieve goals that they couldn’t do alone, and to feel a sense of camaraderie with their fellow teammates.
Another way to deflate ego is just to observe it, like a scientist looking at an experiment. When you think something like “I’m not good at this” you don’t have to believe it. Instead, just label it ‘thinking’ and observe how it tried to wrap your mind. You’ll soon see that your thoughts are not as sophisticated as you once thought. If you need to analyze your performance, stick to the facts. Don’t say to yourself “I’m awful at open-field tackling.” Say “I missed the last tackle.” The first statement is an opinion, the second one is fact. Stay with the facts, because the ego is a master at deception and distortion when it comes to opinion.
Quiet the mind; get the brain out of the way to let the body do what it already knows how to do.