If you are eating and training like an athlete, why aren’t you thinking like one too?
Renowned Neurosurgeon Ben Carson said “When I look at the human brain, I am still in awe of it”. When asked about the brain Ray Stevens said “You put the right words to it, and it becomes very influential.”
It is without question, that the brain is extremely powerful. With the difference between success and failure coming down to inches or milliseconds, athletes need to be tapping into every possible resource.
Ahead will be two crucial tactics to turn your mental game competitive.
Visualization and How To See Into The Future
The difference between the public and an athlete is visualization. Athletes see into the future. People are often taught to slow down the breath to help relax before a play. This is much easier said than done.
Slowing down the breath along with box breathing takes a little while and is quite unrealistic when the game is on the line. What takes less effort and keeps your head in the game is to simply picture what is about to happen, then take a deep inhale (through the nose) and exhale (out the mouth).
Kenn Dickinson, a Marketing Manager who spoke at Ted said “. . . with neuroscience, today when you actually visualize what I was doing, you’re actually using the same part of the brain as if you were doing it”.
The U.S Rowing Team’s website (usrowing.org) stated “From injury recovery to improved sports performance, these techniques are showing promise as a standard part of an athlete's training program.”. Put on a mini movie in your head before games, training sessions and recovery.
This can help calm you.
The athlete stops worrying about the things that can go wrong and is only thinking about what can go right. Instead of thinking of the play to come, try visualizing a great sports memory. This creates a positivity butterfly affect. If you want to separate yourself from average athletes, start becoming mentally competitive.
Self Talk
This final trick to creating an edge over other athletes is one of the most underrated strategies. Performance Sports
Patrick Cohn of Peak Performance Sports, wrote an article on this titled “Self-Talk Strategies to Boost Confidence”. Here is what you need to know.
When you hear things for long enough, you start to believe them.
NEWS FLASH
You can hear yourself too, not just other people. So repeat your goals out loud to yourself over and over.
Create a routine.
Every morning, whether you mutter it or say it loud, say 10 times “ I am _(adjective)_, and I am going to _(insert goal, micro or macro)_”. Before a training session or a game, this tactic will push your talent beyond because mindset dictates a large portion of our performance. Our brains control every physiological aspect of performance. We can manipulate the brain through these two easy, free, quick tricks. When everyone is working hard to outperform one another, it comes down to the minute differences in which champions are made.
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Zev
References
http://www.usrowing.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IMPROVEYOURSPORTSPERFORMANCETHROUGHVISUALISATION.pdf
http://www.peaksports.com/sports-psychology-blog/sports-psychology-podcast-self-talk-strategies-to-boost-confidence/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI3WJXNhCJ8