Mental Training Tip - Lose Your Mind

Although the information below is regarding baseball. The information can be used in any sport!


Many athletes go into competition and put undue pressure on
themselves to perform well or win. This prevents them from getting
into a zone performance state...

More pressure or expectations often translates into anxiety, excess
tension, and a lack of trust in your learned skills. I call this
"getting in your own way."

I recently talked to Basketball coach Dave Jones about his system
for helping athletes get into the zone. "When a player is conscious
and playing their sport, they are thinking about what they're
doing. The game happens too fast for thinking... Athletes have to
get out of the thinking and 'lose their mind'," says Jones.
According to Jones, you have to move from a conscious state to an
unconscious state of performing, which means "just do it" and stop
over thinking about how to perform -- if you want to enter the zone.
"Give the conscious mind a job that allows the unconscious mind to
do what you have trained it to do. When the conscious mind is out
of the way, it has a job and is no longer in the way with
self-talk, etc.," says Jones.

Interestingly, I noted that Jones' approach is very similar to Tim
Gallwey's approach, who wrote the "Inner Game of Tennis" many years
ago. To perform in the zone, you must suspend the trying or
analytical mind (used for practice and learning), which allows the
intuitive or creative part of the mind to take over in competition.
Jones teaches athletes to focus on a very specific target when
performing a task such as shooting a basketball. He says this
suspends the "trying mind," as Gallwey puts it, and allows you to
react.

What are some others tips for removing your interfering conscious
mind (or trying mind) so you can react when you perform?

(1) When you go to compete, keep in mind it's time to perform and
not continue to train yourself. You study hard for the test and
then take the test in competition. Be a performer, not a learner.
(2) If you make a mistake, avoid over analyzing what you did wrong
and then trying to fix it. Fixing mistakes only leads you to trying
too hard.
(3) React to what your eyes see and skip the thinking in between
what you see during performance and your reaction. For example, a
batter in baseball has less than a half second to react. If the
thinks about how to swing the bat, the ball is past him.

For more information go to: http://bit.ly/findthezone