Competitive Wellness Series - The Mantra

Our daily routines define us. (Equally, not having daily routines defines us just the same, no implication that either is "right" or "better", but let's consider not having a routine, a routine, for the sake of simplicity of the first sentence of this blog post). 

Our daily routines range from our actions, to our words, to our thoughts. Each choice we make is establishing, within us, avenues. However, this is not like the continuous and endless construction to highways where you have some time to adjust either to warning signs, receive detour help, or know well in advance that work is going to be done on a specific path. No, this is a labyrinth. This is ever-changing, change-resulting, resulting-madness toward personal transcendence. Our improvement being the reward for the struggles and efforts.

Ok, deep breath. Example: It rains on a day you were planning on an outdoor activity. You become upset. You emotionally attach to the weather via your disappointment. The next time it rains, plans or not, you remember that disappointment. There's potential, after a few more, unchecked, rainy days, that you simply become disappointed when it rains. (Oversimplified, yes, but check the science on it). 

It doesn't take much for us to fall into emotional, mental, and physical responses to our environment. But simple, controlled thoughts and actions can help us regain control. 

Enter: the Mantra. Traditionally having a religious connotation, a mantra is simply a sound, word, or slogan repeated frequently to aid in concentration and focus. 

Something that is yours that you can inject into your life at the positive moments to enhance or at the negative moments to regain control and perspective is as accessible as a single, deliberate word. 

Think of the applications. Work becomes overwhelming before you even arrive at the office because of something that happened at home or on the road to work. Reset with your mantra. You need a boost of confidence before trying something new. Re-energize with your mantra. You're faced with a pressure situation. Relax with your mantra. 

Think of the implications. Comfort, confidence, dominance, a perspective that allows for minimized damage and maximized growth. 

The practice of reciting a mantra has no minimum age limit. I mean, personally it would be more relevant when we knew words and had an awareness of our selves. But does not a soothing sound repeated to a distressed infant have the same positive effect? 

Young athletes, now is the time to begin your practice of mantras. Pre-game, in-game, post-game, there is no bad time to reset your mind to the purpose at hand. Find something simple and begin applying it in safe situations. Get out of bed in the morning to a mantra of positivity and success for the coming day. As you gain confidence in your own ability to gain confidence, to feel control, begin to apply this to all aspects of life. In time you'll find that standing at the free-throw line in the final minute of a close game is nothing a few words can't knock down. (Or some other cliched sports ending). 

Suggested searches: mantra, neural pathways, mantras and muscle memory

______________________________

I've got my new one all primed for the new school year, focusing on being present and maximizing the moments. 

Become now.

I've also put it on a shirt, feel free to jump on board: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/MoralCompassTraining/become+now?q=I1017294747 

Competitive Wellness Series - New Skills and Repetition

For the student-athletes out there, there is no greater time than Summer. The dedicated will wake up early, maybe attend some camps at a local school, and then your day is over. Often the dedication of time to your specific sport, or specific school, is only one month of two. It’s a time to relax, not think about school, and be outside (weather permitting). 

However, this time is the ultimate decider of improvement and/or success the following year. To be given time-off, with varying degrees of responsibilities, but a good deal of flexibility, is a gift that not many people receive. Even if you are working a summer job as a student, rarely is it going to demand from you after-hours the way school does. (If there is a case where it does, it is probably the aim and focus of your improvement anyway). Now is the time to maximize growth!

Ideally, you leave the summer with one less weakness...at minimum. Can’t kick with your left foot? Summer. Can’t finish around the rim? Summer. Inconsistent when back-setting? Summer. If there is something your coach has told you to work on, or part of your game that you know holds you back from the next level of achievement, Summer is the time to eliminate this blemish from your scouting report. If you return to season with the same holes in your game that you ended the season with, there is no one to blame but yourself. 

Sometimes these improvements are going to require new motor memory. Think of our neural pathways as hiking trails. When the same route is taken over and over, a groove is created in the earth. The same is true in your brain. There can be a lot of initial frustration in learning an “old skill” a new way. “Why should I change my shot now?”, “I do alright the way I’ve been doing it until now”, etc. But what you are asking of yourself is not to go back and cover that path with dirt, replant the grass or brush, and make it look like no one has ever gone down that path before. You are simply choosing to start a new path, often from some point along the one already there, and run over it again and again until your brain “knows” that is the way that we always take.

Another aspect of this training, and one that will be discussed more in-depth in another post, is visualization. There have been numerous studies showing that when you mentally rehearse a skill, your body does not know the difference between action and thought. Therefore, those reps that you go through in bed before falling asleep may also count toward your daily total of repetition. 

Don’t waste your summer! Be honest with yourself about where your game needs improvement and set aside time to make sure you go back to school with one less weakness, a new confidence, and a peace of mind having taken a different path. 

Oh, and this doesn’t apply just to sports. Though many of us don’t have “summers off” to devote to our training, it doesn’t take much to recognize weaknesses and address them for a few moments a day. Simple mental rehearsal and repetition may make us all a little bit better. 

Suggested searches: Motor memory, muscle memory, motor sequencing, imagining exercise, visualization muscle growth

Competitive Wellness Series - Introduction

When we consider top-tier athletes, at any tier, there is always something that separates them from the rest of the field. To varying degrees at different levels of competition, there is some combination of physical prowess, skill and abilities, strategy, mental toughness, and competitive edge that create advantages. Some of these are naturally occurring, some are external gifts, and some are internal specialties. I’m sure at some point there will be developed an algorithm that calculates the potential achievement of an individual athlete within a variety of situations that may be used to help them decide where to “take their talents” in order to maximize them, or how to spend their time training. 

Though the science of sport is already being applied at greater detail and with increasing frequency to even younger athletes, the most obscure and evasive weapon to train will always remain the same: the mind. 

(Luckily for all of us, training the mind, and its connection to our bodies, will benefit us well beyond sport and our days of athletic competition, but we’ll just stick to that application of it in this post). 

There’s a lot of frustration in sport and competition, and learning to embrace that will create some of the best athletes. But one of the most frustrating entities in sport, both in the present and retrospectively, is the skilled athlete without the competitive mind. I would know, I was one of those cases. A plague then and a blessing now it has led to training, research, and application to help others avoid this feeling - not only in sport, but in life as well. 

This series of posts will discuss common mental obstacles, address physical manifestations, and suggest self-guided exercises to help develop the weapon of the mind for your competitive arsenal.