[tennisbiz] Re: Mental Pre-Match Preparation

The thread on awareness is always an interesting and important one. However,
many people find it a difficult challenge to "work" with awareness. I work
with 9 Success Habits with my clients who are pro/amateur tennis/golfers and
awareness is the number 1 habit we develop.

Ryans message to prepare yourself for a match by simply being aware is
important yet difficult from an application standpoint for many. Great
performances are "released" due to ones ability to fully absorb themselves in
the moment...this is the gateway to the zone state. This is induced by
immersing yourself in each activity prior to your performance. Whether it's
washing the dishes, reading a book, talking to your kids or driving down the
street, becomeing totally immersed in the present moment of the activity is
"training" ground for absorbing the mind and body on a task at hand.

This absorption practice is what some great players do prior to a competitive
match or practice session. It's literally the ability to train the mind/body
relationship to align itself and induce the flow of energy to move smoothly
through the body. This again, is the essence of the zone state. It is
nothing more than the alignment of mind and body allowing smooth and
continuous flow of energy through the "system". This is why players do not
feel the normal energy drain at the end of a performance and seem to have
fresh and "up" energy to do it again right away as opposed to feeling
exhausted and de-energized.

The powerful combination of awareness and strategic action help increase
awarness and the use of it to produce high level performances. As I said
earlier, the concept is great but many lose it as it becomes too "esoteric"
and ungrounded. To tell someone to just be aware doesn't usually help. The
mind/body/performance relationship operates under the influence of a very
precise and predictable formula and when players are AWARE of that
process....awareness grows by leaps and bounds. A player can be aware of
being immersed in a task as mentioned earlier and can be aware of their inner
world (thoughts, resistance, fear, playing of past memory tapes, etc.).
Awareness of the formula (that influences EVERYONE by the way!) opens the
door to heightened inner awareness. When this happens, players can begin to
use strategic approaches to move away from is not effective and toward what
is. It is awareness however, that triggers this change to be made.

Thanks for letting me ramble.

Happy awareness to you!

David Breslow
Performance Success Strategies
847.681.1698
web: www.psstrategies.com
Now available: "Wired To Win...The Mental Keys To Play Your Best Golf" To
order: click or cut and paste: http://www.1stbooks.com/bookview/9986

 
Received on Fri Oct 04 2002 - 09:16:06 CDT