Becoming a Mentally Tough Athlete
ficulty describing the feeling but most athletes concur that in an altered state of consciousness, this “exercise high” cannot be intentionally created. It has been said, “It seems to come when it comes and it may not necessarily come when you want it to." One athlete described the experience as, “It’s like my inner strength and I are have teamed up and my inner voice is telling me that nothing can penetrate my inner private world." A golfer might say, “It’s like I expect it, I just know, this ball IS going into the hole." From a foot ball perspective, it might sound like, “I KNOW this one is a touch down,” (and then IT happens). For skilled practitioners in the field of mind development
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and mental training, when something is repetitively practiced, it is through those experiences that we can gain access to our high- est potential. When an individual is in a deliberate altered state (meditation, guided imagery, visualization and hypnosis), the harmony of the mind and body are reflected in their ability to be “in the zone - in synchronicity”. The brain is a fascinating organ. In this article, we’re going to take a look at the importance of an athlete developing his or her mind as strongly as they do their body and the differences in the brain hemispheres. Let’s take a look at how the functions of the brain affect us
in different ways. The left side of the brain controls logical, ana- lytical thinking, including thinking of past and future events, planning tactics, strategies and criticism, etc. It processes infor-
lmost all skilled athletes make every effort to reach the peak experience - to be in that altered state known as “being in the zone” (or “synchronicity”). Some have dif-
mation sequentially in units and it uses words as its mode of expression. The right side of the brain is the creative and intuitive part; we tend to view the whole idea from this hemisphere. It processes information simultaneously and it uses images as its mode of expression. Also, feel, touch, tempo, body language and effortless feelings flow from the right side of the brain. Golf Digest contained an article on research regarding how
affirmative thinking might beat out a good stroke in the game of golf. As you read about this particular research, keep in mind, each EEG sensor location represented a different facet of thought, emotion or physical activity. In this study, a psychologist placed 12 EEG sensors (six on each hemisphere) atop golfers' heads measuring brain activity. The long term goal is the ability to help all golfers produce a uniform image profile on command and reap the benefits of creating the ideal performance state, making superb putting a simple, almost reflexive action. Via the sensors, electrical frequencies (measures of vibra-
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tions) were picked up. The golfers were unaware ahead of time what would be said to them; the psychologist imposed on her “subjects” various commands that resulted in their thought and emotional outcome during the research project. She gave them commands such as, “think target”, “breathe” and “feel”. She also distracted them with disturbing sounds and asked them to “think missing your stroke”. The brain mapping images (scan) results showed that positive, organized thoughts are expressed as pat- terns, fairly symmetrical. Scattered thinking and feelings of agita- tion or fear depicted colors and shapes as if the interpreter was looking at a child’s finger painting drawing. We’ve taken a look at what happens when an athlete is in the zone and what happens electrically in the brain with one’s thinking process. Now let’s see how motivation helps the athlete to perform at their best level? Motivation is defined as the abil- ity to initiate and persist at a task. It starts with a desire. To think like a champion the athlete must choose to begin the process of developing the “ideal athlete” and have a good understanding of what that looks and feels like. Without motivation, he or she is unable to maintain their efforts and work through mental and physical barriers until they have reached their goals. Psychology Today reported motivation being very important to the athlete because they must work through boredom, desire to do other things and pain. They noted that motivation influ-
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