Four Steps to the Complete Mental Game

Geezer is beginning to come to terms wiith the otherwise universally accepted decline in strength, speed and coordination in virtually all athletic persons of a certain age. Still, he holds out hope that a corresponding decline in athletic performance might be offset by improvements in mental discipline. What kind of discipline was that? Wait… Geezer remembers now. Mental discipline.
Toward that end, Geezer has been reading about the efforts of respected sports psychologist Nate Zinsser to train athletes to use their minds as well as their bodies. After all, in Zinsser’s opinion, competing at any level is 50 percent body and 50 percent mind. So it was satisfying, the other day, to see Zinsser quoted in the Boston Globe, where he mentioned the strange dichotomy of discipline and laissez-faire that he believes is required for great performances.
”You have to be almost an obsessive-compulsive workaholic to get
yourself ready to be good,” Zinsser told the Globe. “But then you have to be this relaxed,
Buddha-like Zen master, which allows all the stuff you have been
training to come out.”
More useful, perhaps, are the tips for pumping up the mental half of the game that were offered to the Globe by Zinsser and other sports psychologists:
Talk to yourself, and keep it positive. “Good job” is a good start.
Imagine yourself performing perfectly.
Learn how to handle mistakes. Move on. Get back in the game.
Stay in the present. Focus on process, not outcome.
Read more about using your head to help your body in the Boston Globe.