One of the biggest components that lead to me being an under performer in both my sporting pursuits, tennis & golf was the pattern of over trying in situations I felt where more important than others. In a standard match or round, I would go out and just be myself where I wasn't trying too hard, just playing. But as soon as I got myself into a big match or important situation, I could feel myself begin to increase my effort levels and try way too hard.
A mate of mine when I was playing golf said to me one day, "James, you gotta stop trying too hard". This to me didnt make a lot of sense at the time, as I just wanted to play at the standard he was playing and thought that meant trying my hardest. Well over the next few months, I begun to realise what my mate was saying, this partly due to the fact that he won the Australian Open and became the youngest winner of the event as well as the 1st amateur in a long time to win the Australian Open. During his win, he made it look easy! Walking the fairways and singing tunes with his caddy, another mate of mine. Ever since that day, I have made it my mission to help athlete's create the balance and understanding of a healthy effort level during competition. Easier said than done!!
This week I have been at The Travelers PGA Tour Event with Bryden Macpherson, a long term client of mine who has just turned Pro and is relying on sponsor exemptions in 2012. Bryden has only had 2 starts and The Travelers is his 3rd, so if there is any situation that is going to make an athlete over try, this is the perfect scenario for it. This week I also have another talented player I work with, New Zealander Daniel Pearce who is in the UK playing their major Amateur events, which is also another scenario that will make a person over try.
Over Trying is a common thing in all aspects of life, whether it be in a relationship or in a sporting pursuit, Over Trying rarely leads to a higher level of performance. In many situations where by someone wants to do well so badly, this will generally trigger a level of self consciousness that they normally wouldnt experience when in auto pilot mode.
As soon as we begin to trigger our conscious mind to function, this is where we start living on a knife's edge as conscious thinking is the first sign I look for when it comes to under performance and Over Trying! There has been many studies that show increased brain activity actually leads to a lower level of performance, this is due to the fact that when we switch on our conscious mind, our actions and behavours are performed in more of a controlling way, which in some things is great, in most sports it's not so great!
Here is a link to a research article that explains the Neuroscience behind Over Trying, a pretty interesting read for most people Im sure!
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/frontal-cortex/2012/06/the-new-neuroscience-of-choking.html
One of the best skills to have in regards to eliminating Over Trying from ruining your performance, is the ability to quieten your mind. An over active brain is one of the most damaging things we can experience during performance but we are rarely, if at all taught to quieten our minds. When I have prescribed Yoga to clients through the years, they have actually found the basic mediatation at the beginning and end of the class extremely difficult to perform. They keep saying how challenging it is to quieten the mind, and for most people when we are faced with a difficult task, we generally give up before achieving a level of improvement that will actually show us a better level of performance. The power in having a Quiet Mind could be one of the most empowering feelings you can experience and yeh, at the beginning it might feel impossible to achieve, but with time and patience, being able to quieten your mind on call, is an amazing feeling!
One great exercise to poractise this, is what I call the Focus Exercise and I prescribe this exefcise to my clients to practise for a minimum of 3mins EVERYDAY!
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I want you to stare at the Star in the above line, while staring at it I want you to be aware of where your mind is or what it is focusing on. Once you are awre of these things, I want you ot try and clear them from your mind and go back to staring at the Star. When staring at the Star, I want you to clear everything from your mind and just be looking at the Star. I want you to try and achieve a blank, clear state while your eyes are softly looking at the Star. When you begin to clear your mind, slow your brain activity, you will begin to experience a few different sensations. Once you have done this exercise a few times, if you notice anything happen while you are doing this exercise, I want you to put a comment in the coment box below and see what we come up with.
I will then give you my feedback on what you experienced and why you experienced it. Some of this will be pretty cool and I will help you understand how we can relate that back to your sport/art/work to help you achieve a more empowering mind during performance.
Understanding how you can achieve a high level of focus could give you a lot of answer's as to possibly why you havent performed as well as you believe you can, as focus is a key ingrediant of success!
Maybe you were just never educated on what Focus Really Is or more importantly, How To Improve It!!
Until Now;)
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