BEYOND THE MENTAL GAME
Jayne Storey
Performance Practice Specialist and bestselling author. I help golfers and other athletes overcome anxiety and mental interference, get in flow and perform under pressure. Coaching, Training and Speaking.
There are many mind-body development tools that aren't covered in my books, and I am continually deepening my own practice and gaining more insights into how the quiet mind enhances the ability to move the body with more power, grace and freedom in sport.
Please keep reading to learn more about the ancient practice of?self-observation?(the witness consciousness) and how to approach?breathing exercises?the way they have been done for hundreds of years in the Eastern world. Both practices will help to develop an inner calm that you can take onto the golf course, tennis court or into any other sporting endeavour to release your movement skills in the most natural way. ?
It's important not to approach your Performance Practice with the intention of?achieving?anything; this may sound unusual and counter to what everyone else is doing, but it's vital to step back a little and allow the experiences to unfold gently from within, rather than being led by the mind, which is always reluctant to let go of its hold on things.
Remember that Chi Performance has identified the ideal way to get into the zone or flow-state, is by helping athletes?recreate the inner conditions that give rise to it in the first place. These conditions as we've seen before are an inner quietude and a state of relaxed readiness.
The mind-body development tools outlined below (with details on how to practice) will help you to develop these states and take you beyond the mental game into the true experience of flow which can never be a psychological phenomenon but borders more on what Sri Aurobindo calls the ‘supramental’ or spiritual.?
Self-Observation
Have you ever had the following experience on the golf course or in another sport you love? You're about to play a shot off the tee and you do a couple of easy, slow-tempo practice swings with a beautiful rhythm and a lovely balanced finish, but when you actually come to hit the ball, your swing somehow changes and all the faults you've tried so hard to correct, come back with a vengeance? Of course you have!
And what are these faults that show up time and again? They include rushing, shortening the backswing, lack of extension, deceleration, over-use of the upper body, flicking the wrists, and a poorly balanced follow-through. What athletes are discovering with my ‘alternative’ approach, is that these faults are simply the external manifestations of the mind and body working separately instead of together.
Clients have noticed - using the type of insight that can only come through the practice of keenly yet impartially observing oneself - the correlation between breathing deeply, engaging the body's centre, and adopting an athletic yet relaxed posture at set up, and the rhythm, timing and execution of the shot.
Without working to master the inner state (that's?inner, not mental!), golfers and other sportspeople remain prey to a whole gamut of physiological and psychological changes which occur from moment to moment and from shot to shot, which disrupt the fluidity of movement and cause changes in the motion of the club, no matter how much the player knows about technique. ?
How to practice
Become aware of your breathing while you make your practice swings.? Now notice any changes that occur when you actually take the shot. Has your breath become shorter, are you shallow breathing into the upper chest? Maybe you stop breathing altogether? ?
How does your grip compare with your breathing? Does your grip get tighter as your breath gets shorter and how does this affect your ability to move freely through the swing?
Are you breathing quickly and does this internal tempo then force you to rush the shot? Are you holding your breath through the shot and does this stop your movement from flowing?
Ask yourself questions like "Did I notice my breathing or was I too busy thinking?" "What's getting in the way of me bringing some attention to myself; excessive thoughts, negative feelings, trying too hard, an inability to relax?" The idea is to become an observer of your habits and traits in a moment of pressure so you can see how they impact your movement skills.
Observe yourself without judgment, and then take a few moments to reflect and consider what can support the inner quietude necessary to get in flow? The practices from my book Breathe Golf; The Missing Link to a Winning Performance* can help.
Of course, you can try similar exercises for other sports and ideally you will try to observe yourself throughout the day.
Next time we’ll look at traditional breathing exercises and their beneficial effects in sport.