Volleyball, pressure and some of it's lessons.
Pressure in sports is everywhere and is present from different people - your teammates, your coaches but most importantly yourself.
The interesting observation is how each person deals with the pressure around and inside them.
Lets take volleyball as an example. As a volleyball player myself I have seen the pressure that gets to athletes in the court. Once the pressure gets to you, it sometimes creates a domino effect - one player starts getting worked up, loses focus, panics - before you know it the whole team is up and running in this terrible road of recurring mistakes for nothing. As an athlete I've learned that the noise around you and inside you are gonna be there, whether you can deal with them or not. So, if you manage to cut out a certain amount of the external noise (i.e. your coaches and the crowd or even your teammates sometimes) and also manage to block a certain part of the internal noise (that little voice screaming it's head off - the one that always points out the things that can go wrong) you will find the balance of focus, and realise that you can deal with whatever situation in the court.
How can this be done? For me, the external factors are blocked out when I choose to use everything that's happening to my advantage. For example, if the majority of the team's players are having a bad day for whatever reason, I say to myself that I should only focus on what I can control - my mindset and my performance. I keep my eyes on the ball and my brain alert to solutions in every rally. If my team is having a good day I use the positive energy to make myself feel like I've got wings to fly. Even if I am the one not feeling very well, using whatever positive vibes around me makes me able to take a step back for a moment and change my physiology. Changing our physiology can shift not only our performance, but once used correctly, has the power to make us feel the way we wish to, in almost every situation.
I remember a volleyball match I played about a year ago and I remember how that day felt kind of 'off' for me. I felt like I couldn't give it everything I had - because of my psychology. I started making mistakes and I seemed to have lost focus and just wanted to game to end. For some reason, I decided to try something weird. I acted as if everything was great, I exaggerated my feelings of joy and tried to force myself to be more energetic, making jokes and taking every mistake as a challenge to get it right the next time. And what happened? ..... Boom! With this change in physiology, in my case by moving around like a child in a park, I got so excited about the game and eventually managed to free myself from - the illusive 'bad day' syndrome.
A bad day doesn't exist. Especially in sports. Your body works like a machine and your mind is the commander. If the mind is not at a state to provide effective commands for the most basic mechanical movements - the spike, or the serve - then take over for a few minutes. Relax for a second and take a deep breath. Remember that you have done this a million times and let your body move instinctively. When your mind malfunctions to let you play like you know you can - let it be and let the body's instincts take over. Not quite sure if this will work for everyone, but for me it works perfectly fine most of the time. When I start messing up, I normally realise that I am thinking way too much about the movements that actually occur naturally to me - therefore, I end up messing up the instinctive movements that lead to me hitting the ball at the right timing.
But always remember that there are some movements that our body needs our conscious mind to effectively execute. For example the block - if you jump instinctively you will probably get carried away and jump at the same time with the attacker opposite from you. In those kind of movements, you must keep your head in the game and even if you are messing up - use your much needed knowledge of the game to help you get it right the next time. Notice your mistake and work to eliminate it.
Learn what works for you, how you can manage your mind and how to master it. I most certainly found some things that have helped me, but I haven't mastered all of them yet - it needs time, and effort. And every time you feel like giving up remember that all athletes struggle - it all sums down to who you wanna be.. The quitter? Or the crazy one who lets nothing get to him and always strives for improvement?