Читать книгу Sports Psychology For Dummies - Leif H. Smith - Страница 27

If you want to consistently hit more first serves or obtain a higher free-throw percentage, you a need to practice first serves or free-throws. Your mindset is no different. This book is all about providing ways for you to “practice your mindset” in that same manner. After all, perfect practice makes perfect, right? So how should you practice this? Consider these tips:

 Be consistent with your journal. Journaling about your top performances once per month is not going to help you improve, just as decreasing your 100-backstroke time won’t happen if you practice it only once per month.

 Aim to journal about your best performances or top performance moments 4-5 times per week. If you state that you are going to journal every single practice or every single day and miss one, don’t beat yourself up and then give up. Expect that, on occasion, you will miss a time or two. That’s okay. Keep going!

 Take 5-10 minutes before practice to read a journal entry or two about your top performances. This process triggers those good memories in your mind and helps you connect with what it is to be in your ideal mental and emotional state right before practice. You then increase your chances of having a better practice. What do you think that will do to your confidence?

 If you have an extended break in action during a practice, game, or workout, take a quick glance at your journal again. It is hard for all of us to stay focused for long periods of time, so good mental preparation can simply take the form of reminding ourselves what we want and need to be our best.

 After a game or competition, think about your great performance moments. Jot down the important details. Remember, it does not have to be an entire game or competition. It might be one wrestling move, such as a first period double-leg takedown that you hit, but those moments are the critical ones to focus on!

 Spend 5-10 minutes, 3-4 times per week, and reimagine these moments (see Chapter 7, on imagery). When you bring these images to your conscious mind and re-experience them in your body, you are training your body to become more familiar (and more comfortable) with this state of mind or being.

Consider these additional ways to track and keep connected to these great mindset moments:

 Use voice notes on a computer or phone and simply describe in your own words what it was like.

 Listen to podcasts from great athletes about what it is like for them when they have those incredible moments.

 Listen to podcasts associated with this book about how to practice and learn your ideal zone of performance. Learning and improvement never stops.

 Discuss these great moments with teammates, coaches, parents, and friends. Every time you do so, your heart and body connect to this mindset and it becomes more familiar. This is when your ideal mindset starts to happen more consistently.