It is quite common to hear that athletes and coaches pay some attention to where the match will be played. It is understandable that playing at home can easily bring the local crowd and cheer for you. On the other hand, playing at an away field, it becomes the opposite experience. Come to think about it, playing at home may actually be more difficult because the expectation is higher. Family members can bring higher expectations. …
Golf is commonly played adding the total shots for 18 holes, called stroke play. However, there is a format called match play where golfer earn a point for each won hole. Rather than focusing on completing the round, match play tends to re-shift the attention to each hole. In match play, it is extremely tempting to focus on how the opponent is playing the hole as it can become a source of strategic shot making …
Athletes often share with me that they find themselves getting mentally ahead of their games, which cause not only additional stress, but also become a source of mental distraction. Whether athletes are losing or winning, it is very normal to be carried away with positive or negative thoughts. During the past two weeks, two major sport events took place: Wimbledon and The Open Championship that was played at Royal Birkdale Golf Club. On both occasions, …
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The 2016 French Open champion, Garbiñe Muguruza, lost to Kristina Mladenovic in the round of 16 in this year’s French Open. The news is not so much about losing a tennis match. Rather, how she reacted after the loss and, more importantly, how to mentally be ready for the next opportunity. Garbiñe 3-set match against local Kristina witnessed a very biased crowd, whose behavior was borderline unsportsmanlike. Constant booing and making loud noises made the …
We all want to continue improving and achieve higher goals. Whether it is at a corporate level or in athletics, individuals relish the opportunity to assume higher responsibilities or winning the golden trophy. As much as we look forward to those opportunities, are we ready for when the opportunity really comes? More often than not, opportunities to advance come at unexpected moments. The job calls for a professional to take an unexpected vacancy due to …
Athletes say that when they are really focused is when they perform at their best. They claim that their attention is fully paid to what is in front of them while able to push aside distractions that are happening all around them. But, are they really pushing away distractions? And, how is that possible? It is impossible to push aside distractions because the athlete does not control the sources of distractions. Even if the athlete …
It happens quite often that athletes create a mental expectation based on whom the opponent is. If it is a highly-ranked player, some athletes become psyched out even before the match begins. Interesting enough, the opposite happens when the opponent is a lesser skilled player. There is a believe or over-confidence that the match was already won before the match starts. In either situation, these athletes are showing difficulty managing their own abilities to remain …
Whether we are athletes or not, we all experience ups and downs wanting achieve our goals. There is not such a thing as making progress in a steady straight line. There will always be happy moments and disappointing moments. If we use disappointing moments as opportunities to learn, then a habit is created. However, if we use disappointing moments to blame others, a habit is equally created. When we listen to successful people, they all …
During the past few days, many countries have already visited the athletic installations and apartment complexes where the athletes will be staying. A great majority of the international inspecting staff has had a very disappointed experience. Just last week, the Australian team did what they called a “stress test,” which meant to open the water from the showers and sink at the same time. To their surprise, the plumbing failed the test. With only a …
You may be confused as to what I am trying to ask, but basically athletes tend to pay too much attention to either what just happened or to what will happen next. In either situation, what they often fail to do is to stay focused on the task in front of them. Peak performance is achieved when we pay attention to the current process feeling optimism and trust in our abilities. As easy as this …