Video transcript:
Without a doubt in my mind, the number one skill at the center of any good mental game that creates consistent pure performance is the ability to focus on the right thing at the right time. And this is the hitter being committed to their approach and locked in on each individual pitch. It’s the golfer seeing the line and letting the puck go. And it sounds really simple, but it’s not. And that’s because a lot of us don’t really know what the right thing is. And then even when we do, we have countless things that are pulling for our attention. Things like thoughts of past mistakes, worries of what will happen in the future, what people will think of us, how this will affect my playing time. The list goes on and on.
But when we’re competing, if we’re looking to give ourselves the best chance to perform up to the level we know we’re capable of, then we have to be able to filter out all these different distractions so that we can have the most effective style of focus. And this style of focus that we’re looking for is external. External meaning it’s on something outside of me. It’s unconscious. It’s immersed in the task in front of us. Sometimes we happen upon this type of focus on the right thing almost unintentionally when the conditions are right. This is where everything just seems easy and free flowing. And we’re playing the game with complete trust that our abilities will get the job done. I’ll bet you can think of a few performances, your mind was very quiet and there was not a lot of conscious effort. This conscious effort when used at the wrong time is the enemy to pure performance. It interferes with our natural abilities and instincts that we already have. This is why we put in the work. This is why we train so intentionally so that we can just go out and trust that all that work we’ve already done will allow us to compete freely and at a level. And I know we’ve all tried the stop thinking strategy but that really only leads to more thinking. That said there are a couple of ways that you can give yourself a better chance for a quiet mind when you need it most.
The first one is put the conscious effort in before and after competition or at the very most for in-game adjustments when you’re not actively competing. Use it for planning. So ask yourself, “In that moment during the game, what do I need to be doing and where does that require my attention to be?”
The second thing is once you have that plan, once you’re in that moment, commit to a very relaxed external style of attention. I like to say get into your eyes because when your attention is out here, in here gets quiet. When you can see what is going on out here, your body will know what to do and it will know how to respond better than your brain ever could. Trust it.