Being physically in the game is not enough
Sportsmen are only human beings too. The fans, sponsors, couches and even the teammates always expect the players to perform at their highest level. After all they see their favourite/well-known player repeatedly for years and he/she (almost) always looks the same. It’s the same person with the very same attributes and (ever-increasing) game experience, so why wouldn’t the performance meet the expected results anyway? Because mind is of the essence and its vessel is only as ready as its device controller is.
The lack of concentration
“But they are professionals. They should be always concentrating on the game no matter what!” Well… some writers are also professionals, yet not always they are ready to come up with the best turn of phrases. And the same goes to basically any profession. The bigger professional one is, the bigger expectation that the situation will be handled by the individual.
There is an infinite amount of stimuli that negatively affect our ability to concentrate at the task at hand. Be it problems with the partner/family, lack of motivation, problems at work, etc. They all are just divaricating our concentration efforts. There though is a way known to me, which helps with maintaining the concentration.
Be wate…in now my friend
I will speak mainly from my point of view as a sportsman, but I’m pretty sure that the following strategy can be used about any given profession.
Almost all of the actions a sportsmen does on field is reflexive. Thinking about the future actions means additional brain processing and that means slower reaction. All of the possible moves that are necessary on the field are supposed to be part of our muscle memory in order to bypass the need of processing the information. That is done through the countless drills and strategy learning during the trainings.
The future
But then the game happens. Your team scores twice and you start to be confident, thinking about the easy win you’ll take here and about the food you should eat, because you already started to feel the stomach asking for some. What is effectively happening to you is that your brain, instead of concentrating on your current performance and what it is you can do to help your team further extend the lead, is thinking about the irrelevant future. The desired future cannot be reached by thinking about it, but rather doing the needed actions here and now. Anytime our brain slips to thinking about the future (and it will happen no matter how trained one is) immediate counter-actions have to be taken to return back to the now.
The past
Or the exact opposite happens. The opponent scored two fast points and you start feeling like shit and wonder why the team is playing so badly and stuff. What could have you done differently not to end up in this situation? This time you are thinking about the past. Past can’t be changed either, no matter how hard one tries. There is no point at all thinking about the past, but again, the only viable option is to concentrate on the now and the possible actions that can help your team get back into the game.
The NOW
What exactly it means to be in now? It means to stop thinking about all your possible moves. The best performance can be achieved only when all the moves come naturally. When I’m defending, I can’t keep thinking about all the possibilities my opponent can do. That I should already know, because of all the physical and visual preparations I have made. The second I start thinking about it, he can start his move and my body won’t be ready because it’s contemplating about different stuff. The mind has to be shapeless and formless – in the now.
The exceptions
It can be slightly counterproductive to be permanently in now even during your game. Sometimes several updates have to be made about your perception of the game. You have to think about some of the moves your opponents are doing, or maybe even think about what the whole team as unit could change to work more efficiently. One can afford to do this though ONLY in a moments when his presence in-game is not needed by the rest of the team.
How to get into the now
Different things might work for different people, but the least I can do is to share my method. We as a team call it “the minute”. The minute can actually be as long as is needed (not really a minute then:P). This is the time to think about the past and about the future. The evaluation of what is important and what is not needs to be done, finalized by emptying the mind, thus getting into the now. During “the minute” I need to revise current mistakes I’m doing and visualize the correct way how to avoid them. I need to get rid of of all unnecessary thoughts. I usually remind myself that I’m just a nobody that will do all he can to support his team – even putting my body on the line if necessary, for Ultimate Frisbee, or life, is game of inches. “The margin for error is so small…one half a step too late or too early and you don’t quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast and you don’t quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. On this team we fight for that inch! It’s the guy who’s willing to die who’s gonna win that inch.”
