The Art of Self-Talk

Following on with our 'Art of...' blogs i am adding this to the library....

It is said that the average person has about between 12,000 to the deepest thinkers that excel in the region of 60,000 thoughts per day! With the figure of 80% of these being negative being bounded around!

As people we have two types of personal dialogue happening, inner and outer whereby some of our inner thoughts sometimes in the heat of competition make it to the outside! Whether we keep our thoughts in and bottle them up or burst them out into the open during times of duress or pressure, fact is fact negative self-talk affects our performance in a detrimental way whereas positive self-talk helps our performance in a more excelling way.

Bearing in mind that the body mind and emotions are all encompassing (or as athletes we need to make them so), all 3 need to be congruent for a superior performance. After all it is no good feeding our minds with positive self talk if our bodies or even emotions do not concur!

If we are not feeling it that day with our performance no amount of positive self-talk will help. What we need to do is dig deep in our well and figure out what it is that is hindering our thoughts and mind. From a tired body to lack of nutrition or hydration, the reasons can be varied and many. Our jobs as coaches and athletes is to work through this and realise what we need to do, think and be in order to perform to the higher echelons of our game.
Ultimately our body actually can perform very well without our mind giving it instructions, we can play the game of tennis through our hours, days and years of pounding the courts without the constant verbal chatter of our inner voice.
I will set you a task – Go play a set of tennis without thinking except for that which you are required to through your set plays and routines. Do not get down on yourself when you miss but utilise the end of shot routines, do not get excited when you play well, just let the whole thought process pass like clouds in the sky. Become aware or your thoughts and let them go! See how this affects your play! I have termed this exercise ‘No Think Tennis’.
The Zone State
If we were to try and access the Zone in any way or form, then we need to place ourselves as far away from any discerning or negative or even positive thoughts as possible. Any type of thinking takes us away from the present moment. All inner dialogue is thoughts from the past or for the future, we can learn from the past and plan for the future but ultimately it’s the now that is of the utmost importance in a game.
The body performs to its best when not being told what to do, imagine if your mind told you how to walk every step of the way! To be able to be at one with body, mind and emotions is not easy but for peak athletic performance to happen then we need to train for this. Or as the saying goes we need to play out of our mind or out of our skin! The mind is however an all powerful being that hates to let go or lose control this is why activating a zone state is not easy or within everyone’s reach at beck and call. But at the same time it is not impossible!
The real question is how can we get the mind to trust the body enough to let us be and do?
Any exercise that helps us to quieten the mind will help from meditation to even just immersing ourselves in a book or film! However the problem here is we need to relax the mind whilst exercising!
Try some of the exercises below
• Concentrate only on an inanimate object like a tennis ball and see how long it takes for the mind to waver
• Run on the treadmill and think of only one scene in your mind like a beach, forest etc…. without changing your scenery
• Sit and breathe and think only of one object, rally and concentrate on only your breathing
• Rally with a partner and think of only one area of your game for instance footwork
• Become aware of your negative thinking, play a set against someone tougher than you and fill your pockets with paper clips, move these from one to the other on change arounds place these by your racket bag and count up at the end of the match, you will see how this simple awareness exercise helps you over time.
• Have a partner chart how many points you lose after a negative outburst or look!

There are many more but that will keep you going for now. Good luck and Happy thinking or not as the case maybe!