Here’s the opportunity you’ve been waiting for!
Spring is finally here, and I’m sure like me you feel a sense of wanting to get on with things and are looking ahead to when society and sporting events open up again after the pandemic.
Again, if you’re anything like me you will have made the most of the enforced isolation and solitude.
During the last lockdown I’ve put together a BRAND NEW EBOOK & TRAINING GUIDE The PRACTICE of High-Performance.
It’s the result of decades of personal training, coaching and research and I believe provides the definitive approach to how YOU can become the greatest sports-person you’ve ever been, raise your game to its highest level and enjoy playing and competing even more.
How can I be so sure of this?
Well, I’m glad you asked!
It seems that the paradigm around sports performance, especially under pressure, has gradually been shifting over the past few years as more and more players are finding that mental game interventions and thinking through technical points in those crunch moments just aren’t producing the results they want.
This is the feedback I’ve heard from competitive amateurs as well as those who play more seriously on the world stage; so many mental game and psychological interventions simply add to the clutter in the mind.
Conventional approaches include problem solving, goal-setting and strategic planning as well as cognitive and behavioural techniques such as positive and motivational self-talk which are all designed to help the athlete toughen-up mentally.
However, even the best of these cannot help movement to flow freely and effortlessly in a real-time competitive situation as they do nothing to bring the mind and body, intention and action together.
The alternative solution provided by my Chi Performance methods helps people who love sport quieten the mind, reduce anxiety and get out of their own way and this allows for the release of fluid, natural movement.
Here’s an interesting comment from a student on the LPGA and LET tours who has recently converted from working with a mind coach to developing a Performance Practice.
If you’ve missed the previous blogs where we’ve talked about this, a Performance Practice is the regular practice of traditional exercises that strengthen the mind-body connection.
These mindful practises include (but are not limited to):
- Awareness of breathing
- Quietening the mind in formal meditation
- Stance-keeping exercises to develop posture, balance and the kinetic chain
- Movement drills that activate the centre of gravity and increase centrifugal force
- Zen-walking and various sport-specific slow motion drills
The whole point of these exercises is to develop a practice which (i) helps to activate the flow-state (aka the zone) and (ii) develops fundamental movement skills which are the same across all sports.
Here’s what she had to say:
“I have loved working with Jayne on my breathing and becoming more aware of how my body is feeling on the golf course. I have come to the realisation that I don’t need to interfere with what I am doing when I am in the zone, I don’t need to start thinking or have a checklist of things I need to do like I have done in the past. When I am in the zone on the course I can just let myself go and enjoy the moment, but when I do start to feel nervous or anxious over a shot, I now know a better way of helping me get back into the zone. When I feel nervous now I just feel my breathing in the t’an tien and how my feet feel on the ground and that helps me to get back to a calmer state where my mind and body can work together”. Gemma Dryburgh, LPGA and LET professional player
Get your copy of The PRACTICE of High-Performance and start experiencing your own best potential in golf, tennis, cycling, snowboarding, gymnastics, running, or whatever sport you love.
Happy training!
Jayne
