It occurred to me that others might be interested in the techniques and tricks I spoke about with the group. The following is the summary sheet I sent to the attendees at the talk.
Sports Performance Mental Edge Training
Techniques and tips:
1.Thought stopping—Just say “No” when a negative thought or concern appears.
2. Mental Akido—When a negative thought appears, notice it, let it pass by, and don’t dwell on it—or spend ‘any’ time feeling bad about having a negative thought.
3. Focus on Your Favorite—If you’re engaged in a part of an activity you don’t like, focus instead on the feelings you have when you’re doing something you love to do.
4. Positive Imagery—See yourself as a winner and mentally practice experiencing your desired results.
5. Go to Your Safe Place—Construct a mental image of a place where you feel safe, secure, serene, relaxed, and loved. Spend time filling in the details of sights, sounds, feelings, and thoughts. Practice going there often so you ‘know’ it well.
6. Triggers—Learn more about triggers and how you can use them to good purpose. For example, use a red dot of nail polish on a watch face. The way you would use that as a trigger is when you start to feel fear or negative, immediately look at the red dot and have that be the trigger to take you to the feelings of being in your safe place.
7. Breathing—Someone has said the only difference between fear and excitement is how we breathe at the time. Breathing can be a fast, easy, and inexpensive way to relax, center yourself, and focus. The way it works is to pay close attention to the triangle of your upper lip and your nose—experience your breath as you breathe in and out. Listen to it, feel it, smell it, be completely aware of your breath—with practice you can use this with great ease and power.
8. Progressive Relaxation—Find an audio file on the Internet to use as a guide and make your own recordings of progressively contracting and relaxing various muscle groups. Make a short recording (3-5 minutes) of only major muscle groups and a longer one (10-30 minutes or as long as you can stand it) in which you get very specific. There are plenty of examples on the Internet.
9. Self-Hypnosis—A state of ‘relaxed concentration’ - use all of the above, especially #s 3-8 to help yourself relax and focus on your desired results, attitude, and experience.
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