To review, Jackie Reardon in Mindset compares story thinking to action thinking.
Story thinking is about what we expect, what we fear, what we judge, how we can live totally in our heads with thought.
Action thinking, a bit like Nike’s “Just Do It” is about being in the preset, about playing freely.
And she contrasts how when “in our heads” with too much thinking we have far less available energy to see the ball clearly, to be aware of the positioning and even confidence from the other side of the net.
If you believe there is no such thing as true multitasking – the energy from story thinking will interfere with the awareness of your feel, just as multitasking when tested interferes with the performance of multi tasks at the same time. Interestingly Tim Gallwey said much the same thing in the 1970’s.
Reardon’s interesting concept is that she believes one needs an “instrument” to move from thinking to feeling – and those instruments as she describes are:
Trigger words
Visualization
Breathing
Movement/Heart Beat
Recovery
Rituals
Eye Control
Sounds
Inner Music
The real point is that there will always be thought, after errors, during a point making decision, on the changeover – but to find a method to move back to feeling – and certainly we can see just these rituals with Sharapova, with Nadal, with Federer twirling his racquet – all repeated rituals that get the players back in the “NOW.”
At my end I am experimenting with visualization, with the sound of a my quiet exhalation and with the music from Pachelbel. I will keep you posted.
Tell me of your rituals>
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