Archive for August 13th, 2009
Mental Edge
By Chris Hodenfield
Deltaskymag.com
“Grace Under Pressure” that’s what Hemingway called it when asked to define guts.
It’s more than muscle, strategy and execution. The ability to win often comes down to sheer ice-cold nerve. Hear what we can learn from World class athletes at the top of their game.
Train your opportunistic emotions. “Billie Jean King is one of the greatest in Tennis history and the title of her book is Pressure Is A Privilege. She saw pressure as a positive thing. We call them ‘opportunistic emotions’ the emotion of gratitude, fun, optimism and hope. They produce energy and make it easier to focus and concentrate on what’s happening now. As soon as you fall into any threat perception – anger, fear, frustration, regret, remorse – all these destabilize the ability to focus.”
Watch Your Emotions
“If you allow a situation to be perceived as a threat – if instead of seeing an opportunity on the point break, you see it as threatening – it releases very powerful adrenal hormones. It changes your focus immediately. You quickly jump to the future. And suddenly the emotions destabilize your ability to focus.”
Find A Higher Sense Of Purpose
“There has to be a very clear cut reason that elevates you, inspires you an really rallies the human spirit so that you can stay dedicated to the task. Andre Agassi, in his final years as a player, almost had a spirtuality about him, with his foundation for children. He was not playing for himself. He might have started out that way but later he was on an entirely different platform in terms of what drove him.”
Watch The Negativity
“Listen to people on high stress teams. For instance, when the Blue Angels do an air show and they hit turbulence they won’t use the word turbulence because it has a negative connotation. They’ll say “Boss we have texture up there today.”
Tony Hawk
“I try to enjoy the ride, even when things go less than perfectly. There was a point when I put too much pressure on myself and it was taking the fun out of skating.”
Serena Williams
“You have to have the desire to achieve, to do better and do more and continually do, do, do. It’s an insatiable desire to not only win but not to lose.”
Jack Nicklaus
“Jack knew he was going to beat you,” says his long suffering rival, Tom Weiskopf. “You knew Jack was going to beat you. And Jack knew that you knew that he was going to beat you.”
Lindsey Vonn
“To get to the level I’m at, it’s six to eight hours in the gym every day.”
