The Peak Performance Expert

My guys, the irrepressible Red Sox, already have a play-off slot.  They confront  the Los Angeles Angels Wednesday night.  I was tempted to take a mini-break from baseball until then but now I’m not so sure!

Seems to me tonight’s show-down between the White Sox and the Twins will be a  game not-to-be-missed.  The Chi-Sox won Monday night, forcing a tie breaking game tonight.  Not only will tonight’s game be a contest of athletic superiority, it will also be a test of mental toughness.

Young pitcher, Gavin Floyd, performed well for the White Sox on Monday after some initial jitters detected by veteran pitcher, A.J. Pierzynski who tried to break the ice by asking Floyd if he was a “little nervous.”  Floyd laughed and acknowledged he was but, in true baseball fashion said that “it was time to go out there and play baseball. There’s no time to be nervous.”   Later, Pierzynski said, [Floyd] admitted he was nervous, which is good, because if you’re not nervous in that situation, there’s something wrong with you.; just admit it, because everyone is a little nervous in a game when your season is on the line. It’s a good thing because it means you’re alive and you’re into the game. He pitched great.”

It’s refreshing to see athletes admit they are human and experience anxiety in these high stakes situations. I’m reminded of something John Wayne said: “Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.”

Yeah.  The test of courage is not an absence of fear but experiencing the fear and forging ahead anyway.  It also helps if you have some tips on how to manage what is manageable.

Tonight, neither team has control over who wins.  (We never have control over any outcome.) They cannot control who is injured, who is feeling exceptionally tired. They cannot control the fact that the other team might be better rested and in better shape.  They cannot control the calls from the umpires. Each man must exhibit superb focus, composure, and confidence.  Mental toughness can trump other factors any day.  Players should focus on things they can control such as their  thinking and their bodily response to stress.

In my post dated 9/19/08, I wrote about a Self-Calming exercise which helps if someone is too revved up.  When we’re too revved up (like Floyd was early on in Monday’s game), we are likely seeing a situation as threatening.  If we see a situation as threatening, our bodies tense up (not good for an athlete) and our brain releases a certain chemical cocktail that affects our ability to think clearly.  Knowing this, an athlete can first, focus on his body, using some means to relax to the level that’s right for him.  (Some players, like Kevin Youkilis, seem to play better at a higher level of arousal than others.)  Often several slow exhales can do the trick.

Then some shift in the internal conversation has to happen.  If Floyd was saying to himself, “Yikes!  This is a BIG game…I can’t screw up…it’s up to me,” of course this would increase his anxiety and adversely affect his focus.  (His focus should be external, not internal.)  It may be that after that little talk with his catcher he was able to change his self-talk to something like, “Yes, this is a big game and I’m prepared. I’ve got a great catcher with lots of experience guiding me and he and others have faith in me.   I’m getting better and better with each pitch.”

All the players tonight have to have similar conversations with themselves. They can’t get caught up in the enormity of the game.  They have to focus on each pitch as if it’s the first.  If a guy makes a mistake, he has to let it go and refocus on the task at hand. If an umpire makes a bad call, he has to let it go and refocus.   Each guy has to go out there and focus on his own process.

And may the best team win!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 3:41 pm and is filed under Mental Toughness, Negative thinking, Performance anxiety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.