So, for you Yogi Berra fans out there you might recognize one of his quotes that I have doctored up. He once said about his beloved game, "Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.". Oh Yogi, you always know how to make people laugh and sort of get the point at the same time.
I was just thinking the other day of how to get across on the blog how much it takes, mentally, to be at the top of the athletics game. There is very little separating the best from the winners. There are a lot of great fencers out there but there is a difference between the winners and the ones who just make the same results-it's all mental. The stronger you are at dealing with competition-the heightened emotion, the nervousness, anxiety, sometimes the fear, and the definite uncertainty of outcome-the better you are. Having confidence helps but where does all that come from? Your mind.
It's interesting to consider the mind and body connection. Whatever your mind thinks-your body will react in kind, especially during a highly stressful situation such as high level athletic competition. For example let's take some of my past experiences. In the past before a match, if I would envision the task of winning a match as if it were a great big mountain, I would instantly become nervous and very often fatigued. In my mind's eye I would see a huge mountain and feel exhausted at the thought of climbing it-I had already lost the match in my mind. However, if I approached a match with the feeling that I am working step by step towards a goal, my body would respond in kind. I would be ready to fight and most likely win.
In fencing your greatest opponent is yourself. It's a very intense sport where decisions need to be made quickly and you have to believe they will work in that same instant. There is always more than one way to figure out how to hit someone but you have to have ultimate faith that you can come up with the answer and make it happen-no question marks. If there is any hesitation you have will most likely have the opponents tip on your chest-not a pleasant experience.
I actually started thinking about this at the world cup in Shanghai after listening in on a conversation that my coach was having with a fencer named Giovanna Trillini. (Actually, I have long been working with a sports psychologist so I've been giving the mind and body connection a lot of thought for a while). Anyways-Trillini, as I call her, is one of the greatest fencers of all time. She has won more medals than I will ever see in my lifetime. She has been on every Italian Olympic team since 1992 and she is going for her fifth run at Beijing. Click on her name to get her full stats.
Fencers have trained to be like her-myself included. But here she was in Shanghai, the 1992 Olympic gold medallist (which she won with a messed up knee and a large brace), talk about how she didn't do well at the world cup in Shanghai because she hadn't taken lessons in a week due to the flu. If anyone could enter a world cup and win without taking lessons for five years-it would be Trillini. BUT-here it is folks, the big BUT, in her mind she believed that she wasn't sharp enough on her feet and in her hand to make the top-four in the competition because she hadn't trained in a week. My coach and I were just floored. If she doesn't have the confidence to win, than who does?
The mind plays a significant role in where an athlete ends up-are they going to be a champion or will they always be just good? And in this case, sometimes champions can't get into the zone at a competition which makes competition all the more unpredictable and all the more exciting.
I spend a lot of time in the gym but I have learned that in order to make the transition into the athlete that I want to become, the same if not more amount of time needs to be spent working on mental preparation. The adage is true-if you believe it, you can achieve it. You just have to get your mind in concert with your heart and have faith that you can get to the top of the mountain, which is only a mole hill anyways.
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3 comments:
on the flip side, you can't overcome physical/real limitations with sheer willpower. but should you try? are the only limits that bound you the ones you place in your head?
Why do you have to get so complicated? Yes, of course physical challenges are important to factor-I've been through three knee surgeries so I understand that.
However, I was just saying that the playing field in the top-64 in the world is pretty much even physically. We all know the basics of fencing and we can all do well any given day. The bottom line is that what separates us on any given day at a competition is what's going on in our heads. I think that we underestimate the importance of mental focus and training.
And I truly believe that the majority of limitations (especially in sport) are in our heads.
My two favorite books that help me with the "mental game" are "Be Like Water" by Joseph Cardillo and "Winning Ugly" by Brad Gilbert. Every time I pick up the former and read from it, my game improves a bit.
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