Tip 26, for 7/9/08

Okay, this is some upper level shit right here (that's for you Cacky-pants, even though I'm sure you don't read my daily dribble)

Once upon a time I used to play a lot of tennis. By a lot I mean about six hours a week during the fall and winter, more during the spring and summer. Therefore, I would read, and receive as gifts to read, tennis related books. These books included, but were not limited to: Winning Ugly, Pressure Tennis and, of course, The Inner Game of Tennis.

Let me come clean right here and now. I never read Winning Ugly or Pressure Tennis, but I did read The Inner Game, cover to cover I do believe. It puts into words something which most people who play sports experience at one point or another- which is that when you can turn your brain off, you play exceptionally. This seems particularly true for sports like tennis and golf where half the game is mental, as well as for pitchers, curlers, darts players, etc. The point is that your body knows what it's doing- get your brain the hell out of the way. Unfortunately, you can't remove your brain from your head nor can you tell it to stop thinking and expect it to listen. When you are in such a state that your brain is off and your body is playing, it is called being "in the zone," a phrase familiar to many of you I'm sure. It is, in essence, focusing without/beyond focusing.

I played some of my best tennis on days where I was, on some level, exhausted. For example, the Sunday afternoon after my junior prom, where I did not sleep at all the night before, I played quite well. There is a physical aspect to this as well, not getting the same response from your muscles makes your motions more fluid, smoothing a slowing them- which was good for my tennis game.

Okay, after that exceedingly long run-up here is the tip:
When you are struggling to do something, anything, ex.
-playing tennis, golf, ping pong, video games, Ultimate, etc.
-writing
-drawing
-playing music
etc.

Focus on ONE thing. Maybe you are having a specific problem, maybe not. Sometimes I would be constantly dumping the ball into the net. Sometimes I would be shanking a lot of shots (shanking is hitting the ball on the frame of the racket, rather then the strings). There is usually more than one mechanical thing causing any given problem, so trying to correct each thing individually will likely only lead to distraction and worse play. Therefore focus on any ONE thing. Try to make it a very simple and easy to focus on thing. For example, during one tennis lesson I was hitting very poorly. I decided I would focus on my posture, nothing else, just my posture- chest high, back straight all the time.

This worked like a charm. I was starting hitting better, moving better and playing with more focus and intensity. I wasn't necessarily "in the zone," but I had definetly changed my mental approach to each shot and each rally.

Second example- I was hitting with my tennis coach and I was hitting very differently than usual, trying to lengthen out my strokes and get flatter, deeper shots. I was struggling with this, as I usually would hit a little higher over the net, shorter in the court and with a good amount of top spin. My coach says to me in his sweet South African accent, "did you forget you have to swing from low to high?" So thats what I focused on- swinging from up from below the ball. What insued was some of the best hitting of my tennis career.

So there it is. Focus on one thing. One little thing. Don't correct it and move on. Stay on task. Let your body, or other parts of you brain do the work. If you're writing, focus on your word choice or sentence structure or tone. Focus on your posture, your footwork, your grip of your pen or your mouse or the disc or whatever.

It won't work every time. This is not some sort of magic. It might make things worse for a little, or it might just make them work. Worth a shot though- if it works for you keep it, otherwise, don't.