What is Mindfulness Training?
Mindfulness is a particular way of paying attention. It is purposefully bringing awareness to one’s experience, at the present moment. Mindfulness can be applied to sensory experience, thoughts, and emotions by using sustained attention and noticing our experience without reacting and by accepting thoughts and letting them go.
While reacting is ok, it is not ok when it comes from a highly stressed irrational moment.
Mindfulness creates space, changing impulsive reactions to thoughtful responses.
The tools learned through the Minful Athlete program will enable new, wiser responses that improve attention, learning, emotional regulation, empathy, and conflict resolution.
Benefits:
Who Uses These Techniques?
Applications of Mindfulness are vast. Mindfulness gives access to some of the same techniques that the world’s top Athletes, Olympians, Speakers, and Musicians use to perform at their best under pressure-filled circumstances like:
Why Practice Mindfulness?
Arguably, 90 % of performance is mental.
Yet, we spend the majority of our time, effort and money on physical and technical training,— including everything from gear and coaches to gym memberships and sports massages.
This is critical of course but all that leaves little time to focus on our mental game. If the mind is not in the game or training, nothing else matters.
If the opponent is equal in ability, size, talent and training and they are NOT doing mental training and YOU are, you will elevate your game.
It’s OK to notice that the feelings are there, but it’s not OK to take that emotion with you into the next shot or next play or against officials.
In any competitive situation, it’s only natural that your adrenaline starts to pump. Your heart beats faster. Your palms get sweaty. You feel butterflies in your stomach. But when you toe the line for a big race or you’re in the middle of a high-stakes game, are you able to stay connected with the present moment? Or, does your mind flood with thoughts of previous errors or jump ahead to future outcomes like a missed goal or a slow finish time? THIS is where the mentally trained athlete ELEVATES THEIR GAME!
Why Not Be Ahead Of The Curve?
“It is vital for the team and the player to have this skill, to be able to divorce themselves from what just happened that is inherent to them, like a referee bad call, or issues with an opponent, you must be able to center yourself again”
–Coach Phil Jackson