| Radar's View |
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| Tuesday, 10 January 2006 | |
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Most decent sportsmen have had their brilliant moments. Let's take a tennis player who normally an adequate club player with an OK serve finds one day that he hits a couple of corkers that are aces. Well now we have reached an important conundrum and the key to the player's improvement. How come he hit those serves like that and why can't he do it all the time. Well the answer - simply - is that he can do it, if not all the time, a hell of a lot more than most players let themselves believe. Putting aside important factors such as fitness and stamina - the player with potential needs a positive approach and regular training to maximise the consistency of his best performances. David Beckham, Johnny Wilkinson and others practiced their kicks incessantly. They drilled best practice into themselves so that it became second nature. They also built their confidence that way by seeing a gradual improvement easily measured - in their game. Now, here comes an important point: yes, train, train and train i.e. work on things consciously but when you're actually playing the game forget all about that - forget about telling yourself points of technique - just let it go, maintain confidence, don't worry about failure and visualise success. For example, if you're a free kick taker visualise the ball flying into the net in the exact trajectory you desire. If you are having trouble putting negative thoughts out of your mind, or you are getting distracted by elements of the crowd - then some players find it useful to focus on their breathing thereby driving distractions out of their mind. Should something go wrong, just carry on - let it go. Key players are often those who have a bad game but still have the confidence and desire to make critical brilliant plays at vital times. If you have any queries about this article or would like to discuss it then please do air them at the SuperEngland forum .
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 10 January 2006 ) |
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