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973741 tn?1342342773

Thoughts on sports psychology on Mental Toughness

So, our brain wants to protect us so it tries to shut us down from over fatiguing . . .  sends signals that makes us want to stop. But if we can overcome that, we always have a reserve to do more, go further,  speed up in the end.  With the Olympics, you see some lay down like they gave it all and others who just got a silver medal do a victory lap.  Could the silver medalist gotten a gold if they used that reserve?  

Do you think mental toughness and positive self dialogue helps or is it just mumbo jumbo people throw out there?
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973741 tn?1342342773
I'm looking at the more basic question of positive self talk when doing an athletic endeavor that is challenging for you.  This is dependent on the person.  For me, it's completing my boot camp class at the Y and for my son, it's stepping on the race line in track ready to run/WIN his event.  Can we will ourselves to dig deep to do our best or psych ourselves out by saying "you can't do it"?  

I also am reading a book that is really interesting.  It talks about reserve.  And that our BRAIN will say we are tired and if we listen we stop when in reality we can push harder and go further.  I never ran marathons but I ran cross country.  I had a coach tell me once during a grueling practice as we ran along and I was feeling at my end that I needed to ignore my brain, my legs could handle it.  My brain was the problem, not my body.  That stuck with me all these years (cause that was like a century ago) and this book focuses on that.  That we all have a reserve and can we tap into that and use it before the end of a competition??  That's the question.  

I do ask questions for younger in their prime athletes but not professional athletes.  I'm not talking about the super humans.  BUT, are they super human?  Or just able to tap into that reserve the rest of us don't?
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Clearly they are born with talent as you have to be spotted early on to excel in sports -- it's not something you can start in your thirties and be great at.  But the evidence as I'm aware of it is that, yes, a positive attitude and extreme focus does work for everyone if you can do it.  Visualizing a positive outcome is so widely practiced as to be standard (I only know this because I'm a life-long sports fan, and you'd be amazed how much scientific study of performance can be found in the Sports pages and now on ESPN).  But you do have to be born with the talent to excel -- when I was young, at 5'10" I was a forward in basketball.  Now I'd be too short to play any position without superhuman ability to jump.  Height is something you're born with, as is speed, reflexes, and agility.  I was born with certain gifts, but sports weren't one of them.  I just loved to play and loved to exercise.  What I can tell you is that another thing that helps is repetition -- getting in your reps really helps that muscle memory.  Great athletes do their reps.
By the way, even praying has research showing it helps with many things.  It's not that God exists, because it applies to all religions, so it's something else, that positive belief that something good will happen.  But given that every sporting endeavor has winners and losers and everyone dies, well, that says something about the importance of being born lucky.
Somehow both my sons were born with athletic talent. Both have stand out speed. Both have been approached by coaches of sports they don't play to start playing as their speed always gets them noticed.not Olympic speed or anything like that- just faster than all their peers. Or most of them. But one son also has a developmental delay. He lacks confidence and has negative self dialogue.has a hard time relaxing and believing in himself. I wonder what strong mental toughness could do got him! It could make a difference. He's middle school and I take him 3 x a week to do track training with serious high school runners in training from around our city. He is challenged but pretty much keeps up with them. I am hoping his confidence grows from this experience! These are kids hoping to go to state.  I'm not worried about my sons performance- I want his confidence to grow!!  The mind is so powerful!!
Obviously, you know I suffer from depression and anxiety problems, and so I know from personal experience that in my better periods I did better at athletics, even though, again, I was never going to excel at it -- I just wasn't born with those skills.  I also worked very hard, and hard work can overcome someone else who has great talent but doesn't try hard enough.  One thing I noticed is that when I started meditating my focus went way up, and it helped my performance in everything, including the things I was already really good at.  When Paxil withdrawal blew my mind out, it took a lot of that focus with it.  I know your son is young, but I wonder how he might take to meditation?  When you think about it, it's a lot like what pro athletes do now, which is use self-hypnosis and focus exercises to get better.  When you have talent, the edge then goes to the one who utilizes it the best, in every field of endeavor.  I just wonder if someone that young can really just sit and be -- I started in my twenties.
Also, on this point, when I was very young my four and a half year older brother was a very negative and frustrated person who had a huge influence on how I saw myself.  When I got older and he was less in my life, I realized I was a lot better at things than I thought -- a lot of my own doubts were actually his imposed on me.  Just shows how powerful our own realistic impressions of ourselves can be and how powerful unrealistic ones can be both on the negative and postive side.
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I think studies always show that attitude is very helpful in everything, including healing.  Olympians are particularly dedicated people.  But Olympians are essentially professional athletes looking for a reward most of us aren't going to get, so that raises a different question.  Take marathoners -- the evidence is clear that it is unhealthy to engage in extreme sports such as marathons, because, while it is a great test of one's perseverance, it eats up more nutrients than the body has in it and doing it repeatedly leads to more heart disease than if you didn't do it.  Climbing mountains that are very hard to climb tests us, but also kills a lot of people.  So unless you are getting a reward that is commensurate with the risk, while there's no question attitude is one key to everything (and the thing lacking in those with mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression), you also don't want to overcome logic with it unless, again, there's a reward worth it for you because you're so good at it.  
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Also, a lot of what we thought was tremendous attitude turned out to be drugs, so there's also that.

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