Wednesday 31 October 2018

Us not me


Team sports hold a couple of important advantages over individual pursuits.  Key among them is the opportunity to spread the psychological or emotional burden.  Playing by yourself places all the spot light and all the responsibility on you.  Paralysis is common in young sports people, in team and individual sports.  It expresses as the tendency to repeat the same mistakes; to struggle to identify and manage alternative actions and strategies.  It happens when we fixate on ourselves and our actions.  We stop ‘seeing’ other possibilities.  Team sport provides a solution: rather than thinking about your actions, observe and consider others instead.  Trust your skills – it’s not important what level of ability you possess.  Watch the game and your teammates from your position and imagine what you can do to support them.  By placing team function and performance above that of any individual we avoid contracting our point of view, which is the basic problem of paralysis.  When we fixate on the problem, we can’t see the solution.  Our brains are very clever problem solvers and what they usually need is more information – look around you; see what’s happening.  Let your instincts guide you.

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