The Key to Destroying Mental Blocks That Hold You Back
Many athletes in sports like gymnastics, baseball and golf are extremely vulnerable to mental blocks that not only keep them from performing like they do in practice but hold them back from getting to the next level of the game.
What exactly are mental blocks in sports?
This happens when an athlete cannot physically perform their necessary movement that they have the knowledge, talent, and ability to do.
For example, I have seen a number of gymnasts who come to me for mental blocks on throwing their series on high beam. This is when a gymnast needs to connect 2 or more tumbling movements on a balance beam and they freeze after the first move. They literally can’t connect the second part of their balance beam pass. They have it perfectly on a line on the floor or on a lower beam but unable to continue the movement when on the higher beams.
Baseball players have something similar to this known as “The throwing yip”. This happens when a catcher, for instance, cannot throw a ball back to the pitcher consistently. Their arm literally tenses or freezes up and the ball doesn’t make it to the pitcher even when there is no game going on.
I have worked with countless athletes with these types of mental blocks and the thing they all have in common regardless of which sport they play is” High levels of STRESS.
To put this all in perspective, we have 2 functions of the mind which I’d love to teach you about:
The Thinking Mind otherwise known as the conscious mind
and
The Power Mind otherwise known as the subconscious mind.
Your Power Mind has one major role to play and that is keeping you alive and healthy. This is the only job this mind does. It doesn’t care about your game or sport. It doesn’t care about your life in any way, shape or form. It could care less if you do well in school or in life. It was a system installed when you were born to keep you alive. It acts just like a computer operating system.
Your Thinking Mind on the other hand is what we deal with every day. It helps us make decisions. It uses our 5 senses. Helps us look, listen, learn, reason, accept or reject and any other function you can give it.
Stress harms. It is the cause of 90% of visits to the doctors. When your STRESS glass overflows and your thinking mind and power mind aren’t working in unison the blocks can happen. Sports are known as “Optional stress” and your power mind will preserve this function by creating these blocks that happen.
It is possible to overcome these blocks.
The easy answer to this is to REDUCE YOUR STRESS, which in sports = REDUCE YOUR PRESSURE.
I have worked with a number of athletes who have easily released the mental blocks by:
- Clearing out old mental baggage and unresolved issues
- Reframing old belief patterns
- Mastering your emotions instead of fearing them
Here is one shortcut that may help to start the process in motion. Change what ever you are motivated to achieve from “HAVE TO” to “WANT TO”.
There is nothing in life you HAVE to have, be or do. Challenge me on this way and either comment below or get in touch with me
Want to learn more about this and how it applies to you, call to schedule free consult now while you’re thinking about it.