The following post is an excerpt from Emotional Aptitude In Sports NOW available through most online retailers! Click Here to Order
Invest in Success
At the higher echelons of every sport, sheer talent is not enough. Success requires intelligent groundwork. Success is the ability to enjoy peak performance level of play under the stress of competition. Proper game day preparation is a sure fire way to maximize success. Confidence under stress is earned through great foresight. This is where life skills come into play.
Quality preparation reinforces confident performance.
There is nothing more common than talented athletes with minimal work ethic. It’s the physically gifted individuals who typically believe they are too good for silly things like proper preparation or the development of the mental and emotional components. Ironically, it’s those same athletes who have embarrassing meltdowns come game day. The lack of emotional aptitude in competition can truly be avoided with the acceptance of real preparation. Improper, halfhearted, unintelligent game day preparation is responsible for thousands upon thousands of losses every week. Of course, spectators don’t see the inadequacies in an athlete’s preparation, they only see a negative emotional “basket case” performing.
In regards to spectacular preparation, let’s check in again with Evan, the super-achiever, and Jarrod, the talented underachiever.
Periodization
Evan: I’ve realized the hard way, that it’s not just what you do…it’s when you do it. Dismantling a flawed mechanical component the day before a big event is crazy. I now know when to groove and build confidence with my game versus when to add new tools. Proper periodization is essential.
Jarrod: Yeah, remember when I went to that new high-performance gym the day before that tournament? Man, I woke up the next morning for my tournament and couldn’t even lift my arms to put on my shirt or barely sit down, I was so sore. I suppose that was the wrong time to try a new workout routine. Is that what you mean by periodization?
