About fifteen years ago I wrote a short story called Option Paralysis. In the story a young couple goes to a restaurant for a meal at one of the typical mid-level chains. They are seated and given menus. Amid the chaos of all the ’stuff’ in the restaurant and the pages of menu items from which to choose, the man’s frustrated decision paralysis causes him to spontaneously combust.
In his article NON COGITO, ERGO SUM, Ian Leslie discusses how “thinking too much” is a big reason athletes at all levels, elite and amateur, struggle at pivotal moments in competition. He gives the following example from tennis:
“It was the fifth set of a semi-final at last year’s US Open. After four hours of epic tennis, Roger Federer needed one more point to see off his young challenger, Novak Djokovic. As Federer prepared to serve, the crowd roared in anticipation. At the other end, Djokovic nodded, as if in acceptance of his fate.
Federer served fast and deep to Djokovic’s right. Seconds later he found himself stranded, uncomprehending, in mid-court. Djokovic had returned his serve with a loose-limbed forehand of such lethal precision that Federer couldn’t get near it. The nonchalance of Djokovic’s stroke thrilled the crowd. John McEnroe called it ‘one of the all-time great shots.’
Djokovic won the game, set, match and tournament. At his press conference, Federer was a study in quiet fury. It was tough, he said, to lose because of a ‘lucky shot.’ Some players do that, he continued: ‘Down 5-2 in the third, they just start slapping shots …How can you play a shot like that on match point?’
Asked the same question, Djokovic smiled. ‘Yeah, I tend to do that on match points. It kinda works.’”
Prior to making his serve, it seems apparent Federer had run through every possible serve placement option he could come up with and had settled on the one he knew Djokovic could not return. When Djokovic did the “impossible” and returned the serve, Federer was paralyzed and spontaneously combusted, at least to a certain extent.
According to Leslie, the resource Federer really needed was “unthinking.” Unthinking is “the ability to apply years of learning at the crucial moment by removing your thinking self from the equation.” I think Leslie is on the right track, but “unthinking” is a limited term conceptually and unfortunately a very strange concept for Western minds. Eastern philosophy, particularly Taoism, has a this concept built in. That being the idea of Wu Wei.
Wu wei is one of Taoism’s most important concepts and captures the concept of unthinking much more completely. Wu wei is sometimes translated as “non-doing” or “non-action.” A better way to think of it, however, is as a paradoxical “Action of non-action.” Wu wei refers to the cultivation of a state of being in which our actions are effortlessly in alignment with the ebb and flow of the elemental cycles of the natural world. It is a kind of “going with the flow” that is characterized by great ease and awake-ness, in which - without even trying - we’re able to respond perfectly to whatever situations arise.
Wu Wei (Unthinking) could be characterized as the evolution of an athlete or artist makes when they move from proficient mastery to what I will call responsive or creative mastery. To achieve this level of mastery requires, as Leslie notes, “years of learning” and training which yields the ability to respond swiftly, precisely, almost magically, as any competitive or creative situation requires. Bruce Lee described this level of mastery this way:
“And you have to train. You have to keep your reflexes so that when you want it…it’s there! When you want to move, you are moving and when you move you are determined to move. Not taking one inch, not anything less than that! If I want to punch, I’m going to do it man, and I’m going to do it! So that is the type of thing you have to train yourself into it; to become one with it. You think….(snaps his fingers) ….it is”
Finally, Leslie touches on what is probably the most important aspect of unthinking, “We live in age of self-reflection, analysing every aspect of our work, micro-commentating on our own lives online, reading articles urging us to ponder what makes us happy. Much of this may be worthwhile, but we also need to put thinking in its place. Djokovic’s return was both the culmination of his life’s effort and an expression of careless joy.”
The pure joy of purposeful, responsive movement. Enjoyment of the moment, regardless of the outcome.
Creativity, not Constraint. Freedom, not Paralysis.
This is not about being a champion; it is about the process of being an athlete, the things that it takes to get into the game. Over the past few weeks I have been going through files and looking at old workouts and training programs. That is what got me thinking about the process of being an athlete. Looking back on my years of coaching and my time as a collegiate and post collegiate athlete and even back to my high school days there are clearly things that go into being an athlete. These are things you must do and have before you can think about being the best, before winning games or races. Some are attributes and some are actions. They are basic, fundamental and foundational.
Being an athlete is special; you are part of a brotherhood that pursues excellence for it’s own rewards. The medals, trophies and yes even the money are not what drives the athlete. What drives the athlete is that in every training session and in every competition you do your best. You give your best effort.
Being an athlete is not about talent, sure that is part of it, but it is really about potential. It is continually striving to reach your potential. To me that is where the satisfaction of being an athlete comes from, it is an inner satisfaction. Being an athlete is maximizing your potential, using your talent.
Being an athlete does not mean public proclamations about your dedication and desire, it is tquiet inner drive and determination. It is focus on the task at hand, accomplishing that task and then methodically moving on.
Being an athlete is certainly not comfortable physically, psychologically and emotionally. It is taking that extra step, paying closer attention to detail doing that workout when everyone else is taking the day off. It is constantly pushing the envelope of your abilities.
Being an athlete is not something you do it is something you are. It is not a two-hour a day proposition it is a 24 hour commitment.
Being an athlete is about setting goals and goal achievement. The goals must be SMART – Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound. Goals are only words or numbers, you must have a plan to achieve the goals and then execute the plan.
Being an athlete is a mindset. It is a willingness to risk and constantly test your abilities, to try new techniques and training methods. It means being coachable.
Being an athlete is about having athletic intelligence. Knowing yourself and your body. Comparing you not to others but to you. It is constantly reminding yourself that you are the master of your athletic destiny. Remember that if it is to be it up to you, not the coach, the parents or fans.
Never take for granted being an athlete. It is very special. You get to test yourself and constantly reach higher, faster and stronger to be the best you can be. Enjoy the process.
One of the coolest pieces of sports performance technology I’ve seen is being developed by Sean Hutchison at Ikkos. Ikkos training uses the concepts of neuroplasticity to help athletes greatly accelerate the skill acquisition process.
I’ve seen this in action with [iX3]sports athletes. It’s pretty amazing stuff. You can learn more about Ikkos training check out the video below featuring [iX3]sports pro, Charlie Houchin:
One of the by-products of this type of training, high levels of skill development may also be help athletes more consistently achieve what sports psychologists call Flow.
Flow as described by Sally Adee in her New Scientist article, Zap your brain into the zone: Fast track to pure focus, “involves a Zen-like feeling of intense concentration, with time seeming to stop as you focus completely on the activity in hand. The experience crops up repeatedly when experts describe what it feels like to be at the top of their game, and with years of practice it becomes second nature to enter that state. Yet you don’t have to be a pro to experience it - some people report the same ability to focus at a far earlier stage in their training, suggesting they are more naturally predisposed to the flow state than others. This effortless concentration should speed up progress, while the joyful feelings that come with the flow state should help take the sting out of further practice, setting such people up for future success, says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi at Claremont Graduate University in California.”
What researchers are starting to discover is that a high-level of skill acquisition is directly related to the flow state and they are using what is being called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to reduce training time and trigger the flow state.
Adee describes her experience with tDCS and Flow:
“That is why I’m now allowing Michael Weisend, who works at the Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to hook my brain up to what’s essentially a 9-volt battery. He sticks the anode - the positive pole of the battery - to my temple, and the cathode to my left arm. “You’re going to feel a slight tingle,” he says, and warns me that if I remove an electrode and break the connection, the voltage passing through my brain will blind me for a good few seconds.
Weisend, who is working on a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program to accelerate learning, has been using this form of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to cut the time it takes to train snipers. From the electrodes, a 2-milliamp current will run through the part of my brain associated with object recognition - an important skill when visually combing a scene for assailants.
This debate will only be resolved with much more research. For now, I’m intrigued about what I’ll experience as I ask Weisend to turn on the current. Initially, there is a slight tingle, and suddenly my mouth tastes like I’ve just licked the inside of an aluminum can. I don’t notice any other effect. I simply begin to take out attacker after attacker. As twenty of them run at me brandishing their guns, I calmly line up my rifle, take a moment to breathe deeply, and pick off the closest one, before tranquilly assessing my next target.
In what seems like next to no time, I hear a voice call out, ‘Okay, that’s it.’ The lights come up in the simulation room and one of the assistants at Advanced Brain Monitoring, a young woman just out of university, tentatively enters the darkened room.
In the sudden quiet amid the bodies around me, I was really expecting more assailants, and I’m a bit disappointed when the team begins to remove my electrodes. I look up and wonder if someone wound the clocks forward. Inexplicably, 20 minutes have just passed. ‘How many did I get?’ I ask the assistant.
She looks at me quizzically. ‘All of them.’”
I’ve seen Ikkos in action and it works. The ability to cut time off of the 10,000 rule and increase frequency and intensity of the flow state experienced during peak performance is a very powerful combination.
One of my strongest beliefs is that our dreams underscore, become the foundation, of our reality. In his manifesto on education, Stop Stealing Dreams, Seth Godin comments on dreams:
Dreams are difficult to build and easy to destroy
By their nature, dreams are evanescent. They flicker long before they shine brightly. And when they’re flickering, it’s not particularly difficult for a parent or a teacher or a gang of peers to snuff them out.
Creating dreams is more difficult. They’re often related to where we grow up, who our parents are, and whether or not the right person enters our life.
Settling for the not-particularly uplifting dream of a boring, steady job isn’t helpful. Dreaming of being picked—picked to be on TV or picked to play on a team or picked to be lucky—isn’t helpful either. We waste our time and the time of our students when we set them up with pipe dreams that don’t empower them to adapt (or better yet, lead) when the world doesn’t work out as they hope.
The dreams we need are self-reliant dreams. We need dreams based not on what is but on what might be. We need students who can learn how to learn, who can discover how to push themselves and are generous enough and honest enough to engage with the outside world to make those dreams happen.
I think we’re doing a great job of destroying dreams at the very same time the dreams we do hold onto aren’t nearly bold enough.
As a coach, one of the toughest and best parts of the experience for me is discovering how to help an athlete discover they are capable of much more than they know, and then enable them to make the effort required to take their dreams for reality.
Make every rep, every, run, every jump and every throw count! Work without a purpose is not training, it is just work that will make you tired but will not make you better. To have real purpose the work must be meaningful and mindful. Each training session is part of an ongoing process of self-improvement – progress toward the ultimate goal of excellence in the competitive arena. Don’t waste any opportunities to get better, know why you are doing what you are doing so that you can do it to the best of your abilities – Make it count!
Good is not good enough. If you want to be the best stress quality, strive for perfection. Start with effort, effort is easy, it takes no talent to produce effort – build on superior effort. Focus on the task at hand. Each training session must take you out of your comfort zone either physically or psychologically. To be the best constantly push the envelope, get comfortable with being uncomfortable all the time. Risk, stay on the edge, fail early, fail often, get up, get going, try again, learn form each mistake – Make it count!
by Lao Tzu trans. John C. H. Wu
