Limits
I spoke about acknowledging the limits about one self. Is this good or bad? You tell yourself, not me. Finding a mental game is an introspective journey for the truth. The truth about how responsible you are. The truth about how honest you are; especially to yourself. The truth about how good---or bad---you really are. Is this a mental game? No. This is just the path to finding your own mental game. But what is it?
People think about something when the play. But, what? What should you think about? Do you think about the score? My phone bill is due. The bad night you're having or the good one? I’m hungry….and thirsty. Is this the right ball? My wallet! Is this the right target? Did I feed the cat? How many times have I goofed up this shot? I gotta go. Somebody is picking up their ball. Where did I park the car? Is it safe? He’s got three strikes! Can she see me now? The cat’s gone hungry for a couple of hours before. It eats to much anyway.
I plead guilty to one or more of the above at one time or another. I’m sure that it would make quite an amusing post if we listed the stuff that flashes through our heads when we get ready to bowl. Is there anything that we should think about? Should not think about? What are people thinking about anyway? The good people, they always look like they know way they want to do. And then, they do it! How do they do that?
What the mind can conceive, the body can achieve. That’s what people think about.
Execution. People look like they know what they want to do because they know what it is that they want to do. This means that you must be a student of the game. How can you figure out what to do if you do not know what it is that you must do? But, if you know what it is that you want to do, how come you can’t do it? Execution.
The best know their game---in other words their limits---quite well. They know their strengths and their weaknesses. They know their enemy, too. That enemy is you. I mean you. You are your own worst enemy. This means that you must defeat yourself.
How can you beat yourself? That’s impossible! Oh, quite easily. And that is the whole problem. How do you defeat yourself? That doesn’t sound like something good. It sounds like something bad, does it not? Ah, but what is that I’m really talking about? Defeating your self in a bad sense? Throwing another poor shot. Or, defeating your self in a good sense? By rising above your expectations and making the big shot.
What does this have to do with being a student of the game anyway? Execution. The best know every muscle movement that they must make. (Some have even gone to the extent of having memorized every twitch!) Practice. The best learn every muscle movement, which cause them to make bad movements. (Some have developed an internal VCR in their heads!) Practice. They realize where the weak links are in the chain of events known as delivering a bowling ball down the lane. (Some learn to feel the bad moves before they happen, because the muscles “know†what it is they should do and they feel the erratic movement as it begins to happen!) Practice. Practice the execution. Execute the practices. Find your limits. Then, discover that you really have no limits.
What?
Pressure arises when we are faced with those limits. The challenge of surpassing yourself can be quite intimidating, but not to those who know their limits. Am I contradicting myself? If that is what it sounds like it to you, then you missed the point.
Pressure is self-inflicted pain. One can not defeat these self-imposed limits. But one can not function at optimum efficiency without knowing your limits. You must find your own balance between these contradictory concepts. Knowing your limits, but not accepting them. Accepting your limits, but not knowing them.
Solving the riddle of this paradox is your mental game. No one can tell you what to do, or how to do it. The best that anyone can do is open your mind to what is possible. If this post made you stop and think, if this post made you stop and re-read it, or if this post made you take a look at yourself in your mind’s eye, then give your self a passing grade. That was the point. The mental game.
What the mind can conceive, the body can achieve.
The mind is a powerful tool.
Think about it.
Rudedog
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Rudedog
