first things first, i retract my statement of wisconsin being pure domination over northwestern. if any of you went to the game, you know it was actually very close-surprisingly.
Next up, as i've been talking to my friends over the past couple of days, I can't help but think of the mental aspect of sport. How important is it? In my opinion, it is very important. But some people suggest that it is highly overrated. Can a sport be played on pure instinct without thinking it through? Does a player trash-talking have any affect in that sense? Does that make sense?
When it comes to sports like football and basketball, i feel those can be played more on instinct and passion. But when there are more mental games like golf or tennis, mental aspects of the game are very clear. You can not let yourself beat you up. That can even be argued for basketball, football, or baseball. When things go bad, it seems to keep going bad-and why is that? My guess is purely mental. If one believes he or she can't, he or she can't.
My coach once said to me that sports are 80% mental, 15% skill, and 5% luck. Now these might not be the exact percentages, but how accurate is it to say that sports really are mental?
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My personal feeling regarding the "mental" side of sport is as follows: Our bodies learn how to do the tasks we ask of them with practice and more practice.
Let's start with somebody who we'll assume is already well. That person is only focused on performing well more, meaning that if we're playing, that person is simply focused on putting the ball in the basket, giving that simple command to his body, and letting his body follow through with its learned skill.
If somebody is playing poorly, they start to look for reasons; they immediately assume there's something inherently wrong with the way they're approaching the game and its various aspects. They begin to think differently when they're shooting jumpers. They start to think about not missing rather than making the shot. The muscles don't respond to such a command very well; we trained them by asking them to make the shot, right?
So being happy with your performance helps you to continue to play well, but the key to me has always been remaining relaxed and "in my game" no matter how well I'm doing. Ha... easier said than done though, right?
After yesterday's talk about mental/physical factors, it occured to me that there's a "paradox" here (ie something that seems to be a contradiction but makes sense anyway): mastering the "mental" aspect of sports is all about... not thinking!
When we talk about the mental factor in thought, we have mainly talked about how self-doubt or pre-conceived ideas negatively affect one's game, and you could see these as ways of overthinking. Being in "the zone" is a place where you stop "thinking" in that "meaning zone" way that Gumbrecht talks about, but this (and here's the other paradox) is a form of 'higher' thought, or where thought and body become one.
This of course completely complicates the question of whether and how sports are physical or mental, thus creating the philosophy of sport industrial complex.
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