My Wednesday noon racquetball partner and I were chatting after our match this week and we discovered that we both have a tendency to play crappy in the first round of a tournament if we’ve had good practice sessions or played well in a club match just prior to the tourney. So wouldn’t you know, last night in league doubles, I played about as well as I can play, and I’m in a tournament this weekend.
I know that it’s all mental, that somehow, having played well recently, my subconscious thinking must go something like this when I step onto the court: “I should do well, I should be able to put this shot away, shit, I blew that one, c’mon, I should be doing better than this, I was making that shot yesterday, damn, don’t tell me it’s happening again” etc.
There seems to be two aspects to this situation that I can do something about. One is the core belief, the root problem that somehow I’m not enough, that I need to be a good racquetball player in order to be well thought of, to impress others, to prove that I’m a tough guy and not the wimp that my father disapproved of. I’ve done a fair amount of work to negate that belief but it’s still there a little bit yet, quietly influencing me at times. It helps to just write this out and remind myself that it’s all mistaken, goofball thinking, that my old man is dead now anyway, and that wherever he might now, he’d probably be proud if I could overcome this legacy he left me.
The other thing I can do something about is having some sports pysching techniques that counter the mental ‘noise’ once it kicks in. I know what these techniques are, since I bought a great little book on it about 15 years ago. But I’ve never disciplined myself to practice them much. Someday, I will. Real Soon Now. I promise. So I shouldn’t be surprised this weekend if the mental noise takes over and I play crappy. I’ll have to decide then whether or not I’m willing to spend as much time practicing sports psyching techniques as I do practicing my swing. Good plan.