The Art of Mental Training - A Guide to Performance Excellence

by D.C. Gonzalez

The better your self-belief, internal self-talk, attitude, focus, and mental climate are going into an event, the better your situation will be when the event-energy is pumping through you.

Whatever is going on inside your head has everything to do with how well you end up performing.

he was able to change his state completely. I promise that I will teach you exactly how to do this for yourself a little later in the book—and

a Warrior/Champion learns how to control his internal mental climate. And having a good attitude helps him to achieve that control by creating an expectation of success.

“Give yourself just five more minutes to feel bad about this thing if you really feel you need to, and then after those five minutes are up, decide to start seeing the experience as an opportunity to help you figure out how to create a positive change in the level of your play.

put himself in touch with his pure love of his sport.

He talked about how crucial it was for him to make a strong connection with those feelings and images in his past before he proceeded to imagine himself performing at his absolute peak in the upcoming event.

it was not just about vision and imagery, but also about feeling the emotions associated with success.

the two essential keys to winning: Enthusiasm and a Mental Edge.

create an internal place, a place where their minds can go before any event in order to rehearse, visualize, feel, and prepare exactly as Pelé used to.

in order to help build the strongest self-belief system he can have, a Warrior/Champion learns to use imagination to see himself in his mind’s eye accomplishing his most desired success while in a deep relaxed state of awareness.

It’s self-belief that gets everything going.

if you feed it suggestions of worries or failure then you will defeat yourself—with no other opponent necessary.

Imagineering is vital because it leads to greater self-belief and greater confidence, which in turn leads to better performance and achievements.

the inner mind is a goal-striving mechanism. Show it your goals through imagery and with feelings of them as having already been accomplished . . . and it sets out to help you make it so. It accepts the input as being true.

Relaxation skills are what open up the lines of communication between the inner mind and your Imagineering.

Move to a quiet space where you won’t be disturbed. Lie down on your back with your feet slightly apart, arms slightly extended from your body, palms facing down, and make sure you are as comfortable as possible before proceeding. (In other words: no tight or restrictive clothing, temperature not too hot, not too cold, etc. Get comfortable).

Try this in the office or the TV room upstairs

They know how to control their emotions so as to not allow them to sabotage their own performance.

Remember: You must choose to control anger through a decision. For if you lose control to anger—then the anger will surely control you.

Champions keep it in perspective. They are able to accept responsibility and recognize the situation as a temporary setback nothing more, nothing less.

Yes it hurts, so they look at it, learn from it, and then let it go.

“Remember that champions never play the blame game. They pick themselves up and start working on what’s coming up next. They hold their heads high, even when that isn’t easy to do. They push themselves to move forward. They know that this is how it has to be . . . They never forget that if you don’t fail sometimes, then you probably aren’t challenging yourself at a high enough level.”

Champions focus on what they can control. They know that while they can’t always control what takes place during an event, they can always control how they respond to an event. Within every setback lies the hidden opportunity for a great comeback.

Being afraid to fail actually helps create the conditions that make failure more likely!

“To do this, momentarily pick a focus point in your immediate environment and fix your eyes on it as you continue your focused breathing. This will help shift the focus away from yourself and to refocus on the particular task at hand. The outside focus helps us to reduce the ego focus—which is really what is causing all the problems in the first place

Learn to concentrate and use focused breathing. The athlete can bring himself back to the present moment by training himself to use his breathing to help secure control when the heat is on. In pressure situations, make sure to let the air reach into the very bottom of your lungs. Fill every corner of your body with life-giving, life-enhancing oxygen.

looked at the 25 things I’d written down more carefully now. Around a quarter of them were negative-orientated. I scrunched the paper into a ball and having let the paper fly; I made a perfect goal, straight into the waste-basket.

Give them a completion date too.”

pinpoint your weaknesses and set out to work extra hard on them.

Thoughts create the emotions and feelings that are the cause of your state. Whatever state that may be, your own thoughts put you there. So, whenever you find yourself in a disempowered state remember this: you can alter your thoughts and your state by focusing on three different critical elements.

The First Critical Element: Self-Talk.

I want you to start firing off, inside your head, the same self-talk that this champion would have going through his head as he gets ready for a match. Start now,”

The Second Critical Element: The way that you carry your body.

How would this champion’s body be moving as he prepared for battle?

At the same time, as he moved his body around like this champion annihilator, Jeremy kept firing off the self-talk of this champion in his head.

The Third Critical Element: Breathing.

“how would this champion be breathing right now as he prepared for battle? Keep the self-talk going, keep moving your body around as this champion, and now, I want you to add the breathing of a champion getting ready to do battle.”

all three critical elements going. Breathing, movement, and self-talk.

ready physically and mentally,

As part of your pre-competition routine . . . Ask yourself: What would the self-talk of a champion be like as he prepared for competition? How would that champion be moving his body around as he prepared? And how would that champion be breathing as he prepared to enter the competition and face his opponent?

Remember: Use all three critical elements and bring them together in order to change your state completely—The Self-talk of a Champion preparing to do battle, the Body Movements of a Champion preparing to do battle, and the Breathing of a Champion preparing to do battle. Then, allow yourself to become that Champion as you enter your competition.

“The two skills the Warrior/Champion must possess to help him reach his maximum potential are the ability to recognize when his mind is not focused on the Present, and the ability to bring it back into the Present.

"To be totally in the Present, that is the key."

“Always use mental rehearsal and imagery as you’ve been taught,” he told me. “It builds confidence. Confidence comes from knowing you are prepared both physically and mentally. Confidence helps you know what to do automatically even when you’re not sure. It helps immensely. Be sure to visualize.”

sometimes improvement means letting go of old ways,

Remember: A champion always prepares to win.

The Universe does not make mistakes; everyone is exactly where they need to be.