Tennis Psychology - How to Cultivate the Great Jock Mind
"I see dead people" is the famous line from the movie The Sixth Sense, in which a little boy regularly communicates with spirits from the Other Side.
There's a sixth sense in sports too.
Not a lot of sports psychologists talk about it because most of them are not champion athletes.
Oh, they've HEARD about this sixth sense...
but they've never actually experienced it first-hand.
So they stay quiet about it.
But I'm letting the cat out of the bag.
The sixth sense is your Great Jock Mind in action.
True jocks edit and simplify things.
In a fraction of a second they know what has to happen, what doesn't, where to make adjustments.
They process data in a fraction of a second and make it look easy.
Imagine playing with a cat.
They're moving and anticipating without having to think about it.
Tennis commentator Mary Carillo says that the tennis player with the best Great Jock Mind was Martina Navratilova.
"Martine is one of those people who have that great jock mind," Carillo says, "and hyperanalyzing is the opposite of what a true jock does.
What true jocks know is just some sort of organic, almost animal instinct.
" Martina always looked like she could anticipate where to go on the court.
That's because she understood the geometry of the court from a VISUAL point of view.
Because the visual was burned in her mind, Martina could easily predict the cause and effect of, "If I drag someone off the court with this shot, there's no way they can get to that shot and do anything else but this.
" Another textbook example of the Great Jock Mind was Nadia Comaneci.
Comaneci was the Romanian gymnast who won three Olympic gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
She was also the first gymnast ever to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event.
Nadia was the Queen of not over-thinking.
In gymnastics, you make decisions in 1/100th of a second to accomplish the perfect grasp, swing, or kick.
It is not a time frame where THINKING is possible.
If Nadia started a gymnastics movement and felt that it could not be completed right, she would change to a different movement, wiping out her initial error.
Nadia could change a 'bad' body motion into a motion that would score a point in a split-second.
She could improvise anything and no judge could guess what her first 'thought' was.
Inside your Great Jock Mind, there is to a little TV screen in your brain that shows you a fraction of a second in advance what is about to happen.
When you trust it, your body is capable of things that impresses even YOU.
The Great Jock Mind is the essence of being a true athlete.
Problem is, most athletes are interfering with their Great Jock Mind.
They over-think and over-analyse.
They second-guess their sixth sense because they think they're smarter than their Great Jock Mind.
Please...
Your Great Jock Mind knows everything.
You just need to activate it and trust it.
If you want your Great Jock Mind to come alive, then you must learn to visualize.
When you visualize, you develop your Great Jock Mind.
Your sixth sense takes over and your true genuis comes out.
Trouble is, most athletes don't visualize much.
They've heard about it...
maybe they've tried it a couple of times...
but that's about it.
They don't realize that all sport is led by the visual images in their mind.
Great Jocks use visual images constantly to guide themselves through competition.
Some of them do it naturally.
Others trained themselves.
Either way, if you are serious about winning consistently, you need your Great Jock Mind operating at its peak.
The best way is to slowly and gradually train yourself to see elements of your performance on the screen of your mind.
Start on the days you practice tennis.
When falling asleep at night, recall your very best shots and how they felt.
This is a fabulous starting point for developing the master skill of visualization.
It's easy, it's fun, and it will bring you momentum on the court without you trying to create it.
There's a sixth sense in sports too.
Not a lot of sports psychologists talk about it because most of them are not champion athletes.
Oh, they've HEARD about this sixth sense...
but they've never actually experienced it first-hand.
So they stay quiet about it.
But I'm letting the cat out of the bag.
The sixth sense is your Great Jock Mind in action.
True jocks edit and simplify things.
In a fraction of a second they know what has to happen, what doesn't, where to make adjustments.
They process data in a fraction of a second and make it look easy.
Imagine playing with a cat.
They're moving and anticipating without having to think about it.
Tennis commentator Mary Carillo says that the tennis player with the best Great Jock Mind was Martina Navratilova.
"Martine is one of those people who have that great jock mind," Carillo says, "and hyperanalyzing is the opposite of what a true jock does.
What true jocks know is just some sort of organic, almost animal instinct.
" Martina always looked like she could anticipate where to go on the court.
That's because she understood the geometry of the court from a VISUAL point of view.
Because the visual was burned in her mind, Martina could easily predict the cause and effect of, "If I drag someone off the court with this shot, there's no way they can get to that shot and do anything else but this.
" Another textbook example of the Great Jock Mind was Nadia Comaneci.
Comaneci was the Romanian gymnast who won three Olympic gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
She was also the first gymnast ever to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event.
Nadia was the Queen of not over-thinking.
In gymnastics, you make decisions in 1/100th of a second to accomplish the perfect grasp, swing, or kick.
It is not a time frame where THINKING is possible.
If Nadia started a gymnastics movement and felt that it could not be completed right, she would change to a different movement, wiping out her initial error.
Nadia could change a 'bad' body motion into a motion that would score a point in a split-second.
She could improvise anything and no judge could guess what her first 'thought' was.
Inside your Great Jock Mind, there is to a little TV screen in your brain that shows you a fraction of a second in advance what is about to happen.
When you trust it, your body is capable of things that impresses even YOU.
The Great Jock Mind is the essence of being a true athlete.
Problem is, most athletes are interfering with their Great Jock Mind.
They over-think and over-analyse.
They second-guess their sixth sense because they think they're smarter than their Great Jock Mind.
Please...
Your Great Jock Mind knows everything.
You just need to activate it and trust it.
If you want your Great Jock Mind to come alive, then you must learn to visualize.
When you visualize, you develop your Great Jock Mind.
Your sixth sense takes over and your true genuis comes out.
Trouble is, most athletes don't visualize much.
They've heard about it...
maybe they've tried it a couple of times...
but that's about it.
They don't realize that all sport is led by the visual images in their mind.
Great Jocks use visual images constantly to guide themselves through competition.
Some of them do it naturally.
Others trained themselves.
Either way, if you are serious about winning consistently, you need your Great Jock Mind operating at its peak.
The best way is to slowly and gradually train yourself to see elements of your performance on the screen of your mind.
Start on the days you practice tennis.
When falling asleep at night, recall your very best shots and how they felt.
This is a fabulous starting point for developing the master skill of visualization.
It's easy, it's fun, and it will bring you momentum on the court without you trying to create it.
