I’m fixing a hole where the rain gets in
And stops my mind from wandering
Where it will go
I’m filling the cracks that ran through the door
And kept my mind from wandering
Where it will go
And it really doesn’t matter if I’m wrong, I’m right
Where I belong, I’m right
Where I belong
See the people standing there who disagree and never win
And wonder why they don’t get in my door
I’m painting the room in a colorful way
And when my mind is wandering
There I will go
Ooh, ah
Hey, hey, hey, hey
And it really doesn’t matter if I’m wrong, I’m right
Where I belong, I’m right
Where I belong
Silly people run around, they worry me
And never ask me why they don’t get past my door
I’m taking the time for a number of things
That weren’t important yesterday
And I still go
Ooh, ah
--John Lennon & Paul McCartney, “Fixing a Hole”, from the
album, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Beatles
(1967).
Klay Thompson of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors sought
something extra, something more to add to his basketball routine,
so he included meditation to get centered before games and better
deal with the pressures of NBA games. He typically flips on some
classical music or nature sounds to relax his mind.
Like his basketball skills, it takes consistent practice.
“I try to go 30 minutes,” said Thompson, who is sometimes joined
for sessions by his bulldog, Rocco. “It’s hard. It’s very hard. An
hour would be nice, but you’ve got to work up to that.”
Thompson, who in 2019, went with his team to a fifth straight NBA
Finals. They were confronted with the challenge of chasing a
possible third straight NBA championship and a fourth in 5 years.
Mental preparation off the court is a major reason Thompson no
longer lets things fester or bring him down, such as a tough loss or
bad outing. He has said that earlier in his career it was hard to let
go after games. Now, he instead shrugs off a poor shooting
performance with the simple notion of, “That’s the way the
basketball gods can be.”
Following the 2018-2019 regular season, Thompson was left off the
All-NBA team? “Oh, I didn’t?,” he replied when told he hadn’t
made the cut. Thompson did allow himself a little eye roll in
disbelief, before adding: “It is what it is. I can’t control it. Do I
think there’s that many guards better than me in the league? No,
but that’s the reason why we’re still playing. So, I don’t even want
to get into it, honestly.”
The more media shy, under-the-radar half of Golden State’s
sensational backcourt, known as the Splash Brothers — Steph
Curry is a two-time league MVP — a slumping Thompson credited
meditation in part for how far he has come in handling everything
as he was wrapping up his eighth NBA season.
Thompson added meditation and mental visualization into his
routine in the last couple of years. This is the typically stoic guard
who plunged into the Pacific Ocean in Southern California before
Game 4 of the first round against the Clippers following a
performance that wasn’t up to his “standards.” He went out and
scored 32 after that with six 3-pointers, hitting his first seven shots.
“The mind’s so powerful. Just try to train the mind to deal with
adversity in situations that are unpleasant but make you better in
the long run, that’s what I try to do,” Thompson said when asked
how he got involved in meditation. “Just a lot of reading on the
internet and learning from coach (Steve) Kerr. Just from veteran
players. David West taught me a lot about that side of the game, the
mental part.”
Teammate Shaun Livingston can picture Thompson in a
moment of complete serenity and peace — “100 percent, nothing
would surprise me.”
Mindfulness allows athletes to perform to the best of their ability
and frees the athlete to place his or her attention and focus on the
physical task in hand, rather than grappling with the distraction of
interfering thoughts and feelings.
Athletes learn a non-critical, non-evaluative, non-judgmental
awareness during their event or performance.
Mindfulness enhances athletic performance by improving
concentration and accuracy, and by making it easier to play
consistently ‘in the zone’. Sports psychologists the world over are
now emphasizing the value of mindfulness.
Dr. Michael Gervais, a high-performance psychologist who has
worked closely with the Seattle Seahawks, other NBA players, USA
Volleyball and other Olympic athletes, applauds Thompson taking
up meditation on his own.
“So often we hold up world-leading athletes on a pedestal for their
physical abilities, missing the deeper and extraordinary
commitment they make toward pursuing their potential,” Gervais
said. “There are only three things we can train as humans: our
craft, our bodies, and our mind. World-class athletes don’t leave
any of those up to chance — why should the rest of us?”
“Klay is always someone who everybody sort of marvels at his life,
the simplicity of his life. He just needs a basketball and his dog, and
that’s it. And we all laugh about it,” Kerr said. “But Klay is a lot
deeper than people realize, so it doesn’t surprise me that he’s
meditating and he’s found ways to calm himself before games and
keep himself going during the season.”
Thompson takes time the night before a game to think ahead.
Sometimes he envisions each shot from a given spot on the floor
that could present itself over the course of a game.
“Andre Iguodala [another Warriors teammate] told me that
Tiger Woods visualizes every single shot he shoots on 18 holes on
the golf course, so if he can do that, that’s incredible,” Thompson
said. “That’s so many golf swings. I try to do the same approach to
basketball. I just try to visualize, get in my spots, what my
opponent is going to do. Yeah, so when you come to the game,
you’ve kind of seen it before.”
So, to relax, Thompson might select some Mozart or Beethoven.
“Try to put on classical Pandora or some nature sounds. Can’t
listen to rap or hip-hop when I do it because then I just get
distracted. Something pleasant in the background, it’s nice,”
Thompson explained.
“It’s a challenge. It’s much harder than working out. Especially for
me, I’ve got like my mind racing. So it’s a good practice for me.”
Kerr considers Thompson one of the most down-to-earth NBA
superstars. “He’s a dream to coach. He’s zero maintenance,” Kerr
said. “But he’ll surprise you with his depth. You may not think
there’s a whole lot there, but there’s plenty there, he just sort of
doesn’t let you in on it very often.”
Thompson knows mental conditioning, meditation, and
mindfulness is not a perfect science or solution to get his shooting
back on track after a poor performance. Meditation provides a
mental focus.
“I still will have bad days once in a while, but that’s just being
human,” Thompson said. “It’s something I’ve incorporated in my
routine for at least the past season, especially when I was going
through that shooting slump. That really helped me. It’s just nice to
manifest things. Kind of like speak into existence, just kind of think
it into existence.”
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic, most recently the 2021 French Open champion
and perhaps the best professional tennis player in the world since
2011, practices mindfulness meditation for at least 15 minutes
every day.
“Yes, I do. I’ll tell you what. I don’t want to tell you what I gain with
it, but I’ll tell what I lose with it,” he said. “I lose fear. I lose anxiety.
I lose stress. I guess, in the end of the day, that’s what you’re
looking for.”
Mindfulness is a way of paying attention to your experience as it
happens without judgment. A mindfulness meditation typically
involves focusing your attention on the breath, or on physical
sensations, and bringing your attention back to that focus every
time your mind wanders from it.
Novak Djokovic says meditation has helped him overcome fear and
stress that comes with playing elite tennis.
The multiple Grand Slam champion says he often turned to the
practice during his long spell out of the game with elbow trouble.
Djokovic has become involved in meticulous off-the-court
preparation in recent years. He has a strict, gluten-free diet and is
an advocate for well-being.
Meditation has enabled Djokovic to let go of negative emotions
such as self-doubt, anger and worry, and that this has made all the
difference in his success. Meditation is crucial to his mental
approach on court. He sees mindfulness training as just as
important as his physical training, and believes that dedicated
regular meditation practice leads to consistent play and ultimate
success on the court.
Djokovic’s use of mindfulness allows him to take advantage of the
latest in sports psychology. He is able to develop a clear mental
edge over his rivals. Djokovic joins a growing list of elite athletes,
including Michael Jordan and the Seattle Seahawks, who have used
meditation to achieve enhanced performance.
That’s another aspect of Djokovic’s mental conditioning that is
notable. Djokovic regularly acknowledges outstanding play by his
rivals. He’s also very gracious in defeat, offering sincere
congratulations even after tough losses.
Mental Preparation Calms Anxieties
“When I step onto the blocks to race, I switch into a different gear.
It doesn’t matter what kind of training I have or what’s going on
in my life, I’m always going to rise to the occasion.”
--Michael Phelps.
Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps’ coach, says that structured
relaxation has been a part of Phelps’ pre-race routine since he was
12 years old and is a key to his success. Bowman introduced Phelps
to progressive relaxation and included a recitation of cues.
Every night before Phelps went to sleep, his mother, Debbie, would
sit with him in his dimly lit bedroom, read a script, and command
him to relax different parts of his body. With considerable
practice, Phelps could relax without his mother’s cues. With more
practice, he became adept at placing himself in the same meditative
state in the ready room before a race.
Once he cleared his mind and loosened his limbs, Phelps would use
his imagination and swim each race over and over in his mind. In
addition to a perfect race, Phelps pictured himself overcoming
every conceivable obstacle to achieve his goal time so that
when he stands on the blocks he feels as if nothing can stand in the
way of him and his quest.
“I do go through everything from a best-case scenario to the
worst-case scenario just so I’m ready for anything that comes my
way,” Phelps said. So, for example, when Phelps’ goggles
unexpectedly filled with water during the finals of the 200 butterfly
at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, he did not panic. He counted his
strokes so he knew where the walls were and was able to lower his
world record and win the gold medal.
The Future of Mindfulness in Sports
Can mindfulness help athletes, teams, and coaches be more
creative as well as more productive? Does increased creativity
increase productivity and performance? Can we design better
workouts, practices, learning environments and other related
experiences because we are slowing down to connect in the present
moment with ourselves and our teammates without any harsh and
unconstructive judgment? Can mindfulness help us imbue our
coaching practices and training solutions with greater human
connection, meaning and satisfaction?
Mindfulness practice suggests that being fully present creates a
richness of creativity and impact that we are just now discovering.
The best athletes and coaches are realizing that the important
qualities of attention, innovation, clarity, focus and expression are
often disrupted by the speed and pace and demands of daily life as
well as the speed and athleticism in sports today. The best of
coaches are developing ways for teams and individuals to overcome
those obstacles.
The assumption is that each of us has an unlimited amount of
curiosity and imagination in us, which can transform our approach
to performance and productivity.
Mindfulness is an increasingly popular methodology for offering a
way to effectively shift our mindset to maximize mental fitness and
creativity,
Many athletes condition themselves to succeed by force and
intensity, delving into their workouts and competition in a manner
that is fast-paced, demanding, and emotionally taxing. They meet
challenges head-on, absorbing anxiety, and then begin to suffer a
burnout, a sense of disconnection. It can lead to chronic
dissatisfaction and disappointment.
Mindfulness techniques provide strategies to reconnect, and to
engage with the self and others in a more productive, efficient way.
To focus on practices that enhance our natural creativity and sense
of presence, lead us to be able to be free to innovate and perform,
also finding greater clarity, focus and presence.
Mental conditioning through mindfulness draws its ideas from
fields of neuroscience, evidence-based mindfulness practices.
However, there is no one right way.
When coaches and teams design the right environment, the proper
and optimal learning environment, it sets up their athletes the best
chance to engage, participate, compete, and succeed.
Cultivating a growth mindset, each moment is an opportunity to
learn and improve.
There’s scientific, philosophical and historical background about
the brain and the way we learn best. Mindfulness provides
individuals, teams and groups a set of exercises to practice, so there
are always new ways to grow.
Our brains, naturally, like to recognize patterns; however it is when
the patterns break, and elements of surprise and discovery are part
of the landscape, things start to get exciting.
With mindfulness, we can also practice the key leadership skills of
presence and authenticity, so necessary in peak performance. To
show up as your best self takes self-awareness, compassion, and
vulnerability. It requires patience and self-care when we commit to
show up as our best selves. Mindfulness positions us to look at
ways to shift our mindsets and adopt new viewpoints, connecting
to and reaching others and building understanding and meaning
through these deeper insights.