Sports Psychologist Visit 1/4

As I mentioned a few weeks I have been approached by a Sports Psychologist to have group of sessions aimed at helping me with my game in particular on how to bring my relaxed practice game into my match play.

I have avoided looking to much up prior to the visits as I wanted a clear head and no preconceived ideas which may affect the visits or the results. Quite frankly I had no idea what to expect the chap could be useless, very good, a nutter I simply had no idea what to expect.

I also haven't given out any details of who the coach is, my reasoning for that is to wait until the course is over when I will reveal the details as I have agreed to put an advert of the site for him. I will be honest in my assessment of the results. If it works I will be delighted if it doesn't does that mean it won't work for everyone I don't know, the simple fact is many sportsmen have a psychologist who works with them, a few I have spotted on the Internet include most of the top golfers, Poulter, Faldo, Woods. Tennis players have a broad team to help them which includes Murray and most of the top players. Baseball, bowling, darts athletics and even footballers.

For all these groups to take part there must be something of value in it. So here we go.
I arrived at his house and was warmly welcomed he has a nice snooker room with an office attached. We sat and talked for a while and I undertook a small test or exam to find out a little bit more about what type of person I am. The test showed I responded more to visual signs.
After an hour which went very quickly we began to talk about the main areas of dealing with nerves which may affect my game and try to put these into groups or types which could be dealt with. We touched one how different people deal with stress and anxiety.

We also dealt with the different areas of sports coaching available. I never realised how complicated this subject actually was, a bit like billiards there are unlimited options and approaches to the subject. I think the conclusion is that I need a cross between relaxation techniques and peak performance coaching. Each sportsman and the sport they play requires a different approach to get the required result.

My game would benefit from being more relaxed and playing my practice game as my match game so we began to try some relaxation techniques and how to put myself into the zone.
The zone is that relaxed state where the game seems easy every shot is simple and easy and nothing affects you. I have experienced this many times when you get to the table and everything happens for you. I have also had my fair share of games where nothing goes right no matter what you do.

The 3 hours, yep three hours went by in a flash it only seemed like a few minutes. I really enjoyed it, is there something to this? Well yes I really do think that this chap knows his stuff and this might actually be something of great use and not just in sport but in other areas of life. I have tried to keep a clear mind on the subject which has helped. I can see there are ways/areas where I can relax and attempt to get into the zone.

We also talked about energy levels and projecting these energy levels out to other people. This can manifest itself in looking positive, arrogant, bored, down in the dumps and various other feelings. The main thing it took from this was the ability to project an energy level or attitude greater than your opponent. For example if my opponent sees that I am brimming with confidence right from the start what will he feel. He could be confident as well but if I am giving off an aura or energy level greater than him he will begin to feel less confident so I am in effect feeding off his energy levels to bolster my own which gives me an immediate advantage.

It's actually quite hard to describe some of the things we discussed as they seem a bit odd when I am trying to recall them. They seemed to make sense at the time and certainly has given me food for thought. When I look back on matches when I have played badly what signals did I give my opponent I can think of one game in particular where I remember being very down because he was getting all the luck, I let it get to me because after the game I realised the luck was actually quite even. He must have sensed this.

Looking forward to next weeks session now and will try to spent 5 minutes every day just relaxing to try and get in to the zone.