Sports Psychologist Visit 4/4

My final session, where have the past 4 weeks gone time seems to fly when you are enjoying yourself. My session today was about three things, Procrastination, Anchoring and Confidence.

The first section was regarding not putting off things if your are bad at a shot do not put off trying to sort out the problem, don't blame others or the table or the cue, keep focused. Do not keep coming up with excuses as to why someone is better than you. These moments interrupt your mind and game state.

We touched on Anchoring, if you have a game where you played really well, then try to remember the moment. Focus on the feeling your were having, the table, the breaks everything try to immerse yourself in that happy moment and try to bring that moment to today's game remember the feeling of the win and use it to focus your mind.

Confidence was the next subject I think I surprised him with my confidence levels, I have never been shy especially after all that Police training and having to deal with the public. If you are too confident you can appear arrogant and people may not like you so a fine balance is required.
I asked the question 'Can you be over confident, IE making undue risks in a game' the answer was NO. You must control the confidence and the outward display of confidence but inside you can never have too much.

12 hours of intensive soul searching and relaxation techniques is very hard to put in words and I am not sure I have the skills to do so in full, but I am going to try and write a full debrief of the main points. For example even after 12 hours I was able to watch the players in the English AM championship and analyse them and get a feel of their state and energy levels. If was clear me Martin was uncomfortable in his match against Phil Mumford. He looked slightly edgy and not as composed as normal despite playing very well.

I will post a full report in a few days when I have had more chance analyse the conclusions. The one thing I would say at this state is all those players out there who feel that this is a load of nonsense well all I can say is you are wrong, this is one of the most important things I have learnt from the sessions, any player who feels they do not need coaching in these skills is missing out on improving their game but the ability to understand other people better.

Someone said to my not so long ago, 'Why are you seeing a Psychologist is there something wrong with you?' I answered 'No' ,

I was wrong there was something wrong with me and that was I had ignored my mind and body for years, these are more important than a good cue action. As it is your mind that tells the body how to hold the cue and how to pot and how to play. If you improve your mind your game will follow.