Roger Federer never hits a tennis ball and thinks about it.
It’s a completely unconscious action and in fact if he brings it into the conscious part of mind he’s unable to do this.
Bringing unconscious actions that you’ve practised over years into your conscious mind is the route to ‘choking’.
Matthew Syed wrote beautifully about this in Bounce and in particular from his own personal experience of ‘choking’ in the Sydney Olympics.
Things that you’ve done for years which you do routinely are extremely efficient and effective and become clunky and difficult and frustrating if you bring them back into your conscious mind.
It’s what happens to Amateur Golfers all the time and particularly Amateur Golfers who are doing well in a local competition.
Going back into surgery as a Dentist with completely new protocols and ways of working and having to think about every single step that you take will be as frustrating as choking in a golf tournament.
It will take patience and resilience and a vision of far into the future.
It will take a while before all of us are running back to excellent unconscious Practice.
Blog Post Number - 2391