A Champion's Evolution

What happens here at the 0:13 mark?

Look familiar from Federer? Maybe not in recent years, but competing with emotions in check has always been a challenge for Federer.

An amateur opponent from 1996 said of the young Roger, "When things weren’t going his way, he had a tendency to hang his head and just have a negative attitude going on.”

It was so bad early in his career the now 15-time major champ had a reputation as a soft player who couldn't fight

his way through a tough match. How the times have changed - perhaps it was maturity, perhaps it was his work at 16 and 17 with a sport psychologist that helped Roger learn to play with his temper instead of against it.

What are your experiences at playing with, and against, temper and anger during competition? How have you gotten the best of it, and it of you? Share your thoughts in comments below. Also, check out the whole report on Federer from the New York Times here.

Tips for building focus and getting In the Zone

Clinical Psychologist Bryan T. Karazsia, in a recent article, offers some interesting tips for building focus and getting in the zone. Some of his ideas include:

Visualization - Practice seeing performance success in your mind before competition even arrives. That way, when the big moment arrives, you've already lived through it.

Breathing - Slow, regular, deep breathing is key for competitors at any level to relax themselves. As clutch moments arrive, breathing work can serve to calm those jittery nerves and upset stomachs.

Cue words - Another useful skill to learn is that of a cue word which prompts us to think of relaxation. Karaszia himself uses "ocean", while other examples could be "clear", "calm", or "breathe".

Remember, these are all skills to be learned. Just as we hone our bodies for competition, so does the elite athlete hone their mind. Regular practice, with the guidance of a SPINw sport counselor, is the key for developing these techniques.

Of course, for those of you familiar with sport psychology, these ideas probably aren't new. What may surprise you is that these tips were offered for a narrower niche: hunters. That's right, Dr. Karaszia's advice and tips appeared in Peterson's Bowhunting. Said the doctor, in summary of the benefits of sport psychology: "The fields of clinical and sports psychology have proven that these [mental training] methods can enhance your performance in the field -- so much that the best athletes in the world have paid thousands of dollars to get some advice from a sports psychologist."

Interesting to see our field expanding into more and more areas....

Read the whole article from Peterson's Bowhunting here.