Today’s topic is simple.
So simple that most people miss it.
Last week, I was on the tennis court with a very successful woman. Our lesson topic: How to hit high percentage tennis shots in pressure situations.
We applied the Law of 21, which is the foundation for mastering new techniques through repetition. And after about 40 minutes she got the hang of her new skills quite nicely.
Now in order for new skills, or any skills for that matter, to become automatic you must have the mind uninvolved with the process.
In other words; don’t think about it, just do it.
Isn’t this the secret that all athletes want to master?
Yes, probably.
Here’s the simple technique we did on that 95-degree Thursday morning in southern California:
I asked her to forget everything we just worked on – don’t think about it, and simply let your body do it.
Your body knows. It’s your mind more often than not that’ll set you back.
So, in order to do this I asked her to exhale at contact; that is, when she hit the ball, I asked her to exhale her breath. This kept her focused on her breathing – a present moment activity that lets her body fulfill the task, and keeps her mind from messing up the process.
She proceeded to be about 90% effective, up from about 30%.
Not bad for an hours work.
Until next week,
Your Team at Mental Strength
P.S. In case you aren’t familiar with the KISS principle (Keep it Stupid Simple), it was designed by the US Navy in 1960 to basically avoid over-complicating the system.
(1) The perfect starting point for your rock solid mental game is the Mental Strength and Peak Performance training manual. For a limited time, you also get 3 Pillars of Mental Strength FREE (a $49 value) with your purchase.
(2) See Mental Strength and Brain Chemistry featuring Dr. Brittany Rummel who has a Ph.D in Psychology with an Emphasis in Cognition and a Masters and Bachelors in biochemistry.
Mental Strength 
