Get Your Head in the Game-Part 1

How well-prepared you are mentally determines whether or not you choke.

Sometimes in life we’re not always focused on the task at hand. We find ourselves going on Facebook or Youtube at work or texting while we’re in class. Other times we may just feel frustrated from a past event or stressed from an upcoming deadline. Or maybe we’re just having a bad day. And more often than not, we find it difficult to perform to the best of our abilities. A person may sometimes look and feel great during practice or training, but the confidence will occasionally disappear the minute they feel too much pressure, which can cause them to blank out.

I know I hate it when I can’t fully focus on what has to be done. And there are times where I’m just so stressed that I can’t seem to get back to reality—my mind is wrapped around something other than what I’m supposed to be focused on. I’m sure I’m not the only one that has experienced this at one time or another.

Individually this gets frustrating, but as a group, when no on is on the same page, it gives an additional way for team morale and chemistry to go down. Aggravation is built towards each other, as well as negative energy, which just isn’t needed. Getting in each other’s faces about staying on task just won’t work. You get psyched up only to get psyched down right after.

As dancers, a lot of our energy goes into refining our physical dance skills and preparing for performances. Each performance is an opportunity to display what we do best. We always want our best performance as individuals and as a team. But in order to have it, we need to learn how to relax and clear our minds.  We hardly take any time to develop our minds mentally. Mental development takes practice and repetition, physical development is improved by routine practice. A lot of the time the ratio between the two is unbalanced.

There are a bajillion ways to mentally prepare yourself before you perform, compete, or rehearse. You can just play the music and imagine yourself doing the routine while you slightly run the routine. You can joke around and get your mind off it completely. There are also a few mental exercises that I have learned, practiced, and adapted that have benefited both FamBiz and Teen Groov. And I can say the results I’ve gotten by applying these methods have been much more constructive than I have ever expected. There is a belief that is implemented through these exercises.

“Breath controls the mind and mind controls the body.”

This will be the first of a series sharing techniques that we practice. I would like to say upfront that I am NOT an expert; there are a lot of people who probably have their own techniques that are just as or even more effective. I’m simply sharing what we’ve practiced and have found effective as a part of our preparation.

Slow Down. Breath Deep. Zazen.

A form of seated meditation we’ve adapted from Zen Buddhism. You simply clear your mind and focus on your breath. It is the act of just being, sitting with yourself and with your teammates (if you’re with them) in each others’ presence. We perform Zazen prior to actually doing the physical rehearsing. It’s a great exercise of learning how to control one’s breath. Doing so greatly decreases anxiety. Along with that, we get the chance to clear our minds so we can focus on the rehearsal and everything we are aiming to accomplish during that timeframe. Metaphorically, it is important to come with a empty cup before we fill it back up again.

Close Your Eyes and Imagine – Visualize

The mind is a powerful tool, having the right mindset can be the catalyst of much success. From a relaxed state of mind, visualization is what we use to prepare our minds for the potentially good, bad, and also when we need to rest and take a break. All of these are broken down into three sub-topics: the Winning Vision, the Painful Loss, and the Safe Spot. The more mentally prepared we are, the less likely we’ll freak out in any situation that comes our way.

Zen in Use

One person who really takes these methods to heart is the Zen Master of basketball, Phil Jackson. He had a much more unorthodox approach when it came to coaching the game. Some players may have found his methods a bit… different, but what he was doing was trying to lift the team’s level of consciousness. He was changing the way things were viewed, because the traditional ways of preparing a team weren’t working to his liking.

The morning of Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals against their rival, the Boston Celtics, Jackson had the Los Angeles Lakers enter a meditation session before going into reviewing the video of their previous game. The coaching staff of the Lakers mainly focuses on relaxing the players. Through the thousand things going in each individuals head, they manage to center themselves as one. The end result—the 2010 NBA Championship.

Embrace Your Rehearsal Space

Where you practice is like your home, and like they say, home is where the heart is.

Phil Jackson treated the locker room of both the Lakers and the Chicago Bulls as their own sacred holy training ground. He would fill the room with incense and never allow reporters in 30 minutes prior to a game. Wherever you and your crew may practice, it is your own sacred training ground. It is where you guys prepare together and share blood, sweat, and tears for your next performance or event. Any sort of negative or positive energy that is channeled into the space will link your mind with that emotion, leading to you either dreading or looking forward to the next practice. You and your teammates are a band of warriors coming together for a common purpose.

Reminder of Who You Are

Stay true to yourself. Don’t forget why you dance. Are you going on stage to show your best skills to the audience? The common thing we all have as dancers is our passion for it, we all love to do it for different reasons—because it’s fun, because it is a way for you to escape from the daily grind of life, or for your own personal reason. Don’t mind what other people will say during or after you dance, allow yourself to be truly present at that moment.  Allowing such thoughts to get into your head will never permit you to perform to your full potential. Execute each move as if put together, they form the greatest dance ever created. We share who we are when we are out on that stage. Whatever it is, know who you are, do it on purpose.

The next post in this series will dive more into the process of Zazen.


Get Your Head In The Game Series
Part 2, Part 3

Posted in: bizness,family,meditation,mental preparation,zen