(Very detail n Long)
In Lawn bowls and Petanque there are two parts to the performance. The physical development where practice and training develops a physical presentation and a Psychologic or Mental Development where emotional strength permit a consistence physical performance. Golf was included in this first part because I believe it is the most demanding of these "Closed" sports and I wanted to introduce the mental problems of spectators as well as some of the personal development tricks which are used by some of the greatest athletes.
In all sports the athletes are either "Open" to the many activities of the other players which are participating in their game. Otherwise, the athlete is performing with a "Closed" awareness to others as he performs and attempts to maintain a calm mental state. Athletes in team games with quick actions, like Soccer, Basketball and other "Open" sports are performing their own "closed" physical action; the fast turnovers of their ball often require that the athlete's mental problems be addressed quickly as unlike Closed sports they don't have period of waiting for their opponent to perform.
On the other hand with the "Close" Games like Tennis, Golf, Bowls the rules are designed to prevent distractions when the athlete is in their mental state and expected to performance a perfect physical action. In these sports, the athlete are given as much support against distraction as possible by the game Rules where players and spectators are expected to not create any distractions. Even those others playing athletes on different courts, greens or ice are required to control non-play actions which might be a distraction to the performing athlete.
All of our sprots have a physical performance which will also require some sort of mental discipline against the athlete's emotions or feelings during or after play. Sport psychology addresses these mental forms of interruption or distractions while would prevent a perfection performance. Sport Psychologists realize that various emotions and feelings destrpu the years of training needed to perfect that physical performance. In "Open" sport game where the athlete's mental recovery of emotions is done during the time of play; in "Closed" sports there may be minutes, a few to several, between the performance and the next performance. This interruption of play allows the athlete to identify and address their emotions or feelings.
If an athlete's mental interference of stress, anxiety or fear could be simply switch "off" and a short return to their established relax "calm" state of mind; the athlete would always be prepared to perform a perfect physical action. But with no "on/off" for emotions and feelings except their own mental strength athletes would quickly experience "Burnout" after a few game. For this reason, we find Sport Psychology skills taught to international athletes in an attempt to help them control and manage their mental interruptions of play.
We are lucky to have, at this time, an internet with Google AI search where we can address these skills because the athlete only find Sport psychologist engaged as a part of Sport Coaching in the major clubs or the major "Open" sports at the international level.
Recently, when Stephen. an international athlete, came to the club he was asked by a few members his opinion on our sport. One such question was "What is the most important ability an athlete should have?". He replied "An athlete should be able to maintain their focus and have a flareless performance", Good advice but as a club coach for new players, I avoid use of words which create confusion as to their meaning in sport. "Focus" and its meaning is like "money" where there are so many different currencies, maybe one for each country of the world. A word like "focus" also has many meanings with the common sport reference being concentration on performance.
In a course for first or second year (new) students to Lawn Bowls a student or spectator will not find "Muscle Memory" or "Concentration" in my volcabulary because it is hard to define what these words mean and only confuse the new student who is learning to develop their skill of Delivery and game.
Focus is a common word used in Photography because a camera lens need to be adjusted for a clear picture. So I use it as an example and explain that as the photographer turns the lens ring and focus his camera; he is really making small changes until the best possible picture is obtained. In development of a sport this should be the meaning of physical practice as we make small adjustments to our performance until we have what is the best we can expect.
Secondly, the camera explanation is good because the focus in photographic distance teaches that an object can never be in focus unless the focus is at the proper distance setting. Closer objects can be in focus with a larger f-stop; and of course both Lawn Bowls and Petanque require less precision for performance. But as the distance to the target increase, so does the level of difficulty.
In Curling, where the target is always the same distance a repeated physical force is all that is needed. However, in a Lawn Bowls delivery we add more weight to the delivery force as distance increases so that our bowl rolls farther up the green. If not enough weight, we attempt in the following with the next delivery and adjust as we add more.
In petanque, the same principle applies but instead of a roll the pêtanque player doing a delivery for a point (and also for a take-out) will throw their ball most of the needed distance, which will change for the different distance. In Petanque the first lesson of a new player is this half way to the "Cochon" (target) and then allow it to roll the remainder of the distance. Like in Lawn Bowls, the condition of the playing surface also influence the performance.
If the Petanque player is doing what is called a "Take-out" shot, he is throwing his petanque ball the complete distance to the target with the attempt to knock it out of the playing area. Like in Golf, the Petanque take-out efforts can not handle any small distraction or any emotional or mental problems. causes a failure or bad result and the player is expected to return immediately and do another performance.
However, Stephen was not referring to focus in that sense but in a false meaning of what is better called "Concentration". Concentration is also the wrong word but approaches the expressed meaning of have your total attention on your objective and performance. In the video of Eli Straw a Sport Psychologist "How to increase Focus in Sports" (on youtube) we find suggestions and tricks to improve Focus or Concentration. But both words are often used in the introduction of Sport psychology because of the mental problems of any sport is where they both apply.
In the physical analysis of the direction of a student's improvement to be their practice and developed, "Focus" must be seen like the meaning of a camera being focus. The turning of the "len ring" of a camera, when doing a "Focus" can be turned too far and must then turned back to get a better focus. In the student's practice, where the objective of practice of a delivery needs clear objectives and our abilities as the goal. if we want our practice in focus, we must continue making corrections until we are getting the results wanted.
As to the mental focus of our skill, we do the same thing as in the physical development, practice the skills; except as we often have to discover our emotions and even discover how our feeling like anxiety affect our performance. To know our feelings is not done quickly and even to make any changes will promote a stable state of mental stability. We realize that we can never be completely in control of our emotions or feelings, but we can seek a stable place for our psychologic influence to our performance perfection. Like the physical practice, the mental practice of psychologic skills is always a need to keep working as a practice toward a the point of development where we immediately return to calm feelings.
We can clearly realize that any performance in sport is the combination of a Physical Training to a level of "Muscle Memory" performance and a Mental state of Focus or concentration which if always the same will allow for the best results.
As a "Blind Bowls" Coach, I was taught many years ago that sometimes we have to adjust our "Physical Focus". With three National Gold medals of Instinctive Archery I had learned that one must accept conditions over which we do not have control. Where Sport Psychology attempts to address the mental aspect, I have learned that sometimes a simple adjustment of our physical performance, our "Physical Focus"; is an much more easier correction of the new conditions than working on new mental skills.
In a Lawn Bowl's delivery by a "Blind" athlete, the line of delivery is given by their assistance (voice or white shoes) for their bowl. Because they do not have an visual sighting which is taught as a "Point of Line"for delivery; the blind lawn bowler is seeing an mental image of the green and the game and they have as much confidence in this image as we do when we are looking up the green. The "Blind" student is taught that when their body and muscle performance are both properly aligned, they only need the proper delivery weight to draw directly to the jack.
 |
| Stats last month |
I was shown by a "Blind" bowls student that every day our body is some how a little difference than what we call normal. Sometimes several differences for several days, so the Blind student simple made a physical corrections for that difference of today. They live a life where something changes and they react quickly to that change.
In Petanque when I am practicing my ability to perform a "Take-out" shot I often perform a "Body Awareness" near the beginning of my practice. Today, my biggest problem with age, now over 80, is my balance and a bad knee and my body's survival instinct may has changed something. Of course to perform with a difference body will not give me the results I expect.
"Body Awareness" is a test which I do in Petanque practice when I discover that my "Take-out shot is not what it should be. I know that in a "Blind Shooting" effort that my "Muscle Memory" will perform and show me what has changed. So having prepared myself, I close my eyes and like the "Blind Lawn Bowler" I use the mental image as my target. After my takeout performance and "Muscle Memory Void" is finished. I open my eyes to see the result of my performance.
If all with my eyes closed the thrown Petanque ball has landed at 3 O'clock and about 5 inches from the target after two or three times then I know my body is not in alignment for some reason. I adjust my feet for that 5 inches to a false target at 9 o'clock. Yes this helps and even today when deciding my mental changes or physical changes I will adjust physical before attempting a psychology skill. Although I certainly find myself quick to do Positive Self Talk.
Knowing our performance in both physical and mental performance may require us to make some adjustments so that the two influences (physical and emotion) do not influence our performanceé Both must work together for the result we want or expect. So where a Focus, like adjusting a camera focus, is really the physical progress, through psychologic skills, that the skilled athlete need to be attempted; we must also know what is a relax calm performance for us. An athlete should always practice and improve their performance, physical and emotion, by controlling all the influences caused by feelings. (Stat of Visitor/Reader 2019 (7 years ago)
 |
| Stats a few years ago 2019 |
This is not mental or psychological but simple a body adjustment which has been made for some reason. Age is my reason that this would happen, but it might be anything like muscle pain, too tight clothing or maybe even a thought like the wind is going to move my bowls of delivery line.
Petanque athletes know that during their take-out shot a thought or distraction to their left side of play, will result in a miss to the left of target because their mind heard the distraction and thought about it. The sport psychologist would tell you to adjust your focus or concentration to not hear that distraction. I have suggested to an athlete that they change your body position a small amount to the left because of the spectator's area and the music coming from there. Try a test with one of your practice session. With some music to your left and decide how you will work to ignore it. Now instead of working on the mental solution (ignoring the sound) place your body direction a bit (half a shoe maybe) to the right and let this confidence in your solution. Did your starting position for this test practice change anything?. What did you learn ? How can you use this correction in a game.
 |
| What is Focus ??? |
This is what Practice should be. Know your objective and the result of your changes and make the adjustments until you are satified or it not successful and you know you can abandon the idea. Because each time you come to play in a game you should not make these changes unless you know the results. To be playing bowl after bowl or ball after ball (in petanque) to a problem will only lead to emotional feelings. If something occurs during a game it is best the student or athlete make notes, mental or a notebook (like the golfer).
When starting your first delivery of a game, your "Focus" should be to perform from a learned and well developed performance and any adjustment or mental skills only be applied when you have lost that performance. Self-talk with positive objectives may be placed as a calm producing effort to relax and play the game which is identified as your best.
Realizing how important this starting point is to a successful and clean performance, and Lawn bowls rules allow for "Trial end" to help the player read the conditions of the green in speed and influence with their bowls. In petanque the rules allow for the player to choose their place of contact and even tap it to judge its reaction when the ball falls there. In this sense, the new bowler should learn that focus is a part of their physical performance as they will always need to do an adjustment as practice improves.
We see that Sport Psychology has defined specific types of focus such as "Present Moment Focus" and "Selective" application of Focus in the sport. With a bit of wisdom a lot can be obtained from the Google Search answer. Why did focus in "Selective Focus" get changed to "Selective Attention"? Much for the same reason that "Focus" and "Concentration" got intermixed also "Focus" and "Attention" became intermixed. Maybe "Pay attention" and Focus on your Objective" is a good example of the differences.
With these questions of "Intermixed" meanings of words let us now look at the meaning of "Distractions". First, mental skills must be developed and practiced in the same way that physical skills were developed. Some coaches will tell you that it will take almost the same amount of time of practice mental skills as your physical performance perfection took in practice .
Talking to a Curling Coach I heard him say "Muscle Memory takes about 1000 hours of practice"; and I replied "Maybe 500 hours of "Perfect Practice". Our discussion then moved into what was a "Perfect Practice". Then the topic changed the subject to "Maybe we should teach mental evaluations of Physical Practices such as "How did you feel as you completed that delivery?". If feelings are a psychologic cause for problems which sport psychology address there is maybe the need for athletes to remain is a "Good Feeling" zone. Team communication is a major part of keeping a emotionally weak team player in their peak performance.
In lawn bowls there is about 14 to 18 seconds (the speed of the green) after each delivery, before the athlete knows the result of their performance. Also, the two to three minute delay while the opponent player performs, does not gives the disappointed player enough time to recompose his feelings and execute his "Reset" routine. Without this return to a calm emotion state, before he return to do another delivery the athlete will only find more disappointment in his performance. In come team management coaching the suggestion that the other members of the team must. and can, influence this mental state of the athlete. Communication, delays within respect of the rules, and even to accept the mistakes with positive team actions.
However, in the game of Petanque, there is probably not a second between the finish of the athlete's performance of a thrown takeout shot and the athlete seeing and knowing his performance's success or failure. If successful, the opponent will have two minutes to perform his Post-Performance routine before be requeste to play again. Of course, the excitement or disappointment is always the Petanque athlete feelings; the same as the golfer. But with the Petanque player not have the time to re-discover their calm state of self; their next performance will be difficult.
But unlike Shane Lowey who now has a long walk up the fairway to recompose his feelings and return to a mental state of maximum performance;the petanque athlete will be expected to play again within one minute if unsuccessful. And disappointment after doing a unsuccessful takeout shot is more difficult to ignore. Also, because the athlete know immediately his result, very often we find that they are actually interrupting their "Muscle Memory" performance with the want to see their successful performance. In such as situation, the conscious mind forces the control being returned back from "Muscle Memory performance with a thought of "was it successful"? ", (This blog is AMem because it assumes you know and have developed a "Muscle Memory" and know the feeling of lost of subconscious performance.)
Google AI defines "Muscle Memory" as "Muscle memory is a form of procedural memory where the brain and nervous system consolidate motor tasks through repetition, allowing actions to become automatic, such as riding a bike or playing an instrument." In simple term it is memory of practice of muscle movement which when started will be performed instinctive. Breathing, Braking your car, throwing a ball are done instinctive because it has become "Muscle Memory"
In several of my blogs on Muscle Memory I speak of the subconscious mind taking control and performing a memory of a routine. This routine starts with a Trigger or action and finishes with a feeling as the conscious mind regains control. Simply put Tiger Wood in the Youtube video "Tiger Woods Mental Focus" said about when he is in the "Peak Performance Zone" (muscle memory working instinctive) "I tend to have blackouts, I know I was there but I don't remember performing the golf shot" (2.2m/6.3 video) and " I remember preparing for the shot" but "I don't remember (anything) until I see the ball leave" (3.30m/6.3 m video) . Muscle memory is doing the swing and return his conscious thought when seeing the ball in flight out in front of him.
In the three part of performance, Preparation, Action, and Result, I will start with the Action Routine. Before you activate "Muscle Memory with a the "Trigger Decision" you can do several suggestion thoughts that can influence the total "Muscle Memory performance, which is then performed instinctively. For example, if you were to think "Balance" as a remainder to feel your foot on the ground, it will not change your performance except the subconscious will perform with a bit more control of feeling your balance.
When your instinctive performance has been completed, you will actually be able to reply to your question of balance by it being your first conscious evaluation after your finished performance. The other two part of the performance are preparation before going into the point circle or onto the bowl's mat (method of holding your ball (or bowl) and evaluation information able to be view as control is returned to the conscious mind.
. In discussion with an well developed athlete this week about his "Reset Routine" he said that " My Performance has a lot of "Mental Discipline". This is true because he was a Petanque player, he felt that his performance preparation, performance and after performance actions were all one complete action. Each of the three part of the performance have their own mental skills. For example, hearing the spectator talking behind you, you may self-talk yourself that you can ignore them. When your performance occurs your concentration on giving control to "Muscle Memory" will probably cancel their sound of conversation. And after your performance is completed you self-talk will be a thought of if you had actually blocked out their sound during your performance.
In working with each of these three parts of your action, you must be always appling the same mental activities with each performance if that mental skill is needed. Otherwise the performance will be interrupted and broken because of the new element introduced. Using the spectator distribution above, if in the preparation you were not aware of the spectators then it's mental skills would not be incorported into the other two part of the performance because your decision was that it was not needed.
In Golf, the picking of the golf club, the analysis of the intended shot, the ball placement on the tee and even the placement of the tee and it height are all preparation routines. The performance is the swing and Strike force done with "Muscle Memory" and after ward as you see the ball fly up the green your thoughts are the Evaluation of the flight and what might be part of a Recovery routine to prevent the next swing/strike from repeating the same error.
In Lawn Bowls, the placement of the bowl in hand with bias and other effects of delivery (feet placement, balance, etc) are the preparation while the action is the delivery of the Lawn Bowl to the green. After release of the bowl as it rolls up the green everything following is Feedback and Correction as for the 14 seconds of the rolling bowl you are watching everything. If you know your bias and are aware that the bias line seem to stay straight at one point; you may decide there is a small fall in the playing surface and your next performance you will allow a foot more line as your Recovery Routine..
In Petanque, the performance may have more mental actions needed to learned and incorporated with the action because the individual's learning has usually been self taught with little coaching. A "club coach" in instructing a new club member may suggest certain mental actions as necessary and explain why if not developed it will result in the individual's lack of discipline of thoughts and feelings.
However once the athlete is in the "shooting circle" and the trigger action has initiated the Muscle Memory action, everything of the performance is done as total instinctive. But because within the following second the athlete's conscious thought has returned and he sees his result of performance; it will appear as if Preparation, action and Follow-up are all the same. The confusion is feeling is not normally a part of the evaluation but a mental reaction after seeing the performance result.
Trigger action is something which is done by the athlete to begin the Muscle Memory action and can be the practice swings of the feet placement. In petanque, I have seen the foot smoothing the surface in the circle while in Bowls it is to me my foot placement pointing up the green.
Once the Trigger action is performed the Performance should be all the same movements. If practice swings are done they should always be the same number of swings before final action is performed. If a lawn Bowls athlete does one swing or three the mind will expect to do it delivery after the last swing. The raison for this consistance is if mental skills have been developed they will fit into the routine in the same place during the action.
As an example, the need to judge the distance for the performance may be a hand in front before the swing starts (Bowls and Petanque) or a visual place on the fairway (golf). In the same way if self-confidence is a feeling or thought it is also in it proper place and can be memory of a great performance or memory of a correction of delivery which builds confidence. In the Preparation Routine the decisions are made from information collected and reviewed in the Post performance.
In all three sports, when the athlete is in the stance position and the trigger action performed the mind stops thinking or instructing the muscles and the instinctive action is allowed to be performed. In Petanque, the athlete "Shoot" or "Point" thought. In Lawn Bowls the stepping action into delivery and in golf the full back swing action. All the Muscle Action is in control start actions.
As the country singer Chad Brownlee's song "Forever got to start somewhere" so also in sports Muscle Memory must always start at the same "Trigger Action" If it is when you step into your shooting circle (petanque) or onto the Bowls Mat; it must always start there. If something interrupts you action then you leave the mat and return. In petanque the announcement of teams to playing surface area may be an interruption of your action.
If you have not developed a "Rapid Reset" mental action and that game announcement is an interruption you stop your performance. I have noticed the Petanque athlete simple stands waiting for the announcement to finish. Probably because they have not seperated their action into Preparation, Action and Evaluation so just wait and do the action. If a player's Muscle Memory is a set of actions they must always be the same else the subconscious mind will return control to the thoughts of the conscious mind.After such interruptions the athlete returns to his start position and trigger action to initialize a new performance.
In Sport psychology literature several correction actions are suggested to athlete for mental distraction or concentration problems. Stress, anxiety, fears or lost confidence, all different and the and the emotional repairs skills and controls are processed in the Pre-Performance and evaluated in the Post-Performance.
Because this will be the only blog on this subject, I will close with a very important distinction of the ability to change or influence the physical performance with mental skills. Like the physical practice was many hours until you had your style and performance ability; so also the Mental skills of instructions and changes to "Muscle Memory" require patience and practice. The skills of Sport Psychology are different. They are things you can to to modify the level of distraction and emotions. Like medicine for a illness.
Recently, I asked a Petanque athlete to do a few mental test for me and I discovered that any thought which the individual imposes into the Muscle Memory action becomes a interruption and the conscious mind maintains control as it attempts to perform that thought action.
However, because of almost 30 years of Mental development, I have the skill by using short single word or vision thoughts to suggest to Muscle Memory possible small modifications to performance. The problem that like the physical Practice took years of practice, so also this perfection of communication will take several years of practice. You will know it has been achieved when a thought (word or vision) does not interrupt the Muscle Memory and allow conscious actions.
We are Left handed or Right handed and when we want to perform a task of difficult we use our dominate hand. In the same manner, the mental interruption is the dominate thinking , conscious thinking. The instinctive action is without thought, but to introduce thought into the instinctive action is like the right hander learning to use their left hand for that action. It is possible but the minute the dominate hand can take back control it will take charge. This happens with the mind. Start small and be sure of the results are because of the change made by the inserted thought.
Some thoughts will be more easlier to insert because like instinctive actions (like breathing or balance) are natural physical action gets those instinctive actions included. An example is an individual deciding to do a unbalance move (spin, flip, or jump) the instinctive nature will return immediately to recovery balance. In the same sense the mental instinctive actions will return to regain stability.
An example is mental control like concentration. Over the years of schooling and attempting to study we have developed instinctive mental abilities like concentration or distraction acceptance. So when developing the undominate mind set (using the subconscious) some of these instinctive mental abilities will be easly accessed.
Concentration during a game should be easlier if you did not use music to drown out the distraction when learning to study as a youth. Otherwise the new earplugs can allow your music concentration mental skill to be part of your mental skill to confront distractions.
But as the right hand pitcher has his skills of an extremely well develop baseball throw; so also the mental psychology skills must be developed to an advance level to allow introduced thought without interrupting your "Muscle Memory". No more can the skilled baseball athlete change his physical dominations (right or Left handed) of this highly developed skill, can a athlete develop or change their mental dominations with having reached a point of extreme awareness. The Conscious mind will always be the dominate mental aspect unless long and hard work has established a strong mental skill of retaining the dominance by the subconscious.
Thank you, it has been long..Probably because my bowls seasons starts in 2 weeks and probably no more blogs until October. As this will be my only blog on Sport Physchology and Mental development of the athlete's skill I wanted to cover most of the difficult parts. Also your patience will be part of mental training and practice which also will be long..
Be patience and return as you progress in training, remember there are two type of athletes. You will be one of these two. Those who have a limited skill set but extremely overly perfected; and those who have a unique physical skill matched with a mental skill which allow for the same performance result. One is unique and well developed, the other is chosen for it situration or need and used on special occations but not over developed.
To give an example. Lawn Bowl's Runners are thrown with an "Off Bias" to keep the bowl straight longer and I have only seen one or two international athletes who throw both left and right handed Off-Bias Runners.The Off-Bias Runner become part of every "Muscle Memory" runner.
On the other hand, there are some players who use a "Off Bias" slow delivery which is chosen for a unique sitruation of game play where extra weight delivery has that added extra weight lost by the off-bias roll. Once the rolling bowls speed is back to it normal Bias performance speed it will perform like a regular Bias delivery. However, the athlete in evaluation the problem (a block or something) has chosen this skill with some level of confidence but may only use it a couple of time in a season of game play.
