When you work with elite athletes their minds are always fixed on the results this is not a surprise because in most sports the result of a performance dictates how much they get paid. For example, in tennis and golf if you don’t perform in competitions you can’t create an income. When athletes become fixed on the results of their performance it can lead to stress, anxiety, and depression because the results are out of their control. In sports, you can play the best game of your life and still lose. So the result is irrelevant to the performance.
Jack Nicklaus, the world’s greatest golfer would often say the best game he ever played was his match with Tom Watson at the British Open at Turnberry in 1977. Both players played the game of their lives, but Jack lost the game with an outstanding score of 66. Tom Watson the winner shot a 65.
Nicholas recalls the so-called “Dual in the Sun” the most fun he ever had on the golf course. Fun is the important word here. The fun of playing is often lost in competitive sports because there is no fun in losing. But fun is fundamental to peak performance. Fun triggers what psychologists call an autotelic experience. An autotelic experience is a pleasurable, intrinsically rewarding exciting feeling. Feelings associated with autotelic events increase the ability to experience flow a state of mind where the impossible becomes possible and peak performance manifests.
So how can we as adults learn to trigger autotelicism, peak performance and, flow?
My answer to this question is “Watch children”. Play sports using the Child mindset.
Children have no problems triggering autotelic states because they see sports and every other activity in life as fun. We learn as a child, playing sports is fun. When a child plays any game they play with total absorption, they are curious, passionate, and focused on learning. In a child’s mindset, you work harder, you are more creative and you are more adaptable. The child mindset for elite athletes is the heart of peak performance in sports because athletes can enthusiastically face important competitions without fears about failure or the unknown. You will find competitions rewarding, fun, exciting and a learning opportunity. On the other side of the coin, athletes in a serious state are often stricken by anxiety and become quickly demoralized. As a practitioner, the greatest gift you can give your clients is the confidence to play like a child. This is the secret many of our great athletes understand. The child mindset enables athletes to optimise performance under pressure.