The Sports
Psychology Blog
Today's Sports Psychology blog comes after former World Number One, Colin Lloyd is defeated in the first round of the World Darts Championships.
Darts: Colin Lloyd - The Dilemma
It's the first round of the World Darts Championships at London's famous Alexandra Palace. Former world number one Colin Lloyd is taking on the Dutchman Jan Van Der Rassel. It's obvious from early on in the game that Lloyd is struggling. Somehow, the darts don't go where he intends them to. And the frustration mounts.
It's a classic dilemma for a sports professional. How do you regain lost confidence in the middle of a match? The harder you try the worse things get. The worse things get, the more frustrated you become. You find yourself locked in a cycle of frustration.
Maybe a couple of good moments suggest you are out of the slump. You get your hopes up. Then a couple of missed throws and the cycle begins again. Only defeat can put you out of your misery. It is as uncomfortable to watch as it must be for a top player to experience.
The only course of action is to stop trying. That is trying to force yourself through the slump. Fighting the slump. You have to almost start again. Take the pressure off yourself. Reset your game. Rebuild confidence by reducing expectations. Don't measure yourself by the score on the board, but by your rhythm. By your flow. By your feel. Get back to basics.
It is not an easy thing to do to reset your thinking in the middle of a game. But in a World Championship, it's the player who can think like a champion, that makes them a champion. Think of Muhammad Ali and the Rumble In The Jungle. There is more than one way to win. Can you be flexible enough in your thinking to turn on a sixpence and discover how?
The beauty of Muhammad Ali and his thinking was that it was a demonstration of a man who would not be subject to, fixed by, one way of thinking or behaving. He was mentally strong enough to recognize that he needed to change his thinking.
It takes courage to think this way. Courage and trust. In means finding a moment of stillness amidst the white heat of competition. And in that stillness, recognising that what you are doing isn't working. It's the finding of that stillness that is the most difficult. Your mind is awash with thoughts. Contradictions. Dilemmas. Anxieties. It's takes the mental courage to look deep within, recognise the problem and search for a solution. The solution is always there. The question is, can you find it?
The state of stillness is a neutral state. It allows you the time and space to think. The problem that most competitive people face, is that their competitive nature usually causes them to react to circumstances. Reaction is often the trigger for frustration.
Whereas the state of stillness and quiet is not pre-loaded with instant responses. It's a gateway to fresh 'in the moment' thinking. It's the subtle difference between you finding your game and your game finding you. A champion is the one who can trust in the latter and resist the temptation of the former.
