While You're Learning

Back in the mid to late 90s, my dear friend and top player, June Hager Walter, suggested I read a book entitled, Mental Toughness Training for Sports.  I wasn't sure why she suggested I read it at the time, but now of course it makes complete sense:  I needed some help with mental toughness!  It turned out to be a REALLY good book for me to read.  And, it was at the beginning of my pool journey and it was an enlightening book for someone who had never competing in sports before.  But it's a great book for all competitors, no matter where they are in their sports journey.

The bonus to this book was there is a section in it that explains how to "get in the zone."  I have consequently shared that concept with many people throughout my life, to help them in upcoming big tournaments.

But, that is not the topic of this blog post today.  Sorry!  Maybe I'll share "how to get in the zone" tidbit someday here in my blog, OR maybe you can read the book yourself :)

The other huge thing I learned from that book was, if you played your best, you gave your best effort, then you should not be upset at yourself if you lose.  I learned from Mental Toughness Training for Sports that if I played lazy or didn't give 100%, then I needed to accept that I didn't play my best.  This advice helped me from getting frustrated or depressed about my play.  I loved that info!  It was very helpful for me.

But the point of this blog post is something not even related to what was IN the book, but what I did while I read the book.

For whatever reason, I decided to stop practicing while I read the book.  Back then I was hitting balls several times a week.  But I wanted to focus on the words of the book and take the time to read it thoroughly with dedication.  So, I didn't hit balls the entire time I read it.

I mentioned to June in the middle of reading the book that I stopped hitting balls.  She confided that was exactly what I was suppose to do.  What?  I asked her, "Then why didn't you just suggest that to me?"  She replied she wasn't sure I would really do that, if she suggested it, lol.  But, it was kinda crucial to stop trying to improve my physical game while I read that book - I suppose so I could focus on one thing at a time.

While we can for sure multi-task (or so we think - check this out), it was imperative for my absorption to just focus on reading the book, and not also trying to improve my physical game at the same time.

Btw, the author is James Loehr.