| Related Links |
| Read the related article on Stress, Thought Stopping, Attitude or return to the Training room for other articles. |
 |
| Mental |
| It's been said that there only two things certain in life: death and taxes. But, if you bowl competitively you WILL at some time in the future have a bad game and Affirmations are a part of your Mental Game that can help you overcome difficult situations. |
|
When you encounter this difficult situation, whatever it is, it will test your attitude. Attitude: we've all heard of PMA (Positive Mental Attitude). "Your attitude determines your altitude" is a quote relevant to this subject. Difficult situations test your character and resolve. The easy way out is to give up and quit, but winning is worth more when you have to fight hard to get to the finish line: the best athletes thrive in these intense pressure situations, where those with weaker skills pull up short and make excuses. In many ways sport can give us the "rights of passage" that are missing from modern society, you become a member of the elite winners circle only after overcoming some substantial challenge. But some people just want an easy ride - have you got what it takes to rise above the quitters?
| Affirmations are one element of
the Mental Game and are closely aligned with Thought Stopping and Relaxation
Techniques. Using them is a skill that must be practised
as you need to develop your awareness of your thought
processess during competition and then have a pre-planned
strategy in case negativity undermines your confidence. Because affirmations are personal they likely won't be as effective if you just copy them from someone else. So a good way of developing them is to recall your previous competitive experiences, reflect upon them and try to think how you could cope better the next time. Try to imagine the "voice in your head" as you went through a difficult patch - these are the negative thoughts, the ones that the Thought Stopping process squashes. Recall the quote "if your coach talked to you the way you talk to yourself would you let him?". Get the idea? |
a skill that must be
practised if your coach talked to you the way you talk to yourself would you let them? |
What you need now is to develop little trigger words and sentences that you can repeat so that the negative thoughts are replaced with positive and confident thoughts. For anyone who has been hypnotised these are like an extract from the relaxation script, they take you away from the bad situation and back to your own personal comfortable place.
| Negative Thought | Replace with Positive Affirmations |
|---|---|
 Oh no, I hate that corner pin
spare! |
 I've practised this, it's a simple
spare: pick my mark, hit the target and let the ball do
the work |
| That's the second time I missed
the same spare |
Ok, the
miss is over and I can't change it, but I know how much
to adjust to make it the next time |
| This lane is terrible |
The
conditions are the same for my opponent I can play any lane in the world The harder the better, let my opponent worry about it Quitters never win, winners never quit! |
| I need a 200 game |
Take it
one frame at a time, stay in the present |
| My middle game really hurt my
score |
I can't
change history and don't want a sore neck from looking
back, I'm going to keep going |
| ? |
Pick
your own, individual, negative thought and develop an
affirmation for that situation |
Note: it is important to remember that everyone has their own needs, so spend some time to develop your own affirmations. Return to the training room to read more articles.
