Spiritual Training Programs for Sports Excellence
Sports and Games are a vital part of our lives, and they have become part of the world order in today’s modern world. Sports and Games have formal structures right from a local to an international level. They have a lot of relevance in our daily life. Sports is one of the most positive activities happening in the world, which promote health, wellness, relationships, higher quality of life, passionate careers for many, a sense of belonging and fellowship, natural quality of playfulness, etc. In short, they improve the quality of our lives substantially.
Due to their importance, international competitions are directly linked to the pride of the nation, and those who bring laurels to the nation are considered national heroes. So, a professional approach is adopted in every aspect of sports and games. Various sporting bodies and governments formulate policies, programs, and strategies for advancement and achievements in sports and games. Professional sports persons dedicate a major portion of their lives for excelling in the respective fields of sport. As such, a scientific and professional approach is critical for excellence in every aspect of sports and games.
In the background of all these, the crucial part of the sports and games is the actual performance in a game or event. All the years of practice and efforts are tested during the in-game performance. So, the performance aspects need an in-depth understanding and deserve closer attention. Actual performance in an event depends mainly on the following factors:
Physical abilities (P)
Skill and Technical abilities (T)
Strategy (S)
Mindset or Attitude (A)
So, let us put these factors in an equation. Performance = P+T+S+A.
Ceteris paribus, if the mindset is not positive and proper, the performance will be adversely affected. We know that performance of a sportsperson varies depending on the mindset at the time of the game. In fact, the most critical factor for performance is the mindset or attitude, which also affects physical abilities, technical abilities, and strategy. Hence, we must modify the equation to reflect the stronger role that the mindset or attitude plays.
Performance= (P+T+S) x A
As mindset has a stronger relevance to a sportsperson’s performance, we have to go into details of mindset.
Mindset, Personality, and Culture: Culture includes all the circumstances and life situations in which we have grown up and are living in. Our personality is developed based on many factors, but the culture in which we have grown up has great relevance to our personality and mindset. In simple terms, personality means the way we think, feel, and behave in different life situations. Hence, the performance of sportspersons is influenced greatly by the nature of their mindset.
The Mind: In order to address the aspect of mindset in detail, we need to understand the mind first. There is no widely accepted definition for the mind. When we refer to the mind or mindset in common parlance, it refers to the non-physical aspect of a person. We know that we are driven by our minds, and different schools of thought describe the mind in different ways. Every school of thought says that the mind or the non-physical aspect of a human being has different parts, and the widely accepted description says that there are mainly two parts – the ego-mind and the true self. The ego-mind refers to the sum-total of all the images and roles created by the mind, and we all are identified by the ego-mind; that is, when we say ‘I,’ we refer to the ego-mind. It has two distinct parts- the sub-conscious mind and the conscious mind. The Subconscious mind refers to all the perceptions and beliefs we formed during childhood based on the different experiences, interpretations, and conclusions made till when one is about seven years old. This part of the mind is the foundation of our personality, and neuroscientists say that about 95% of our thoughts, emotions, and actions are driven by the subconscious mind, which we are not aware of. The Conscious mind is that part of the mind which we are aware of –the conscious thoughts, feelings, and actions are driven by the mind. The processing area of the sub-conscious mind in the brain is very strong, and hence we find it difficult to change our patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behavior as per the desires of the conscious mind. The true self or consciousness is our real spiritual essence. The basic nature of consciousness is love, peace, and joy, and its basic approach is rational. Though consciousness is the real essence, and everything exists within consciousness, human beings are denied of its experience and manifestations by the ego-mind just as thick clouds obstruct the brightness of the sun.
The Ego-mind and Performance: The Ego-mind is the emotional mind that was developed based on our emotional experiences from childhood, and it reacts to adverse life situations with negative emotional reactions and not rational responses. The ego-mind survives on the illusion that the past and future -especially immediate past and future – are real. So, there will always be a certain degree of worry about the past and anxiety about the future. When we experience negative emotions, the quality of our thoughts, feelings, and actions will be of poor quality. Our creativity, effectiveness, and performance, including performance in sports, will be at a lower level. The emotional thoughts are at a higher frequency, and negative emotional thoughts and emotions consume more energy, leading to lower energy levels and faster fatigue
Present, Rationality, and Performance. When we are driven by our emotional mind, we are not fully in the present. However, the reality is that only the present is real, and we can do or feel anything only in the present moment. When we’re focused on the present, we respond to situations rationally, and our thoughts will be of higher quality with a lower frequency and higher wavelength, which consume less energy. This helps sportspersons remain energetic for longer durations. This rational state will help them to be anchored in the present and bring out their higher potential, enable better strategy and creativity and ultimately result in better performance. Perception and belief of this higher awareness and truth are essential to have a positive mindset, to be free from the emotional state, and to respond to every situation in sports rationally, which will bring out our higher potential and performance.
Mindset, Image, and Performance: We all have an image or mindset created by the ego-mind. When people are identified with a group, the group or team will have an image associated with it. This image plays a crucial role in the team’s interactions with others – all thoughts, feelings, and actions will correspond to the team image and also based on its perception of the image of others. We have seen that certain teams perform better than their usual performance levels when they play against teams of a particular country. Specifically, we have seen that many times better seeded or ranked players lose against certain lower-ranked or seeded players due to this image problem. When a sportsperson has an inferior image, they cannot bring out their full potential and put up a good performance in the event. So, it is of vital importance to address the image problem of sportspersons to bring out their full potential and performance, and coaches should be aware of or trained to address this aspect.
Image and Potential: Most of us have much more physical and mental potential than our mental image. In certain specific situations or through proper training, higher potentials can be brought out and manifested. The mental image usually cloaks the real potential. In April 2013, two girls from Lebanon, Hannah Smith (16) and her sister Haylee (14), lifted a 3000-pound tractor to free their father who was trapped under it. Zen monks display unimaginable levels of mental and physical abilities through practice and meditation. It is proven that with the right thought, intention, beliefs, practice, and visualization, we can create our own reality in life as we want it. Our abilities are limited by the image created by our subconscious mind, and reprogramming this mind can unleash higher potential and performance.
Mental image and superiority play a critical role in the case of most individual events or in group events in which distinct performance of each team member is possible, like the game of cricket. In group events as well, the collective mental image decides the confidence level and drives the performance. Hence, it is important to create higher confidence, mindset, and mental superiority among sportspersons when they are closer to or during the events.
Image, Confidence, and Performance: Mental superiority of players over the opponents gives a lot of confidence which helps them perform better with proper strategy and techniques. As the confidence of a person is the product of the mental image, systematic training is required to address it at the level of the subconscious mind and help the player consistently have a healthy self-image and confidence. The self-image is the result of the perceptions and beliefs of the subconscious mind, and we are not aware of this part of our personality. When perceptions and beliefs are changed with higher awareness and specific training, it will lead to new experiences, and new experiences make corresponding changes in brain circuits (neuroplasticity) and biochemistry. This makes the positive changes in self-image and confidence levels sustainable.
Coaches need coaching: All reputed players and teams are being trained by reputed coaches, and most of them were high performers or achievers in their respective disciplines. They play a crucial role in training and developing the physical abilities, skills, and techniques of the game, but they need not necessarily be effective trainers of the mind. As mentioned earlier, mindset plays a crucial role in performance. More importantly, on the day of the event or during the time of the event, the mindset of the sportsperson plays a vital role in translating their abilities, skills, and techniques into performance. I have seen coaches telling the players during breaks that, “you should not have done it this way, you should have done it that way, etc.,” in an accusatory manner. The fact is that there is never a repeat of a situation in a completely identical manner, and hence such instructions only create confusion and negative emotions, which adversely affect performance. During a mind engineering counseling session for excellence I had conducted for a top-ranked international badminton player, he agreed with this view and said that the very presence of the coach near the court creates pressure on him which at times adversely affected his performances. However, this is not a universal principle. Some sportspersons prefer the frequent presence of or interactions with coaches or family members for better performance, and the ‘observation effect’ (a term adopted from quantum physics) is favorable and beneficial in their case. So, the effective approach is to train the sportspersons for physical abilities, skill, and techniques well before the event and concentrate on developing the right mindset and strategy when closer to or during the event, which is essential to translate the abilities into performance.
Mind Engineering Training and Performance: Mind Engineering based training has proven to be effective in changing the mindset and focused on the game enabling sportsmen to adopt effective strategies and perform better. For those who could not receive full training, there are some effective short-term training programs, tools, and practices, based on the principle of ‘reverse approaches’ used by some therapists for treating depression. One common approach of treatment of depression is to improve the level of dopamine, the pleasure hormone in the brain, which gives new and pleasant experiences and results in changes in the body/face. Some therapists successfully tried a ‘reverse approach’ by which patients were made to laugh frequently, which in turn produced dopamine in the brain resulting in new experiences, healing, new biochemistry, and changes in the brain circuits. Such an approach can be adopted as a short-term training for sportspersons.
One method of training is the practice of visualization with deep intentions, which will have tremendous effects on the performance. Famous Psychologist Allan Paivio, Professor Emeritus at the Western National Academy of Science, Ontario, has endorsed that the visualization technique is effective for higher performance and fulfillment of goals. It was reported that Tracy Caulkins, a three-time Olympic Gold-winning US swimmer and five-time world champion, practiced the visualization technique. After the great Muhammed Ali’s victory over George Forman in 1974’s ‘Rumble in the Jungle, he said that he used to practice the visualization with intention method and that his preparations were more in mind than in the ring.
Chanting mantra: The method of chanting mantras (few powerful words which can activate body and mind) in the mind periodically is very effective for sportspeople to enable better performance. The type of mantra words to selected or practiced depends on the nature of the player and the playing situations. It helps them have mental superiority and refocus in the event and to deliver better results.
As mindset is the critical factor in sports performance, many reputed sports persons have adopted different methods and mind-related training for this purpose. Mind Engineering training has resulted in improved performance in many sportspersons.
An International badminton player and Indian National team coach, who was frequently trained with the Mind Engineering program, comments that the mind engineering program helped him to understand the importance of mental strength in Badminton and how it plays a vital role in his career progression.
He says, “As a player, I found a renewed energy in myself to win many important crucial matches in many national /international matches through the right application of methods of mental strength, acquired through the Mind engineering program.”
As an Indian Team Coach, this program helped him understand the emotions and stress of players in match situations, and applying mind engineering techniques to players helped them develop the right mindset and mental superiority to win matches in International Tournaments against International top-ranked players, and his trainees, and National /International level players, could win many tough tournaments.
To demonstrate how mind engineering helped him in match situations, he cites his experiences in two Senior World championships -first, a Singles match held in Turkey in 2013 and second, a Single’s match held in India in 2017 in which he won the Bronze medal for India.
“In Turkey I played against the World No. 3, Mr.Frederik from Sweden. Before the match, after seeing the fixture, my confidence was low as the conditions were unfavorable – the shuttles were very fast, and he was an extremely attacking player. It would be extremely difficult for me to play in these conditions.
As usual, when I am stressed or my confidence is low, I used to have counseling sessions with Dr.Cyril to seek advice on how to gain confidence in those conditions. The counseling sessions and the use of mantras and techniques to use in matches helped me to regain my confidence, and at one stage, I was down3-11 and won the match in three sets, and it was an unbelievable experience to win against World No. 3 by 21-14, 17-21, 21-14.
The other match was a medal match in the 2017 Senior World Championships held in India. This was against the 2nd seeded player in the tournament – Mr.Takuya Yamamoto, who was physically much stronger than me. I applied the learnings from the Mind Engineering program, and eventually, I won the match in straight games.”
In a recent Thailand Open, an Indian doubles player ranked 48 faced off against the 15th ranked opponents. He reported that, although he lost that game, the Mind Engineering training made him perform better, leading 20-18 in the decider and serving three match points.