The following post is an excerpt from Neuro Priming for Peak Performance NOW available!
NUERO PRIMING FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE
In the medical field, heart surgeons report that if they practiced the way they did just five years ago, they would have been sued for malpractice. Yet, in the business of coaching tennis, teaching professionals all too often teach the same fundamental systems they were taught decades ago. Dedicating most tennis training to grooving forehands and backhands and neglecting training what’s between the ears. Success in the competitive game of tennis is dependent on emotional and mental warfare.
I’ve found that only training an athlete’s hardware (stroke fundamentals & athleticism) and ignoring their software (mental and emotional), often results in match-day disappointment due to underdeveloped competitive skills.
Researchers estimated that even with the best teachers, students typically walk away from their training sessions retaining approximately 20% of the coach’s advice. So to help reinforce lesson instruction, I recommend applying customized neuro priming.
Neuro priming involves mental imagery to review and rehearse solutions for competitive performance. This visualization process is an essential off-court form of training personalized to each athlete with advanced solutions designed for specific match play situations. Neuroscientists report that athletes who apply personalized mental rehearsals drastically improve performance during match play. I consider neuro priming not only fundamental for competitive athletes but often the missing link for athletes unable to compete under stress at their full potential.
“Competitive successes or failures aren’t the results of a singular performance, but the result of the athlete’s physical,
mental and emotional routines and rituals.”
This guidebook provides a fresh, unique pathway to improving tennis skills with a customized script, in the athlete’s very own voice via a series of audio recordings on their phone. Neural priming is not meant to replace an athlete’s on-court tennis training. It is an essential enhancement of their mental, emotional and physical skills. Just as priming muscles before competition increases athleticism, neuro priming increases cognitive processing speed.
