Athlete's Mental Gym
Mental Skill: Prepare Your Mind and Body for a Fast Game Start
Some athletes and teams are notorious for getting off to a slow start in competition. From the sidelines, they look like they’re playing on their heels and can’t get into the flow of the game. When you start slow, you give opponents an advantage because you are less likely to be aggressive on offense or defense. To speed up your slow starts, you need to first understand why it takes you longer to get your mind into the rhythm of the game.
You have two sides of your brain, right and left, which perform very different mental tasks. Your left side enables you to think logically. The right side enables you to see the big picture and think emotionally. Most people predominantly use one side of their brain and are called either left- or right- brain thinkers.
Athletes get off to a slow start because, at the beginning of games, they only use one dominant side of their brain which hinders their ability to process and physically respond to all of the action. The left-brain athletes focus on the small details of the game but can’t follow the broader action going on around them. The right-brain athletes focus on the emotions and rhythm of the game but may not execute small techniques effectively. As the game progresses, athletes start moving their bodies in ways that stimulate both sides of the brain but, by that time, their slow start may have cost them errors and missed opportunities.
To get off to a fast start in games, athletes need to have effective communications between the right and left sides of their brains in order to make quicker decisions and better coordinate both sides of their bodies.
There are many different physical movements, called Brain Gym movements, you can perform before competition and during breaks in the action to stimulate the communications between both sides of your brain. One of those movements is called Cross Crawls.
This movement has both sides of your body move so your arms and legs cross over your body’s midline. Your midline is the imaginary center-line that runs down the front of your body and separates the left and right halves of your brain and body. When you perform Cross Crawls, you are teaching both sides of your brain to communicate with each other.
After doing this movement over weeks and months, you make this communication more of a habit for your brain. This is a great movement to get both halves of your brain to work together so, when the game begins, you are using your whole brain instead of one half.
The following describes how to perform Cross Crawls. Remember to do this movement before, during and after practices and competitions. Brain Gym movements like Cross Crawls need to be performed very slowly so your mind and body can take the time needed to lock-in the movements and communicate across both sides of your brain.
Performing Cross Crawls
- Stand with your feet positioned shoulder-length apart and your arms at your side
- Simultaneously lift your right arm and left knee, and lightly tap your right elbow on your left leg just above the knee
- Then return your arm and leg to a resting position
- Simultaneously lift your left arm and right knee, and lightly tap your left elbow on your right leg just above the knee
- Then return your arm and leg to a resting position
- Continue this back-and-forth pattern for a minute or so, as though you are walking slowly and rhythmically
