Finding Your Groove

CHAPTER SEVEN - Handling Distractions

DISTRACTIONS:

Unfortunately, the mental aspect of performing is delicate, even for the most hard-nosed player. Many a great player, and sometimes entire teams, just seem to lose it at the most important times. Usually, it's because they're distracted.

To understand distractions, it is necessary to return to the main focusing principle: WHEN YOU MAKE YOUR FINAL ADJUSTMENT PERFECTLY, YOU WILL DO YOUR BEST. If your adjustment is contaminated, it is not perfect. This is the key: Anything that isn't your exact mental adjustment is a contaminant, a distraction.

With any distractions you will do less than your best. ANYTHING THAT ISN'T YOUR MENTAL ADJUSTMENT IS A DISTRACTION. The tricky part is that distractions are not always obvious. It's not simply someone in the crowd waving their arms to make you miss, or the comment by your opponent that's obviously designed to shake you up. In some situations these actually can help you concentrate.

The more serious problem is that well-intended comments or pats on the back can be distractions. Some of the most frequent, and devastating, distractions are positive comments to yourself. The thought, "I'm really doing well today," has destroyed more games than any opponent ever did. Yet for some, this comment would help. It's confusing, to say the least.

The key to this puzzle is that anything that is not your mental adjustment is a distraction. For example, if your mental adjustment is to see the ball, any comment will be a distraction. It doesn't matter how positive the comment is or even how relevant to the game it is, if you aren't seeing the ball, you are distracted. Thinking, "We need this run to win," or, "These guys were amazed at my last drive," are distractions if you should be seeing the ball. Similarly, if your adjustment is to hear yourself say, "I can make this shot," letting some movement catch your eye will be a distraction. Your mental adjustment is what you must focus on, everything else is a distraction. The best way to handle distractions is to know your correct mental adjustment and concentrate on that. Just stop thinking about how far behind you are and watch the ball, or stop watching your opponent's footwork and get a feel for the ball. Get back to your own mental adjustment.

However, there will be times when the distraction seems to capture you, and no matter how much you try to get back to your adjustment, you won't be able to make it. To shake persistent distractions requires a modification of your final mental adjustment.

The first step in shaking sticky distractions is to generalize your specific mental adjustment into a larger form. Again, the visual, auditory, and feeling groups can speed the process. Simply take your adjustment and place it in the group which fits it best. If it's not clear how to do this, refer back to the USING PATTERNS section covered earlier in the chapter.

Once you have your adjustment placed into a group, you need to generalize it while still remaining in that group. The generalized form will give you more options than the specific adjustment did, and it's this broader base that helps with the distractions.

EXAMPLES:

PATTERN: GOING FROM SPECIFIC TO GENERAL

Figure 17. Shifting from specific adjustments to general adjustments.

Now comes the tricky part. You need to connect whatever is distracting you to your generalized adjustment. For example, if your adjustment is to see the ball (visual), and someone walks in and catches your attention, simply connect to that person with a visual generalization. It may be you notice the color of her shirt. Once you've linked the distraction to your pattern, gradually shift back to your ideal adjustment. The color of her shirt would then lead you to the color of the floor, and then the color of the ball. At that point you're right back on track.

The distraction in this example was within the same group as your mental adjustment, both were visual. Unfortunately, many distractions come from outside your "group," which means you must go beyond a simple generalized adjustment in order to connect to it. This means being able to translate visual into auditory, feeling into visual, etc., for all combinations of the three groups.(1) Once you make the translation back to your "group," it's simply a matter of reversing your generalization back to your ideal adjustment.

This translation between "groups" requires a bit of thought, and is best done well before the contest begins. Usually you know what your major distractions are and have plenty of time to prepare for them.

The following are examples of handling distractions both from within and from outside your "grouper

EXAMPLES:

Distraction WITHIN the Visual Group:

Distraction OUTSIDE the Visual Group:

Distraction WITHIN the Feeling Group:

Distraction OUTSIDE the Feeling Group:

Distractions INSIDE the Auditory Group:

Distractions OUTSIDE the Auditory Group:

Interestingly, the majority of your distractions will be from with your own mental adjustment group.

For example, if your adjustment is visual, movement and other visual things will distract you the most. Since your attention naturally focuses within your generalized group, and it's more likely other things in that group will catch your eye. If you're focused visually, sounds and feelings are often cut out. This makes the ability to generalize your mental adjustment a very handy technique: You can use common distractions to increase your concentration.

Distractions outside of your adjustment group don't happen as frequently, but when they do they become major distractions. The fact that the distraction is outside your group makes it that much more difficult to get back. This is the reason some slumps go on for so long.

For example, if your mental adjustment is to see the ball, which is strictly visual, and you get to thinking, "I need to do well today," which is auditory, you are distracted. There is nothing wrong with the statement, it's just outside your group, and that makes it a major distraction. If you didn't know how to make the translation back into your generalized group, your slump could go on for a long time. As you may have realized, the technique of translating and shifting from one group to another takes a bit of thought, and is difficult to do under game conditions. For that reason it's a good idea to go through each possible translation beforehand. You'll find that most of the prepared ones will work well when you try to use them in the game. Examples for each possibility are listed below. They are quite simple, but a simple translation is all it takes.

DISTRACTION GROUPS INTO IDEAL GROUPS

VISUAL TO AUDITORY:

VISUAL TO FEELING:

AUDITORY TO VISUAL:

AUDITORY TO FEELING:

FEELING TO VISUAL:

FEELING TO AUDITORY:

The translation technique completes the basic focusing principles. With a bit of practice you should be able to make your specific mental adjustment under any conditions, and cope with most distractions. This ability to focus at will, under the most difficult conditions, provides you with a major advantage in any contest.

RESTING

When the crowd noise vibrates the gym, your opponent starts insulting you, and there have been five delays to remove trash from the court, maintaining your concentration is going to take some effort, no matter how well you understand the focusing principles. If that type of effort was necessary through a tough season, the playoffs, and the semi-finals, you are going to be mentally tired going into the finals. The more tired you are, the more difficult it will be to keep the effort up in the final round. For that reason, it is important to learn to rest while staying focused.

It takes a certain type of resting, however. If you relax normally, you stand a chance of losing your focus, your concentration. Instead, you want to rest while staying focused. This is done by reducing the intensity of your focus during breaks in the action.

The basic technique for resting is similar to handling distractions within your mental adjustment group: You shift to a more general form during breaks in the action. The more general form reduces your intensity level. You use the same technique used to encompass distractions, shift to the general form, and rest. When it comes time to play, you shift back down to the more intense level.

Shifting to the more general form eases you off the intense focus, and requires only a small portion of your energy. This allows you to rest, while staying focused. It requires so little effort that you are free to discuss strategy with your teammates, or interact with spectators, and yet you are always ready to refocus.

In addition, because this resting technique can fit into any break in the action, you will be able to stay mentally fresh. Even the most intense contests have plenty of short breaks, such as pauses between pitches, other people taking foul shots, and time outs.

Also, because the general form of your adjustment can be spotted in the distractions, like color for example, you can also use distractions to help you rest. This can be a major advantage if the crowd is especially rowdy, or if something keeps catching your attention.

To identify the mental group you should use while resting, you need to review your best performances and note which mental adjustment worked best, just like you did in the focusing section. The choices are still visual, auditory, and feeling.

The next step is to shift your adjustment into a general form. For example, if your mental adjustment falls in an auditory group, your shift might mean noticing the sounds of someone talking. This means that their tone or pitch would catch your attention and the words wouldn't be as noticeable. Crowd noise is another general form of the auditory group.

If your adjustment is in a feeling group, your shift might involve becoming aware of the temperature, the feel of your glove, or the texture of your uniform. Since it takes only a small portion of your attention to stay aware of these things, you are free to rest and conserve energy for the more intense times.

A brief review is listed below. For a more detailed description of going from specific to general, refer to earlier parts of this section.

SPECIFIC-> GENERAL

VISUAL:

• Seeing the shot go in the basket. -> Noticing the colors on the uniforms.

AUDITORY:

• Saying, "I can make this shot." -> Hearing the crowd noise.

FEELING:

• Feeling centered. -> Feeling the chair under me.
• Feeling smooth. -> Noticing the tug of my uniform.

Figure 18. Translating mental adjustment groups from specific to general.

You will be surprised how easy it is to maintain a general focus, like noticing colors, or listening to sounds. Compared to the more focused states, it feels like a rest.

EXAMPLES:

INNER MESSAGE DISTRACTIONS

Some distractions are so strong, that it's very difficult to handle them using attention shifting techniques. They simply overpower the refocusing techniques. For this reason, certain critical events, like the state championships, the big tryout, or the World Series, require a special approach.

The source of these "ultimate" distractions is yourself. You actually create the message that is throwing you off. Because these INNER MESSAGES are so close, they make the normal attention shifting and translation techniques useless.

INNER MESSAGE DISTRACTIONS can be so detrimental to performance that unscrupulous countries have gone to elaborate lengths in international competition to create these messages in the visiting competitors' minds. They've intentionally gotten players worried about the bus, the rooms, or being harassed by the police. The following countermeasures should be required learning for any world class athlete traveling abroad.

The first step in handling INNER MESSAGE DISTRACTIONS is to identify the message. This is absolutely essential. You must have a good idea of what the message is in order to counter it. It doesn't matter if the message is serious or insignificant; the important part is that it's going through you head. Worrying about being late for lunch can be just as much a distraction as thinking about your family breaking up.

EXAMPLES:

• "I hope these replacement starting blocks won't slip.,,
• "Because of the late bus, we didn't really have enough time to warm-up."
• "I stand a chance of going to jail on these charges."
• "This is the important one, the one I've worked so hard for."
• "I'm really nervous, I hope it doesn't affect my performance."
• "I should win this one, and will look stupid if I don't."
• "The scouts are probably watching my every move."
• "It's important I do well today."
• "I really need to find a decent job."

Figure 19. Examples of the variety of INNER DISTRACTION MESSAGES.

Even though these distracting messages can be valid concerns, they are not your ideal mental adjustment for peak performance. In order to do your best, you must rid yourself of them, at least temporarily.

Once you have the message identified, there are three ways you can counter it and get back on track. You can negotiate it, modify it, or discount it.

NEGOTIATING THE DISTRACTING MESSAGE

To negotiate the message, you need to find an acceptable way to put it off. This works best for concerns about time or chore type obligations. For example, if you're concerned about getting a report written on time, you could negotiate the pressure message by saying you'll get to it first thing in the morning. You need to be sincere about the new solution, in order for it to counter the distraction. When you hit on the right solution, your concern is covered, and the distraction simply dissolves.

EXAMPLES:

• "I stand a chance of going to jail on these charges." ->
• "I won't know until tomorrow, and can't do anything about it anyway, so I might as well go ahead and perform."
• "My car really needs work." ->
• "I can put it off two more days."

MODIFYING THE DISTRACTING MESSAGE

The simplest way to modify a distracting message is to add something so that it changes the meaning to a focusing message, or at least to one that is neutral. For example, if you're concerned with being nervous, but you like having high energy, you can see being nervous as more high energy. That changes it into a focusing message.

Modifying the distraction is an excellent technique to learn well; there is always another way to look at something.

EXAMPLES:

• The crowd isn't laughing. -> They're in a thoughtful mood tonight.
• This is a critical period. -> It's time to find my mental adjustment.
• This guy is huge. -> I should be able to out maneuver him.
• Everyone is watching. -> It's about time I get some attention.

Figure 20. Examples of modifying a distracting message.

DISCOUNTING THE DISTRACTING MESSAGE

To discount the message you need to find something about it that reduces it's importance. This takes a bit of practice, but once you get it, it's very easy. The main element is to select a discount that you really believe. To say, "This isn't important," isn't going to work if you really think it is important. This technique is frequently used in the theater where nervous actors attempt to reduce the importance of the audience by imagining them sitting on toilet seats or something equally silly.

EXAMPLES:

• "Because of the late bus, we didn't really have enough time to warm-up." -> "A real athlete can perform under any conditions."
• "This is the important one, the one I've worked so hard for." -> "I'm still young; in many ways this is just training for me."
• "I should win this one, and will look stupid if I don't." -> "If they think that, they're not worth concerning myself with."
• "The scouts are watching my every move." -> "Nonsense, they're probably more concerned with those women in halter tops than with me."
• "It's important I do well today." -> "In the big picture, today is just another performance."

Figure 21. Discounting distracting messages.

You may hit an inner message or concern that you can't seem to counter, even with the best preparation. This rarely happens, but when it does it may be wise to suspend your performing temporarily, and devote yourself to resolving the problem. This will reduce your frustration and safeguard against acquiring sloppy concentration habits. This measure is seldom necessary; the suggested techniques will handle the majority of your distractions.

YOUR IDEAL STATE

When things are just right for your performance, and you feel perfect, you are in your ideal state.

At some point in the focusing process, the focusing stops and you slip into your ideal state. When that happens, you have arrived; you have done all there is to do. Just let yourself be there. You can let go of your efforts to focus and concentrate, just be there, and you will perform at the best of your ability.

Your ideal state is often difficult to describe, and it may be better not to attempt to do so. You want to preserve your ideal state in its purest form.

When you begin examining something in detail it's possible to change it. Your ideal state is already ideal, so it's best to leave it alone.

To keep your ideal state pure, it's a good idea to keep your adjustment techniques separate from your ideal state. When you're in your groove you don't need any further adjustment; just do what comes naturally. The time to think about how you did is after the performance. Asking yourself, "How is it going?" will only be a distraction. There's plenty of time for review and adjustments during breaks and between performances. Your ideal state, your "groove," should be viewed from a distance. Since your ideal state is for serious performing, it's best to use it only for that. Doing other things while in the "groove" has a tendency to cloud it and make its control more difficult. If you wish to rest, simply reverse the process, and shift up into a less focused state. If you want to monitor your progress or see how the process is working, shift up to a less focused state, or better yet, wait until you are out of your concentration cycle. All evaluation should be done from a distance. Try to keep your optimum states pure and reserved for performing.

THE EMERGENCY FOCUS

You should be able to handle most situations with the strategies that have been offered, however, there may be times when nothing seems to work. It may be that you didn't study a particular technique enough, or that you weren't prepared for a distraction that cropped up unexpectedly. Whatever the reason, you aren't doing well. For the times when nothing else works, there is the EMERGENCY FOCUS technique.

The emergency focus is useful when you're unexpectedly overwhelmed by importance of the occasion: All of a sudden you realize you realize you really are in the World Series or at Wimbledon, or in the Olympics. If you have the presence of mind and the time, you should go through the techniques for handling INNER MESSAGE DISTRACTIONS: Negotiate for more time, "I'll let it hit me in two days," or modify the message with, "It's important, but I'll just do my job." If you can't seem to work through these techniques at the time, the emergency focus offers a way out.

The emergency focus is done by connecting your ideal performing state, your "groove," to a movement in your routine. The movement then becomes a way to "call up" your ideal state. When you do the "calling" movement, you automatically slip into your ideal performing state.(2) A certain twist of your hand, an adjustment of your arm, and you're into your ideal state, no matter how distracted you were to start with. When you learn this technique properly, it works so well that it's almost impossible to disrupt, a rather amazing feat.

The only problem with this focusing technique is that it is susceptible to overuse, and for this reason it should be strictly limited to emergencies. If you use it too often, you will cancel the effect. You also stand the possibility of actually picking up and locking in the disrupting feeling you're trying to avoid. The best policy is to practice it often, and use it sparingly.

The first step in learning the emergency focus is to select a movement from your event that can be modified slightly. The movement should be done close to the time when you must do well. For example, if hitting is your concern, your grip on the bat would be a good movement. It's close to the critical time, and it can be adjusted slightly. If fielding is your concern, how you hold your fingers in the glove may be a good movement. Anyplace you have some sort of prop, like a racket, or glove, is a good spot to work in a movement. If there isn't any prop, as in pure running events, you may need to see how you can touch your uniform or move your fingers to create an adjustable movement.

Once you've found a movement to use, you need to change it slightly, enough that it feels different, but not enough that it affects your play. The change must be something that you wouldn't normally do, something that feels different. This changed movement, with it's slightly unusual feel, forms the basis of this technique.

The adjustment can be very small, the only requirement is that you can feel it. For example, when batting, it could be holding your little finger and ring finger together in a way that feels different -- just enough that it's noticeable. When fielding, it could be holding your little finger against your glove in a way that's different. The more compatible with your event or activity the better.

When you have the new movement isolated, the next step is to pair it with your ideal state, your "groove." You do this by slipping into your ideal state, and then doing the new movement. It's just a matter of doing them at the same time and letting them blend together. The movement should be clear, and your ideal state should be solid. When the movement and the ideal state are done together, you connect them mentally. After they are connected, doing the movement will slip you into your ideal state.

This pairing can be done in one session, but regular practice will ensure it happens automatically, when you need it.

EXAMPLES:

Both of these people used their own system for eliciting their ideal state, and then did another movement along with it. Doing the two together is the main element in successfully pairing the actions. Remember, what you pair is what you get. If you somehow get an unbalanced feeling connected to your movement, that's the feeling you will get when you do your movement while performing. For that reason, it's important that you be solidly in your ideal state when you pair the movement to it. This potential problem makes this technique a rather advanced procedure. You need to be skilled in the manipulation of your concentration flow, and be able to recognize when you are in your ideal state. Otherwise you may actually elicit the feeling you are trying to avoid.

An additional adjustment is possible with the emergency technique. You can increase your concentration for very intense moments in the performance by increasing the intensity of the sensation of your movement. Squeezing your fingers together harder will push you that much further into your ideal state. This is especially useful if your performance requires varying levels of intensity at different times. One moment you can be relatively calm, and the next you can have that extra hit of adrenaline. By varying the intensity of your movement, you can fine tune your emergency focus to different levels of your performance.

Remember that the normal system of concentration flow is more useable in the long run, and overuse can erase the pairing of your EMERGENCY FOCUS, so try to save it for the big occasions. With a little practice, it will help you do your very best when it counts the most.

If you have followed and studied the text to this point, you now have a working knowledge of the basic techniques for performing at your best. The following sections offer several short cuts and examine additional applications.

THE FUNNEL

To make mental adjustments easier in high pressure situations, the FUNNEL MODEL was developed. The idea is to collect your mental adjustments into a single image you can refer to in the middle of competition whenever you have a concentration problem. Since the funnel offers a simple overview, your mental adjustment can be swift and to the point.

To set up the funnel image, imagine your concentration as a funnel. At the top you're loosely connected; at the bottom you're intense and focused. The top part of the funnel corresponds to your Travel Stage adjustment. When you begin your mental warm-up adjustment, you enter into the top of the funnel. Just getting in the funnel makes adjusting easier, for you have placed limits on your concentration. You become less scattered and more focused. Since the upper part of your focusing funnel is broad, there is plenty of room for noticing other things, yet you still are in your funnel. You can discuss strategy and handle distraction, and still remain focused. When the time comes, it's easy to slip back down to your focused spot.

As you move down into the narrower portion of the funnel, you enter the resting and focusing area. Focusing, like sliding down the funnel, is easy once it's started. By entering your funnel, you avoid the usual effort involved with concentrating; you only need to slip up and down.

The funnels narrow spout represents your Ideal State. It's concentrated and intense there; it's the place where you will do your very best. The rest of the funnel leads down to this concentrated spout, representing your Traveling and Focusing Stages (visual, feeling, or auditory). Where the top of the funnel is broad and filled with generalized adjustments, the lower part has your specific mental adjustments.

EXAMPLE:

This ease of getting down to your Ideal State is a sharp contrast to those who don't have their funnel identified and must force themselves into their Ideal State. Not only is this draining by itself, but if they are distracted they must both shake the distraction and then force themselves back into their ideal state and that isn't easy. Being able to move up and down in your funnel gives you a major advantage over the uninitiated, and puts you on an equal level with those who concentrate well.

Travel Stage

Focus Stage

Ideal State

Figure 22. The Basic Funnel.

You get into the top part of the funnel by using the generalization of your Travel Stage adjustment, such as sounds, colors, or feeling the wind. To move down the funnel you reverse the generalization to a specific, such as hearing yourself say, "I got it," seeing the ball, or feeling balanced. This is the same process used in the FOCUSING STAGE.

To rest and back away from the intense part, you go from specific to general and move up into the broader part of the funnel. A distraction is anytime your attention is pulled away from your focusing spot. To get back to the focus spot, you need to find some connection between the distraction and your adjustment. Then let the general connection refocus you (Translation). You could notice a color on the distracting person's clothes and let that bring you back into focus. You attach a thread to the distraction and let the thread lead you back into the funnel. The thread can be color, sound, or the temperature, whatever works with the generalization of your adjustment.

Figure 23. Connecting a thread to a distraction outside your funnel.

MAJOR DISTRACTIONS

Major distractions are more tricky, however. This is when you are completely knocked off track, and you just can't get back on. Having other concerns on your mind is the most common cause (same as AUDITORY DISTRACTION, or INNER MESSAGE DISTRACTIONS). In some cases, the concern is so strong that it actually creates another funnel separate from your ideal one - and pulls you down into it. It's easy to get stuck there because the simple attention shifting devices just aren't strong enough to pull you out of its influence.

Figure 24. Dealing with distracting funnels.

Before you can use any countermeasures on this distracting funnel, you need to identify it.[51 This means pinpointing the thing that is bothering you, irrespective of how serious or silly it is. It may be because you're afraid the guys will laugh at you; or you're being sued and stand to lose your house; or you can't remember if you left the gas on at home. Whatever the concern is, you must identify it before you can take steps to neutralize it. 5.

This is the INNER MESSAGE DISTRACTION technique.

Some items can be neutralized by negotiating a temporary time extension. If something needs to be done, you might say to yourself that you'll get to it at a specific time later, or that you'll only play one more game. This resolves it for the time being, and lets you become fully involved in what you're doing at that moment. Remember, the negotiation must be sincere or it won't stick.

Other items can be neutralized by finding an alternative point of view. It may take some creativity to come up with one that fits, but when you find an alternative perspective, the disrupting funnel will be neutralized. It could be something like, "It's really a minor issue," or, "I'm a grown woman, this is a piece of cake for me." Again, it's critical that you pick an alternative that you genuinely believe. If you have difficulty coming up with an alternative point of view, it could be that your social rules are interfering, and your best alternatives seem too silly or too improper to be considered. Let yourself go: Cowgirls, pixies, animals; all are fair game for your new perspective. Seeing yourself as a tiger on the starting line may counter your usual concern about having a false start. Anything that helps you shift perspective is acceptable.

Quite often the disrupting funnel stems from comments to yourself. This doesn't soften their impact, however, and they can be even more devastating than other distractions. Many slumps can be traced to this source, and the confusing part is that the comments don't have to be negative to distract.

Thinking that you're doing well can be just as disruptive as thinking how poorly you're doing or seeing someone waving a flag. Anything that gets you outside your funnel is a distraction. One countermeasure is to find an alternative thought which discounts this idea and allows you to get back to your ideal funnel.

For example, if you start thinking how well you're playing and feel your concentration begin to slip, you could immediately counter with the comment that, "It's just part of my job." This discounts the distracting thought of needing to play well, and lets you get back to your ideal funnel.

Unfortunately, internal distractions can have a devastating impact on the quality of your performance, and you should try to resolve them as soon as possible. If the issue can't be resolved, it may be wise to suspend your performing temporarily to safeguard yourself against acquiring sloppy concentration habits. This measure is seldom necessary however, and the suggested countermeasures can handle an enormous array of difficulties.

As you can see, the funnel offers a simple method for handling problems quickly under pressure.

After studying the techniques described earlier in the chapter, you may wish to take the results and shape them into your personalized funnel.

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Notes:

1. Richard Bandler and John Grinder. Trance-Formations. (Moab, Utah: Real People Press, 1981.)

2. General psychological theory calls this classical conditioning; a more specific discussion calls it "ideo-syncratic-motor cues," David B. Cheek and Leslie M. McCron. Clinical Hypnotherapy. (Orlando, Florida: Grune, 1968.)

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