Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld :Becoming a Natural Athlete/Training your instincts/Flying On the Line
The first article in a new series by multiple World Champion Dan BC, on training for peak performance, extracted from his much-loved book, Above All Else.
NATURAL ATHLETE – An athlete that instinctively performs to the best of his abilities without obvious thought or effort.
In many ways this is the ultimate goal of every athlete. We have all marveled at how some athletes can “read the play” and intuitively handle rapidly changing conditions on the playing field. They instinctively do whatever the situation calls for while staying calm and making it look easy in the process. These athletes have trained their athletic skills to the point that they have become instinctive, muscle memory. But in addition to having developed their instincts, they have trained the SKILL of TRUSTING THEIR INSTINCTS.
This is certainly not limited to sports. It is true for individuals striving to reach their peak performance in any field. Dancers, musicians, writers, artists, pilots, actors and public speakers will tell you the same thing. They perform at their best when they just relax, trust that their training will work for them, and “let it happen”.
They perform at their best when they just relax, trust that their training will work for them, and “let it happen”.
On the other hand, there are also many people with amazing technical skills, but who aren’t able to consistently perform to the full potential of those skills. Their minds are too busy with exterior thoughts that don’t concern the task of the moment. They don’t have the confidence to relax and trust that their instincts will lead them to victory if they just let them.
We are all born with the innate inclination to trust our instincts. As babies and even toddlers we had little other than our instincts to operate from when determining a course of action. A gut feeling would tell us to do something and we would follow it. As we grow up we have many new experiences and gain lots of new information. We start to pay less attention to our gut feelings, intuition and instincts, and instead are led by fears of making mistakes, worrying about other people’s perceptions of us and concern for the final outcome rather than the task at hand. All of these are contrary to operating on instinct.
We operate on instinct when our minds are calm, undistracted and purely focused in the moment. It is an incredible, yet very natural experience. Our senses pick up, and make us aware of, everything that is happening on the “playing field”. We see, hear and feel what we are confronted with and instinctively respond to it without analysis, or at times without even conscious thought.
We operate on instinct when our minds are calm, undistracted and purely focused in the moment.
The ability to trust our instincts exists deep within each one of us. But because of all the exterior distractions we allow to cloud our minds, our instincts are sometimes buried so deeply that it takes a shock to our system to bring them out. Many of us have experienced unique moments in sports (or other activities) when we stopped thinking and were just going on automatic. These moments often happen when something suddenly forces us to operate on instinct without giving us a chance to think or do otherwise. The result is a level of performance we didn’t even know we were capable of.
Nearly everyone who drives a car has had an experience like this. There you were, calm as could be, cruising down the road, enjoying a good song when another driver suddenly pulled out in front of you and slammed on the brakes. In the fraction of a second that you had to respond you looked in your mirrors, looked to the sides, hit the brakes, hit the gas, turned to avoid the collision while not causing another one and instantly took evasive action. It all happened in seconds. You didn’t plan for it or have any warning that it was coming. But the situation demanded that you respond without hesitation. You handled it and didn’t even realize how terrified you were until it was over. You never trained for, or practiced the particular maneuver that was required of you. You don’t even know how you did it. You just did it. You were forced to trust your instincts because you didn’t have time to do anything else. Your instincts came through for you and they always will. Our instincts are only as good as we have trained them to be. If you had came across the same situation during your first time behind the wheel of a car you would have been less likely to respond as well. An experienced taxi driver would have handled it better. A Nascar driver, better still.
You were forced to trust your instincts because you didn’t have time to do anything else. Your instincts came through for you and they always will.
We will perform at our best, whatever level that best is, when we trust our instincts to take us there. New driver’s skills are not yet well trained. If they relax and allow their instincts to guide them, their instincts will tell them to stay aware, slow down, watch carefully and not get too close to the car in front of them. The NASCAR driver’s instincts are very well trained. When they relax and allow their instincts to guide them their instincts will tell them that they can race down the road at any speed they choose, because they know they will be able to handle any situation that may arise.
In athletic competition we are constantly training our skills and developing our instincts with the goal of becoming a “natural athlete”. To do this we must start practicing the “skill” of trusting our instincts while our athletic abilities and are still early in their development.
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This series of articles is extracted from Dan’s amazing book, Above All Else – available from Square One HERE or Amazon HERE
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Second article in Dan BC’s series on training for peak performance, extracted from his much-loved book, Above All Else…
Training ourselves to stop telling our bodies what to do…
Few concepts are less understood than that of trusting your instincts. We all get the idea. But isn’t it something that just happens by chance? Something only exceptional athletes can do? And what exactly are our instincts anyway? Is it really possible to actually TRAIN to trust them?
Deep inside us all, the innate ability exists to “trust our instincts”. We were born with it. Given the fact that it exists, it is also possible to train and groom the “skill” of trusting our instincts. To become a natural athlete that can instinctively perform at the best of our abilities without obvious thought or effort, we must do two things.
- We must train our athletic skills to the point that they become instinctive muscle memory.
- We must retrain the ability, the actual instinct to trust our instincts, that we had as small children.
We may be genetically built to accommodate the skills necessary for certain sports but we are not born with athletic instincts. Athletic skills are acquired. Only after much actual repetition and extensive visualization do such skills become instinctive and happen automatically as muscle memory.
When our mind is calm, undistracted by outside thoughts and focused only on the task at hand, trusting our instincts and our best performance happens automatically. In that moment nothing else in the world exists except the next move we need to make. We aren’t aware of physical pain and don’t feel fear or emotional anxiety. The only thing in our world is this basket, this pass, this stroke, this move, or the freefall formation we are doing right then. When we stop “trying to think” how we do a move, and just do it, we are allowing our instincts to take over.
LEARNING THE SKILL OF TRUSTING YOUR INSTINCTS
For the purposes of this conversation please accept these two definitions:
Athletic instinct / muscle memory – The amount of a move, or a skill, that you have trained to the point that it happens automatically without the need for additional conscious thought. (Putting one foot in front of the other when you are walking.)
Trusting your instincts – Trusting your body to do the amount of the move, or skill, it knows by muscle memory on its own, without conscious input from you. (You don’t think about how to walk, you just walk.)
In Formation Skydiving we can most efficiently train our individual flying skills in a Wind Tunnel, incredible machines that are freefall simulators. In the same way a golfer spends a great deal of time slowly and smoothly working out the body mechanics of a perfect swing, in a wind tunnel skydivers can practice the exact physical input necessary for aggressive, precise moves.
With enough practice we eventually learn the technical skill. It’s not perfect but we understand how it is done. We do it slowly because it requires us to think through every part of the move in order to coordinate all the participating body parts so that they work together as one. At this time the skill is not yet trained to the point of muscle memory. We are capable of performing the move, but to do it correctly our bodies require many reminders from us in the process. Consequently, when we follow our instincts they will naturally tell us to slow down and think through each part of the move one step at a time.
With enough repetition and visualization our body begins to develop some degree of muscle memory. The muscle memory allows us to think less because our body knows more. The more of a move our body knows as muscle memory the fewer reminders it needs from us during the move. If we relax and trust our instincts we will naturally allow our body to do what it knows how to do, while only giving our body the additional information it needs. The ultimate extension of this is when we have executed and visualized it so many times, that the entire move happens with minimal thought or none at all. We recognize the need to make a specific move and it happens automatically, instinctively. There is no need for a single thought so we don’t give it one. We just do it.
It is a long road from the time when we must think through each part of the exact physical input necessary to do a particular skill, until the time when that perfect move happens automatically, with little or no thought at all. This raises the question: If during this learning process the amount of conscious reminders we need changes, then how do we know how much we need to think about at any given moment? We don’t want to be mentally lazy and not think enough. But we also don’t want to “try too hard” by thinking too much. Every athlete knows how crippling thinking too much or over-analyzing can be. Over-analyzing is the opposite of trusting your instincts.
Over-analyzing is the opposite of trusting your instincts.
Don’t think too little. Don’t think too much. We know what NOT to do, but we don’t know what TO DO. If we don’t know the answer to learning how to trust our instincts who does? Our bodies do. If our minds are calm, focused and distraction free, it happens easily. Here is how it works.
- The more muscle memory our body has, the fewer conscious reminders it needs from us.
- Our body will automatically perform the amount of a move it currently knows as muscle memory without additional conscious reminders from us. Say 40%,
- The only reminder it needs from us, the other 60%, is for the amount of the move that is not yet trained as muscle memory.
- Our body will know how much of the move it has trained as muscle memory and will “ask” us for the other 60%.
- If we are calm and focused in the moment, we will “hear” our bodies ask for this information and we will instinctively answer with the information it needs and only the information it needs.
There is an internal conversation going on between your mind and your body. You cannot “try” to make this conversation happen any more than you can “try” to make your body do what it already knows how to do. This internal conversation will happen instinctively if you let it. When we stop trying to tell our bodies what to do, and allow them to do what we have trained them to do, they will come through for us.
When we stop trying to tell our bodies what to do, and allow them to do what we have trained them to do, they will come through for us.
HOW OVER-ANALYZING CRIPPLES OUR PERFORMANCE
When we are over-analyzing, or to put it simply, just “thinking too much”, we are not trusting our bodies to do what we have trained them to do. Let’s say again that our body understands 40% of a certain skill and will do that much automatically. All it needs from us in terms of conscious reminders is the other 60%.
If we are wrapped up in external concerns and distractions, our instincts are not able to take over. We don’t trust that our bodies will do what we’ve trained them to. In addition to the 60% it needs, we also try to force on it the 40% it already knows. Instead of operating at 100%, we have overloaded it with 140%. This is more than a natural internal conversation. It becomes noisy and distracting as opposed to calming and focused. Our instincts are blocked by too much thought, worry and analysis.
This overload can have very negative consequences. When we think too much, we end up poorly executing skills that we were previously doing well. We analyze our performance in a desperate attempt to figure out what we’re doing wrong. Being the dedicated athletes we are, we start trying even harder to fix the problem. But the actual problem was trying too hard and thinking too much in the first place. In trying so hard, we have obviously decided that everything we are aiming to achieve must be very difficult. The more difficult we think it is, the harder we try. The harder we try, the worse we do.
The most unfortunate part of this is that this “analysis paralysis” only happens to people that truly care and are giving a 110% effort to make it happen. It is usually the caring so much that causes you to go down this path in the first place. To become a natural athlete you must have the confidence to try by not trying. To care by not caring.
To become a natural athlete you must have the confidence to try by not trying. To care by not caring.
Consistently performing at our best is easy. We have to work hard in training our skills to a high level. We have to visualize extensively and do many repetitions in order for those skills to become instincts. We have to be disciplined in training ourselves to trust our instincts. But once we have done the hard work, we just relax, trust our instincts and let it happen. Our instincts will always lead us to our best performance, no matter what level our “best” is at the moment.
If you want to have this relaxed confidence when you arrive at the competition, you must practice it in training. You will prove to yourself that it works and you will be calm and confident the day of the meet. You will know without any doubt that as long as you calm your mind, rid yourself of all distractions and focus on the task at hand, your absolute best performance will emerge on its own.
This may sound as if I am describing some mystical experience that brings to mind “feel the force, Luke”. And that is exactly what I’m saying.
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Third article in Dan BC’s series on training for peak performance, extracted from his much-loved book, Above All Else…
YOUR OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE STATE
There are many definitions for the mental approach or mental state we are in when we perform at the top of our game. It has been referred to as “flow”, “the zone” or the “ideal performance state”. It is a place where our minds are calm, undistracted and focused in the moment. When we let our instincts take over. It happens almost effortlessly for us when we allow it to.
The phrase “on the line” always fit perfectly for skydiving. When we are on the line we are flying as aggressively as possible while still maintaining total control of the jump. “Under the line” refers to when we are being too passive or cautious, and not flying as aggressively as we can. “Over the line” is when we are being too reckless, and flying more aggressively than the team can control.
Slalom skiers can only go down a hill as fast as they can control. If they try to go faster they will be less efficient in their handling of the course and lose time or fall on their faces and be out of the race. On the other hand, if they are led by the fear of falling, their priority becomes not to fall rather than to go as fast as they can control. This approach will prevent them from pushing themselves to the fastest speed of which they are truly capable.
The same is true for skydiving teams. Many skydivers are capable of individually moving at a fast speed. But to score the most points possible in Formation Skydiving we go as fast as we can while making the smallest, most efficient moves possible, and keeping the entire team perfectly synchronized. When a group of recreational jumpers forms a team, their skills are less developed. They may have the ability to move quickly but not the experience and training to control it.
In order to keep control of the jumps, they may only be able to fly at 30% of their full speed. With time and training they become more consistent. This consistency provides more control and with it the confidence to fly faster. The team may have started out flying at 30% of their max speed but can now confidently fly at 50% while still maintaining control. But at 30% or 50% the team is still “on the line”, flying as aggressively as they are currently capable of controlling.
Though the percentage of max speed the team is capable of evolves, the mental process of flying on the line stays the same. The skill of flying on the line is the same skill at 30%, 50% or 100% power. When we are on the line we are at our best. We trust our instincts and we naturally perform up to our full potential. We will be at our best when we trust our instincts. But our best will truly be equal to our full potential if we instinctively are on the line. Few people are. It is a rare individual that is perfectly balanced. In our daily lives and activities most of us tend to be either on the more aggressive or more passive side. This is not simply a learned and acquired behavior. Infants come out of the womb with a tendency towards one or the other. It is truly a part of who we are. We are born this way.
When we are on the line we are at our best. We trust our instincts and we naturally perform up to our full potential.
Our best performance happens when we are right on the line. If our instincts are to be overly passive or overly aggressive, than trusting our instincts will not lead to our best performance. We will tend to favor one side of the line or the other. We need to retrain our selves to be instinctively on the line. Though it may be difficult to change “who we are” it is not impossible. We are certainly able to change who we are in the limited context of athletic performance.
When we review and evaluate our performance it is not enough to ask whether it was technically correct. We want to lock in our natural performance so that we train it to be right on the line. The questions we need to ask are: “Was that our best?” “Were we on the line?” “Did we have more in us?” “Could we have been more aggressive?” “Were we too aggressive, almost out of control?” “Do we need to calm down more?”
In order to be right on the line, you must give yourself conscious reminders during your preparation, when visualizing and during the actual performance. If you are someone that tends to be too passive, you will need to tell yourself things like, “GO”, “PUSH IT”, “GUN IT”. If you are someone that tends to be too aggressive it well be more along the lines of “STAY CALM”, “STAY COOL” or “ONE AT A TIME.”
At any level, flying “on the line” defines your best. You are flying at the maximum speed you can control. The mental process and “feeling” of being on the line stays the same as your skill and abilities advance. Your abilities change, but the skill of performing up to the full potential of your abilities doesn’t change. You must learn this skill at the beginning of your training and continue to practice it as your skills evolve. The competition will just be another step in this process.
