Anyone remember that column from Outdoor Life???? Off the subject, sorry...
A few years back, when I was a competitive cyclist, I went to a sports psychologist to get help with the mental aspects of my training and racing.
To make a long story short, he gave me a focusing exercise to do. The premise was that our minds can not think of two things at the same time (Unless you're my wife)..
While resting on the couch in the Dr.'s office, I had to close my eyes and visualize the number "100" for as long as I could. In a realtively short period of time I lost the number when I started wondering what the Dr. was up to and I opened my eyes ... This latter thought caused the number 100 to go to the old thought bone yard.
The idea was to show me that in a race, when my attention was on how much my quad's were hurting (a negative thing), to use this as a que to check my breathing, ensure proper bending of my arms, and that I was pushing/pulling through the entire revolution of the pedal stroke.....
I was actually able to apply this concept to many aspects of my life and while teaching became the first, basketball wasn't far behind. For example, as a player you go up for a shot and the world knows that you got hacked but no call... As an official, you didn't care for the remark that one of the coaches made about your last call.. How long do these thoughts hang around in memory bank?? This is wasted time and what was happening on the court during these exercises in futility??
I personally do believe that a mind can not think of two things at the same time and I use this belief to "Stay in the Game"... "Be Here Now"...
Just an editorial on what has help me to stay "FOCUSed" (Awake in some cases
) and be a better official. Feedback is always welcome!