Topic: mental attitude

[zeek mullins]

Meister
  I think the "learning" post was more about being honest with yourself.
  Personal responsibility is about accepting who "yourself" really is. If you can accept that the YOU you think you are is just a concept, biocomputer software, stored in your subconscious mind, then YOU are free to change those things about you that dont get you what you want. Just as you can remove old software and install new, more useful software in your PC, you can do the same with your "ego". My next post deals with disempowering the old software you have that is not getting you what you want.
  I could not tell from your post if you had read the Personal responsibility post?

[foozkillah]

Seems to be getting a bit tight in this here thread...  Can we be impersonably irresponsible for just a sec?

I don't mind if you throw a pull or a push or a snake or a dink or Camus or Nietsche or even a Heineken bottle at me ,,,, as long as they don't give me a mental lobotomy.

 

[Tyler Foos]

Do you sometimes feel you know more than you need to know about more than you need to know about and not enough about what you know you ought to know more about?

Just wondering.........................................Tyler

[Old Meister]

Tyler, there are those who absolutely don't need nor would benefit from this information. It actually would clutter their minds and inhibit their performance. It comes down to personality types and the way we go about learning and executing. It comes down to the question,"Why?".  Some need to know and some could care less. Good coaches study the "why?" but might not burden their student with it but rather might give them a task that helps the student achieve the needed skill in a simple and effective manner. It may well be true that those of us who study all the intricacies actually have a harder time dominating as it is still the reactive "caveman brain" that provides the execution needed to win and all this understanding is for naught unless it can be channeled and put in it's place.
Zeek, I re-read the personal responsibility post and will have to read it again for it all to sink in(again, that Norwegian thing) as there is a lot to chew on. I feel I utilized that discipline this weekend at a good sized tournament. There were a good number of pro's, some highly rated, at this tournament. I'm one of those boomers who have come back to the game about 2 years ago and have steadily worked on recapturing my game. So I had the pleasure of playing these wonderfully talented players from the vantage point of pure fun and I found myself winning matches and frustrating people who I read about. I was calm yet energized, friendly yet a real thorn in their side. I just had a blast! My demeanor was real, I was relaxed and having fun and was honest about what I could do and couldn't. This is the value of what you're talking about, the ability to approach the game in this mind-set. Thanks, it hasn't fallen on deaf ears and keep it coming if you want.

[Tyler Foos]

OM,

This is a great thread! Killah reminded me of a shirt my mom had. She was a heavy duty, detail oriented, everything had to be logical professional that would, just for occasional levity, wear that shirt for a quick 'catch your breath before digesting more'. My attempt at levity was not intended to diminish anything, but different personatlity types take things differently I guess.

Again, this is a great thread, please keep it going!

Tyler

[JoeyDMaio]

Hi there, I think I haven't posted in this thread yet but I'm reading it with much much attention, especially since these things can not only improve the game, but also life !

So first intention of this post is to tell you to keep that thread going !!

Then as you seem to be looking for comments I'll give one of my experience :

I had a league game* yesterday and things went all wrong, even though I knew I had to let it be ok and stay cool and relaxed I couldn't help but getting angry, talking *** about my game while playing and you know, finally loosing motivation...
It's something that happens to me pretty rarely (my partner was almost shocked lol), and even more rarely since I'm aware of the "mental game" !

So when I read this :

"We have all learned to play the blame game. Something happens outside of us, and if it was not something we wanted to happen, we have learned to place blame on that happening. Someone says or does something we “don’t like”, or we do something and don’t get the results we wanted, and our internal map, our “ego” has been programmed to place fault somewhere. We blame the happening, or we blame ourselves for somehow causing the happening. We react in a negative way both physically and emotionally. Our body releases chemicals in to our system that cause us to feel bad. We begin to focus on what we don’t want, with the intention of avoiding it. Basically, we suffer. This is a learned reaction!"

I saw myself a lot in yesterday's game blaming almost everything, so I'll try to list these things and then I'd like you to tell me HOW I should have reacted to these things, to keep being peaceful and even if we had eventually lost I would have been happy with it, because I would have given everything I had.

So what I THINK happened that got me out of the game :

a) Played a lot the night before, didn't sleep a lot and therefore was far from the top physically
b) I'm allergic to pollens, and it's springtime, so my allergy is sucking down a lot of my energy to fight... And it affects my general mood in general
c) The other local team had unfortunately to play there as well, so we had to play on another table in another place
d) Light sucked hard, hard to see clearly the ball while it was moving, as we switched side it got better for this point
e) Ground was not perfectly flat so it affected a lot our passing game
f) One guy of the facing team is a real ball sucker, you know the type of guy, seems whatever you do or happens on the table the ball ends up on his 3 bar 80% of the time. (Thing is usually I am that guy on the table  )
g) Shot really too fast without success

Well that's mainly it, what bugs me the most is that some weeks ago we had kinda the same type of match, I started bragging on myself in the first few games after each missed pass or shot, and at some point I managed to tell myself to stop being negative, to shut up and just focus on the game and it worked really really well, actually the facing team started to loose their nerves and it was really great to see the inner game working that well 

Maybe as I was a bit down physically and mentally, I should have try to not play that hard, and change a bit my style and game plan to a more slow paced and relaxed game to let my energy last the whole match. Or maybe I should have prepared myself mentally to have those moments where I wouldn't play my best, as I wasn't on top before the match ? Like if I knew I wasn't going to play my best game it would have been easier to me to accept my misses ? Am I expecting to much of my game ? "Do I not know how good I am" ? 

*Our league is played like tennis scorewise, ie we play series of games to 6 points, first to win 6 games wins the set and first to win 2 sets win the match, so a match in 3 sets (33 games max) can last up to 4 hours...

[Old Meister]

Tiger Woods' dad would harass him while he was playing, trying to do everything he could to distract him. The lesson was to be able to perform in the worst of circumstances. How can you practice that without being in the worst of circumstances. So next time it seems all wrong, smile, now you get your chance to work on it. By doing so you just made a negative into a positive. Another thing I've learned is to never vocally put yourself down, just don't do it.  Not in a game or otherwise. If you're not happy with parts of your game then work on them but be honest about it to yourself not those who want to dominate you. You don't owe them any explanation and certainly don't need to diminish yourself. The game is fun, you win and lose and then you work on what caused you to lose  so that you win more. Create your own internal atmosphere, think about what you would like to happen, how you want to execute. Do this to please yourself not in answer to your opponent, that's just the person on the other side of the table, you are on this side, your side. You get to make anything you want happen on this side and it is fun to do so.

[bbtuna]

you all thought bbt must not be following this any more but you would be wrong

Joey, good post, honest, and lots of potential for adjustments

OM, like that last post , others too of course but I liked that last line as a quote but I am going to edit it a bit

Do this to please yourself not to answer your opponent, that's just the person on the other side of the table, you are on this side and you get to make anything you want happen on this side.

[Old Meister]

I like your edit too Bb. Cool!

[zeek mullins]

The reason I like questions is because sometimes I am not sure I am getting my message across properly. Your questions give me a chance to, hopefully, clarify the information and explain it better..

Fooskilla wrote:
Seems to be getting a bit tight in this here thread...  Can we be impersonably irresponsible for just a sec?
I don't mind if you throw a pull or a push or a snake or a dink or Camus or Nietsche or even a Heineken bottle at me ,,,, as long as they don't give me a mental lobotomy.

This stuff can be confusing. You have to want to learn it to hang in there. If you are happy with the results you are getting, let that be ok. But if there are some things in your game / life that you would like to change, I am showing a way of thinking that will get that for you. If you will be patient, and if you want to learn this, it will make sense eventually.

Oldmeister wrote:
Tyler, there are those who absolutely don't need nor would benefit from this information. It actually would clutter their minds and inhibit their performance. It comes down to personality types and the way we go about learning and executing. It comes down to the question, "Why?".  Some need to know and some could care less. Good coaches study the "why?" but might not burden their student with it but rather might give them a task that helps the student achieve the needed skill in a simple and effective manner. It may well be true that those of us who study all the intricacies actually have a harder time dominating as it is still the reactive "caveman brain" that provides the execution needed to win and all this understanding is for naught unless it can be channeled and put in it's place.
Zeek, I re-read the personal responsibility post and will have to read it again for it all to sink in(again, that Norwegian thing) as there is a lot to chew on. I feel I utilized that discipline this weekend at a good sized tournament. There were a good number of pro's, some highly rated, at this tournament. I'm one of those boomers who have come back to the game about 2 years ago and have steadily worked on recapturing my game. So I had the pleasure of playing these wonderfully talented players from the vantage point of pure fun and I found myself winning matches and frustrating people who I read about. I was calm yet energized, friendly yet a real thorn in their side. I just had a blast! My demeanor was real, I was relaxed and having fun and was honest about what I could do and couldn't. This is the value of what you're talking about, the ability to approach the game in this mind-set. Thanks, it hasn't fallen on deaf ears and keep it coming if you want.

Hopefully you are beginning to understand that all that “clutter” is just learned software, running automatically and unconsciously. My stuff is about taking charge of your mind and stopping it from running on automatic. Once you do this, the “clutter” loses its power and eventually ceases.
   Sounds like you got into a fairly peaceful state of mind at that tournament. And more importantly it sounds like you recognized it when it was happening. The state of peace/fun is when you are most receptive to learning. The more you pay attention to how you were thinking and acting during these times, the easier it will be to create the state again. Eventually it will be come habit.

Joey
  Most of the things you listed were negative in nature. All the reasons you listed were reasons why you could lose the match. Your mind was focused on not losing the match, with the intention of avoiding losing the match. All of these things required you to make pictures of “losing the match” (remember that there is no fault or blame here. Its just the way most peoples software has learned to react). These pictures were being created automatically and unconsciously.
  This could be because you have developed a belief (software program), sometime in your previous life experience, that everything must be perfect before you can win. This is playing white must win. It will never happen!
  What we are working on in these posts is how to get the most out of what we have at the time. Successful people are successful in spite of the adversities. They have learned to disempower the negative thoughts/images and immediately switch to, focus on, what they want.
  You did this in that previous match you talked about! As I said above, the key to using this experience is knowing to pay attention to how you are thinking and acting when it is happening. This is how you begin to change the unwanted programs to programs that will get you what you want.

My next two posts should be very helpful in understanding how to do this.

[foozkillah]

I'm absolutely stock-sure that there are one, two, maybe three dozen really excellent little truths in this thread that make so much sense once you get or "ken" them.

My little wordplay is because alas, with all the beginners and scrubs I've had the acute pleasure of encouraging, training, goading, and cajoling, I swear that sometimes, just describing a basic triangle intensely cluttered their minds!   Like a new turn on an old phrase:

"Hey You!  Don't just do something! Stand there!"..  Idle hands in motion are often the Hacker's recroom.

I just want you all to know I'm keeping up on this thread... always looking for analogies or examples to pass on.  BUT DON'T EVUH FUGGIT DAH PHUN!  Comic relief is important, especially with such intense discourses and discussions.

[Tyler Foos]

Foozkillah,

 ^^^^Like after studying for hours for a big test, taking a break to play some foosball?! ^^^^^
                                     That's where I was trying to go - thanks.

                                                                 Tyler

[Old Meister]

Zeek, I think everyone has said that they are all ears in their own way. This is THE biggest and responded to thread yet on foosball.com and for good reason, this is good stuff. This is why we come here, to better our game. 

[zeek mullins]

We have been talking about the “software” in our unconscious minds that controls how we think, feel and act. Some of this software is positive in nature, and helps us get what we want. Some of it is negative in nature and creates out comes we do not want. So why is some of this programming positive and some negative? And why and how do we create this software? I decided I needed to do this post before I get to the witness thing.

The Safety Issue

We receive information from the outside world thru our five senses. Sight, hearing, taste smell and touch. We use this information, in our conscious mind, to form the images that tell our unconscious mind what we want. Before this information reaches the conscious mind, it passes thru a series of filters. There are several of these filters, but the main two are beliefs and values. We form these filters usually before the age of 11, well before we are old enough to have control of this process. And they are formed based on what will keep us safe in this early environment.

Example: You have two older brothers or sisters. They are always teasing you, maybe even abusing you physically. You try fighting back, but this just gets you in trouble with your parents for fighting. Then one day while they are picking on you, you start crying and run to your dad to tell him what happened. He gets really mad at them and punishes them. You do the same thing next time, and it works again. Your unconscious mind gets the message that crying is a way to keep you safe when things are not going your way. You form the belief that crying is an excellent way to react to unwanted outcomes.

While this belief may work well in that family environment, it is obviously not a good strategy when you get out in the real world. Your boss wont take kindly to that reaction!

Another Example: Your parents or primary caregivers constantly tell you that you are not a loveable person. Every time you do something to try to make them love you, they scold you and tell you to stop acting so emotional (not their fault. Just they way their internal map was formed). If this happens enough, and enough emotion is involved, you develop the belief that you are not loveable. Later in your life, you find it impossible to develop a loving relationship with another person.

Keep in mind that you unconscious mind is your “geni”. Its sole purpose for existing is to keep you safe and happy. It will do whatever it has to do to make your experience of life conform to your beliefs.

So, if you have developed the belief that you are not a loveable person, your unconscious mind will do whatever it has to do to keep you from getting in a situation where you might develop a loving relationship. It will sabotage every opportunity because it thinks it is not safe to do so. Its just giving you what it thinks you want!

These are just two examples of the thousands, even millions of beliefs you may have formed about all the happenings in your life. Some beliefs are very resourceful and help you get what you want. Obviously some are not. The goal is to keep the ones that are resourceful, and change the ones that are not.

Add On: Beliefs are ideas that we hold to be true. Notice that i did not say they are true. They always seem true to the person that holds them. But in reality they are just concepts, and therefore changeable.

[Tyler Foos]

Zeek,

As usual, more good stuff added and I must say you are doing a nice job of serving up information in an easy to grasp order - meaning you lay the foundation first before building on it.

If I may correct one thing - humans actually have 7 senses (I always get a kick out of 'he has a sixth sense', LOL). Along with the 5 you mentioned, we also have a kinesthetic sense (movement and body posture) and a sense of balance (located in the ear but completely separate from hearing). All 7 factor into your comments so I figured it would be worth mentioning.

Thanks for your well organized presentation..............................................Tyler