THE QATSPY® Inside the Leather Sports, Health & Fitness Page
By; Charles W. Boatright
How Can Athletes Perform IT In-The-Sports ZONE? If Your Performance is Fluid, Instinctive, Natural, and Automatic, You’re In-the-Zone!
THE QUESTION- How Can Athletes Perform IT In-The-Sports ZONE on a consistent and regular basis? If you play in an individual sport, this seems to be even more of a challenge than in a team sport. But, in reality, the athlete participating in a team sport is faced with the same opportunity and obstacles as an athlete in an individual sport, and that is performing IT. So what is IT?
There’s one sport that seems to be a little more difficult to reach IT In-The-Sports ZONE than most other sports, and I’m referring to the sport of golf. Most athletes can perform IT at a consistent level in most sports. For the golfer, however, performing IT at a consistent level can be a little more challenging, even from shot to shot on the same hole. No other sport has more of a disparity between how an athlete practices and how the athlete will perform IT on the field, court, or course than golf.
Golf was best described by Bobby Jones, Sr.- Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course – the distance between your ears. Most all sports have a mental component, to some degree. The only thing that makes golf a little more challenging than most sports is that IT is 99.9 percent mental. It is difficult to maintain that high level of mental performance consistently, shot after shot, with various levels of skills needed for various shots and under various conditions.
But there is an IT technique that not only golfers can use, but any athlete can use in any sport that allows them to train and condition their mind and body. It is based on the IT Factor, or situational awareness, of the ability to project one’s status into the near future to visualize an objective. This way the athlete can restrict their conscious thinking using the IT Factor, OR Intuitive Training performance.
The Key to Developing the IT Condition of Situational Awareness
A great example of Situational Awareness is how retired Atlanta Braves pitchers John Smoltz and Tom Glavine were able to perform IT Factor on the mound. Their ball control was only surpassed by their ability to have mental control of focusing on the mound, where they wanted each pitch to go in the strike zone. Smoltz and Glavine performed a key component, they didn’t think on the mound; they instead Focused and relaxed their minds. They were considered Rembrandts, because they were able to paint the corners of the strike zone.
For an athlete to achieve the IT Factor, or Situational Awareness, like that of Smoltz and Glavine in their particular sport, the athlete has to have a practice that simulates performance by following three (3) circumstances and seven (7) elements described below:
Circumstances and Elements to Develop IT:
- Have a normal routine under familiar circumstance.
- Rely on a high degree of relaxation, confidence, and muscle memory.
- Situational awareness where the conscious mind is allowed to focus on a clear objective of WHAT and the subconscious mind is allowed to follow an unobstructed procedure for HOW.
Brief breakdown of the IT Factor Elements:
- Routine– An instinctive, systematic sequence that is automatic.
- Conditions– Where there is not distinction between practice and performance.
- Relaxation– Let things happen, play in the moment, and let things come to you; don’t try to force things.
- Confidence– Trust and rely on IT, Intuitive Training, and play within yourself.
- Muscle Memory– Rely on highly-developed repetitive motor skills that aren’t susceptible to alteration or change in sequence. IT is performed the exact same way every time without any deviation.
- Situational Awareness– The ability to project one’s status into the near future to visualize an objective and outcome.
Situation Awareness takes the athlete’s conscious mind into the future and allows the subconscious mind to perform unencumbered in the present moment. Subconscious Rule No. 5 states- What you expect tends to be realized. One important fact, the subconscious mind doesn’t distinguished between positive and negative input. If your last conscious thought was on a Par-3 tee box was- I don’t want to hit my tee shot into the water. Guess what, you just programed your subconscious mind with- I want to hit my tee shot into the water.
Relaxation is a key to performance, based on the Subconscious Rule No. 9 that states- The greater the conscious effort reduces the subconscious mind’s intuitive Training response, or the IT Factor. Any performance by an athlete will be totally reliant on the athletes Intuitive Training and not on their thinking process. If IT’S not intuitive to the athlete, the athlete will not be In-The-Sports ZONE. I can guarantee IT!
The athlete has actually experienced the IT Factor before, without being aware of IT. So actually IT is familiar to the athlete. If you’ve ever driven a vehicle along a very familiar route or scenic highway, you have experienced the IT Factor performed before, of performing In-The-Sports ZONE. The IT (Intuitive Training) condition is called Driving Hypnosis.
So what Does IT, Driving Hypnosis, have to do with In-The-Sports ZONE?
This is how you can use Driving Hypnosis to improve your IT Factor sports performance- A driver gets settled into their leisure trip on a nice day by following a well-defined and normal routine under regular driving circumstances. The driver’s conscious mind is allowed to relax and focuses on some other objective, because of the confidence and highly-developed skills that the subconscious mind provides the driver.
For short intervals of time, four to five minutes, the driver’s conscious mind doesn’t even remember driving along certain stretches of the highway or past certain landmarks. The driver is on Autopilot for these short interval of time, but the driver is still able to negotiate, not only the highway, but the traffic without incident.
Driving Hypnosis is a perfect platform and procedure to develop the IT Factor to develop situational awareness for In-The-Sports ZONE performance. The key to high performance is to project one’s status into the future. Even in faith-based beliefs, one is required to project from a current situation into the future condition.
While Driving Hypnosis is unsafe for driving a vehicle down the highway, Driving Hypnosis, the IT Factor, works great for driving a golf ball down the fairway.
I’ve used Driving Hypnosis and simple ergonomics as the basis of my coaching and training that are in my Download called The Palmer D-PRO Golf Technique. Please use the link below to purchase your download copy:
This download is fully illustrated and has all my training videos contained in this Download. This is like having your own personal instructor right there with you.
If you, the golfer, have ever felt that your baseball swing is more fluid, instinctive, and easier to perform consistently than making your golf shot, then this Technique is for YOU!
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We also carry the Indiana Jones-Style Jacket that we furnish the Indianan Jones Movie.
In September of 2020, I was called back in to help out during restoration after Hurricane Laura and Delta ravaged western part of Louisiana near Lake Charles. I been retired for five- years. The linemen that I used to work with couldn’t believe the shape and condition I was in at 63- years old. They dared me to take the AB challenge below:
