2
2d_Sparrow
Rising Star
Bronze Level
Put simply, all sporting success can be boiled down to a combination of skills and mentality. We primarily learn skills first and sprinkle in some mentality along the way. What is interesting though is that even from the get-go our mentality dictates the speed in which we learn and our perception of that learning.
For example, we can struggle with a sport but find a lot of enjoyment knowing that it is teaching us important lessons about discipline. Or can greatly accelerate our ability to learn by having a strong goal in mind.
Below, I'm going to attempt to break-down a way in which anyone can improve their mental game, in particular, overcoming tilt. I believe that there is a common misconception that improving the mental game is something limited to only the highest level of play even though we were unknowingly first introduced to the concept by our little-league soccer coach. Even at the lowest level of play small improvements in your mental game can increase the amount of +EV plays your make substationally.
Just a tiny bit about me before we begin. A few years ago I was competing in Starcraft II against the best of the best in my region. It didn't last long, the road I went down took its toll on my body and mind. Soon after my first international event I burned out completely and had to leave the game behind. I became driven to learn more about improving health and mentality whilst becoming a full-time teacher. I was able to help many students build strong minds and healthy habits and loved doing so. This year I returned to my gaming roots to help others excel in their chosen sport for many years into their future without burning out.
So how can you approach improving your mental game? First off I'll ask you this, have you ever experienced tilting at the tables or while playing online? You know you shouldn't have made a certain play but you did it anyway and to top it all off you did the same thing again a few hands later! This is something we've all experienced and it can be quite frustrating to deal with. How can we possibly learn from these kinds of mistakes when even our internal monologues seem to have no effect on our future approaches to the problem?
Its because we have two states of mind, a logical state and an emotional state. When you tilt, you are in an emotional state of mind where your emotions control your actions. After the fact, you try to solve the problem with your logical mind so that you can avoid it in the future. The problem here is, you can't solve an emotional problem directly with your logical mind. We need to approach it from a different angle.
So how do we solve an emotional problem? Bear with me as some may seem unconventional but I'll try my best to explain the reasoning behind everything. The goal of solving an emotional problem is to communicate to our subconscious mind and tell it that it's being lazy. Our subconscious has chosen to react emotionally to a situation because of something we've learned in our past. We need to find ways to convince it that it's being illogical and that we want to choose a different response to the troublesome situation instead.
You might say, that doesn't help at all, how the heck am I meant to change my subconscious behaviours. The answer is quite straight forward, we do this by challenging it. It could be through therapy, councilling, coaching, or even more simply, a conversation with someone you're comfortable with.
We can challenge our behaviours by articulating them to another person. By doing this we accept that they are there and we have to find the right words to describe what we are going through. It can often feel quite embarrassing or difficult as we are shocked at how illogical our problems seem when we are explaining them to another person. This directly challenges our subconscious and all that is left is for us to decide how we think we should react instead.
The key here though is getting comfortable and its the most difficult part of the equation. If you go to a professional therapist or councillor you'll know that one of the first things they do is build comfort. They build rapport with you or get you to lie on a couch, or sit in a comfortable chair. Building comfort is a skill in itself which is why it's so much easier with someone who is trained. But you can find people who are good listeners and make you feel relaxed and achieve similar things with them too.
It is possible to do this process by yourself. In all cases, you're trying to reach a state of comfort or relaxation. You're trying to accept that you're experiencing a certain behaviour and you're trying to convince your subconscious that it is being illogical and that it should find a more creative solution. Some tips for going solo, try it after you've been meditating for a while. Do it just before going to sleep. You can find some videos on Youtube which will subtly change some behaviours too.
Some things to keep in mind. I mentioned that getting comfortable is the primary thing for being able to affect your subconscious. It can be very difficult to get into this state of mind or learn anything effectively for that matter if you are stressed or closed off. If this is the case de-stressing should be your number one priority. To do this focus on improving your exercise, nutrition, and sleep first.
Lastly, working on your mental game is a great way to make more +EV plays but it doesn't solve all your problems. What it does do is that it gives you the confidence to change your subconscious behaviours which makes it much faster to do in the future. You're always going to have problems no matter what, what we're doing is training ourselves to be aware when our emotions are out of balance and to improve our speed in bringing them back to a relaxed state.
Thanks for sticking with me this far, I would love to hear your thoughts!
For example, we can struggle with a sport but find a lot of enjoyment knowing that it is teaching us important lessons about discipline. Or can greatly accelerate our ability to learn by having a strong goal in mind.
Below, I'm going to attempt to break-down a way in which anyone can improve their mental game, in particular, overcoming tilt. I believe that there is a common misconception that improving the mental game is something limited to only the highest level of play even though we were unknowingly first introduced to the concept by our little-league soccer coach. Even at the lowest level of play small improvements in your mental game can increase the amount of +EV plays your make substationally.
Just a tiny bit about me before we begin. A few years ago I was competing in Starcraft II against the best of the best in my region. It didn't last long, the road I went down took its toll on my body and mind. Soon after my first international event I burned out completely and had to leave the game behind. I became driven to learn more about improving health and mentality whilst becoming a full-time teacher. I was able to help many students build strong minds and healthy habits and loved doing so. This year I returned to my gaming roots to help others excel in their chosen sport for many years into their future without burning out.
So how can you approach improving your mental game? First off I'll ask you this, have you ever experienced tilting at the tables or while playing online? You know you shouldn't have made a certain play but you did it anyway and to top it all off you did the same thing again a few hands later! This is something we've all experienced and it can be quite frustrating to deal with. How can we possibly learn from these kinds of mistakes when even our internal monologues seem to have no effect on our future approaches to the problem?
Its because we have two states of mind, a logical state and an emotional state. When you tilt, you are in an emotional state of mind where your emotions control your actions. After the fact, you try to solve the problem with your logical mind so that you can avoid it in the future. The problem here is, you can't solve an emotional problem directly with your logical mind. We need to approach it from a different angle.
So how do we solve an emotional problem? Bear with me as some may seem unconventional but I'll try my best to explain the reasoning behind everything. The goal of solving an emotional problem is to communicate to our subconscious mind and tell it that it's being lazy. Our subconscious has chosen to react emotionally to a situation because of something we've learned in our past. We need to find ways to convince it that it's being illogical and that we want to choose a different response to the troublesome situation instead.
You might say, that doesn't help at all, how the heck am I meant to change my subconscious behaviours. The answer is quite straight forward, we do this by challenging it. It could be through therapy, councilling, coaching, or even more simply, a conversation with someone you're comfortable with.
We can challenge our behaviours by articulating them to another person. By doing this we accept that they are there and we have to find the right words to describe what we are going through. It can often feel quite embarrassing or difficult as we are shocked at how illogical our problems seem when we are explaining them to another person. This directly challenges our subconscious and all that is left is for us to decide how we think we should react instead.
The key here though is getting comfortable and its the most difficult part of the equation. If you go to a professional therapist or councillor you'll know that one of the first things they do is build comfort. They build rapport with you or get you to lie on a couch, or sit in a comfortable chair. Building comfort is a skill in itself which is why it's so much easier with someone who is trained. But you can find people who are good listeners and make you feel relaxed and achieve similar things with them too.
It is possible to do this process by yourself. In all cases, you're trying to reach a state of comfort or relaxation. You're trying to accept that you're experiencing a certain behaviour and you're trying to convince your subconscious that it is being illogical and that it should find a more creative solution. Some tips for going solo, try it after you've been meditating for a while. Do it just before going to sleep. You can find some videos on Youtube which will subtly change some behaviours too.
Some things to keep in mind. I mentioned that getting comfortable is the primary thing for being able to affect your subconscious. It can be very difficult to get into this state of mind or learn anything effectively for that matter if you are stressed or closed off. If this is the case de-stressing should be your number one priority. To do this focus on improving your exercise, nutrition, and sleep first.
Lastly, working on your mental game is a great way to make more +EV plays but it doesn't solve all your problems. What it does do is that it gives you the confidence to change your subconscious behaviours which makes it much faster to do in the future. You're always going to have problems no matter what, what we're doing is training ourselves to be aware when our emotions are out of balance and to improve our speed in bringing them back to a relaxed state.
Thanks for sticking with me this far, I would love to hear your thoughts!
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