Your mental toolbox to a better game
Loss of concentration can be devastating for our results as bridge players. It is easy to dump 20 imps in the space of 3 or 4 boards through poor concentration. Top athletes generally have superb concentration – it is a skill which is developed over time – and if they lose concentration they have mechanisms […]
In sport, coaches often talk about being ‘match fit’. Practice form doesn’t always transfer to the playing field where nerves and the pressure of competition play a part. As an athlete, it doesn’t matter how much time you spend on practice, and practice matches, the first ‘real’ competition of the season is always hard. It […]
In an earlier article on maintaining focus, I discussed some tactics that could be undertaken to cope with distractions that occur during bridge events. These distractions could be external such as noisy players, director calls, noisy room, etc; or internal to you such as when you have made an error and your mind cannot let […]
When I competed in my first Commonwealth Games in 1994, I walked into the shooting range on the practice day, and right behind my shooting bay was a TV camera. Well some sports people experience TV cameras all the time, but in shooting this was an anomaly. In fact it would be fair to say […]
Often in sport, we see very good athletes lose a match after an error made in the early stages of their competition. This is particularly true in the “target” sports like shooting, golf, archery and so on, but other events like cycling, swimming, athletics, gymnastics and so on are not immune. A number of factors […]