Why are we so upset, frustrated, angry, sad, irritated, annoyed, stressed, rushed, overwhelmed, afraid and the list goes on? These are emotions not only felt on the tennis, padel or pickleball court but also felt throughout the day. I do not have a magic cure but I do have some recommendations that I discuss in my book called the iZone Formula.
I have noticed that my tennis classes become a form of therapy not only for my students but for myself as well.
As the saying goes, "sports is life” is very true. All the thoughts and emotions that we experience in the heat of competition on the court are identical to what we experience in everyday life. The main message that I share in my book, the iZone Formula, is that we all have the same fight-or-flight response that primitive man had eons ago. This primitive fight-or-flight response has not changed or evolved at all over all these years. What does this mean to modern man today?
Modern man’s mind has evolved over the years into what we call ‘thoughts.’ The primitive fight-or-flight response ingrained in us by nature has no intelligence and has one sole purpose - to keep mankind alive. The issue is that the fight-or-flight response does not understand that modern man’s thoughts are not an attack on physical well-being. Modern man has so many sophisticated issues like a job, mortgage, getting the kids to school on time, paying the bills, traffic or winning/losing in sports. How can the primitive fight-or-flight response understand that any of these modern man problems, which are just thoughts, are not an attack on the physical body?
There is a gland called the amygdala that is in the midbrain that does not care if you win a match or get to work on time. When this gland senses any form of stress, frustration, anxiety or any similar thoughts, the amygdala shuts off the thinking part of the brain which is the frontal lobe, the bank or storage for all knowledge that creative civilization knows. In sports, this phenomenon is called choking. In life, this is called stress! So, what do we do now?
It is time to EVOLVE as a human species. There are many forms of "attack” on our well-being. This poor amygdala is overworked! In the primitive days, I would only guess that man was not being attacked every other minute. Today this minute-by-minute attack is called a smartphone, politics, social media, the news, gossip, late for work, running errands, bad grades, and competition - just to name a few. There is no intelligence in the amygdala. It is hard-wired and programmed to do its job which is primitive survival.
Have you ever become irate because your steak was not cooked properly or someone was talking too loud on a cell phone next to you? Just be mindful that you are becoming that primitive human and the amygdala is shutting down the rational part of your brain. Extreme self-control to be mindful of what is happening to all of us throughout our day can help us all EVOLVE as a human race. Every thought and emotion that enters your mind can cause the primitive response of fight-or-flight.
Many people will read this article and hopefully have some light go off in their head but will still turn around and justify their thoughts with anger or irritation causing even more stress and dissatisfaction in life and in their competition. Competition is very confusing to the amygdala. How can the amygdala know that competition is a recreation? There is no intelligence in the amygdala to know better. I will give you another subtle example. One of the biggest fears in competition is letting down a teammate or let’s say a tennis doubles partner. What is this fear, truly? Are we afraid of how they feel or more concerned about how they may judge us? Fear of judgement or criticism is a modern mans problem and the amygdala just sees this as a threat on the physical being when it is just a thought of judgement or disapproval. We are all guilty of this basic thought.
I dive into more detail on how to respond to this fight-or-flight phenomenon in my book the iZone Formula which is available in The Racquet Sports Shop and The Shop at The Houstonian.