The post on dedication described the disciplining of muscle memory but there is another organ that needs to be disciplined, your brain.  Mental messages dictate the physical action and are key ingredient in determining your performance level.  A player cannot underestimate the impact of positive and negative thoughts because your physical performance is the outcome of your thought.   

All About the Image
If you review studies on eidetic (or photographic) memory or study techniques to enhance memory retention, then you will discover a common thread: your brain is an image storage device.  These images can be either seen with your eyes or imaginarily created by your thoughts.  A common method to memorize ordered lists is to make a story picture out of the list.  For example, if you have to remember the ordered list box, rat, fish, and dog then you could create a story image to remember them.  The DOG ate a FISH after a RAT scrambled out of a BOX.  In the left side of the picture is a BOX with an oversize RAT halfway out of the box and to the right is a FISH with oversized eyes watching the rat run and a DOG's mouth open to eat the fish. 

A more advanced memorization technique is to link a series of images together to create a short story.  Let us create a grocery shopping list of random items: milk, charcoal, apples, and scotch tape.  The first image is you pouring milk from an oversized carton into a bag of charcoal.  The second image is you picking apples from a tree and placing them in a jumbo bag of charcoal.  The link element between these two images is the bag of charcoal.  The third image is a Guinness Book of Records sized apple being held from the tree with a two-foot wide strip of scotch tape.  The link element between the second and third image is the apple.

What was that box list?   What is your shopping list?

The key point to remember is that your mind is a image storage device.  In sports, your thoughts is the creator of images that get stored .

Impact of Thoughts
As creatures of habit, our physical performance is influenced by behavioral repetition to develop muscle memory.  The same is true of our thoughts.  Repetition of thoughts develops mental imagery memory.  A thought has been learned and used so often in similar situations that it becomes automatic and drops from our conscious awareness.  We do not even recognize we are employing it and have developed a programmed behavior.  Positive programming enhances our performance while negative programming retards our performance.

It is common for a player to think to himself, "I do not want to boot this ground ball" or "I do not want to miss the last second shot."  The imagery portion on these phrases are "boot this ground ball" and "miss the shot."  The words  "do not" produce no functional imagery.  The body tends to do what it hears most clearly; the mind tells the body what it sees most clearly.  So, thinking about what you do not want to happen greatly increases the chance it will happen.

An example of the "do not" being remove from the imagery is for you not to think about school for the next two minutes.  Naturally, you are probably already thinking about school.  But I wrote, do not think ....  This is the power of imagery in our thought process.  The do not portion of the phrase does not produce a functional image, but the word school does.

Self Doubt and Hoping
Negative thoughts can develop self doubt in any performer, at any level, in any occupation.  Self doubt is the path into the depths of disappointment, frustration, anger, and depression.  A player with self-doubt loses their positive, realistic attitude and loses control of their game.  Negativism and defeatism are in control and all that does is increase the positive control of the opposing players and team.

"I hope" is another phrase to be avoided.  Hoping you will do something means you do not believe you can.  By hoping you will not do something, you most likely will do the very act you do not want to do.  Bad hopes are not truly directed toward success, but rather at a hope not to fail.

Most players do not even realize how often their thoughts create negative images.  Let me give a real life example.  A young lady is a gifted athlete who normally played shortstop but joined a new team that already had a proven shortstop so she needed to find a new position.  Her choice was to compete with another player for the second base position.  In a game, she fielded a ground ball about 10 feet from first base, turned toward first and threw the ball into the ground.  Why?  She could obviously make a good throw but while she took her time to throw to first, self doubt crept into mind.  After the third out of the inning she came off the field mumbling, "don't throw the ball away."  She threw her glove down and slouched on the bench and said, "I can't believe I threw the ball away.  I am trying to win second base.  I shouldn't have thrown the ball away."  Did you catch her second mistake?  What image did she create in her mind three times?  Yep, the image is her throwing the ball away.  The words "don't", "can't", and "shouldn't" do not have functional imagery associated with them, but "throwing the ball away" sure does.  Later in the game another ball was hit to her at second base, self doubt crept in again, and she lollypoped the ball to first.  The next game she was in right field.

Confident Goal Oriented Thoughts
Players need to develop confident goal oriented thoughts that start with "I will, I can, I going to ..."  In the previous softball example, what should the player have done?  Instead of thinking and vocalizing the negate thought, she could be saying, "I will throw the ball through the first basemen's heart" to create a positive image in her mind.  Or better yet, created a sequence of images of her cleanly fielding the ball, turning toward first, and throwing the ball through her teammate's heart.

Script success by visualizing yourself performing the way you want with confidence, energy, and full focus.  As your going to sleep at night, picture yourself performing a series of positive steps that lead to the desired outcome.  For example, you want to improve your 3-point shooting percentage under pressure defense.  Create a series of images where you receive a pass from a teammate just outside the 3-point line, turn and face the basket, and with perfect shooting form release the shot that goes through the basket hitting only the bottom of the net.

Summary
The mind should always be in the game, playing along, positively reinforcing the developed muscle memory.  But, we reiterate, the quality of the mind games will affect the quality of the body's game.  Thinking that you must do this during the moment it is to be done indicates an anxiety that will surely harm your performance.  The anxiety is based on the fear of failing.  Instead, discipline your mind by creating positive imaginary that enhances your physical performance.

The thought of trying hard and not succeeding is intimidating.  The best players have had fears of inadequacy, but the best players ignore them, determined to overcome them and gain control of their thoughts, feelings, and behavior.  When they do that, they exemplify a winner's approach.

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