The ball doesn’t know how old I am

A TV anchor once asked Martina Navratilova, “How do you maintain your focus and manage to keep playing, even at the age of 43? ”

Her suave response was, “The ball doesn’t know how old I am.

In his excellent book, Stillpower, Sports Psychologist Garret Kramer says that a key factor to performing well in sports (and in life), is your ability to control the quality and quantity of your “internal dialogue”.

Performance = Potential - internal interference

In other words, you need to stop yourself, from stopping yourself.

Sports, fitness, business and indeed Life, are played on a 6-inch ground … the space between our own two ears!

 

There a common phrase in tennis that says you have three opponents.
First one is yourself
Second is the net, the third is the person on the other side of the court.

If you can’t beat the first one, you have no chance against the other two.

I guess the same applies in all aspects of life.

Blacky

 

Both Hubby & myself skated at World level in our mid 40's. Sometimes age is just a state of mind.

 

I took up archery 16 months ago. In October I came 12th in my division at a national tournament, I'm currently ranked 32nd in the open male division (covers ages 21-50).

I'm in my late 40s and planning to qualify for the state team in 2019. I don't think want to dedicate the time to take it to the international level.

My coach frequently tells me I can't do anything about the arrow after it has left the bow and I can do even less about the other guy's arrow. What I can do is create the perfect moment as the shot is executed. That is 100% in my own head.

 

I started playing over 35's soccer a few years ago, unlike almost all of my team I am actually getting better each year as I was playing different sports when I was younger.

Having something that gets you in a flow state, and that you can steadily improve at and also includes physical effort is an excellent strategy,

 

I learnt to unicycle just before 41. And quite a few people learn when they retire.

I am quite possibly the strongest in my bike riding now than ever before, and I believe it's due to the leg strength gained when unicycling on hills.