How often have we heard this saying:
"Sport is 90% mental, 10% physical"?
Probably as many times as we have heard this other unverified urban legend:
"We only use 10% of our brains."
Quite frankly, I have grown infinitely weary of hearing these anecdotes being
passed off as fact, especially by various sport psychology 'gurus' and
journalists. It is long overdue that we demanded to see the evidence that
sport is only 10% physical. If that is the case, why on earth are athletes
wasting so much time training in gyms, on roads, in swimming pools and
elsewhere, when they could simply sit around visualising, mentally rehearsing
and incanting power words to address most of their training and practice
needs?
Why are all those athletes wasting all that money and effort on using
potentially harmful steroids that can only improve 10 percent of the whole
athlete, at best? Why are other athletes spending all that extra time using
supplementary resistance training to add to an already heavy dose of
specialised sports practice? Why are athletes spending a fortune on food
supplements and other ergogenic aids to improve the physical part that
accounts for only 10 percent of performance? Why are exercise physiologists
wasting some much time studying energy and fluid replacement in a body that
plays only a 10 percent role in performance?
Have any of you ever found any scientific evidence to support the sporting
legend that "sport is only 10 percent physical"? If so, please share it with
us, because far too many athletes are beginning to believe this legend. Soon
we will have a whole generation of youngsters sitting around our homes saying
to mom and dad "We are not just lying around and hanging out - we are doing
mental sports training and mind aerobics!"
Dr Mel C Siff
Denver, USA
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/
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