a babe in the woods of bridge

Practice is over - Win Ugly

2011-01-20T13:07:00.000-08:00

Practice is over

We can certainly strive for perfection - or try to be perfect - during your training and practice sessions. However, one of the main goals is to accept that we can’t be perfect when we play sports. We are human and will make mistakes. Even the best in the world mess up or goof up from time to time.
You have worked hard, trained hard, and practiced up to this point. Hopefully in the process. learned things, practiced the things you learned and improved what you were not doing as well before.
It doesn’t help to continue to work on or master these skills just before a game or competition.
The most important goal is to perform with confidence, focus and trust. The zone can only be reached by confidence in you own skills and absolute focus on the game.

Win ugly

Practice is over. Now is not the time to think about perfect form.
Maybe you will not make the most elegant play or look like a star if went down a contract because there was a hole in your knowledge or because your thinking was not optimal.
You may trip over your own feet, make a mistake because your thinking was not optimal, mess up the timing of a play, get a good score out of a poor action.
Play to play great today, which means get the job done, even if your game looks and feels imperfect or ugly. This is what we call “winning ugly.”

1 to 10 before the game

2011-01-10T16:54:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard of an Olympic medal winner who never trained at least 6 hours a day. Has a chess world champion won a championship match without hours after hours of serious work.

If we do not train, how realistic is it to expect to win anything significant. More likely, we will only ever been a Wanna-be and one day a Has-been.

But assuming that we take our training seriously, there is the competion aspect. So here are 10 pre-game tips for the May-be:

Practice is over
Win ugly
Get-out-of-jail cards
Performance mindset
Forget expectations
Process goals, not win goal
Strive for success, not avoiding failure or mistakes.
Go For It!
Kiss

The performer.

Soon more details. After all, the devil is in the detail

A winner

A peacock

Out of action for a while

2010-09-12T23:41:00.001-07:00

I have not updated this blog in ages.
For those of you who come back to check on things, the babe is temporarily out of action, as my french teaching endeavours are taking so much of my time.
Plan to start again at year end, things will be quieter.
Catherine

The hallmark of a great captain is the ability to win the toss, at the right

2010-05-24T17:38:00.000-07:00

The main job is to be the team leader of the team on the day/week of the event

Team representative: Represent the team in all official matters, including the appeals

Team leadership: No cheerleader but instill confidence in all players by maintaining positive attitude throughout the tournament.

Work with team and players to set performance target.

"If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever". So a captain must be prepared for a losing day and support team in refocus if poor initial performance. Consistent atttitude whether things are good or bad

Organisation:

Ensure best conditions for tournament (appropriate accomodation, foodstuff, getting early, plenty of rest...)

Ensure apppropriate pre-game and post-game routines.

Game plan:

General sitting strategy, based on knowledge of competitors and players, supported by coach pre and during tournament.

Keep track of performance on the day. Decides who plays when and against whom.

Makes clear decisions and equally important is clear communication of the overall plan to players.

Event report:

Keep track of team performance and report on performance of the team, including thoughts/feedback from players, lessons learnt...

A winning team is a team where all have the ability, and all know it. They support each other , pick each other up, and they never never quit.

The player, the competitors, and the game strategy

2010-05-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

The role of the coach will be along 3 lines:

Players/partnership Development: Assessment - Learning- Development -Remediation
Tournament preparation - Knowlege of competitions - (system, style, skill level, application, apparent strength, weak points)
Tournament support - provide input to captain as to sitting strategy
Tournement performance review - input into captain report

Players development:
The first step will be to assess the current skills set. The first step of any improvment is the active knowledge that something needs improvment. The assessment will be based on

Past performance
Self-assessment
Peers assessment

The assessment is partly partnership based as a player alone can never win a world title all by himself.

Technical skills - (not fully based on past performance as other factors interfer on technique)

Technical knowledge - %, combinations, deceptive play.. techniques. Assessment based on a set of constructed hands to be played in training sessions. This may well be mainly targetted to the developing players.
Partnership system - Completness and efficiency
System knowledge
Partnership defense skills

Performance skills - (this is primarily based on observation of past peformance and self- assessment)

Competitive style
Focus style
Competitive strengths & weaknesses
Demonstrated level of commitment
partnership skills
Full assessment of performance in last 10 major tournaments:
Efficiency of system in a competitive arena
System usage
Application of technical skills
Number/type of unforced errors - bidding
Number/type of unforced errors - defense
Number/type of unforced errors - play
Missed opportunies
Displayed areas of strength
Behavior outside game time
Tournament preparation
Refocus skills
External relevant factors

The defense rests

2010-05-20T17:24:00.001-07:00

Ever played in a tournament where you lost the title by an imp or 2?
Well, this is not the story here but we would do well to remember that every imp count when we play a game anywhere. Here is a hand where the importance of appropriate focus would have come in handy.
The result on the board was to tie instead of us taking an couple of imps.
You LH P RH
1C(1) 1D P(2) P
P
(1) 16+
(2) less than 5hcp
I was so buy thinking about the auction and my failure to bid that I did stop to think about the defense for more than 10 seconds.
Dummy
T9xxx
xx
Qx
KJxxx

Your hand
Ax
AKx
J9xx
AQxx

HJ led.
How do you defend ? Why?

No more excuses !

2010-05-17T00:36:00.000-07:00

Often when a player makes a mistake, he is quite prone to offer by the way of justification:

"How I was nervous" or "I was tired from last nite" or "I was psyched out" or any other excuse that seems relevant at the time. The excuse is likely to be a good one and to the point. Then the issue is put to rest and forgotten until the next time.

ButI fail to see how it makes anything better. Whether an error is due to due to lack of knowledge, faulty logic or faulty thinking or whether it is due to a lack of attention, the result is the same. What is the use of being clever if we do not capitalise on our talent.

If a player does not takes as much care improving his performance skills as he works on improving his technical knowledge, the gold will always be eluding him.

So next time you want to pull out the good old excuse card, remember: What are you going to do different to ensure it does not happen again.

No two ways about it

2010-05-16T06:14:00.000-07:00

When you look at all the aspects that need to be right to win a major tournament, you realise that there is not 2 ways about it:

A winning team needs a coach. A winning team needs a captain.

While the roles can overlapp, they are distinct requirements.

The coach focuses on the development of the players skills and performance. Clearly bridge knowledge is important, but more important is the understanding how one goes about achieving best performance, both technical skills and performance skills. The coach knows the players, their strenght and weaknesses. The coach also knows the strength and weaknesses of the opposing players.

The captain is in charge of the team on the big day. The captain ensure that the team gets there in good time, ensure optimal conditions, decides on the sitting strategy, observse performance on the day, decides who goes in, who gets to sit out, who plays whom. The captain goes to the appeal, and mabe most important of them all, the captain has/shows a winning attitude and keeps the spirit up throughout.

In both bases, bridge knowledge is necessary. But while knowledge that is required, it does not require the same expertise as what the players themselve needs (appeals aside maybe).

Next post will then be the jobs for each of these mythical people.

Quest for the "zone"

2010-05-09T06:08:00.000-07:00

As bridge is a game where the learning never stops, it is important to understand the various stages of learning in our quest for self-improvement.
There are 4 stages through the learning process and understanding how we move though it and how our performance will very accordingly is important if we are not to be discouraged when we get a setback.

Another aspect is to look at all the factors that we need to get right. No wonder it is a tough game :

Comfort Zone
Emotional Control
Expectations , that can lead to fear of failure
Focus – both intensity, duration and style
Mental Preparation
Motivation
Perfectionism
Self-Confidence , lack or excess of it
Self-Esteem
Stress Reduction
Psychology of Recovery
Team Dynamics
Game Strategies
Goal Setting
Mental Imagery

Now start making your own list.

Arousal - too much or too little

2010-04-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

As discussed in previous posts, our arousal (excitement) level has a direct impact on our performance. Performance does increase as arousal increases up to a certain point, then it begins to decrease somewhat dramatically.
http://ababe-in-the-woods-of-bridge.blogspot.com/2009/04/dealing-with-arousal.html
If arousal levels are too low, motivation and desire may not be optimal to support a quality performance effort. On the other hand, higher than optimal arousal levels for a particular skill may cause us to become too anxious and begin to worry too much about the results rather than focus on the required task. As anxiety increase, mental flexibility becomes hindered.
Successful execution of a complex task also demands unconscious and automatic thoughts about action.

The level of arousal required depending on
• Our own personality
• The task performed.

For example, in baseball, a batter requires lower levels of arousal to perform the skills necessary to execute on hitting the pitch. They should have very low anxiety levels when they step into the batter’s box.
On the other hand, a basketball player on offense will need a higher level of arousal, as the situation requires them to be more active, yet they still must be able to run the desired offense effectively.

What about bridge
In the same fashion in bridge,I expect that the play of a hand would require a fairly a low level of arousal. Now is not the time to develop high level of aggressivity
On the other hand, today’s competitive bidding means that a higher degree of arousal will be required as the competition to ‘win’ the bidding war will be high. In defense, the mix will be more subtle and the player with incorrect level of arousal may not find the right mix of defense. You would expect a player with level of arousal too high will find too many aggressive defense while a player with a level of arousal which is too low will too many passive defenses.

In this aspect as in everything, one step at a time, practice makes perfect.

High performance teams – Does it apply to bridge partnership and teams?

2010-04-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

The essence of focus.
Teams that feel directed toward achieving a clear and commun goal are happier and more energized, filled with a sense of purpose.
The basis of trust.
Teams tap into a natural instinct to form clans. People come together , vow to protect each other, engage in altruistic behavior with one another.
the "cheater meter."
If team members feel that the others do not appreciate the team's efforts, or that team members aren't pulling equal weight, their "cheater meters" will go off , they no longer trust one another and start losing focus on the goal
Low Focus and Low Trust (Lose/Lose)
• Fear
• Confusion
• Self-interest
• High turnover
• Failure
High Focus and Low Trust (Win/Lose)
• Focused on self, tasks
• Lots of early
accomplishments
• Longer-term disloyalty
• Turnover
High Trust and Low Focus (Lose/Win)
• Few conflicts
• "We are family"
• Lack of coordination
• Resigned to failure
High Trust and High Focus (Win/Win)
• Collaborating
• Self-directing
• Mission driven
• Loyal
• High success

So looking for the ingredient to achieve succesful teams :
• Don't gloss over performance, but talk about it.
• Hold each other accountable for each other performance.
• When someone under-performs, tells them immediately in direct, honest terms.
• Adopt a common goal or set of goals and commit to achieving them.
• Define goals simple enough to be easily grasped, specific enough to be actionable.
• Ask tough questions of one another and challenge each others assumptions. Probe an argument until all are satisfied.
• Admit your mistakes, weaknesses, concerns without fear of reprisal.

Defensive hands. What was your focus ?

2009-10-24T16:44:00.000-07:00

The king of diamond was lead and partner discouraged. What is your continuation ?
I found this hand interesting because 2 experts chose a continuation which was a "big play" and switch to the club 9. Where was their focus at the time, I don t know, but I suspect that their choice of switch was influenced more by a desire to win than the information available to them. External wide focus on the auction, alternating with internal narrow focus to assess declarer's hand. Declarer has shown spades, his partner has shown hearts, declarere therefore also has clubs and diamonds. That leaves partner with hearts. Partner will know what to do on a heart switch and the club king entry will remain in your hand. You should always punish poor bidding.

What were your focus during the bidding. Possibly on the current state of the match, maybe on the room temperature, or possibly how you had a bad week last week. Or, despite the lack of high cards in your hand, did you focus on the bidding, switching between external and internal focus to assess the possible hands types for partner and for the opposition. Partner has any points that is not in the opponents hands . He has an opening hand. Yet he did not take one bid over 1C. Easy lead club ?

I included this hand more as an illustration of how the focus can be influenced by emotions. I was given this as a problem and my choice was a diamond lead. My choice was governed by only one factor. A previous experience where my partner made a bad double, more out of frustration for being taken out of a making contract. Fear made me lead a diamond. In fact, trusting the double, I think in retrospect that the spade lead is pretty much automatic. Partner has spades and he has points. Dummy is likely short on one of our suits. Trust partner and lead a spade

Seach for excellence

2009-10-11T06:31:00.000-07:00

Before tackling specifics like the ways to identify and improve focus styles, I thought I had better review my improvement plan. Bridge is fascinating because it involves some many different aspects of performance.

Here are the components of what I think would be a good performance improvement plan.

Bridge Performance Training

Mental skills

Confidence
Focus - maintaining intensity
Focus - use appropriate styles
Focus – regaining
Intuition – appropriate use

Endurance
Unforced errors – reduction of ...
Pre-game preparation – maximize potential for entering “The zone”

Knowledge

Probabilities – knowledge of card combinations
Probabilities - Statisticallly winning bridge actions (bidding)
Bidding system – appropriateness and correct usage
Knowledge of opposition strength and weaknesses
Predictability of actions by opponents based on study of international experts games

Technical skills
Spatial skills (thinking in patterns)
Logic – use of ( all the card play techniques we love)
Inferrential skills (*)
Memory
…
.
Training versus practice

Acquisition of technical skills (technical/mental)
Acquisition of knowledge

Acquisition of mental skills

Targetted practice of application of skills and knowledge
Exercises/drills
Hands Analysis (own)
Hands analysis (experts)
Targetted practice of mental skills

Here in OZ, there seems to be a fashionable trend that playing online is not a road to bridge improvement. At best, I think this is misguided. Thanks to the internet, you are not restricted to playing with people from your geographical area.The internet gives us access to resources that cannot be obtained in our little island. Playing against strong opposition from various countries is something we lack much here.

(*) A dog story

Dog-logic: inferential reasoning in a two-way choice task and its restricted use
Experiments were designed to test whether adult pet dogs are able to show inferential reasoning when searching for their toy in a series of two-way choice tasks. The experimenter placed a toy under one of two identical containers and then provided some information by manipulating the covers: either both containers were lifted or just the empty or baited one. There were other trials when the experimenter not only revealed the corresponding container but manipulated also the other one without showing its content. In the second experiment the same conditions were used except that the content of the containers was revealed by strings without any human manipulation. Results of the two studies show that dogs are able to use inferential reasoning by exclusion (i.e. they can find the hidden toy if they have seen where the toy was missing). However, dogs were able to solve the reasoning task only when they could not rely on social-communicative cues (directional gesture and gaze cues) or could not use any other simple discriminative stimuli (movement of a container) for making decisions. This suggests that dogs are often prevented from showing reasoning abilities by pre-existing biases for social or movement cues. Results of the third experiment also support the primary importance of social cueing because in another object-choice task, individuals preferred to choose the ‘socially marked’ container (touching, gaze alternation) to the remotely moved one when they had no visual information about the location of the toy.

Defensive problems for a change

2009-10-08T20:58:00.000-07:00

Was busy doing some work on focus pocus theory, when some hands jumped at me as illustration of the concepts. Well, they were given to me as problems that is!

Three defensive hands that the experts will get right no doubt, through the appropriate use of focus. Here is your chance to get them right too.

Exhibit A

You lead the diamond K and partner discourages and the King holds

Your play?

Exhibit B

You are on lead. Choose it

Exhibit C:

You are on lead. Choose it.

Yardstick, Focus, and Balance

2009-09-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy that blogging was slow for a while. I also found that doing so much thinking about performance enhancing techniques was taking my mind off bridge when I was playing. So for a while, I was just doing my own “getting better at bridge”. So looking at various aspects of the zone, here are a couple of things that worked for me.

Clear achievable goal:

"This art of resting the mind and the power of dismissing from it all care and worry is probably one of the secrets of energy in our great men”-- Captain J. A. Hadfield

For quite a while, I was very concerned about being accepted as a bridge player. Having not started as a youth and being a woman means you have no status. You practically don't exist in the world of bridge. Iit bothers me so very much , such that for a while, my only goal was recognition that I am in fact full fledged (brain and all) player. I found this was very much getting in the way of playing well at the bridge table, especially playing the last matches of an event. Having let go of that goal, I can now focus on what I can change, so my goal is clear: Become an oustanding player in my own eyes only. It is also achievable and it gives me that very important sens of control (Zone) as it does not depend on anyone else (neither partner, nor would-be-not partners, nor teammates, nor opponents).... More later on how I measure this..

Focus:

"Chess demands total concentration and a love for the game." -- Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fisher quotes link, compliments of Sartaj

Regaining concentration after an unsettling incident: Here is something that seem to work for me. One of the techniques I researched was using a word as mantra for relaxing your mind after something takes your composure away. I tried using various words related to bridge and others, like stop or cards.. but did not find them very effective.

Not long ago, I found that taking a MEANINGLESS word which I liked the sound of was exactly what I needed. I can now relax by repeating that word 3 or 4 times at most. It seems to enable me to think about NOTHING for a few seconds. Then I can redirect. My word does not mean anything, but it does roll of my tongue and my mind in a rounded kind of way, very nicely.

Balance between ability level and challenge:

As I don't get that many opportunities to play, I started playing with a robot. My aim was to practice:

declarer play
card reading
focus styles

The robot gives me the time to study hands in more depth (robots don’t become impatient). It also give me difficult hands to play because I rarely end up in the contract I should be in. Something to do with robot style bidding which is not my forte. Becoming an outstanding player would mean I can hold my own in a world championship, so I have to work on these technical skills where I find myself lacking in: focus style, visualising hand patterns more clearly, knowing card combinations in advance, some areas of bidding where I am still unsure. The good thing is that bridge technical skills are actually not that complex. Well calculating probabilities is more difficult than making coffee, but fortunately the number of hands where complex probabilities really matters are not that frequent.

The only topic relevant to this blog is the focus style. So I expect to cover more of this in the future.

More on the "Zone"

2009-08-13T21:44:00.001-07:00

You cannot make yourself enter the "zone" Best you can do is set the scene. This includes hard work, both technical and mental training, pre and post-game routines, and passion (for the game)

The following are not my words. Rather they are the words of a psychologist by the name of Csíkszentmihályi (pronounce it “chicks send me high” :)). I include the link toa public lecture he made in Sydney a few years back.

http://austega.com/education/articles/flow.htm

He identifies the following nine components as accompanying an experience of flow:

Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernible and goals are attainable and align appropriately with one's skill set and abilities). Moreover, the challenge level and skill level should both be high.
Concentrating and focusing, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).
A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.
Distorted sense of time, one's subjective experience of time is altered.
Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed).
Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult).
A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.
People become absorbed in their activity, and focus of awareness is narrowed down to the activity itself, action and awareness merging.

If you only have room for ONE Goal

2009-08-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

In a previous post about quieting the mind, I talked about the captain ship and its crew. When the captain is focussed on captain's matters, the crew gets the job done. Likewise, your captain's mind must be on the cards and only on the cards.

If you cannot be much bothered to keep track of your own performance (after all, it is only a game!), then only keep track of ONE thing.

But do it every every time, whether you are playing a practice match, playing a friendly match or playing the real McCoy.

Your performance goal = 80% (or whatever number above 50 you want to start at)

Stop thinking about past and the future and become immersed in the now.
Stop predicting (going into the future in your mind)
Focus 100% on the cards.

And after every game, give yourself a score of 1 to 3.

why did you get up this morning
next time will be better
you were in the zone

When you get to a hundred, add it all up and divide by 3 and you get your achievement. Then start another set.

PS: If you always get 100%, you may need a reality check

Was it L-U-C-K ?

2009-08-04T23:13:00.001-07:00

I have been watching the Spingold with much interest. A lot of interesting hands with a lot of opportunities to do the right things.

One hand in particular in the semi final seemed to illustrate the concept of luck as Luck Under Current Knowledge

All the other 3 tables all played in the 4H. At one table, East opened 1S, competed to 3S and defended 4H by North making 10. The two other tables were in 4H by South (after a 3S bid by East) and made their 12 tricks.

Clearly you could say that EW was very unlucky on this hand at this particular table.

But my question is:

If it was plain old luck, when did this bad/good luck start

Did E open a windown of opportunity and brought bad luck with the 3S bid and did NS capitalise on it by bidding a "lucky slam"

At the other table, was the 1S bid made by East a bit of L-U-C-K?

Any opinions?

Performance Assessment

2009-07-24T03:56:00.000-07:00

Competition Assessment	Event:
Date :	Format:
Did you achieve your performance goal? Yes Partly No	What was your your performance goal?
Did you achieve your technical goal? Yes Partly No	What was your your technical goal?

Were you ? ........................... Or	Did you have?
Completely determined to achieve performance goal? Yes Partly No	No worries or fears? Yes Partly No
Completely determined to achieve technical goal? Yes Partly No	Complete commitment to fully extend yourself? Yes Partly No
Mentally calm? Yes Partly No	Complete confidence in mental preparation? Yes Partly No
Highly mentally activated? Yes Partly No	Complete confidence in physical preparation? Yes Partly No
Willing to take necessary risks? Yes Partly No	Complete task focus? Yes Partly No
In complete control? Yes Partly No	Complete confidence in abilities to achieve goal? Yes Partly No
If you have answered partly, notes which parts were NOT and why?
Rate the effectiveness	Of your preparation
Did you follow a game preparation routine? Yes Partly No	Relaxation Yes Partly No
Event specific physical preparation Yes Partly No	Did you follow a refocus routine Yes Partly No
Mental preparation Event review Yes Partly No	Did your attention stay focussed on your game plan? Yes Partly No
When you were going well, where was your focus?	When you were going less well, where was your focus?

Did anything unexpected impacted your performance ? (better or worse)?	Should anything be changed/adapted for the next competition?

Taking a detour along the side of luck

2009-07-21T02:31:00.000-07:00

To talk about LUCK, the dreaded luck, the unfaithful mistress who seems to desert you when you wanted her most.

How many time have I barely stopped myself from saying.: “Mmmm, really did not have much luck this tournament! As if somehow, it would wash my sins away and redeem me as a good player who was just not lucky that day.

So, L-U-C-K - What is it?

Acronym for “Living Under Correct Knowledge

If you have the correct knowledge on how to do something, you will succeed. That’s what everyone call successful people lucky people. If you bake a cake without the right knowledge and burnt the cake, is it unlucky? If you take driving lessons before, apply your hard gained knowledge to drive your car and never knock it into a tree, are you lucky?

"Luck is where preparation and opportunity meet”

You have to be the right person at the right time in the right place and doing the right thing." You are doing something to make it possible for luck to be on your side. It is a matter of whom you are becoming.

"Luck is probability taken personally. It is the excitement of bad math.”
Penn F. Jillette

Or according to the likes of Jean Paul Sartre or Sigmund Freud:

“Bad Luck is an escape from personal responsibility.”

...

"A belief in luck has more to do with a locus of control for events in one’s life and the subsequent escape from personal responsibility. According to this theory, one who ascribes their travails to "bad luck" will be found upon close examination to be living risky lifestyles."

Luck really is the life story of the postage stamp:

A stamp with an attitude that is. The postage stamp that sticks till it gets to the destination.

So no matter where we are, no matter how bad it is, no matter how frustrating it has been, we must stick to the end, although it is really very difficult to achieve, We don’t leave because things didn’t look like they were going to be good. The advantage of staying put is consistency will show off and success is inevitable. Albert Einstein said it correctly:; Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Even when you are doing the right thing, do it to till luck comes.

Zap the blocks

2009-07-17T01:26:00.000-07:00

They say that practice makes perfect. So:

• Continuing to monitor and jot notes periodically about your focus, and lack of
focus, in your training games.
• After a session of bridge, take a brief, all-senses inventory during the experience of feeling completely focused. This can contribute to your “automaticity” of becoming more naturally and continuously focused, a kind of “muscle memory” of concentration.
• Create concentration intervals during your training matches. Define a specific period of time – 30 minutes, 1 hours, whatever stretches you – and maintain a competition-level focus during that time. Allow for recovery time then repeat the interval
• Experiment with the number and duration of these intervals. Log a few notes after your training
• Implement your refocus plan for your top distractors. At the end of a day, make a brief note of your results
• Away debrief yourself at then end of a competition, especially in regards to your top distractors. • Be merciless in your self-assessment.
• As your find that your top distractors get under control, go back to your list and work on the next top 3 distractors

Find the roadblocks

2009-06-17T22:04:00.000-07:00

Step 2 - Find the roadblocks

The next step is to identify the situations that are your recurring distractors.

During each game, whether a practice game, or after a competition, make a note of the things that made you lose focus. Make sure you work out what the catalyst was. If you made a mistake when you know better, you will always find the distraction that took you mind off the ball.

It could be something internal - like a thought (eg. “I can believe I made that bid!”), a feeling such as anger at something your partner or opponents or teammates did, or a sensation that your performance is decreasing?

It could be something external, like another player being obnoxious, a unexpected card hit the table, your partner throwing his cards on the table.

Also try to make of note of how were you feeling just before the distractor appeared? Tired? Anxious? Focused?

You may get a long or short list. If it is very short, consider that you have not tried hard enough.

Once you have this list, prioritise the sources of distraction - Take the top 3 to 5. (Any more that than, and you will drown) and especially any pattern you noitced in how you were feeling just before the distractions got to you

On the road to improvement

2009-06-11T23:21:00.000-07:00

The next few posts will focus on improving one's focus styles and the steps involved that journey.

Step One - Know yourself

Determine your personal focus style . Get yourself a little red book.

To do that, you have to take the first step: you need to know when you’re focused.

During your next several practice games, try devoting time to observing yourself . Possibly just after a hand has been played. (this may well have a negative impact on your performance) or just after a match.

Using the table on focus style from my earlier post, make a note of the things you focussed on during each stage of the game (bidding, declaring, defending, dummying) focus styles

Make also a note ofthe things you focussed on after each game. Also and just as important, make a note of the things you miss.

Notice when you felt focused, and remember everything you can about the sensation. Is it a lack of thoughts? A single thought? A feeling? A sensation of being consumed by driving power into the pedals? After each match, make a few notes on the topic

Eisntein said so

2009-06-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

How It Works

"Imagination more important than knowledge" !

Mental imagery (such as “visualizing,” “seeing in the mind's eye,” “hearing in the head,” “imagining the feel of,” etc.) is an quasi-perceptual experience. It resembles a real experience but it occurs in the absence of the appropriate external stimuli.
The deal is that when you imagine yourself perform to perfection and doing precisely what you want, you are in turn creating a physiological neural patterns in your brain, just as if you had performed the action. The purpose is to obtain a level of arousal that is optimal for your performance.

You are developing a mental blueprint of key performance (the much thought-after zone) and you improve your confidence by using all your senses to recreate the sensations of a previous or future performance in a positive image of doing it right.

When you are replaying a hand in your mind, you are using imagery.
When you are REplaying a backward squeeze in your mind, you are using imagery. (No looking at the hand record)

It is like playing a movie in your mind. Some people will see the images as if they are watching a movie (external) while others will see them as if they are behind the camera (internal). Either one approach will work. Some people are better at forming pictures in their heads than others. Or some people may excel in certain sensory experiences and not others. Find what works for you through practice.

How to do it

A long version of the technique would be used before the competition to optimise your chances to get into the zone. While a “quick set routine” will be useful during a match to ward off any wanted state of mind or between two matches.

Use imagery to get pumped up or conversely, use it tone down if you are over excited
Use imagery to practice card play techniques

In either cases, it requires practice. The more you do, the better you become. Practice your imagery for 15 to 20 minutes a day initially to ensure that you're learning to do it properly. But as you become more skilled and comfortable with the technique, you'll be able to do it for just a few minutes at a time as needed throughout the day. Use it every day, on your way to a practice game, during practice, in the evening...
How much time it will take before you begin to see results depends on the vividness of your imagery and your own determination.

Going though Justin Lall blog, I found this post where he talks about his own pre-game preparation. Going through books, techniques already known etc, is also a form of imagery Justin Lall - back to basics

Step by step

Select a previous event where your performance was very strong – Not necessarily an event when you won but an event where you performed at the top of your potential.

Make it a world championship you won if you have one behind your belt
If not make it an event you won and you know you were playing your best game (it is not sufficient to select an event you won, you may have been just damn lucky)
Or make is just one tough match against very skilled opponents (per your own standards)
First make sure you practice away from distractions
It may help to start by imagining yourself relaxed, or alternatively imagine yourself smiling, feeling good
Bring back to your mind all the elements of the event
Revisit the venue, use all your sense to bring back the scene
See yourself going to the venue, inspecting the venue
Use all your senses to bring back the scene – (visual, auditory, touch, smell) as if you were there. The physical layout, the weather, your route to the venue, (even if just going down the lift) the various players who were there, the organisation of the event
Bring back how you felt,, going through your pre-game routine, your emotions, your state of mind
Select a game and imagine getting to the table, sitting down, remember your opponents, inspecting their cards
Bring back a particular contract, the card play, the result (pick one where you went plus through good skills )
Imagine the end of the event, the last score up
Bring back the apotheosis, the results being announced, walking to the podium to receive your trophy.
See yourself standing up accepting the award.

Open your eyes again (if they were closed that is) and then rejoin the real world

Tips and tricks

If you have trouble forming images:

Try thinking in pictures rather than words
Look at pictures or videos prior to using imagery
Stay in a quiet, relaxed and calm environment to avoid distractions

Some general principles:

Make the movie seem as realistic as possible by including all senses, in full color and detail, within a similar emotional context
Practice imagery regularly as it may take months before seeing improvement
Believe that imagery works, as your attitudes and expectations enhance the effect
Keep a focused yet relaxed attention while using imagery
Internal imagery is most effective. Picture yourself actually accomplishing the feat (from your minds eye), rather than viewing yourself from the outside looking in.
Only imagine perfection. This will boost your self-confidence and reinforce good habits.

Random collection

2009-05-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

I have been a bit busy and I do not want to butcher the topic of imagery. I have to research it, then digest it, then write it, then practice it. I am exhausted really !!

In the mean time, here are a quote and a story that relate to peak performance.

"The principle is competing against yourself. It's about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before."

Steve Young San Francisco 49er'sSuper Bowl-Winning Quarterback

(Steve is a former star of the American NFL. He holds the record for highest career passer rating and won six NFL passing titles)

This next one is a story from Jean De La Fontaine. It tells a story where persistence and determination wins over natural talent and speed. It is about a race between a rabbit and a tortoise. It is in french, but I include a link to a clip that says the story just as well. But if you want a translation (english only, let me know)

The clip: The hare and the tortoise

...

.Rien ne sert de courir, il faut partir à point :

Le lièvre et la tortue en sont un témoignage.

« Gageons, dit celle-ci, que vous n’atteindrez point

Sitôt que moi ce but. ─ Sitôt ? êtes vous sage ?

Repartit l’animal léger.

Ma commère, il vous faut purger

Avec quatre grains d’ellébore.

─ Sage ou non, je parie encore. »

Ainsi fut fait ; et de tous deux

On mit près du but les enjeux.

Savoir quoi, ce n’est pas l’affaire,

Ni de quel juge l’on convint.

Notre Lièvre n’avait que quatre pas à faire ;

J’entends de ceux qu’il fait lorsque, prêt d’être atteint,

Il s’éloigne des chiens, les renvoie aux calendes,

Et leur fait arpenter les landes.

Ayant, dis-je, du temps de reste pour brouter,

Pour dormir, et pour écouter

D’où vient le vent, il laisse la tortue

Aller son train de sénateur.

Elle part, elle s’évertue ;

Elle se hâte avec lenteur.

Lui cependant méprise une telle victoire,

Tient la gageure à peu de gloire,

Croit qu’il y va de son honneur

De partir tard. Il broute, il se repose ;

Il s’amuse à toute autre chose

Qu’à la gageure. À la fin quand il vit

Que l’autre touchait presque au bout de la carrière,

Il partit comme un trait ; mais les élans qu’il fit

Furent vains : la tortue arriva la première.

« Eh bien, lui cria-t-elle, avais-je pas raison ?

De quoi vous sert votre vitesse ?

Moi l’emporter ! et que serait-ce

Si vous portiez une maison ? »

...Jean de La Fontaine, Fable X, Livre VI.

Real men don't eat quiche

2009-05-19T02:25:00.000-07:00

But will they accept the use of imagery as something they can use to improve their game?

Imagery is a powerful technique used by top athletes to get themselves in the right state of mind. My previous post was about stilling the mind. But it is not enough to chill out. We have to be combat ready !

"Imagination is more powerful than knowledge." Albert Einstein

Like everything, reader beware. It takes practice to make it work.

to be continued...............

Stop digging

2009-05-14T22:32:00.000-07:00

Regaining focus - RRR

If you want to climb out of a hole, the very first thing you must do is stop digging…

Once something happens that affect your focus, there are 3 basic steps to regain focus. This must be practiced actively in training games until it becomes automatic.

Recognise

To ensure you regain your focus when a distraction does interfere with your state of mind, it is essential that you are consciously aware that you are at a distraction point. Through experience, you learn what situations are more likely to infer with your mental state. You mind may feel restless, your breathing changes, your body temperature rises. Or if a game is not going well, you may feel overwhelmed, despondent. Make a list of them and learn to recognise your mental reactions.

Refuse

Create a trigger to interrupt or stop the counterproductive thought(s). This trigger can be a:

Verbal cue – Develop a few key words or phrases that you will use to stop your mind. Examples words are: Cards, stop, switch on, 7NT ( J ), I love this game…

Visual picture – the moon, water..

Physical action – Put down your cards, pick them up and re-arrange them, hit your fist against your hand, stretch, get up and get some water, throw away the distraction by putting it in your pocket ...

Relax

You now need to get your mind back to the bridge focused state. This is equivalent to a mini repeat of your pre-game routine. Use a focusing technique that you are comfortable with

Count backward from 10

Take 5 to 10 deep breath. It may help to count each breath you take

Imagery – This is something you will have developed and practiced before hand. You may have a few images that can be used depending on how much time you have. Between games, you may bring back the image of the last word championship, or one event where you performed well. Or instead of bringing back the image, bring back how you felt at that time.

With less time available , try to find your center, or imagine yourself bending all your energies toward the game

Now the world is your oyster

PS : Just remember that RRR must be used in practice matches. It must become second nature

Still your Mind – Pysch up

2009-05-14T22:22:00.000-07:00

To maximise our chances or getting into the “zone”, mental preparation is essential. The purpose the pre-game routine is to help us find this place wihin ourself where external and internal meaningless distractions cannot enter.

The goal is to let go of our ego – self consciousness, to shut out the distractions and to become the performance (without judgement and evaluation). Our bridge actions must becomes “autotelic” ( an end in itself, done for it’s own sake).

Listed below are a few techniques used to attain the state of mind where we lose this self-consciousness. Mainly, I have found some of these techniques useful when something happens at the table and I am risk of losing my cool. A key point is that you can trigger yourself back to intense concentration in any way you like but it needs to be consistent. Practice us and use the same cue for the same situations.

Imagery

Find Your Center
Now don’t think I have gone mystical. The concept of Chi is used in martial arts. It refers to our internal life-force energy. The major location of chi in the body is a space located just a few inches below the navel, which is also the body's center point of gravity. A number of techniques are based on focussing on your center as an energy source. I have found that focusing on my center was an effective technique for me at the table.
The black box
You imagine you have black box, and you consciously imagining stowing distraction and worries away in the black box, leaving your mind free to focus.

Deep Breathing

This is a well know method of achieving relaxation, of quieting our mind. So I won’t go in to the steps.

Count backward from 100 to 1

It is likely that as your start, you may loose count. If this happens start again.

Mindfulness Upon Details

Brine you mind to observe – really observe what is going on around you? Slowing down forces you to bring your mind into the present moment. This moment of awareness can be amplified by bringing all of your mind unto the thing that is in your present. This forces the mind to be aware.

Affirm Your Present

Repeated mantra, where you repeat a chose set of word or phrase over and over again.

When does the round begin ?

2009-05-13T22:53:00.000-07:00

Every thought you think, every word you say, and every emotion you feel in the 5-10 minutes before the game has a major effect upon your results.

The problems begin if we start imposing business patterns and every day rhythms into the bridge. room. These rhythms and mindsets are simply incompatible with the game. There are too many distraction, too many random thoughts, too many emotions.
The pre-game routine is the time when we begin to focus on the game and we are letting go of the daily hassles and distractions.

Before we start playing, we must have made the game into our religion, the bridge table its temple and we are the gurus.

Pre-game routine

It should be the deliberate, the same before every game, take 10-20 minutes. Any preparation such as line-up, who is the match against, which direction we will be sitting should have been made already (if at all possible).

A routine could be:

Get to the venue early
Check the room arrangement
Go for a walk
Get yourself a drink
Sit at your table early and get your mind card ready. The surroundings should be absent from your thoughts
Go through your system card
Have a pack of cards and shuffle them
Minimise or eliminate the chatting
Use imagery to get into the right mental state. The degree of arousal required will vary according to individuals, some need more pumping up than others. (More on imagery later)
Just before the game begins,check the opponents system cards (even if you know them)
Count your cards always the same way. Shuffle your cards at every board
Don’t go looking at previous days scores !
If you have a captain, he/she will institute a routine, gather the team every day for a catch up.
Whatever routine you use, always use the same one

Your pre-game routine should become a ritual. Remember, bridge is your religion and you are the guru.

The element of routine must be present before every match. It may seems a bit much right now, but it will pay dividends the day you have a bad set.

Check out these guys, they all do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5p5zVl8Y-k

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2008/04/20/routine_excellence_is_allens_secret/

http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/44685/golf_guide/a_few_golf_tips_from_tiger_woods.html

Focus - Interlude

2009-05-13T00:48:00.000-07:00

Three dimensions of focus:

1. Intensity
2. Duration
3. Breadth

And only one road to improvement ===>

Even then, if we do not train these mental skills every match we play, instead of improving our bridge mental skills, we are only maintaining their current state. Some famous person said:

A practice match should always include deliberate practice directed at improving focus styles and concentration
If we play practice matches without directed attention to our focus styles and concentration, we are only reinforcing out ability to remain unfocused !

The power of your mind - Goals setting

2009-05-12T19:11:00.000-07:00

Your Conscious Mind = The Captain of the Ship
The conscious mind has the ability to think, decide, and to act. It is rational in nature and its purpose is to either accept or reject the information that it receives. He issues orders to his crew and they follow it without question or evaluation

Your Subconscious Mind = The Crew of the Ship
Your subconscious mind takes orders without questioning the conscious mind. It simply obeys and carries out those orders.

Your Thoughts = The Captain’s Orders
The quality and safety of the ship can only be as good as the quality of orders being communicated from the Captain to his Crew. If you think "I am fat and ugly", your subconscious mind will oblige and take you on a binge. If you think : I am tall and strong", you will start walking straighter.

Here is an exercise to see how it works.

Create a pendulum by tying about 20cm of string to a small metal washer, nut or bolt.

On a table put a piece of paper with a 2 crossing lines.

Get comfortable at a table. Pick up the pendulum in whatever hand you write with. Rest your elbow on the table. Holding the string between your thumb and forefinger, suspend the pendulum over the paper.

Holding the pendulum with the washer suspended over the paper, look at it (keep your eyes open), and think about the string moving in one of several directions from A to B for example. Don't try to make the pendulum move, and don't try to keep it from moving. Once it is moving, you can start thinking about another direction going from C to D. Or you can make try make the pendulum going in circle.

The same principle works for your goals. If you have a goal when you go to play a game of bridge, if your purpose is clear - you unconscious mind will also work toward the same aim. Remember: the goal cannot be to win - For you have no total control on the results.

The goal has to be related to your own performance, to your actions - whether your goal is to play card perfect, or to only make no more than 3 errors, etc.

The second point is that the purpose has some what in line with your capabilities. The ship may sink otherwise.

You don't have a choice over using your subconscious. You can only choose what instruction you give. If the instructions are not clear or do-able, you will get random results.

So step 1 toward the zone is:

...

Have a clear goal every step of the day

5,4,3,2,1 Golden Rules

2009-05-12T18:30:00.000-07:00

F = Five More Rule
The set may not be going well, or you are doing some practice bidding/playing and you have had it. Get your second wind by the conscious decision to just play FIVE MORE hands right. In practice, continuing to concentrate when your brain is tired is the key to S-T-R-E-T-C-H-I-N-G your attention span and building mental endurance.

C = Cards
Car, cards and nothing but cards should be your mantra

O = One Think At a Time After a bad result, or distracting event, make your mind a deal it can't refuse. Instead of telling yourself NOT to worry about something. I will list a few techniques in the next post

U = Use Your Hands as Blinkers
Picture your mind as a camera and your eyes as its aperture. Be aware of the various focus styles required throughout the game. If you need to switch to narrow focus, cup your hands around your eyes so you have "tunnel vision" and are looking solely at the cards. Placing your hands on the side of your face blocks out surroundings so they are literally "out of sight, out of mind." If you cup your hands around your eyes every time you want to switch from wide-angle to telephoto focus, that physical ritual becomes a Pavlovian trigger. ( You know, Pavlov rang the bell, fed the dog, rang the bell and fed the dog, until the dog started salivating as soon as he heard the sound of the bell)

S = See As If For the First or Last Time
You mind will work best if you know how to be "here and now" and fully present instead of mindlessly rushing in your mind through a millions other concerns. Looking at something as if for the first time will bring your mind back to the task

Continuous effort ........

2009-05-10T07:15:00.000-07:00

Regardless of one’s ability and belief in oneself, it takes a whole lot of effort and persistence to achieve anything substantial. You don’t become a champion by just wishing for it or believing you can.

I like this quote from Winston Churchill.

“Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential"

If I had did not already have a job I enjoy, I would like a job involving bridge. Playing would be top of the list for sure, but training and coaching would be high on the list as well. Coaching the Australian into winning skills, that would be cool. As long as I get to travel with the team of course.

So now, moving on to look at the aspect of improving these mental skills.

It goes goes without saying (but I will say it anyway !!) that a prerequisite is to develop one’s technical skills. Regardless how well strong our mental skills may be, mental fatigue will always be there to trigger mistakes - lack of concentration - incorrect focus - increased likelihood to respond with stress to tough situations - etc. So it is important that the technical play aspects be both well understood and well practiced to minimise fatigue, so as to "automate" the card play itself. This will minimise the internal focus required to search our mental stores for knowledge that is buried, and free our mind to attend to relevant cues and solve relevant problems.

Jahangir Khan who was at the top of the squash world for so long said:

"To be the best, I had to work harder than everyone else."

A key step to improvement is of course to make an honest assessment of our strengths and weaknesses. I will skip that step for now but more on this later.

Next post will cover:
· Techniques for improving focus styles and concentration
· Training practice for these 2 skills
· At the table

Styles galore

2009-05-08T06:45:00.001-07:00

Before I move on to the journey of improvement, I must delve a little more into the concept of attentional styles.

I have summarised the different focus styles that we all use to varying degrees a various times:

Broad external focus - taking in our surrounding, taking in a multitude of cues from our environment
Broad internal focus - time for strategies and planning, selecting relevant cues
Narrow internal focus - time for problem solving and processing complex information
Narrow external focus - time for execution, playing the card, looking at the cards

While everyone is capable of using and developing these different styles, we each will have a preferred or a more developed focus style - whether we were born that way or due to our education or occupation. The CEO of a company is more likely to be a "strategic " thinkers, a programmer is more likely to be a problem solver...

Along these difference in focus styles, are also differences in how likely we are to become distracted and by what:

"external distractability" = how easily we become distracted by task irrelevant external cues, using a broad external focus when it is inappropriate
"internal distractability" = how easily we become distracted at critical times by their own thoughts and feelings, failing to narrow our attention and/or shift to an external focus when we should
A third element is our "degree of flexibility" = how easily we can shift from one mode to the other

It is important to understand that under stress, or a times of mental fatigue, we tend to revert to our natural style - even though it may not the most appropriate.

Ohhh ...this is such dry topic, how about a quote from Dalai Lama to finish the day

We are all worms. But I believe that I am a glow-worm

Paul, Joe and the Confidence Yardstick

2009-05-05T00:37:00.000-07:00

The story of 2 car salesmen

Ian Thorpe said in an interview:

"For myself, losing is not coming second. It's getting out of the water knowing you could have done better. For myself, I have won every race I've been in."

Here is an analogy to explain my yardstick business.

Paul and Joe are both successful car salesmen. They both exudes self-confidence. They both sell luxury cars and are doing very well. They learned their trade from their mate old Bill who wrote a bestseller on sales skills. They both live a very comfortable lifestyle and feel happy that they are very good at selling expensive cars. After a particularly good day, they like to show off a bit and it goes like this.

Joe goes home with a bottle of wine and flowers and confides to Dolly the wife: "Gee I sold another 5 cars today. Am I good or what? Do you know how many cars I have sold this year? 20. Surely I must be the best salesman there ever was."

Paul also goes home - to wife Penny - with chocolate and wine: "Gosh Penny, I sold 5 cars today. I feel good. I am getting really good at selling cars.You should have seen how I handled the sale of a Ferrari 250LM today. I knew exactly how to hook that old guy. I practiced my sales pitch yesterday. Old Bill would have been proud."

In both cases, success is helping boost the confidence of these 2 men of course. It confirms their skills as salesmen. Their yardstick is different however.
Joe's yardstick for his self-confidence is the number of cars he sells.
In the case of Paul, it is the knowledge that the selling process he uses is effective that is the basis for his belief in himself

Paul knows that he is a good salesman. He is confident that he knows the process of selling. He practices and is always seeking to improve it. The lack of sales does not impact his self-confidence. He knows that there are other factors that can impact the sales (Maybe there is a recession, or maybe the profile of the luxury car buyer has changed or maybe the car manufacturer has been building dodgy card and the market has caught on). So he changes the process, maybe adjusting his style to the new type of buyers and eventually success returns to him.

Joe on the other hand is getting more and more depressed.Without the success of selling cars, he loses confidence in himself. He tries harder and harder but with no results. The harder is tries, the more despondent he gets, which in turn does not help him sell more cards. By his yardstick, he no longer has a basis for self-confidence.
If Joe does not change his yardstick, he will have to leave the car selling business.

Change the yardstick

2009-04-30T06:35:00.000-07:00

"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves"
Edmund Hillary

"Confidence is preparation. Everything else is beyond your control"
Richard Kline

Even successful people will wrestle with the problem of lost confidence at some point in time: "How to maintain my confidence when things are not going well"

Let us start with what is confidence and what it is not:

It is:

assurance: freedom from doubt; belief in ourself and our abilities
a feeling of trust in others or in ourself
firm trust, a feeling of certainty, sense of self-reliance
state of being certain either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective
Natural confidence is a quiet state and feeling

What it cannot be:

belief that you are better than others
belief that the results will always follow
presume success
belief that you will never make a mistake
Confidence doesn't come from trying to impress others. It comes from doing the right thing at the right time for the right reasons
Loud, extrovert people are not necessarily displaying confidence

Someone confident focuses on the process. He can practice each step, each movement and his mastery of each step, so he can do it again. He focuses on the process and not on the results. Because we cannot control the results. There are too many factors that can change an outcome.

Someone who has sustained success will become familiar with it, so that it will become second nature. And the danger is that because you have familiar with it, you assume it. That would be a mistake. That is no longer confidence. For without the greatest respect for the opponents, one may soon find reality knocking at the door. For they to will have practiced.

So how to maintain confidence in ourself when the results are far from what we had hoped they would be. The answer is easy. Well easy to state, but it may take some practice to do it:

"You have to change the yardstick"

How you perform is the only thing over which you have control. If you change the yardstick from the results to how well you gave your best effort, and if you do this repeatedly, you can prove to yourself that you can be trusted to perform well when called upon.

You can still be disappointed about some of the outcomes you achieve because results are outside of your direct control. But this confidence will then allow you to approach the challenges you face with greater calm and with a more directed focus on the process of that performance, rather than on its outcome.

Easy game

CO Square

2009-04-26T05:42:00.000-07:00

FOcuss COncentration and COnfidence

As you have guessed, the third element closely linked to Focus and Concentration is Confidence.

Clearly, confidence is an essential part of high performance, so it should be worthwhile to look at the relationship between focus concentration and confidence.

Now, unlike focus styles and concentration, confidence is not something that you prepare training exercises for. It can - and needs to - be developed however and I will dwell on this in a subsequent post.

The following 2 diagrams illustrate the interconnection between focus and confidence:

{Diagrams with small modifications come from a presentation by Dr Nideffer}

High confidence Level

With a high level of confidence, the performer is aware early in the recovery process. He can let go of internal thoughts and concerns to remain focused on relevant external cues. Look at the Tiger woods example in the previous post. (Here is he story)

Low Confidence level

...

Due to the lack of confidence, the recovery process slows downs and results in a vicious circle. The longer it takes to recover, the more the internal tension remains or increases, the more the mind is occupied with internal emotions and and less with relevant cues. As a result the performer fails to anticipate. The problem increases and so does the anxiety.

The CO of FOCOCO

2009-04-23T06:22:00.000-07:00

Concentration as "Fascination of the mind for the object upon which we focus"

Attention is the process by which we uses our senses to perceive the world. Focusing our attention means that we become aware of one thing or one set of things at the exclusion of others. As discussed before this Focus can be internal or external

Concentration is something else. It is when we sustain our attention on selected stimuli for a long period of time. That is the attention span.

You cannot concentrate by telling yourself: Now, I will concentrate! (And concentration does not mean staring at something). There is also a clear link between concentration and switching focus styles. If we use of lot of mental energy to select the right focus style and to switch between one style and the other, our concentration will fade.

Top performers sustain a degree of concentrated focus. Their mental game allows them to retain balance and the belief that “it ain’t not over til it’s over” . They trust the process.
Someone said of Tiger Woods: Apart obviously his immense talent, what he has is a total commitment to his mental game. Not just once in a while or only when things are going good but on every shot his attention is focused

Here is a story:
One time, Woods missed a short birdie putt on a par 5 hole. In disgust, he whiffed his putter thorough mid air. He tapped the next one in, but he was now four shots behind the leader with four holes to play. A tough task to make up.
On that next hole, Tiger went to the tee and went through his pre-shot routine. (All good golfers have a pre-shot routine of lining up the shot, envisioning what they want to do and the flight of the ball.) Then they step up and address the ball. Tiger did this. As he started his back swing, a car full of hecklers drove by screaming and honking the horn. Tiger froze, right in the middle of his back swing, stepped back from the ball, smirked a smile, regained his composure, and went through his pre-shot routine all over again. He then stepped back up to the ball, took his swing and knocked it right in the hole for a hole-in-one.

Think about it

2009-04-23T05:23:00.000-07:00

A simple analogy for the "Zone" and a starting point for high performance

Think of your brain as a camera that can take 40 pictures a second.
Say under normal conditions, your camera brain takes an equal number of pictures in each of the concentration areas.
Now, think of a shot on goal in soccer that takes one second to travel from the foot of the kicker to the goal. The goalie’s perception of how quickly the ball gets to him, will depend
upon the number of pictures the brain takes of the ball.

If, under normal conditions the camera is focused internally on the goalies thoughts and feelings for half of the time, then 20 pictures will be taken of the ball.
If the athlete stops all internal processing the camera brain takes 40 pictures of the ball. With twice as many pictures to look at, the ball seems to come to the athlete much more slowly.

The thing to remember from this is that:
The perception of the passage of time is dependent upon the direction of your focus of concentration. The more internal the focus, the faster time seems to pass. The more external the focus, the slower it passes and the more time you feel you have to react.

Once you are capable of performing and of making adjustments without having to consciously think about it, you are ready to begin work on learning to control distractions or those thoughts and feelings that interfere with performance in the actual competition

For us bridge players, imagine how many external cues our internal camera is missing when we focus on our bad play, our bridge partner defensive mistake or any other random topics unrelated to the present game.

Handball and Bridge ... continued

2009-04-21T01:55:00.000-07:00

Focus styles used in a bridge game

And now looking at the focus styles used during a game of bridge. It is definitely getting tougher

Switching focus styles requires a great deal of mental energy.
Errors are more likely to occur then we have to change the width and the direction of our attention. We may change to slowly or too rapidly and miss relevant cues as a result.

If declarer plays a card quickly at trick one, we need to change focus from broad external to broad internal for analysis. If we react too too quickly, we may miss the step or make it too late, after our card has been played or after tha game has been played !
Or declarer plays an unexpected card. This may call for a shift to broad internal focus as we consider declarer strategy. If this thinking was not done before, we will switch to broad internal focus too slowly and our tempo will give a cue to the opponent

In addition to the cues relevant to the hand being played, there are a lot of sources of distractions that can call upon our focus if we are not careful. Some external, such as:

the attitude of partner,

the attitude of the opponents –say they begin an argument at the table,

the heat and the noise in the room,

Some internal such as:

a bad result – or even a very good one - on the previous hand,

the bad feeling we have made a bad play or that partner has taken an unexpected action,

worrying that our teammates had a tough time on previous round

or plain simple that we just had lunch and feel sleepy, wishing we did not.

Adding to this, the skills used during a game of bridge are mental, not physical like in a soccer game.

In a ball game, the physical skills are practiced over and over again. When you are playing, your focus is practically always external except for those rare moments when you shoot a goal and even then, it is pretty much only at the moment you actually throw the ball.

In bridge, it is your mental processes that are at play. You need internal focus to solve problems. And you need to tune in to external cues. Alas, internal focus is also the stuff of emotions, so it is a pretty tall order to stay tuned.

For those players whose technical knowledge is still lacking - (say what is the percentage play with ATxxx opposite 9xx for 3 tricks) - , additional internal focus is required to solve the problem at the table, taking your focus away from the game to a potential internal worry (Do I really know what I am doing?)

It should be no surprise that adding this to the need to constantly shift of attention, our mental energy is severly taxed and bridge players all over make mistakes that they should not make. It can then be pretty tough to keep our concentration levels they where they should be. (more on this later - Concentration )

Witness the final of Italy versus USA during the bridge championship in Monte Carlo. If dummy had not been a source of distraction by leaving the table (causing declarer to momentrarily switch to internal focus), would the result have been the same?http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/MonteCarlo.03/Monaco.htm

Handball and bridge

2009-04-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

Focus at work

Time to look at the focus styles used during a game of bridge.

Bridge is a team game - even though some of us may have a tendency to play solo - so I will first illustrate the concept of shifting focuses with a ball game before applying it to bridge. I have always been a keen sportswomen and tried many sports, but my first choice was - and still is - European Handball which I played competitively when I lived in France. So this is what I know and will use it here

(For those not in the know, team handball is a cross between soccer and basketball. If you want to be in the know, look at http://www.handballaustralia.org.au/handball_rules.html )

Brief summary of the game

A cross between basketball and soccer. Same size court has basketball, 6 players (plus goalie for handball), a goal net for each side, like in soccer, but use of hands instead of feet. A line 7 meters away from the goal is the last defense line. This line cannot be crossed.
Each team: 3 back positions: left back, right back and center back. 3 front positions: left wing, right wing and pivot and the goalie
The aim or course is to score more goals that the opponents

Focus Styles used during a game of Handball

Focus Pocus - the Theory

2009-04-16T17:57:00.000-07:00

First the Theory

Along the theory of Attentional and Interpersonal Style by Dr Nideffer
Attention comes in 2 dimensions:

Breadth: At any given moment, our attention will be Broad (focus on multiple cues at the same time) or Narrow (focus on one thing)
Direction: Similarly, our focus will either be External (focus on information outside of yourself) or Internal (focus in your own head). Internal focus is also the stuff of emotions

The appropriate style are used for different situations:

We must use broad external focus when we drive if we want to avoid the many obstacles that can get in the way of our car. If we are in narrow focus style, we are at great risk of missing one of the many external cues relevant to driving and crash into an incoming car for example.

A sports coach will use a broad internal focus to analyse and plan a strategy for the next game.

A goalie uses narrow external focus as he prepares for the soccer play to take a shot. If his mind is on the defender who arrived too late, he will miss the shifting of the shooter at the last minute

The bridge player uses internal focus as he reviews possible card combinations and the inferences he can make from the lead before he decides on the best line of play. Right at that moment, it is no use thinking about the state of the match at the other table the system agreements that we have with partner(The pic is a bunch of bridge players in the north pole, check it out: http://www.woodboro.co.uk/NorthPole.htm

Now, people are a bit like a televisions (well, the black box of the olden days anyway) . We can switch to all channels, but you cannot have a picture within a picture. We can all use all focus styles but we can do only one at a time.

But unlike televisions, we all have a preferred style of focus. This dominant style is relevant because it is what we tend to fall back on when the stress level is high.

In the next post ..... handball and bridge

A game of focuses

2009-04-16T00:54:00.000-07:00

Mistakes and focuses

While there is a degree of complexity in the game of bridge, there are many who would say other games, such as Chess for example, are infinitely more complex than my favourite card game. And I dare say there are plenty of mistakes made throughout a game of chess.

Here what Kasparov had to say about mistakes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2KKfOGaR_w

But I suspect that there are not many other competitive endeavour where a team of the highest standard can lose a match (even if by 1 Imp) against a team of a much technical skills, be it in mind games or sports. Or we see examples of “stunning” errors in bridge world championships. The people who participates in these events are presumably among the best. They may not be perfect but they really know their stuff. You don’t expect obvious errors from them.

. . Aside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The reason for me delving in this is personal of course. I found that the few times where I have played in tough events, there was always a match where I ”lost” it. And I made “stunning” errors.
After the fact, I could always ponder on the whys, analyse, increase my self-awareness and resolve to “try harder” next time. But trying harder at the bridge table does not really work. When you try hard, your focus is internal, where it must not be.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Looking for answers, I came across a lot of material in the field of sports psychology and research on excellence in performance. Of course, there will be many aspect to this and it would take much more than one blog to try to digest it all. But I found one thing that made me tick and seemed so particularly relevant to the game of bridge.

Some very useful and interesting research by a sports psychologist by the name of Nideffer (and many others like him) in the area of attention and concentration. My next post will try to regurgitate the theory, try applying it to the world of bridge and examine the postulate:

Bridge is a game of errors because it is a game of focuses

Dealing with arousal

2009-04-14T17:41:00.000-07:00

The inverted-U relationship: Arousal - Performance

Before dealing with my main topic of interest, I must put to bed the issue of arousal (in a very superficial manner).

The Yerkes-Dodson law defines a relationship between arousal and performance was originally developed by psychologists R M Yerkes and J D Dodson around 1900. The law dictates that performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a point. When levels of arousal become too high, performance decreases.

When the arousal is too low, our focus becomes broad. At the table, we will attend not only to the game being played, but also to irrelevant cues, such as the other other players in the room, our partner, the state of the match, our own feelings, and a number of other cues unrelated to the game.

Inversely, when the arousal is too high, our focus narrows until we can start losing track of relevant cues. Our focus changes from external to internal in a bid to manage the excitement.

The level of optimum arousal is not fixed. It varies based on the sport or activity that we engage in. Typically, complex tasks require a lower level of arousal.

As far as individuals, everyone operates best at their own level. The people who enjoy a quite evening to relax will tend to perform better at a low to medium level of arousal, while others who prefer a loud concert to end a hard week may require a higher level of arousal for peak performance.

It seems to me that the game of bridge must qualify as one of these complex activities that require arousal on the low side. And those people who need to be psyched-up for best performance must find ways to reconcile the two.

Slowing down time

2009-04-14T04:47:00.000-07:00

Our Perception of Time Depends Upon our Focus of Concentration

Perception of the passage of time is affected by the amount of time concentration is directed to things going on in the world around us, as opposed to being focused internally, on our own thoughts and feelings. When we are able to quiet, conscious, internal though processes, and keep concentration focused almost exclusively on the game, time is slowed down and we enter the zone.

Time perception can be speeded up as well. When we go to sleep at night, our focus of concentration becomes almost exclusively internal. When we wake up,we have the feeling that time passed very quickly. People under extreme pressure in competitive situations often have associated changes in physiology which causes concentration to become more internally focused. Breathing rate, heart rate, and muscle tension levels all increase. Those internal changes act as distracters causing us to spend more time in our head than usual. When this happens, time seems to speed up and we feel rushed.

There will be methods and training to help us enter the "zone". They would teach us techniques to help us to reduce attention to internal thoughts and feelings, and stay focused on only performance relevant external cues. This must be harder than it sounds as most teaching must require us to start thinking more, not less, thereby temporarily increasing our internal focus. !! I imagine it takes time and patience to reap the reward of such training.

The "Zone"

2009-04-14T04:45:00.000-07:00

What is the Zone?

The zone is an altered state of consciousness. When we are in the zone, our normal way of experiencing things is dramatically altered. By examining the descriptions provided by elite level athletes, it's possible to identify some of the common alterations of perception that occur when an athlete has a "peak experience", or enters the "zone" or "flow" state

There is a feeling of complete control, total confidence.
We know with certainty what is going to happen before it actually occurs.
Time is slowed down.
Objects seem larger and/or more vivid than usual.
The performance is effortless, occurring automatically without any conscious direction.
There is a feeling of exhilaration even joy.
The level of performance exceeds our own expectations, making us aware of a higher level of potential than we would have hoped for.

Calming the mind

2009-04-14T04:42:00.000-07:00

Calming The Mind So The Mind Can Perform

There's two seconds left in the championship game, your team is behind by one point and you are at the free throw line shooting two shots. You're very aware of the situation and you, like everyone else, know how important these two shots are. You can feel your heart pounding and your legs are a little weak as you bounce the ball and prepare for your first shot. You take a last deep breath and push the ball towards the basket. You watch with considerable anxiety as the ball hits the front of the rim and bounces straight up. It comes back down and starts rolling around the rim, finally dropping through.

As the ball drops through the hoop, you feel a tremendous sense of relief. It's as if all the weight of the world has been lifted from your shoulders. The ball is passed to you by the referee for your second shot and you step up to the line and dribble the ball. This time, there is no thought of failure, there is no doubt in your mind. You know that you're going to make the shot. You take the last bounce, look to the basket, inhale, feel your knees bend slightly and begin pushing the ball towards the basket. It's effortless and you're in total control, you know before the ball leaves your hand that it's going through without even touching the rim. You feel the excitement as watch the ball spin through the air in slow motion towards it target. The moment almost seems frozen in time for you.

That is the Zone

To reach that golden state we have to quiet our thought processes, shut out distractions, to trust our self and simply let ourselves perform

A game of mistakes

2009-04-14T04:35:00.000-07:00

A game of mistake

Everywhere, we will see players, from the highest standards to the average player, make mistakes that they should have known not to make – if only they had thought it through.. More than one bridge star has reflected on this and commented: ”I make mistakes, luckily my opponents make more. This is why I win more often that most”.

I was reading an article recently about the story of a team of international experts who went on to lose a match by 1 imp to a team of inexperienced players who had much less technical knowledge !

In all endeavours where one needs to achieve peak performance, one of the key ingredient of success is the ability of to maintain focus.Without this, there is no winner. All the skills that we bring to the table will not be sufficient if a lack of focus prevents us from using these skills effectively.