Wise Words from Merv Fonger

My guest  today is a friend and colleague whose opinions, expertise, experience and vision I respect greatly. As you can see by the subject line, it's MERV FONGER from the only province in our great nation that has "curling" as its official provincial sport (that would be Saskatchewan)! He's the coach of Team Amber Holland. This man knows of what he speaks! Enjoy!

The whole idea of maximum performance is to simply go on autopilot. Allowing the mind to focus on only performance and nothing else is an important key to being successful. Sound technical skills are a must in order to compete at the high performance level. If the focus is on how to do it rather than simply executing the skill, then you lose your flow and the focus is not where it needs to be.

We have a multitude of skills that we use when we perform, it is important to know when and how to use them without giving it a second thought. Those skills that require technical training need to be soundly incorporated into muscle memory before the big event, whatever that might be. Technically strong performers are confident, assertive, and task oriented because they have the ability to take what tools they need and go on autopilot without fear of negative consequences.

It is not that new skills and different ways of doing things are bad, but they are necessary for people to improve performance. Knowing when to implement the changes and developing a plan to getting those skills to autopilot mode is what is important. Peaking can only take place when the performer has total confidence in the technical package.

Yogi Berra once said, "How can you hit and think at the same time?"

Nike has the right idea, "Just do it!"