Understand Yourself in Cricket

You're surrounded. Almost all the fielders are within touching distance. You take your guard, get your feet right, your grip. With maybe eight fielders around the bat there is no sport quite as intense as cricket. You look around. Eleven against YOU! Are you bold enough to stand up to them?
Your forthcoming behaviour is a result of your self-image, the person you believe you really are. Your self-image is so strong your behaviour will have you perform consistently as that person you think you are.
We all know people who are skilled, yet think they are not. They are too fat, too slow, too old, too out of shape, whatever. If you believe that about yourself, if you believe yourself not good enough in any way, you will subconsciously sabotage any effort to make yourself a winner. Batting too defensively only creates confidence in the bowler.
Studies have proven time after time, an extraordinary number of sportspeople fail because they think themselves less than they are worth through this limited self-image. Are they unworthy? Of course not. It's how they see themselves in their imagination which affects their performance and can even causes self-destructive behaviour.
Here's an example to prove my point. Sit for a moment somewhere quiet and remember some time in the past when you felt tired, sad, despondent. Really get back into that time by remembering everything you could see and hear in as much detail as you can. Bring back any physical and emotional experiences, get that memory and hold it for a few seconds. Try to stand up.
Now sit down again and this time bring back to mind a time when you felt energetic, determined, optimistic. Again remember in as much vivid detail as you can, what you saw, hear the good things you heard and get in touch with the physical and emotional feelings you had and hold them for several seconds. Now stand up.
Compare the two experiences. In the first you may have found it an effort to stand. How about the second? Did you leap up, ready to go? Notice your thoughts influence how you perform. It is interesting that in just a few seconds, thinking one way, then another created an entirely different result. Your belief about yourself influences your thoughts, which then affect your behaviour.
That said, let me remind you how quickly your cricketing career goes by. For instance, it's incredible how the last twelve months have gone by. How was it? Think about your mortality. Imagine your breathing your last. Did you do all you wanted to do in cricket? Did you truly live it? Visit the venues you always wanted? Enjoy wonderful moments with your team mates? Before you know it, you find yourself retired, then into old age and there you are, staring into emptiness, reflecting on how good you could have been. That's how it ends up for the vast majority of people. Where did all the time go?
The only thing you have total control of in this world is your thinking. At first you may feel self-conscious trying out these methods. Whenever you do something new which takes you beyond your 'comfort zone' you feel nervous. It's OK, your human. You must grit your teeth and get out of your 'comfort zone'. Good mental preparation before is then as good as physical preparation.
So, do you have a good in-depth understanding of yourself? Do you recognise and value your temperament and character? Do you know the benefits as well as any risk associated with your own style of game? Beware, people often see what they want to see when it comes to self-evaluation. Solid self-understanding will certainly influence your cricket career.
Calm individuals are not as affected emotionally by success and failure as much as excitable people. Calm makes it easier to concentrate, however, being more laid-back may make someone slower to react to certain conditions.
Excitable individuals are almost always on the go and are at risk at reacting too quickly emotionally. These people also use up a lot of time and valuable energy being so intense.
Ask three of four friends or team mates, people you can trust, to grade their impressions of you. What would they say your internal mental strengths are? Your best psychological ability? Include attributes of attitude, competitiveness, confidence, versatility. Spend some time reflecting on what they said. Do you agree?
This article is taken from the book, A Mind 4 Cricket by Paul M Maher.

Paul M. Maher invites you to learn more about sports psychology and to maximise your sports potential by visiting http://www.mindtrainingarena.com. You will gain access to invaluable eBooks on cricket, tennis, soccer and Bodybuilding.