The Golden Triangle of Peak Performance in Sports
The golden triangle of peak performance in sports is intention, attention, and harmony.
Previously I wrote that not having the right intention and attention causes distractions that sabotage performance. Today, I intend to show how harmony between your intention and attention drives peak performance.
In order for the golden triangle to take shape for an athlete the mind and body must act in harmony. Explicitly this means that as the mind carries out one’s intentions and the body carries out one’s attention, the two are not in conflict.
Avoiding Mind-Body Conflict
Susan A. Jackson, PhD provides a common example of this conflict in the book Flow in Sports:
An office worker might be sitting at his desk and adding up numbers, with part of his attention focused on the job and part of it focused on his wish to be out with his girlfriend. He resents having to sit, to be indoors, to work on his task. By contrast, in the flow state a person’s subjective states are in harmony; the body and mind are working together without internal conflict.
In this situation, the office worker’s intention (mind) is to be out with his girlfriend and his attention (body) is on doing his desk job. As a result, there is no way this office worker can reach peak performance.
Further illustrating this point we can look at an athlete at practice. If the athlete is going through the motions of practice, while his or her mind is focused on:
- hanging with friends,
- a parent’s criticisms,
- stress from school or at home
- playing video games,
- eating or sleeping…
Unquestionably, this athlete will not get even close to getting the most out of that practice. In contrast, when the mind and body are not in conflict (i.e. harmony), performance can reach optimal levels. It is only in these moments of optimal mind-body harmony where peak performance is possible.
With that said, the #1 lesson a coach can teach their athletes is the importance of getting their mind and body in harmony. In other words, coaches must find a way to make achieving the golden triangle of peak performance part of their practice routine.