The past has passed, so be present in the present and concentrate on the now.
Every sport has slogans designed to induce a winning attitude, which coaches use to help their athletes win frustrating close games or overcome tight moments. One such wrestling phrase is “Build muscle memory,” which tells wrestlers to drill and drill a particular move until no thinking is required. The wrestler’s body reacts appropriately, and every coach likely has a story(s) to illustrate how athletes can overcome a challenge.
Jesse Mendez, NCAA Champion (photo courtesy Eleven Warriors)
But every athlete, no matter how physically fit, has a mind that is also present on the mat, field, course, or wherever. The body demands to be trained, but so does the mind.
In the recent NCAA Division 1 wrestling championship 141 finals, two familiar foes faced each other. Two weeks prior, at the Big 10 Championships, Brock Hardy of Nebraska defeated Jesse Mendez of Ohio State in the semifinals by one point. In the NCAA finals, Hardy scored a quick takedown and back points. Mendez quickly escaped but was losing 5-1.
Out of bounds, they returned to the mat’s center. Bam! Mendez scored a takedown, locked in a deep armbar to score back points–seven in all–and now led 8-5. He went on to win his second national title.
Photo courtesy FOX 16
“The battle was with my mind and staying in the present; my battle today was with myself.”
Those words could have come from Jesse Mendez after his match. After all, imagine how he must have felt after losing a takedown and back points to a wrestler who had defeated him just weeks before.
But they aren’t Mendez’s words. Rory McIlroy is the speaker, and he said those words on Sunday after winning the Master’s golf tournament.
“Don’t beat yourself. Trust your training,” and other words uttered by all who compete are great—until, so to speak, you face the back nine holes on Sunday afternoon. As the pundit observed, that is when a Master rises, and on Sunday, McIlroy did just that. On the 18th that day–the last hole of 72 tournament holes–McIlroy missed a 5-foot putt. That miss forced a playoff with his Ryder Cup teammate Justin Rose. Then, McIlroy didn’t beat himself and trusted his training.
“The battle was with my mind and staying in the present; my battle today was with myself.”
In the ensuing playoff, McIlroy made par on the same hole (the 18th) where he had missed that putt only minutes earlier.
Of his extraordinary quotation above, I like “staying in the present” best because he explains how to rise and not let doubt or fear rue the day in that verb phrase. He had missed a putt that should have cinched the championship, just as eventual champion Mendez was losing his match 5-1 and then came back to win 8-5.
It goes on and on, but the past has passed, and McIlory tells us to let it go, be present in the present, and concentrate on the now. That’s sound wisdom in golf, wrestling, and–most of all–in life.
