cool sports blogx: Back To The Beginning

Saturday, 31 March 2012

Back To The Beginning

It was just over three years ago that I wrote a short article called "The Sports Cognition Framework" for my squeaky new blog. It was one of the first five articles I had ever written and it shows. However, it captured the core of my passion and interest which is reflected in the name I chose for this blog, Sports Are 80 Percent Mental. Learning about the connections between skill, psyche, and tactics in sports remains my goal.

Between that simple start and today's post (#185 for those scoring at home), I have wandered all across the spectrum of sports science, sports medicine, sports psychology and fitness research. Along the way, there was a weekly column for Livescience.com and a few dozen articles for Life's Little Mysteries.

However, the focus of my writing has become blurred. In a quest to get freelance articles placed online and expand the readership of this blog, I've tried covering an ever-increasing universe of sports research. As with many endeavors, it is time to refocus on the original intent of this project. It is time to get back to the beginning.

Most importantly, I value and appreciate your loyal visits to this site and your tweeting, liking and linking of the articles you enjoy. I hope that will continue but wanted to give you a heads-up that future articles will be centered on the core concept of sports cognition. Focused quality over quantity will be my mantra.

To that end, what questions do you have? Have you thought about this stuff, too? To be more specific, currently in the sports training world there is the popular, yet more general theory of "practice makes perfect" skill development, along with practical mental coaching tips and tricks. What drives me, though, is drilling down much further into the brain-body connection and picking apart the root causes of sports expertise.

The research is there, buried in academic journals. If it can be extracted, explained and extended out to coaches, parents and players, then we can break down some traditional training myths while developing a better understanding of the sports we love.

So, my humble request is that you give the more specific 80% Mental a chance by visiting, keeping your RSS subscription, and joining the conversation both here and on our Facebook page.

Thanks!
Dan

P.S. My breakthrough to re-purpose my work was inspired by a new manifesto from Steven Pressfield, appropriately titled, Do The Work. The Kindle version is now selling at the very reasonable price of free, thanks to Seth Godin and the Domino Project. I highly recommend it!