Pete Crow-Armstrong is having a season for the ages and is widely considered the leading candidate for the National League MVP award. The Cubs center fielder is among the league leaders in home runs, RBIs, and steals, and on defense he might very well be on his way to another Gold Glove season.
With all the success that Crow-Armstrong is having, it was interesting to learn about a counterintuitive mental approach that the rising star utilizes. Players are taught from their very first days of Little League to stay focused and not let their minds wander during games, but that is exactly what Crow-Armstrong admitted to doing.
The Athletic reported on an interview that Crow-Armstrong did this past season on the podcast, The Old Man and the Three, where he said, “The time in between pitches — like if nobody’s on — I’m letting my mind wander, I’m looking up into the bleachers, seeing who’s there. You got to check out sometimes so you can lock it back in.”
Mindset experts call Crow-Armstrong’s practice of letting his mind wander non-directional attention and recommend it as an effective practice for high performers. Why does science suggest that Armstrong’s habit of mentally drifting away is actually a good approach?
Here are three reasons that freeing your mind can help your performance:
- Recharges Your Focus: It takes a lot of cognitive energy to stay locked in, and it can be exhausting if you don’t give yourself a break. Taking a mental break allows you to recharge your mindset batteries.
- Reduces Choking: Although it is important to be focused during games, the danger of focusing too much is that you can begin to overthink the game. Giving yourself mental breaks allows you to play more freely, let go of past mistakes, and not choke because you are overthinking the game’s outcome.
- Enhances Peak Focus: The real skill for athletes is to be able to go back and forth from locking in to checking out on command. Your peak focus becomes much stronger if you have the ability to soften your focus and then lock back in.
So, how do you lock back in? Because, back to those lessons learned from the first time you play in Little League, you do have to be focused to avoid mental mistakes during games.
The Athletic story included an interview with sports psychologist Justin Anderson, who recommended incorporating a breathing technique to lock back in. He suggested taking a deep breath or two, which is coupled with refocusing your mind on the game and taking a couple of steps to get physically realigned to playing.
Anderson explained, “The breath kind of brings our attention back to our core — our center. Deep breaths can relax us a little bit more, so it also has a physiological component to it. The key is to be intentional. Where are my eyes? What do I want to say to myself?”
As you work on strengthening your mindset fitness, an easy way to think about Crow-Armstrong’s mind-wandering approach is to remind yourself that when you are physically working out, you need to take a rest now and then – the same goes with your mind!
