The Real Reason Why Physical Training Isn’t Enough
How would you describe an athlete? Like many of you, we would most likely start with physical prowess:someone who can lift large amounts of weight, run at fast speeds, a high vertical jump, etc.
While all of these physical characteristics may be relevant, they have become almost the only means by which the word athlete is literally defined.. Merriam Webster defines an athlete as “a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina.” Therefore, the best way to become or develop yourself as an athlete is to focus on your physical training only, right? Wrong.
Although an athlete’s physical profile can certainly help them succeed in their respective sport, nowadays, athletes are made by combining three key elements: physical, technical, and mental.
Let’s take hockey for example, as former players, we could spend hours working on physical training - weight lifting, skating speed, endurance,etc. If we wanted to hone in on our technique we could practice stickhandling, passing, shooting etc. So, how do we train the mental component of our game?
Admittedly, at the time, the extent of our mental training was limited to various vision training exercises and film breakdown. However, nowadays, it’s becoming more and more clear that mental training is crucial to becoming an athlete.
A great first step to starting your path of mental training is by focusing on your vision, over 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Through the Edge Trainer by Vizual Edge we will hone and develop core visual skills that will help with your reaction, awareness, and ability to process and act on information - building you into a better athlete.
After all, the body has its limits...the mind does not!