My goals for this competition can be summed up by something that one of my favorite athletes said a few days ago:
(This is an excerpt from an AP article)
Woods had such a clean lie in the bunker that he might have gone for the green in two if the U.S. Open wasn't on the line. Instead, he hit a terrible shot to the right and into the rough, and had to hope that his 60-degree wedge was the right choice. It settled 12 feet away, giving him yet another putt that he couldn't afford to miss.
"A little wobbly down there," he said of the poa greens, a grass that gets bumpier in the afternoon sun. "I played probably 2 1/2 holes outside right. Just take it back and make a pure stroke, because once it starts slowing down there ... you don't know what's going to happen. All I could control is my stroke."
He started to backpedal as the putt neared the hole, paused to make sure it was in, then clenched and pumped both fists toward him in rapid-fire succession, screaming with joy with his face to the sky.
It's an old Zen saying - If you want to hit the target, you can't aim for it. I have to be able to get on the board and concentrate, not on hitting the dive ("hitting the dive" - v. - To do a great dive), but on controlling my stroke - on doing what I need to do in order to hit it. Diving happens too fast to think about everything and control everything. I have to focus on my cues - the really important things - and trust that muscle memory will take care of the rest. If I hold my hands up on my hurdle, focus on my armswing, and kick out of the dive on my spot, then the dive will be good without me worrying about any of the rest.
Not overthinking is easier said than done, especially when it's the Olympic Trials and fifteen great dives (five in prelims, five in semis, five in the finals) will get me a berth on the Olympic Team. It's really tempting for me to say "ok, this has to be perfect, so I need to focus on making every little move I make perfect, because I need to do the greatest dive I've ever done" but that's the wrong path. I need to trust my body and myself. I need to trust that I've practiced enough, and I don't have to do anything above and beyond what I do in practice. Extra thoughts, which slide all too often into being extra worries, won't help. I want to win. To do that, I have to believe in the training that's brought me this far.
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