Knowledge
Tola Performance
Right in Routine
Photograph by Emily Gordon
Jason coaches professionals to help and support them throughout their season, working with clients to help them maintain a good head space and work on their personal development on and off the field.
routine. What if you wake up every day and don’t know what you’re eating? You’ll end up eating the wrong thing. If you don’t know when you’re exercising? You’re likely to not do it. If you don’t have a set wake up and bed time? Your body clock will be out and it will be harder to go to sleep and wake up feeling good.
Improve your Physical & Mental Performance in 2022…
Creates consistency & progression Improvement of anything comes through time and consistency, the hours need to rack up week on week. Without some sort of system, it’s much harder to rack up the hours of practice, research, business or whatever it is you are trying to achieve. When you’re in a routine you don’t get pulled from pillar to post as much as you might have without. Instead of hanging around at the yard or going for a Guinness you may be going home for your 5pm yoga session or cooking dinner and lunch for the next day that will feed into your positive cycle. Photograph by Tola Performance
Jason initially found it difficult to see the positives of routine, but now extolls the virtues
The summer season can be full on – whether you’re playing a lot, riding young horses, transporting, partying or you’re a weekend warrior with a business during the week, it can be full on. For a majority of players, you want to turn up to games, sail shots through the goal, hit the ride-offs hard, win the game and come off feeling good about yourself. For this you need confidence, energy and obviously a certain level of skill. But sometimes you might not feel these things, maybe you have too much stuff going on, you’re low on energy and in turn, low on confidence. In this article I want to share a simple but effective idea of how you could this……ROUTINE. Routine allows you to simplify things, leaving energy for the important stuff. It sounds boring but it’s not – it’s a lot of fun. Routine is something that for me personally, has taken a while to accept as a positive thing. But the more I learn from coaching clients, trying new things, routine could be at the heart of overall performance. When I say overall performance, I mean on and off the field and everything in between. 64
Polo Times, March 2022
What are the benefits of routine?
Boosting your energy! How can routine save energy? When looking at mental energy we can look at two aspects; Physical and Mental. Being in a good routine can help to eliminate the decisions you are making everyday. When you get into a schedule you flow through the day, not needing to think about what you’re doing or having to make lots of those small decisions. You have a timetable to follow, and you create good habits within that routine. The aim is to eliminate all the small choices and make it easier to do the things that add to your life and performance, rather than getting sucked into the things that take away. If you look at the top sports or business people, the likelihood is that they are in a good routine. Top businessmen like Mark Zuckerberg wear the same clothes every day to eliminate those small decisions so that they don’t suffer from decision fatigue. In terms of physical energy, the main factors of nutrition, sleep and exercise will be sustained much more effectively in a
Eliminates stress & anxiety A lot of overwhelm, anxiety and stress can come through the not knowing or feeling out of control. Being in a routine is probably the most effective way to eliminate this anxiety. You can only control the things within your control so that’s what you should do. During a busy season you want to feel in control and on a good path, this creates confidence in yourself, your team, your horses etc. Conclusion As with everything in life we are in the balance of polarity, and routine has its downsides. At times we see people suffer with anxiety when they are overdependent on their routines and rituals, and this can then have a negative effect. Therefore, the relationship with your routine needs to be balanced and not dependent upon. It should add to your life rather than take away, if you’re thinking where’s the fun and spontaneity then why not add that into your routine so that you then have the freedom to use that time without feeling the guilt of ‘I should be doing this or that’ Add a couple of things to your week and see where it goes…
Contact Jason on tolaperfomance@gmail.com www.tolaperformance.com
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