MINDSET

Anxiety over performance goals can often subvert our efforts to train efficiently and, worse still, lead to a lacklustre performance on event day. The non-striving approach of wu wei is new to sport performance, an arena which has typically centred on focused attention and control. Yet the emerging neuroscience, as well as the high rate of burn-out evidenced in athletes and coaches, tells us that we cannot simply try harder. Mind over matter does not work and leads to burn-out. A wu wei approach (translated as “effortless action”) introduces the vital role of our unconscious processes, an area which is gaining support with increasing evidence in neuroscience of the importance of these inner processes. This addresses a range of variables from emotions to the way our motor skills were developed in adolescence. While the literature is slowly recognising that individual differences play a role, the research is only just underway to find the mechanisms to tap into peak performances.