Momentum And Inertia

Momentum, Mindset Of A Champion, Creating Momentum, SuccessI recently blogged about the Chasm Of Competence™ that prevents many otherwise competitive athletes from unleashing their Exponential Potential™.

One of the reasons is that social (or club players) don’t overcome their current inertia. Inertia is defined as the predisposition for a body to remain in the state that it’s in. In sports psychology, it means doing the same things, over and over and over again. Reinforcing bad habits and preventing new skills and abilities to emerge on their own.

To overcome inertia, you need to create momentum. Momentum is best explained with the metaphor of the merry-go-round. The first pull of the merry-go-round is the hardest, then you can stand there and tap it to keep it spinning. Just like a BAD habit, a GOOD habit, once it becomes engrained, becomes your new default and effortless.

The hard part is creating that initial momentum, the catalyst or spark to start to make things happen.

The easiest way is to interrupt your existing patterns. For example if you’re a squash player, you could…

  • Double the amount of time you play (in a week, or each time you play)
  • Go to another club
  • Increase the variety of players you play
  • Do only drills and routines for the next week (or month)
  • Register for a tournament
  • Bet on a game with one of your regular partners to make it more meaningful (even $5 can make a difference!)
  • Play at a different time – in the morning, lunch or evening – or weekdays versus weekends
  • Buy a new racket, get new strings (change the tension in your strings)
  • Play much better or much worse opponents
  • Cross train to achieve fitness, agility, quickness or other ability that will help your game.
  • Read a handful of books (more than just one to trigger your Reticular Activating System)

Once you’ve interrupted your existing pattern, as discussed in the crossing the Chasm Of Competence™ blog post, make a SHORT list of 2 or 3 REASONS you want to work on and set a SHORT timeline to resolve them.

Make sure the timeline is LESS THAN A MONTH. Create a sense of urgency – that’s the equivalent of the first pull of the merry-go-round.

If you don’t make it ‘urgent’ you’ll keep spinning your wheels, in the same place with no appreciable improvement or progress.

0 Responses to “Momentum And Inertia”


  • No Comments

Leave a Reply