PEAK PERFORMANCE FOR ATHLETES, The Heart of the Matter = “THE ZONE”
What is Heart Rate Coherence & Why do I want to get there?
The Heart is the center of power and unique wisdom; it has ‘intelligence,’ and knows what to do, to function for our best performance. ‘Heart Intelligence’ links the physical and energetic heart, with the brain and body, through extensive communication. The “Zone” is a function of the heart that improves concentration, and streamlines the body’s ability to perform during stressful situations, in the most efficient way possible.
The heart is a muscle, and with deliberate practice, will kick in to patterns of heart rate variability that quickly and efficiently improves concentration and performance. When an athlete is in what we call, an incoherent heart rate pattern, they may hesitate, and be less efficient in their performance. In sports, this is called a “yip.” Yips negatively impacts peak performance.
In our culture, we often use these phrases –“Heart felt”, “Heart ache”, “Heart throb”, “Heart break”, “Follow your Heart”, “Trust your heart”, “Listen to your Heart” or “Get to the Heart of the Matter.” Intuitively, we know the heart is the manager of our emotions. Learning to control your heart rhythms will let you replace stress, fear and frustration with positive emotions that boost performance.
In any sport; anxiety, fear, anger, pain, or frustration, can bring on coordination-killing, speed-slowing, and mind-blanking forces. The secret of controlling and directing emotional energy is in the HEART!
Heart-brain Communication Relationship to Stress
The Institute of HeartMath, a research organization studying the heart-brain communication and its relationship to managing stress; describes how different emotions trigger different heart rhythms, which in turn, send different messages back to the brain. Those messages determine what your brain tells your body to do, from effective peak performance, or giving up.
The key is in being able to shift from the destructive and jagged incoherent heart rhythms, brought on by the agitated stress response in pressured athletic endeavors, to the positive, smooth coherent rhythms, created by emotions like love, compassion, appreciation, and happiness. The smooth and even heart rate patterns produce the calmness, clarity, focus, and coordination, associated with peak performance.
When the pressure is on, it is your mental game that makes or breaks your performance. The HeartMath philosophy contends that the first reaction occurs in the heart, not the head. In times of stress or pressure, there is a space in time between stimulus and response. Getting into Heart Rate Coherence, a smooth and even heart rhythm, widens this space, to allow the athlete the shift to focused and efficient performance. Shifting your emotional state is imperative to improving performance. You can’t have two emotions, running at the same time. When you replace anxiety, fear or frustration, with a more productive emotion like appreciation, or confidence, you shift the message to the brain, and thus to the body. This “coherent” heart rate pattern triggers optimum performance potential in the brain and body.
Heart is Powerful and has Access to Nervous System, Emotions, and Intelligence
The heart provides a unique point from which anyone can regulate many of his or her reaction patterns. Learning to control your own heart rhythms, gets to the heart of emotional control. It is self-empowering and self-transforming. It gives you access to an internal source of power and intelligence. The heart is so powerful, generating sixty times the electrical amplitude of the brain-that it can draw your brain, nervous system, and emotions into its coherent rhythms, and unlock more of your own innate intelligence.
Shifting back into your “Zone” will improve your performance! Using the HeartMath tools will help you reset, and reboot your system when you need it most, during the stress and strain of ongoing training, and during emotionally charged competitive situations.
At Coherence Associates, Inc. we teach these tools and skills to individuals and groups, athletes and coaches, to small and large settings. We have helped people master these skills, while applying them to swimming, biking, running, golf, tennis, baseball, basketball,martial arts, ice-skating, gymnastics, as well as singers, actors, and artists.
If you have any questions please call us at (760) 942–8663 or email us at info@coherenceassociates.com and we will be happy to talk with you more.
From My Heart to Yours,
Sara Gilman, LMFT
CEO, Founder, President
Coherence Associates Inc.