Friday 19th January 2007
Time for another blog update. Things are starting to happen around my local scene now, with my summer pennant competition starting at the end of January, and the first round of our local Grand Prix competition coming up on February 9.Unfortunately (from a table tennis point of view), I'll be taking a holiday in Tasmania from January 24 to February 4, which is going to interfere with my preparation. But it's only the start of the season so it won't matter too much.
Once I come back from Tasmania, I'm going to start up my Directive Affirmation program again. This is another mental technique from Lanny Bassham's "With Winning in Mind" book. Essentially a Directive Affirmation is a way to change your Self-Image, which will help to cause your conscious and sub-conscious to change to match your new self-image.
Lanny's book explains it all in much more detail, but basically I need to define my goal, set a time limit for how long I will run the Directive Affirmation (typically 21 days, then 9 days off), list the personal benefit of reaching the goal, and outline the plan for reaching the goal. I've listed my current Directive Affirmation below:
5/2/2007: I am an Australian Top 10 player. I enjoy playing against and beating the best players in Australia. I always run a mental program before serving or returning and reinforce each successful point by saying "That's Like Me!". I record my performance analysis and read and visualise my Directive Affirmation daily. I am an Australian Top 10 player.
Then I put this statement in 5 places around my house that I will see often. Every time I see the statement, I read the statement and visualize it. As Lanny Bassham writes, "Either you will become the person you want to be or you will stop reading the affirmation. It is that simple."
This is the last blog update until I get back on February 4. After that my local season will have started, so I'll have more competition details to report!
Interested in purchasing "With Winning in Mind?" 
Friday 12th January 2007
As I mentioned in my last blog update, I'm going to keep expanding a little on my plans for the upcoming year. As part of my mental training I needed to put together a weekly training plan. This helps to show me exactly what I am planning to do each week, and I can see whether I feel it is enough to achieve my goals.Bear in mind that I am fitting my training around private coaching lessons and working on this website, so I do not have unlimited time to train. Also, at present I physically can't handle 5 hours of training a day - a day like that would put me out of action for the next few days as I tried to recover.
The plan below also has a bit of flexibility built into it. If I find that I'm physically below par, I can take a day off without having to feel too guilty about it. At my age (36), I need to be careful not to overdo things at this early stage.
Greg's Training Plan – January to June 2007
Monday
Morning - Training at Center
Afternoon – Aerobics (45min), Weights
Tuesday
Aerobics
Serve Practice at Home (20 mins minimum)
Wednesday
6-8pm Training at Center
Thursday
Aerobics, Weights
Serve Practice at Home
Friday
Aerobics
Serve Practice at Home
Saturday
Relaxation Day
Sunday
Informal Training at Center
Other Activities
Mental Rehearsal/Visualization several times a day
Notes
During the course of the season, I will slowly start to bring in technique and fitness work on the robot, as part of my aerobic sessions.
