teller vs. doer - who do you listen to?

What does your self-talk sound like when you're climbing?

Should you listen to it?

Now here's another question: have you ever experienced being in "flow" without any self-talk at all?

In sports psychology terms, this flow is known as the Ideal Performance State (IPS). In this state there may be:

• an absence of fear

• no analysis of performance

• a narrow focus of attention

• a sense of effortlessness

• a sense of personal control

(Statler, Traci A, and Andrea M DuBois. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, by Greg Haff and N. Travis Triplett, Human Kinetics, 2016, pp. 155–172.)

Sounds pretty nice.. but how do you actually achieve your IPS?

Finding your IPS is less about what you need to do and more about what you need to not do. And there is usually one person standing in your way: yourself.

I could feel myself getting in my own way in some recent outdoor sessions. I had an internalized sense of urgency, I got frustrated quickly, and grew unconfident.

I recently picked up The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey to tackle this issue.

The main thesis of the book is that we have two selves: a teller and a doer. The teller is rooted in the ego and feels the need to be in control. The doer is the body that does what it’s learned and knows with automaticity.

When the teller doesn’t trust the doer, it over-instructs, insults the doer, and self-fulfills failure. But when the teller let’s go of control and let’s the doer.. do, that’s where success and flow is found.

Have you experienced this tension between the teller and the doer?