What Motivates Pro Athletes To Become Clutch When It Counts

a tired exhaused athleteThe majority of Professional Athletes thrive on the fuel of adrenaline and the energy of the fans. This because these adrenaline rushes combined with their skill, once they align and become focused, pushes them to their peak, making them believe that they have superhuman powers.

There’s also the additional motivators once the adrenaline is triggered, and that’s the well known “fight or flight” response. What causes some of these peak performance clutch athletes who play the various team sports to excel beyond their abilities, is because of their inherent competitiveness.

It’s their aggressive nature which pushes them to the brink while choosing the “fight” response, which then tubes that adrenaline to push them towards an even higher level. Once they do so, the rush of dopamine induced pleasure and satisfaction kicks in and they feel ecstasy in competition.

So the extremely powerful human cocktail mix of testosterone and adrenaline, which activates the “fight” response instead of running away and hiding, combined with the athletes natural Adderral, enables them to become extremely calm, centered, and they will tell you that everything slows down and time almost stands still. This is what’s known as “Being In The Zone” on the ice, the field or the basketball court.

These superior talented quick response athletes, who are able to rise to the occasion, all have Aderral (ADD) present in their system, which doesn’t refer to attention deficit.

While they’re in this state, they don’t pay attention to their immediate surroundings, such as the crowd if it’s distracting or anything else off of the playing surface.

The 3 Stages Of Athletic Performance
There are three levels or stages which the brain responds to in these high stress athletic situations.

• The 1st and the most common stage is the actual “fight or flight” response. They can either stand up for themselves and respond, seize up, or turn around and run like hell
• The 2nd stage is their ability to control and manage their emotions in these tense situations. Being able to keep calm and collected and be in the zone, and
• The 3rd stage is the response mechanism, where the superior athletes skill and talent kicks in and takes over. They are using and thus activated their “thinking” brains under these stressful conditions, and as a result are able to perform

For those individuals who are known to be impulsive and unfocused, the general scatter brains of the world, these three stages of the brain are loosely configured and don’t communicate with each other. As a result, these 3 stages are not able to work in unison very well.

While under periods of high stress, they begin to function independently and conflict with each other. The most obvious sign is how chaotic and confused these people appear to be. They act similar to that old car which appears and feels like it’ll fall apart at any moment.

The Hyper Focus Of The Supreme Athlete
For those who have a highly structured and tightly bound brain function on all three levels, these are the one’s who are finely configured, aligned and are elite. These are the athletes who consistently aim themselves towards one singular goal and purpose, and succeed.

The more focused, determined or centered these individuals are, the more formidable they become. They are the Lamborghini’s of the world which grabs the wheel and controls the road, regardless of how many twist and turns there are.

Talented But Unfocused Rookies
An analogy is how all of the new and “green,” wide eyed rookies of various talents and backgrounds, are invited and will begin their very first professional sport orientation camp on their new team.

They’re all selected because of their flashes of skill and are usually full of “piss and vinegar,” oozing raw talent. Their focus however are completely scattered all over the map.

During the orientation process, after they’re completely broken down and then built back up again, they’re trained and focused to be the best athlete they can be, this in the hopes of they becoming an important cog in a championship team.

Once accomplished, what these rookies are doing is now thinking with their upper brains, feeling their middle brains, but acting through their lower brains, becoming a welded unison of reaction. Their natural talent is then activated so they can become a warrior or a superstar.

Once The Playing Stops
The problem however for the majority of these extreme professional athletes is that once they retire, after their playing days are done, the immediate “life or death” situations during the game, which they’re accustomed to, suddenly stops.

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So all of that built up testosterone, adrenaline and dopamine is still present in their system, long after they retire, but it no longer has an outlet valve.

All of those high stress and tense situations during game conditions that they’re accustomed to reacting to, that “everything on the line” to win the game feeling is gone. There’s nothing to activate that familiar adrenaline rush, that release of testosterone which they crave.

Why Athletes Go Off The Bend
This is the reason why there are so many high profile athletes, those one time superstars of their particular sport, begin doing outrageous and stupid things once they retire.

The thrill of the adrenaline rush is at times exceeded by the pain of an impending adrenaline crash. Once they do something that’s dangerous, risky or forbidden, to get back in the spotlight again, is what triggers that much needed adrenaline rush.

This then offsets and feeds the irritable and listless feeling which these former athletes experience.

The Rush That Is The Game
Place these athletes however in the last minute of an overtime game for the win, and that’s when it becomes a sight to behold. The dopamine surge goes through the roof.

This is why we as sports fans will continue to watch those monumental replays of superstars in their glory, as they are outstanding sporting events and moments.

Wayne Gretzky, the greatest superstar who ever played hockey, was once asked, “What’s the feeling like to be on the ice in overtime, when it’s the deciding game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and there’s only a few seconds left in the game, and the puck is on your stick to win the game?”

Wayne Gretzky’s eyes then lit up in delight, flashed a grin, which activated his dopamine, and said, “I take all the bumps, the bruises and the abuse of the entire season, just for that one moment.”

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