For my birthday last year, my lovely bride surprised me with a pair of “performance shorts”. I had no idea there was such a thing.
These particular shorts are made from a blend of spandex and polyester. They are advertised as being “water resistant, quick-drying, moisture-wicking and breathable. The fabric stretches for mobility. Even the pockets are made from mesh for better breathability”
These seemed to be just the answer to our hot, humid NC summers – especially while being out during the heat of the day shooting clays! I was enthused to try them. So how did it go? Let’s just say I was underwhelmed by the experience my first time out. I was still pretty miserable after a couple of rounds of clays on a hot July day. With all this tech, what happened? I have worn dry-fit shirts for years. They are pretty ubiquitous now for any type of sporting or casual wear environment and do seem to help keep one a little cooler. I gave some concerted thought to the situation… I would not think about wearing a cotton t-shirt under my dry fit shirts, yet here I was wearing a decidedly non-tech (and non-breathable) foundational layer under my new performance shorts! There had to be a better option. After conducting a little research, I learned that the solution to the problem might lie in having a performance foundational layer! I found one that was highly rated:
Yep, these did the trick. When paired with my new “performance shorts”, I experienced a new level of comfort like never before!
If you have read this far, you may be thinking “that is great, but what does this have to do with mental skills?” Well, surprising enough, there is a pretty strong tie-in. One of the most critical mental skills is to maintain focus during sport performance. Anything that works against this ability is a hinderance to our performance potential. If you are physically uncomfortable it can dilute your ability to stay focused. Will wearing different shorts and underwear suddenly make you a master class shooter? Not likely, but peak performance is a sum total of many small, incremental improvements.
I recall my days working with Mitsubishi where we often focused on “Kaizen” or continuous improvement in our manufacturing and management processes. Sure, we also worked on the “home run” type technological changes, but we also looked at those small 1% changes. Accumulating a few small 1% improvements can have real impact! The same is true when it comes to improving our sport performance. It does not need to be an “either / or” proposition. You still need to get out there and spend the time in effective practice working on your technical and mental skills, but adding in a few small tweaks can also result in more dead targets! Who knows, having the right shorts may just allow you to spend a little more time practicing!
Having appropriate gear / equipment is just one way you can help to reduce the load on that 3lbs of gray matter we all have in our skulls leading to improved performance. What small improvements have you done in your own sport that helped your ability to focus? I would be happy to post your experiences here in a future post.
For those who might be interested on the specifics of the sportswear I described, here are the links (and yes, I do hope my wife got those shorts on sale!):