Sublime

But, as Billie Jean King tells us, the mark of a champion is the ability to win when things are not quite right—when you’re not playing well and your emotions are not the right ones.

Every one of the golfers I’ve counseled who have won major championships has been nervous during the final holes of these tournaments. But they’ve learned to perform well despite nerves and the physical symptoms that accompany them—trembling, wet hands, rapid heartbeat, a sinking feeling in the gut, and sometimes even a feeling that breathing is

There’s a happy medium between listening to everyone and taking all the advice you’re offered, and listening to no one and stubbornly hanging on to the same flawed techniques and habits. It’s a subtle sweet spot, but it’s one that champions seem able to find.

Master, what about pursuits such as in sports, business, the performing arts . . . Are prescriptions equally poisonous in those domains. M: Yes. S: But there is a technique to those things, is there not. M: There are indeed some mechanical elements. Such as physical technique. And, as they apply to a mechanical element, prescriptions may be of some

I have found that most competitive athletes are quite prepared to work hard as described above. Instead, often the role of the coach is to hold an athlete back – to make sure that they are not working harder than they should, particularly when training everything else. Of course, sometimes the coach needs to encourage athletes to work hard, but