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| Meditating Man (Public Domain) |
Chris Tomasson of Fox
Sports reports that James is now in "playoff mode," which entails the giving up of his cell phone.
When James turned off his phone during last year's playoffs, he "won his
first NBA title."
Although this doesn't necessarily prove that a causal relationship exists between these two occurrences, the extra focus that doing without a cell phone can foster certainly bodes well.
Last year, James read more than usual during the playoffs. He also
watched movies with his family and cartoons with his kids. What he didn't do was listen to a lot of sports talk radio. Aside from cutting down on cell phone usage, he also abstained from Twitter.
Of course, this is far from the first time that basketball and calming techniques have come together. Back when
Phil Jackson and the Lakers were in full swing, pregame meditation was where it was at. When ESPN's Henry Abbott wrote about "The Lakers mental preparation for Game 7" in
2010, he described this preparation as follows: "Phil Jackson will say a few words, and then the lights will be turned off, and everyone will have instructions to pay attention to nothing but the in and out of their breathing. For five to ten minutes they'll sit in the dark, and nobody will say anything… 'Breathing
in silence' is the goal. Afterwards, they will watch film."
This meditative mindset had carried over into the games themselves. During
timeouts, Jackson would remind
them to "share a breath" on the sidelines. During stressful game moments, the players were "likely to very
consciously take a breath or two to get centered."
Resources
http://www.foxsportsflorida.com/fox-sports-networks/story/LeBron-James-in-full-playoff-mode?blockID=895503&feedID=3720
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/16803/the-lakers-mental-preparation-for-game-7
Copyright April 25, 2013 by Linda Van Slyke All Rights Reserved
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