Liverpool's Bogey Team
Image: Skysports
It was the send off many in red felt they had to attend; Steven Gerrard the Anfield local, playing in his last professional game at his home ground.
Crystal Palace were the guests; Contributing towards the celebration of Gerrard’s 17 year career. The home fans arrived hours before kick off to pay tribute to their iconic captain.
Except Palace didn’t understand the terms of the invite. Spoiling the Anfield party, on a now notorious day Saturday 16th May 2015.
The 1-3 victory for the visitors ensured they were suddenly Liverpool’s bogey team.
So how are bogey teams established?
Palace went on to cause more upset for Liverpool than the apparent gap in talent and sheer collective team ability would suggest.
This phenomena is not unique to Liverpool, every club has a team they just ‘hate’ playing.
Nor is the bogey club limited to just football.
In golf, many players will admit to having a 'bogey club' in the bag of fourteen. The one they feel most anxious about hitting should the distance and conditions require it.
The Solution?
First we have to understand that this is a mental performance issue. A thought created construct around which the belief appears when you first realise that you need to hit ‘that’ club. Or that the opening game of the season is away to ‘them.’ Dread and the associated feelings inhibit the body. Yet the game maybe weeks away.
So before we begin to tackle the issue, first we have to realise and acknowledge its ‘existence.’ Denial and hoping it will go away tends to ensure the uneasy feeling lingers long after consciously, the thought has gone.
Players in the past would seek the right strategy or mantra that may also include visualising the desired ‘success.’ Or they may have techniques based upon swapping a negative belief for a positive one. On the whole these ‘activities’ may appear to have the desired affect. In other words if the subsequent result is positive we pin an ‘it worked’ label on it. If it failed? Well try again, harder this time with more determination or perhaps abandon that particular course in favour of another intervention we’ve heard about or highly recommended to us.
So whats really the answer?
Better to look at the functional process by which the belief, the thought is created. An invisible mental construct.
When we understand that thoughts appear in our brain without us doing anything were making progress. Think you the one doing the ‘thinking?’ Well, try this quick exercise. Write down what you'll be thinking about 30 minutes. Then in 30 minutes see if you were right.
See what I mean...
There's what we think will happen and then there's what happens.
The thought process or how we experience the ‘world out there’ is no longer up for debate among neuroscientists. Yet it remains for many one of the most misunderstood processes by which we experience life itself.
Bottom line: We have thoughts, some we believe to be true others we know are false, illusory, daydreams if you like.
Our problems arise when we take on beliefs as 'true' which are not.
For example at some stage we've all believed in something, taken it to be the apparent reality. Then as more knowledge is available to us, seen it to be incorrect.
Like anything in life, our results improve with greater knowledge or understanding.
The foundation of our work at Lit Within is built upon sharing the knowledge behind the hidden mental capacity of human performance.
Welcome to the conversation.
