Practice and getting out of your own way

For example: Arthur Ashe said, "There is a syndrome in sports called 'paralysis by analysis'." One helpful way to avoid being too 'analytical' is to tag that mindset as being too "up brain" or cerebral. If you are over-thinking things, your very large prefrontal cortex stored in the up brain is getting in the way and blocking the more intuitive 'down brain' from working it's non-thinking and completely fluid muscle memory magic.

The up brain is so big and so powerful that it is hard to turn it down sometimes. When you choke in sport, or become over-excited, it is because your up brain is overpowering your down brain. Remember this visual and literally shift your consciousness away from the prefrontal cortex by relaxing the backs of your eyes, taking some deep breathes and 'letting go.'

What we didn't know until now is that single neurons in our brain manage to dynamically track the difference between what the brain expects to take in from the senses and the information it is actually receiving during motor learning. Our research shows that this calculated difference (i.e., "sensory prediction error" signal) is used to rapidly change the patterns and connections between neurons in order to learn new motor skills.

In order to learn a new motor skill, the researchers found that the cerebellum makes an estimate of the expected sensory inflow that it should get from your sensory system. Then, the cerebellum automatically uses this prediction to compute the difference between what you intended to do and what you actually did. This cerebellar process is key to creating flow and achieving what I call "superfluidity" both on and off the court.