Athletes can benefit for Fight or Flight Therapy in two potentially dramatic ways:

• being more 'in the zone,' by becoming calmer, less stressed and more at ease during the stress of competition, and

• increased peripheral awareness, which allows for the processing of significantly more information, leading to more options and better decision making (for example, better 'court sense').

 

Competitive stress or 'nerves' can briefly enhance effort and creativity for some, but most people agree the more calm and centered they are, the better their performance. By definition, your baseline of calm is largely determined and limited by the chronic levels of fight-or-flight in your nervous system.

Fight or Flight Therapy resets your nervous system to a calmer place, giving you more ease, flexibility and resilience to better deal with the stress of performance or competition.

After completing Fight or Flight Therapy, many athletes report being 'in the zone' more often, where the ease and quality of their performance exceeds their expectations.

 

To whatever degree your nervous system is stuck in fight-or-flight, by definition, your visual and mental world is narrowed (see: What is Fight-or-Flight?). At minimum, this limits your field of vision and the amount of information you can process, especially when under stress.

For team sports played on a court or rink, this is especially important. 

'Court sense' is not only the awareness of where you are on the court, but also your teammates, your opponents, and a sense of the flow of action. The more visual information you can process, the broader your canvas and the greater your ability to anticipate, create and perform.

In basketball, the classic example is the point guard, Allen Iverson, who would dribble down court and only gave up the ball if he couldn't get off a good shot. As a classic 'shoot first' point guard, his visual and mental focus was primarily on himself and his own ability to score, far less on his teammates or the flow of play.

In contrast, many of us remember Magic Johnson who would dribble down court fully aware of where his teammates were and how the play was developing. He was looking for the most strategic place to pass the ball, and often made seemingly magical 'no look' passes, looking one way and throwing another, right on the money to a teammate for an easy basket.

It's not so much that A.I. was a selfish player, it's more likely that his visual world was a lot smaller than Magic's, simply because his nervous system was stuck in fight-or-flight. If A.I. had done Fight or Flight Therapy, it could have taken his game to a whole new level.

 

Consider the importance of a broader field of information in racquet sports like tennis, racquet ball or squash, where you're instructed to keep your eye on the ball when hitting. Imagine the strategic advantage of being able to focus intently on the ball, and still be keenly aware of where your opponent is positioning. It's significantly easier to win points when you know where your opponent is, and in particular, where he isn't.

This broader field of awareness is an asset in many sports, including hockey, soccer, volleyball, lacrosse and many others, even hitting a baseball.

 

Unlike the other conditions listed on this website, in Peak Performance we may not be looking to eliminate symptoms, as much as we are to enhance performance.

As such, people seeking Peak Performance might have very few of the symptoms on the Fight or Flight Questionnaire. Their score could be very good and still benefit tremendously from Fight or Flight Therapy. They could gain that extra edge they need to raise their game to the next level.