G2 got a basketball game set for his birthday and G1 was the collateral beneficiary…
While watching G1 practice his shots, I had a sudden inspiration to teach him about visualisation and mental rehearsals. I asked him to picture throwing the ball in his mind and seeing the ball fall through the hoop. Then I asked him to shoot. To his surprise and delight, he scored a basket. The message couldn’t have been more effective if I had planned it myself.
I think he must have been a little skeptical because he tried again. This time, he missed, but his ball was still very close to the basket. I pointed out that his aim was better when he visualised compared to his earlier shots when he wasn’t visualising. So he tried it again – once with visualising and once without. The shot without visualisation went wide, but the shot he took when he visualised only just missed the mark.
Sometimes the best lessons are the ones you don’t plan…
