Did I say relax?

Richard always says to relax. It sounds so simple and also intellectually it's completely counterintuitive. Not to mention it's easier said then done. When I'm in competition, I'm always thinking about winning or how to win. It's not a time to relax, it's a time to get psyched up, pumped up, and wound up. But the more I compete, the more I'm realizing my best results are when I'm relaxed. Not in the sense I used to think of when I'm relaxing in front of the TV, but relax in the sense of having no distractions on my mind. Which do indeed translate to relaxed muscle that are apt to fire more in time to reactions than tensed muscles that are delayed in firing. I was very relaxed the day I played with the elbow tendinitis. I really had nothing to gain or lose so I played it extremely relaxed to the point of nonchalant. Monday night was mostly the same except towards the end of the evening when this player came to practice that I've had all sorts of trouble beating. I felt the tension coming over me and it definitely took my relaxation back a bit. The challenge was to get the relaxed feeling back. In the end, I could tell when the points slipped away I was tense and when the points mounted back I was relaxed again. Now the trick is to figure out how to turn on the relaxation on demand.