“The brain is the most important muscle in your body” is a phrase that is most commonly used by coaches and exercise trainers to motivate their athletes or clients to push beyond their limits. It sounds like good motivation, in fact it pretty encouraging to know that even though your leg and arm muscles may be fatigued and ready to give up, you brain comes to the rescue and helps you push through the set. Except there is one problem, the brain is technically an organ, not a muscle.1
The reason it is referred to a muscle by many is because the brain along with your spinal cord is what makes up the central nervous system, which essentially makes your muscles move. The brain is a very delicate organ yet it’s function is vital to human life. The brain causes the human being to think, to speak, to perform any action, to feel, and retains special memories; all in all it is in charge of basically everything and anything.
Kicking footballs isn’t really a complicated movement. You must be explosive but it’s not a complex movement compared to other movements in other sports. So why is the brain relevant to kicking? Here’s why- a kicker can be really good and by good I mean accurate, powerful, and consistent. Having all these attributes are what make a mediocre kicker a great kicker. Now those attributes can be made better by practice to the point where they can be almost perfect, but what will separate a great kicker from a good kicker is how strong his mind is. Kicking has been often referred to as a mental game, and that is exactly what it is. In a kicker’s career, they are going to miss a field goal, it's going to happen. But they must be able to overcome their failures because their name will most likely be called again later on in the game. Also, if kickers cannot block out the noises of the stadium and get distracted, they won’t be able to execute their job to the best of their ability.
Overcoming past failures and cancelling out the distractions can only be done by having a tough mental state, otherwise the kicker will be looking at a short career and left without a team to play for. So even though the brain isn’t necessarily a muscle, it is, a tough organ.
1Philips, H. (2006, September 4). Introduction: The Human Brain. Retrieved February 18, 2016, from https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9969-introduction-the-human-brain/
My younger brother is a collegiate kicker at Blinn College and he speaks of a lot of what you talk about in this blog. I find it interesting that football kickers all have similar calm mentalities and a great deal of mental strength. I think that kickers have to be the most mentally strong out of almost all athletes because kickers have to deal with immense pressure, distractions, and past failures. Good article
ReplyDelete