There is one NFL rookie quarterback who has implemented a rather “secretive” sport technique into his game, a technique that goes back to arguably the greatest basketball player of all time Michael Jordan. The Minnesota Vikings rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy has an additional tool in his arsenal, and it has nothing to do with his talents on the field, but rather the game that is played in the mind.
NFL Rookie J.J. McCarthy Implements A Tool Used By The Greats
It has been documented quite well, that McCarthy has a rather interesting pregame routine where he can be seen meditating on the goal post. McCarthy has been photographed before every game sitting legs crisscrossed, shoes off, and eyes closed.
He meditates for ten minutes before each game in addition to practicing meditation 30 to 40 minutes every day in the morning. McCarthy has shared why he does this practice candidly, saying:
“I meditate before the game to just really get my mindset into that calmness, that emptiness where I can allow things to happen and I can react from a higher perspective instead of reacting out of just straight impulse.”
What McCarthy is trying to tap into before the game is known as mindfulness, and it is something that some of the greatest athletes of all time have used to achieve legendary success in sport. McCarthy also revealed that he came to this when he was battling depression in high school:
“I just kept stemming further and further away from myself and my true nature, and I feel like I was in a deep rut for about a month or two and I was like, something has got to change. This is not who I am,” McCarthy said in a press conference about how he began meditation. “I started looking up different practices to help improve mental health, and meditation was the first one that kept popping up. I just gave it a try, and then the rest was history.”
McCarthy did spill the beans however on how he came to this practice specifically, and how it has enabled him to accomplish incredible success already. He credits this routine as the best preparation for success:
“I was always studying all these athletes, studying their mindsets, trying to adopt them in every way to forge the ultimate mindset as a competitor.”
There are a few athletes that McCarthy is alluding to, and some are the very best we have ever seen. In fact, the very same mindfulness practice that McCarthy has implemented, is a technique that both Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan used for basketball.
How J.J. McCarthy Is Following In The Steps Of Kobe Bryant And Michael Jordan
There is a legend in the world of sport that has, for the most part, gone under the radar for his entire career.
George Mumford has been the hidden force behind some of the greatest athletic performances of all time. Most recently, Mumford was the secret weapon for the Edmonton Oilers legendary run this past season, and almost accomplishing a 3-0 comeback in the Stanley Cup. Mumford however, got his start with Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan.
The Oilers felt that given Mumford’s success with previous all time athletes, he would be the perfect person to unlock Connor McDavid to another level as well. For any NHL fan that watched the Stanley Cup, they saw Connor McDavid do just that and take his game to arguably a level that we have only seen from the greatest Wayne Gretzky. While the Oilers lost the Cup, McDavid was MVP and clearly the best player on the ice.
Mumford is a best selling author of two books — The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance and Unlocked: Embrace Your Greatness, Find the Flow, Discover Success. George has been around legendary athletes his entire life, and he learned something incredibly valuable when connecting sport with mindfulness. He posits that his main agenda is to help people authentically be themselves by unlocking a more aware state of being.
“My job is to help people be themselves,” Mumford said in the hours before Game 2. “There’s no better feeling than to actually feel like you’re being yourself.”
“I try to help people unlock and express themselves,” Mumford said. “When I talk about performance, I’m talking about something as profound as being able to win the Stanley Cup or just being able to have an intention and being able to achieve that intention.”
Mumford was brought in by Phil Jackson back when he was coaching the Chicago Bulls way back when, for the specific reason to implement mindfulness to the athletes. This was something that Michael Jordan credited as one of the main reasons he was able to achieve the success that he did.
Mumford preaches all about getting into the ‘zone’ or a state a flow in regards to the game. Meaning that he is all about a state of mindfulness and supreme awareness while in the game, and J.J. McCarthy is trying to set himself into that zone before the game begins. The mental state is what is most key for Mumford, because if an individual can get into the state of mindfulness they will be able to see the field or the court with much more expansive eyes.
Sport and flow have always gone together, and any athlete knows that flow of being in the game and at the same time, being consumed by the game itself, leaving everything else in the world behind. Mumford has trained the greatest athletes to use that to their utmost advantage.
The Miracle Of Mindfulness
There a few amazing quotes that perfectly explain how Michael used mindfulness to his advantage. On the last episode of the legendary documentary The Last Dance, Mark Vancil, the author of Rare Air, spoke about Jordan’s mindfulness secret, which he expressed as Michael’s incredible ability to live purely in the moment:
“Most people struggle to be present… Most people live in fear because they project the past. Michael’s a mystic. He was never anywhere else. His gift was not that he could jump high, run fast, shoot a basketball; his gift was that he was completely present and that was the separator… A big downfall of a lot of players who are otherwise gifted is thinking about failure. Michael didn’t allow what he couldn’t control to get inside his head.”
Mumford talks about being hired by Phil in his book The Mindful Athlete, and he writes about how he helped the Bulls and Michael to reach the place that Mumford calls “the zone.” He has an incredible memory of Jordan from game six of the 1998 NBA Championship Finals between the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz.
Any NBA fan knows the moment with 18 seconds left in the game and the Bulls were down by a point. Jordan got the ball and the rest is history. Michael was interviewed right after the shot, and he expressed ‘the zone’ he went into, specifically a supreme state of mindfulness.
“When I got that ball, my thoughts were very positive. The crowd gets quiet, and the moment starts to become the moment for me. That’s what we’ve been trying to do…that’s part of that Zen Buddhism stuff. Once you get into the moment, you know when you are there. Things start to move slowly, you start to see the court very well. You start reading what the defense is trying to do. I saw that moment. When I saw that moment and the opportunity to take advantage of it…I never doubted myself. I never doubted the whole game. We were hanging too close.”
The greatest basketball coach of all time Phil Jackson has said:
“George has “Mumified” the teams I’ve coached over the past 20 years. He has a style of mindfulness that goes beyond ‘just sitting/breathing’ to focusing while in action. For anyone needing to perform at the highest level, George’s book is for you.”
Kobe Bryant, may he rest in peace, said George was fundamental in his journey:
“George helped me understand the art of mindfulness. To be neither distracted or focused, rigid or flexible, passive or aggressive. I learned just to be.”
McCarthy is the next in a line of great athletes to implement mindfulness into their game. We will see how far McCarthy can go, but what is certain is that he has an extra tool in the arsenal and one that the greatest of athletes have used. Mindfulness is something that can be used by the greatest athletes but also any individual in any sphere of life.
As the great Alan Watts said:
“This is the real secret of life – to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now, and instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”
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