Being able to stay in the present is a skill that most elite athletes develop and have to use on a regular basis.  To sum up breifly what staying in the present is, I will say this, staying in the present means focusing one what you are trying to achieve right now.  There is no fear, no worrying, no dwelling on past mistakes, only focusing on trying to achieve your objective right now.  That can be a specific skill that you are working on or a pitch of a golf shot or shooting a free throw.

Another aspect to staying in the present is blocking out interference when it sneaks in.  Interference can be a number of things, worrying about the next play or perhaps winning the game, or dwelling on something that you did wrong or a mistake. These forms of interference can sneak in at any time during a competition.  Interference can also be external, perhaps thinking about stress at home, school or work, just life in general can be a form of interference  unless you learn how to stay in the present.

Now there has been a lot of talk about tiger woods lately and how will he play during this masters tournament.  I will just share how I feel about the matter, tiger is a great athlete, who is also human and makes mistakes,  but many have been saying that he will not be able to perform well because of the distraction from the media about how the public is treating or viewing tiger, but the fact of the matter is, tiger is a great athlete and he was very good at performing at a high level when he had this big secret about is lifestyle that he was keeping from everybody.  Now everybody knows about it, still the same situation, if he stays in the present he will perform very well.  Elite athletes who know how to use the skill staying in the present they are very good at compartmentalizing their life.  In tigers case, when he is on  the golf course he in on the golf course only focusing on hitting the next shot.  He does not let interference sneak in, he doesn’t worry about poor previous and he is not worried about how he will put if he is not on the green.  Only the next shot.  His life is his life but off the golf course.

This is a tremendous skill to develop that will help you perform at a very high level, because you are able to maintain focus on your objective and not worrying or being afraid or distracted by other aspects of life.  Tiger is very good about staying in the present even when he was trying to fix his life after everything hit the fan, he stepped away from golf for a minute and then fixed his life to the point that when he stepped on the golf course he would perform well.