Given the context, Beth did not consider the other woman’s choice of words to be unusual enough to comment on. “Well anyway, there is one more piece of advice I’ll pester you with—everyone runs into set-backs, especially their first season, and the key to bouncing back from them is not obsessing over it. Then you get too far inside your own head.”<br/><br/>Beth figured she should probably explain that somewhat cryptic comment. “I don’t know if you’re at all familiar with neuroscience, but one interesting fact is that the part of the brain that learns new skills and the part of the brain that performs tasks by rote are different. Professional athletes, we have to rely on those rote tasks a lot. There’s no time to stop and think whenever you try to lead a target with your shot or dodge a missile.<br/><br/>“The reason athletes choke in high pressure situations is because when they over think things, they end up using the learning part of the brain instead of the rote part. And you’re always slower with a skill if you go back to how you were when you first learned it.<br/><br/>“So basically, if you obsess over every little mistake, you’ll start to constantly over think things and then you’ll always be slower. And the key to not obsessing is to keep a sense of perspective. The truth is, for all the glamor and media attention, the MBF is just a silly game. It’s not something you should ever get too worked up about. Life is about friends, family, and finding happiness—not kill ratios, endorsements, and trophies.”<br/><br/>She paused. “Sorry, I do tend to ramble a bit. But I hope that’s helpful.”