Tennis players, what if I were to tell you that those encouraging words you say to your partner on the tennis court might not be all that encouraging? What if I were to tell you that those words could be losing points for your team? As an example, I have muscle tested ten players with just two widely used phrases and the results were the same with all ten.
What is muscle testing, or checking, or monitoring? It is a method of communicating with the body. You can use any muscle, holding the arm out works well. With the arm held out, you repeat the phrase in question, while holding the arm steady. I push gently on the arm. The arm will remain where it is with little effort, or it will drop down, or become very difficult to hold up. The information comes when we detect a “lock” or an “unlock” of the muscle. Words or phrases that are either neutral or positive will allow the arm to lock. Words or phrases that process as a negative will “give” or “unlock” the muscle. This happens because the neurology is a bit complicated from the pressure on the arm, to the brain and back to the arm. If the phrase is negative, it creates a “disconnect” in the neurology, and the arm unlocks.
Two of the phrases I tested were “We can do this.” and “lucky shot”.
“We can do this” has always bugged me if my partner said it to me, so I decided to test it, and, sure enough, it switches the muscle off. Why? I can only guess, because the word “can” is not necessarily positive, implying that you “can”, but it is not an absolute, you may not. If you take the word “can”out of the phrase, it tests strong, but sounds funny, “We do this”. An alternative might be, “We’ve got this”.
“Lucky shot” might be something you say when someone complements you, saying something like, “nice hit”. If you respond with “luck shot”, or “It was just a lucky shot” that switches the muscle off, since you are discounting your own skill. An alternative to “lucky shot” might be to simply say “thank you”.
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