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Mindfulness is the practice of controlling your attention. 

When you practice paying attention to your sensory experience, you start to notice how transient it is as a source of information.

An example is paying attention to your breath. It is here for a moment and then it's gone.

How does this help the athlete? 

We're focused on physical performances that often involve enduring discomfort, full of very potent and acute sensory experience. 

When you practice controlling your attention, you practice noticing the sensory experience without judgment.

That's what I mean when I say it is an exercise in openness.

When you decide to slow down, the sequence of events is you're perceiving all of that sensory information. The legs burning, the lungs burning, the heart beating really fast.

You make a judgment about it. You judge that it is not sustainable. And then, based upon that judgment, you decide to slow down. 

If you can notice the sensory experience without judgment, then you can delay the decision to slow down.