The Sports Doc Chalk Talk

Stress that occurs very quickly and prompts us to respond in an emergency-like fashion (like moving out of the way of an oncoming car) is often referred to as burst stress. Police officers, firefighters, and paramedics deal with burst stress everyday, as it is not uncommon for these people to receive emergency phone calls and quickly go from 0-100 MPH on the adrenaline scale.  Granted, athletes do not usually deal with burst stress anxiety in the same, life threatening ways as helping professionals do, but athletes do regularly deal with a wide range of stressors and emotional responses.  Athletes are especially at-risk for burst stress in fast-paced, tempo-changing sports, as well as those pressure moments in all sports when the outcome of a game hangs in the balance (Sport Success 360).

Being able to control and moderate arousal (or human energy) is a very important skill according to sport psychology research, and it is often what allows people to stay cool, calm, and collected while in the middle of otherwise stressful situations (like a police officer responding to a crime, or an athlete keeping his cool after receiving a cheap shot from an opponent).  As with most things in life, some people do a good job adjusting their focus and arousal appropriately (mental toughness), while others struggle trying to stay relaxed and focused when things become chaotic.  In sports, athletes who master mental toughness and keep it together in pressure situations are known as “clutch players,” while athletes who succumb to the pressure they experience are known as “chokers.”

If your son or daughter experiences great distress while trying to maintain focus, concentration, and calmness during pressure situations, consider the following ideas that can help:

• First, talk openly about things like stress and pressure – as well as provide examples of people (maybe even yourself) who have failed under these conditions.  Normalizing the fact that people commonly make mistakes and aren’t always perfect will help your child become more understanding and tolerant of himself when he, too, makes a mistake in a game.
• Practice stressful situations whenever you can.  For example, if you are working with your child trying to improve athletic skills, be sure to throw in surprise situations and gauge how she reacts.  Praise her hard effort and success, and shape her failures so that she can learn and improve the next time she experiences the situation.
• Use stress inoculation techniques.  Talk to your child about the reality that there will be bad games, errors, mistakes, and failure to be experienced while playing sports.  When these situations occur, teach your child how to improve his mental toughness by responding to the mistake with positive thinking and problem solving skills.  Remember, it’s not how many times we fall down, but how many times we get up.
• Dismiss the notion that only some people are gifted enough to handle pressure, while others have no control over it.  It is a myth that athletes who perform well in the clutch were “born that way,” and that other athletes can never improve in mental toughness because they weren’t born with the DNA to succeed in pressure situations.  Self-fulfilling prophecies can be quickly developed when young athletes think they “can’t” and well as they “can.”

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Coaches are regularly challenged to be successful leaders and get the most out of their team (Sport Success 360).  When their team is “loaded,” they have to make sure they keep the team focused and playing up to their abilities.  On the other hand, when they coach teams with average or below-average talent, the challenge is to lead the team so that they believe in themselves and play over their heads (and over-achieve).  How a coach leads his or her team is important in both of these situations, and there are a few general rules all coaches can benefit from in order to help the team reach its full potential.  Getting the team to “buy in” to the coach’s philosophy is key — listed below are a few quick sport psychology tips to help:

• Set appropriate, realistic goals. Studies consistently show that when people set realistic, challenging goals (rather than goals that are too easy or too difficult) people are more likely to persevere and remained motivated toward the goals.  Set goals that challenge your players, and then with every accomplished goal try and set another tier of goals that are even more challenging than the first.
• Generate enthusiasm. It’s no secret that when we are excited, we are more apt to be motivated to play hard and win.  Coaches who show positive enthusiasm almost always benefit by the team picking up on this energy, and as a result the team usually plays with better focus, motivation, mental toughness, and resiliency.
• Be consistent. Coaches who treat all players as fairly as possible usually build the best team cohesion.  While it is important to motivate players as individuals, when it comes to team rules and protocols it is important to be as fair as possible in order to improve team chemistry and cohesion.
• Praise often. People are much more likely to reach goals when they are praised and shaped in positive and instructive ways.  Rather than embarrass, berate, or humiliate players into performing better,  find creative ways to praise for effort and encourage players to do a better job the next time out.
• Prepare to deal with losses. While it might sound strange to prepare for tough times, it actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it.  The reality is that most teams will lose (some will lose a lot), so preparing for dejected players and a negative locker room is very important.  As a wise man once said, “it’s not how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up.”  Coaches need to think about how to regain the team and move them quickly through the sadness and sulking stage and back toward the focus and motivation needed to play at a high level tomorrow.

Being a successful coach at any level is a challenging task when you think about it.  Getting a team to buy into a coach’s philosophy can be a tough sell, and then keeping a team motivated throughout the season can be an equally difficult task.  Coaches who learn about leadership techniques and work on their interpersonal communication skills put themselves in the best possible situation to create a great team environment, as well as win more games.

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Check out Sport Success 360 to help improve the overall culture of your team, athletic department, or youth league – get started today!

This week I wrote about the potential increased risk for injury associated with sport specialization, and how so many coaches and athletes search for perfection in the mechanics of their sport, while at the same time dismissing the importance of learning mental skills that help with confidence, focus, resiliency, and reducing anxiety.

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Athletes and coaches often obsess on the mechanics involved in perfecting a sport skill (like a golf swing or batting stance), usually doing so at the expense of fully understanding the impact mental toughness has on executing a sport skill.  For example, the average golfer will spend an inordinate amount of time watching videos, taking lessons, and hitting balls at a driving range in an attempt to “perfect” a swing, yet spend no time at all in learning how human arousal impacts confidence, focus, fine motor skill movement, and the ability to master and execute golf shots.  My point is that if you are tense and tight, it doesn’t matter how much you study sports techniques as your real problem is one of anxiety control, not sport knowledge.

What often gets lost in the pursuit to master muscle movements is the degree that confidence (or self efficacy) impacts how successful athletes are at their sport.  It’s ironic, but having confidence can actually help an otherwise “imperfect” athlete (poor athletic form) still go on to become a great athlete.  Hideo Nomo (pictured pitching) used a style no baseball pitching coach would recommend, and Rick Barry (pictured below) had the unorthodox method of shooting free throws underhand.  Neither athlete’s style was anywhere near “textbook,” yet each went on to have outstanding careers in their respective sports.

Think about it for a moment – when you feel really good, you usually perform well, too.  Unfortunately, many athletes feel good when practicing alone, but then experience a loss of focus, increased anxiety, and decreased self-confidence when playing against serious competition. If the athlete performs poorly, he usually goes right back to perfecting the techniques involved in his sport, while never making the connection that the technique he is learning is largely dependent on being confident when doing it in real games and matches.

What all this suggests is that while technique is important, it may not be as important as you first think.  It also means that athletes who take the time to learn how to control human arousal, improve their focus, and bounce back from stress when not playing well, are often able to still play well – even at the expense of having textbook form.

Don’t believe me?  Watch a baseball game on television tonight and note how different each pitcher pitches, as well as the varied batting stances you will see from hitters.  Then keep in mind that these are all professional baseball players, and they have all made it to that level by having very different technical approaches to the game.  Herein is the “proof” to my point that technique, while important, may actually be secondary when it comes to the confidence needed to play at a high level.

In today’s youth and interscholastic sports world, the sport specialist (an athlete who plays a single sport rather than sampling different sports throughout the year) has become an increasingly more common sighting (AHPS).  In some cases the child makes this decision, while other times parents, coaches, and other influential people encourage the student athlete to specialize rather than sample different sports.  The main reason for sport specialization, according to most sport psychologists and physicians, is to devote more time and energy toward a specific sport with the idea that more training = better athletic skill acquisition for that specific sport.

While it is likely true that most kids who specialize in a sport will get better at that sport (and at a faster rate), it’s also true that the chances for youth sport burnout increase dramatically as well.  In addition to sports burnout, kids who specialize (and train year-round) might also be running a significantly higher risk for physical injury as a recent Yahoo story revealed:

Repetitive stress injuries are also on the rise. The days of lettering in several different varsity sports are gone; instead, students are encouraged to focus on a single sport starting at a very young age — as early as kindergarten, in some places — and stick with it throughout high school and college. Sometimes, they’re urged to do so by coaches hoping to hone a particular skill. Other times, they’re pushed by parents or driven to land a rare college scholarship. But the intense training in one sport over a long period of time can take a toll, even on young and fit bodies.

“Probably the thing that we’re seeing the most right now is any type of overuse injury, from stress fractures to low-level muscle injuries,” Charlie Thompson, chair of the NATA College/University Athletic Trainers’ Committee and the head athletic trainer at Princeton University, told Yahoo! Shine. “Off-season programs start too soon after the end of a long season, and we’re not allowing recovery to happen.”

So what does this all mean for the typical American sports parent?  The short answer may be that “more doesn’t always = better,” especially if ongoing injuries prevent a young athlete from actually benefiting from specializing in one sport.  It appears as though more sports medicine physicians, trainers, and other helping professionals are becoming aware of the health concerns surrounding sport specialization, and if you are a sports parent today, maybe you should pay attention to this news, too.  As with any important decision, pros and cons should be examined within your family before deciding whether to specialize or sample youth sports.

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Sport Success 360 is designed to help you with the contemporary issues in youth and interscholastic sports – like sport specialization — check it out today!

All athletes know that mental toughness is largely dependent on self-confidence, and that when confidence is high, athletic success almost always follows (Sport Success 360).  It is for this reason that it is important for athletes to develop their self-confidence – but how do athletes actually improve their self-confidence?  Unfortunately, it doesn’t usually happen in a moment’s notice by simply saying “I’m confident,” but instead happens over time by developing a solid training program based on the following three principles:

1. Set goals. Confidence increases dramatically when we can actually see our progress, and when we set and achieve goals it gives us tangible evidence that we are improving.  When we see improvement, it automatically boosts our self-confidence.  Every athlete who is serious about improving their athletic abilities needs to set specific, measurable, controllable goals that are drafted in a way that lists long-, mid-, short-, and daily-goals.

2. Reinforce effort. Sometimes athletic goals are not reached, but it is equally important to reinforce the effort put toward the goals nonetheless.  In fact, shaping sports behaviors largely depends on reinforcing efforts, with the idea that if we continue to put in the work we will eventually reap the rewards from our labor.  Parents and coaches can help with this by making it a point to heartily praise hard work and effort, and reminding young athletes of the importance of motivation and perseverance and how these traits help with eventual goal attainment (and sports success).

3. Use constructive feedback. Most coaches are really good about providing feedback and instruction, making it important for athletes to temper their emotions during tough times and instead refocus on becoming a terrific “student of the game.”  While feedback can sometimes bruise our ego, it can also serve as a road map and template for what we need to do in order to get better.  Therefore, it behooves athletes to solicit feedback from their coaches and work the teachings into their everyday training schedule.

Of course, there are more ways to build self-confidence and mental toughness than just the three tips provided above, but setting goals, reinforcing effort, and soliciting constructive feedback will certainly help athletes in very big ways.  Sport psychology studies regularly show that when self-confidence increases, so does focus, motivation, and resiliency — all things that lead to maximizing athletic potential.

Learn more about the importance of self-confidence (as well as many more skills that can help with athletic performance) by checking out Mind of Steel today!

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Sport Success 360 is the premier sport education system on the market today, designed to provide coaches, parents, and student athletes with key information pertaining to today’s commonly experienced problems, issues, and trends in youth and interscholastic sports.  Whether its youth sport burnout, dealing with irate parents, playing time, travel leagues, or the decision around sport specialization vs. sampling, Sport Success 360 delivers professional advice designed to help kids use sports as a vehicle for life success.  Improve the sports safety at your league or school by delivering easy-to-understand tips and advice specific to coaches, student athletes, and parents – providing the “360″ advantage!

Benefits of Sport Success 360

• A 24/7 resource for coaches, student athletes, and parents
• Immediate and practical advice, as well as short videos to help with even deeper insights around today’s psychosocial issues in sports
• A built-in coach exam to test for proficiency
• FREE Sport Success 360 book and audio file downloads
• Finally, a product designed to help with the overall culture of your athletic department or youth sport organization!

Visit Sport Success 360 today and watch the short demo to learn more about individual purchases as well as school/league licensing.  Do your part to help the kids in your league or sport organization have a safe, fun, and meaningful athletic experience – check out Sport Success 360 today!

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Tiger Woods was at one time the most successful golfer on the planet, but today seems to be more of a master of spin and denial as he has faded back into the middle of the pack amongst his peers.  Woods regularly makes excuses about seemingly everything these days, including swing coaches, caddies, and various injuries.  In fact, it appears Woods is even developing a trend where he drops out of tournaments with what some would say are “phantom injuries” that only seem to arise when he is out of contention.  Sport psychologists might advise that Woods check his head more than his back, knees, or any of the other body parts he claims are causing his problems.

Tiger Woods regularly talks about being “ready to go,” but when he fails he seems to have every excuse in the world why things didn’t go his way.  Unfortunately, this unhealthy mentality is not unique to Woods, as many other athletes (and people) struggle with the inability to accurately face their problems.  In other words, they struggle with denial.

As with anything in life, the sooner we honestly appraise the problems we face in life, the sooner we can begin to improve upon them.  This applies whether it’s an athlete admitting to a loss of confidence, or an alcoholic admitting to the fact that alcohol has negatively impacted the health and safety of his life.

Denial seemingly “works” in the short run because it postpones reality — when you say “no problem here,” it directs attention away from the problem, which provides a respite from the stressors related to the problem.  Unfortunately, when we are in denial the problems we experience do not usually go away, and it is our denial that extends — and often compounds — the original problem.

For Tiger Woods, it would be nice to see him reject all the reasons he has given for his failures the last few years and simply admit that regaining his mental toughness and confidence has been a lot more difficult than he ever expected.  Unlike the days before his marital problems, opposing players no longer fear Woods, and instead view him as just another player in the tournament.  This, in turn, has decreased Woods’ confidence while increasing his own anxiety.  The result has been zero wins since before his marital transgressions made the news in 2009.

When I work with athletes, the first step of objectively “framing” the problem is usually the most important aspect of working to correct the athletic deficiencies.  When athletes are honest and own up to what is at the crux of their issues, only then can we begin to identify and construct appropriate techniques and protocols to help improve the situation.  Using Tiger Woods as an example, the longer he continues to point outward at everything but himself, the longer this losing streak will likely continue.

If you are a parent or coach of an athlete, then you probably already know how challenging it can be to help a youngster become honest with him- or herself when it comes to athletic shortcomings.  Many kids, for example, will attempt to blame their sport slumps on faulty equipment, poor coaching, or even the weather.  In most cases, the real reasons for their slumps have little to do with those factors, and instead much more to do with low self-confidence, poor focus, high anxiety, and low resiliency.

When kids learn that denial “works” in sports, it can lead to a recurring pattern of using denial for other life shortcomings, including school grades.  This is just one more reason why it’s important to help kids steer clear of denial, and instead learn to accept that we all have bad days, slumps, frustration, and failure in life — and that the real champions are the ones who are honest with themselves and work even harder to be better the next day.  There is nothing to be embarrassed about when it comes to failure as it can be the best teaching tool if we learn how to control our emotions and learn from the experience.

We have a growing line of professional products designed to help athletes learn real skills that will help them improve their self-confidence while decreasing negative anxiety – you can learn more by visiting Advanced Human Performance Systems today!

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The Sport Performance Assessment (SPA) app for the iphone is an easy-to-use teaching tool that has been helping athletes around the world improve their mental toughness and reach their full athletic potential.  The SPA was developed using the latest sport psychology theories and applications, and provides users with an easy testing devise that reveals their current level of sports mental toughness.  Users benefit by learning their specific areas of strengths and weaknesses along the lines of confidence, focus, and resiliency, and are provided specific tips and feedback for future improvement based on their scores.  The unique trend data capture allows athletes to track and record their progress throughout the season, making it easy to see personal improvement and athletic gains.

The Sport Performance Assessment series has grown to include many sport-specific SPA apps, including baseball, softball, soccer, basketball, and wrestling to name a few.  Pick up your SPA app today!

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Most youth sports coaches do a great job building strong relationships with kids, and inevitably help kids experience success on and off the field as a result of their efforts (Sport Success 360).  On the other hand, there are some coaches who do not have this type of positive experience, and instead struggle with building rapport with kids they coach.  When kids do not connect with their coach, they often play below their potential and run a greater risk for prematurely quitting the team/sport.  It is for these reasons that it is important for coaches to do a quick self-check on the following 5 no-no’s to ensure they are providing the best sport experience for the kids they coach.

• Forgetting the importance of FUN! Sport psychology studies clearly show that the #1 reason kids play sports is to have fun, and while at times this can be tough to remember in the heat of the battle, it’s important to try and create a sports environment that is both instructional and fun for kids.  Keeping it fun also means coming to the field with a good positive attitude, using a lot of positive reinforcement, and steering clear of using profanity and off-color remarks.
• No pre-season meeting. Successful coaches prioritize having a pre-season meeting where they discuss team rules, protocols, and methods for communication.  Unfortunately, not all coaches realize the importance of having a well planned pre-season meeting and decide to not have one.  When this occurs, families are left confused about the coach’s policies, philosophies, and playing time — usually resulting in frustration and confusion throughout the season.
• No talent evaluation system. Successful coaches develop their own talent evaluation rubric and make it clear to their team what skills are evaluated when it comes to playing time.  Kids benefit from this approach by knowing what they need to do in order to earn more playing time.  On the other hand, when coaches do not discuss how playing time is decided it almost always leads to confusion, stress, team problems, and sometimes angry parents.  While it is true playing time will always be a point of contention between some parents and the coach, these problems can be dramatically minimized by having a talent evaluation system established for the team.
• Playing favorites. While it may be impossible to treat all kids fair all of the time, it is possible to create team rules and enforce the rules when kids do not comply — even if they are star players.  Oftentimes coaches “lose their team” when they begin making special provisions for star players, leading to poor team chemistry and cohesion.
• Embarrassing kids. While coaching styles will vary as people vary, it is never a good idea to embarrass or humiliate kids.  Good coaches know that while it may take more restraint and control to respond to emotionally-charging situations without going nuts, it is always better to find ways to make “teachable moments” out of problems than it is to chew a kid out in front of his peers.  Kids don’t improve their mental toughness by being humiliated, but do become more resilient through positive reinforcement, proper instruction, and genuine encouragement.

Continue to develop into the best coach possible – Sport Success 360 is designed to help coaches develop strong relationships with kids, work more effectively with parents, and win more games!

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