The Sports Doc Chalk Talk

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.

A cue word is simply a word, phrase, or acronym that is designed to help an athlete with improved confidence, focus, and inevitably better mental toughness and future athletic success.  I encourage all athletes to develop their own cue word, primarily because they WORK!  Some athletes come up with a word that displays emotion (“explode”), others develop an instructional word sequence (“hips back”), while others use an acronym to help with future focus (“SC” stands for “state champ”).  There are many reasons why sport psychologists swear cue words work, including the following big three:

1. They help and athlete with comfort and confidence. Since the word is something the athlete has come up with by himself, it is usually a personal connection and this helps with familiarity.  When we feel at ease, our confidence increases, as does our comfort level – two very important pieces related to athletic success.

2. They are classically conditioned to a positive mood state. Remember Pavlov and the salivating dogs?  Actually, classical conditioning occurs in many more settings than just hungry dogs responding to a bell in anticipation of soon being fed – in sports, when an athlete prompts himself to think about a word previously conditioned to prompt good thoughts and feelings, the word actually serves as a “bell” (similar to Pavlov’s theory) and immediately redirects the athlete’s focus and energy back to good emotions and thoughts.

3. They serve as a distraction. Remember, as human beings we cannot think of two different thoughts at the same exact time.  When an athlete directs her attention toward a cue word, it makes it impossible (literally) to think about the last bad play, the hostile crowd, or any other negative factor.

Why sit back and watch the kids you parent or coach in youth and interscholastic sports continue to struggle with confidence, focus, and resiliency, when you can quickly learn about how to develop a cue word that can help?  For more information check out our ever-expanding line of high-performance products for athletes, only at Advanced Human Performance Systems!

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While watching Barry Melrose talk about the Penguins – Flyers NHL playoff match-up yesterday, he used the expression “will beats skill” when describing Philadelphia’s surprising 3-0 playoff lead over Pittsburgh.  While the Penguins were the heavy favorite going into the series, it is the Flyers — playing with more heart and intensity — who are about to advance to the next round of the NHL playoffs.

Breaking down the Melrose expression, he is really talking about mental toughness and the degree in which players display confidence, focus, motivation, intensity, and the ability to develop the resiliency needed to “play up” and beat an opponent that seems to be the better team (Pittsburgh).  In sports, it is often “who wants it more” that ends up beating otherwise better talented athletes and teams.

While most coaches and athletes agree that “will beats skill” when it comes to the outcome of many sporting events, it’s still a tough sell — especially when trying to convince kids that they can beat state-caliber teams and athletes.  In these instances, kids are so intimidated that they either forget (or don’t believe) that their mental toughness can make a huge difference in the outcome of a game, and often the result of the game is fairly predictable (the more skilled athlete/team wins).

Great coaches and parents are able to connect with kids and “sell” the message that will beats skill, and when this occurs the athlete begins to “play to win” as opposed to “playing to avoid losing.”  When kids buy-in to this approach, they begin to pay more attention to positive cues (the good block, tackle, or pitch they just made), while overlooking or dismissing negative cues (their missed tackle, strike out, etc.).  What we pay attention to in life in large part dictates what we will do next — play harder or give up.

Will, motivation, perseverance, and resiliency are all things we can develop, and are independent traits from our physical abilities.  Do your part to “sell” this message to a young person today!

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Go to Advanced Human Performance Systems to check out our product line to help with developing WILL!

The way an athlete perceives his situation makes all the difference when it comes to anxiety and confidence (Sport Success 360).  As we all know, athletes who experience anxiety often struggle with athletic success, while confident athletes usually play well (and sometimes even better than what others would expect).  Anxiety bogs down an athlete’s thinking (often self-talk is negative and counterproductive), as well as behaviors (instead of playing loose and free, muscles become tense and tight and throw off important mind-body synchrony).

Interestingly, anxiety, or pressure, is almost always a manufactured mind state that can actually be dramatically improved upon.  One sport psychology approach called Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) suits this discussion perfectly.  Using an REBT model, there are three important facets to consider when looking to improve sports mental toughness:

A) The activating event

B) The BELIEF the person has when thinking about the activating event

C) The consequences that follow the event based on the belief of that event

Stepping away from theory and using a real-life example, take a baseball player who struck out earlier in the game and is now stepping to the plate for his second at bat (AB) of the game.  In this example the event , or “A” from the model above, is the upcoming AB.  Notice, AB’s are not “good” or “bad,” or “right” or “wrong.”  In other words, an AB is just that — an AB.

Now here is where it gets interesting – the BELIEF about the upcoming AB is completely subjective and under the control of the hitter. The batter gets to choose whether he will evaluate the upcoming AB as a scary threat (he might even say negative things to himself as he approaches the plate), or he can choose to look at the upcoming AB as a healthy challenge (in this example his mood state will be positive and his confidence will be high).

The consequences of thinking also play out according to thoughts – if the batter worries before approaching the plate, he will inevitably “feel” the nerves through a rapid heart rate, tense, muscles, and butterflies in his stomach.  In this example he will also likely say negative things to himself (like “Don’t strike out again!”).  On the other hand, if he approaches the plate looking at the AB as a challenge, his mind and body will stay in synchrony and his self-talk will be positive and productive.  Guess which mindset will likely lead to a hit?

Think about how the A-B-C’s play into our everyday lives — how many times have you allowed negative thinking to dictate a life outcome?  The great news is we get to choose the way we think, even if it is not always easy to do.  Athletes profit by learning this as they can then begin to play in the moment and disregard things that have happened earlier (like the 1st inning strike out) and instead get excited about the next AB.  This approach strengthens resiliency, too, as failures are viewed within a more accurate and responsible context — that is, everyone fails in life but it is what we do with failure that counts!

Check out our sport apps, products, and free resources at Advanced Human Performance Systems!

The reality is that very few athletes will go on to play college, much less professional sports, making the sport experience a very temporary life endeavor for the majority of young athletes (Sport Success 360).  Still, there are countless skills that can be used beyond sports that can help with personal development, academic pursuits, relationship building, and career success.  Unfortunately, far too many kids “bottle up” and compartmentalize their sport experiences, often distilling them down to fun childhood memories without ever identifying the utility of their sport skills beyond the baseball diamond, soccer field, or swimming pool.

Aside from the countless athletic transferable skills that can be used in every experience in life, youth sports also teaches kids how to work with others on a team, how to develop self-confidence and mental toughness, and how to win and lose with dignity and respect.  In fact, it could be argued that participating in sports may be the best life “primer” when it comes to adequately preparing youngsters for many of the future challenges in life that they will inevitably face.

When young people cull from their sport experiences and apply what they have learned toward academic challenges, difficulties with interpersonal relationships, and various other life difficulties, they may be surprised to learn about the utility of their sport skills.  In essence, the sport experience can serve as a vehicle for future life success.

Have fun this summer with youth sports, but don’t leave all the life lessons behind at the field after the game has ended.  Sit down and process the sport experience with your child, and work together to come up with creative ways he or she can use the lessons learned in sports to become a more successful person, and not just a better athlete.

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Learn more about our performance products for athletes, coaches and parents @ Advanced Human Performance Systems!

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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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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Sport psychologists often recommend that athletes develop their own cue word to help with in-game focus, motivation, and resiliency (Sport Success 360).  Sometimes action words are used (like “explode” or “dominate”), while other times acronyms are developed that have unique meaning to the athlete (like “WS” standing for “win state”).  Cue words can also be instructional, like using the letters “R-S-F”) to stand for “ready-set-fire,” something a pitcher in baseball or softball might use to help with the focus needed to make a successful pitch.  Finally, some athletes develop cue words that are merely reminders of important people, places, or events in their lives that they have attached important meaning to — like playing a season in honor of a recently deceased loved one.

While cue words might seem to some to be nothing more than a waste of time, they can actually be incredibly effective and very worth the effort.  One reason for this is that our minds cannot simultaneously think of two things at the same time.  For example, it’s impossible for an athlete to think about the fans getting on his back when he is devoting his concentration to his cue word.  Cue words are also helpful as they often serve as mini reminders of what to do — in the case of the pitcher example, “ready-set-fire” can be conditioned to muscle memory in practice situations and later used as a trigger during games.

Cue words can also help with resiliency by serving as a reminder to be strong (in fact, using the word “strength” is one way to focus on being tough in frustrating situations).

Once an athlete develops a unique cue word, it is important to write the cue word in places that will be regularly seen — like a locker, piece of equipment, or even a body part (like the hands).  Cue words lose their value when they are not used in competitive situations, hence the importance of them being readily available by being written in observable places.

If you are an athlete, work on developing your own unique cue word and use it every time you go out to compete.  Soon enough, you will see how the word automatically helps you improve your focus, motivation, and resiliency — three keys to maximizing athletic potential!

Learn more about cue words and other scientifically proven sport psychology mental training skills that help with athletic performance by checking out the AHPS product line and sport performance apps!

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