Posts Tagged ‘peak performance’
January 3rd, 2011
For many years I have talked openly about the importance of personal development through boys and girls sports participation — not just for better on-field success, but better life success (The Parents Playbook). Unfortunately, far too many young athletes tend to forget or overlook all the great life lessons they have been taught through sports when they eventually retire (whether it’s after little league, pop warner, varsity sports, or even pro sports). Athletic transferable skills are invaluable across settings, and there are countless “teachable moments” parents can use in sports that can be maximized in other settings as well (like in the classroom). The key is that parents must invest in sports role modeling in order for sports to have the best impact on their children.The reality is that most young athletes won’t have the chance to play professional sports (or even college sports for that matter). Still, the sports setting is an invaluable and fertile ground for learning, developing, and maximizing human potential!
www.drstankovich.com
December 13th, 2010
Mental toughness in sports can be the difference between one athlete over-achieving and another performing far below his potential (Mind of Steel). Fortunately, there are a number of mental performance enhancement skills that can be learned an quickly mastered, allowing determined athletes to gain a significant advantage against their opponents. In a previous column I wrote for Columbus Parent magazine, I discuss a number of different cognitive and behavioral techniques that can be used by athletes to improve their performance in all levels and types of sports, including varsity sports, pop warner, AAU, and little league.
www.drstankovich.com
June 1st, 2010
The two newest Sports Performance Assessments launched over the weekend (baseball and softball), adding to our growing line of sport performance apps on itunes! As with all SPA performance improvement products, the baseball and softball versions offer sport-specific questions and feedback, allowing users to develop a mental toughness improvement plan and take what they have learned to the diamond.Each SPA is only $1.99 and can literally be used over the players entire career. With summer ball just around the corner, now is the time to prepare to make this season the best one yet!Refine your focus, improve self-confidence, and learn how to better handle stress and adversity on the field by using the SPA-Baseball and SPA-Softball apps!www.drstankovich.com
May 17th, 2010
I was recently asked in an interview what I thought through my work in sports therapy was the greatest “mental skill” an athlete could possess? After pausing for a moment, I answered the question, but rather than minimizing my comment to what was the most important mental skill for athletes, I expanded my opinion to what I thought was the most important mental skill for people.The answer to the question, regardless if we are talking about athletes or everyday people, is the ability to develop a strong human resiliency toward stress, adversity, and failure. In other words, the ability to inoculate oneself from adversity in life, and to develop appropriate, effective means for warding off stress is, to me, the most important “mental toughness skill” a person can learn and master (The Life Series).I remember many years ago reading M. Scott Peck’s famously popular book “The Road Less Traveled,” and being especially taken by the first sentence in the book: Life is difficult. In the years since reading TRLT, I have found this insight to be especially applicable when working with people experiencing distress in their life — in other words, the problems they deal with are very “normal” when you place them within the context of how challenging and “difficult” life can be for all of us. Rather than looking at problems as unique and as an indicator of how unsuccessful a person is, I try to remind people that life is difficult — and that we all experience the same kinds of problems in life. And while we all have unique situations and circumstances we deal with, it really doesn’t matter how we experience stress, frustration, adversity, and failure (i.e. through a bad game, a relationship breakup, or a school/work failing), we all feel the pain of “coming up short” in life on any given day.The real concern I have, then, is how people respond to their unique stress and adversity. In sports I see this everyday — a youngster will look great in practice conditions, but then comes the game and he “chokes,” or freezes up, resulting in poor athletic outcomes. Of course, it is very normal to have bad days and occasionally “choke,” but what I am most interested in is how he responds to the situation? Does he pout and feel sorry for himself, or does he pick himself up, dust off, and become even more excited by the challenge of making tomorrow a better day?The same question is true for people who are not athletes — when adversity happens in life, is the first response to roll up the sleeves and work hard for a better tomorrow, or does the person take more of a “victim mentality,” helpless to the situation, and with little effort toward taking the responsible steps to remedy the problem?From my vantage point, it is very concerning that we are moving away from understanding and emphasizing the importance of human resiliency, and instead spending more time each year looking for organic reasons why people do things, or new pills to help them literally forget about and/or numb them from their pain. I recently saw a commercial about a an anti-depressant pill that is supposed to be used in addition to the anti-depressant pill the person is already taking —– so rather than learn cognitive/behavioral human performance improvement skills to strengthen resiliency, the message comes across as there being some medical advance through prescription medicine that will seemingly make it all just go away……..does this seem a little odd to you? Think about that — take a pill on top of another pill — just the basic paradigm seems bizarre and extreme to me (not to mention all the side effects that are mentioned throughout the ad!!).Human resiliency, to me, is a “mental skill” that can absolutely be developed and strengthened!! Of course, there are always people with unique circumstances and who may be better candidates for more advanced medicinal approaches, but for the average person (which most of us qualify to be) working hard to develop “bounce back” strategies and skills is truly where it’s at for life success to occur. Is it tough to become resilient? Of course it is — Dr. Peck told us that with his “Life is difficult” opening to TRLT!! But just because something is tough to do doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it – resiliency leads to greater self-awareness, confidence, open-mindedness, and motivation — precisely the things needed to reach our full potential, and to do so safely and without fear of side-, withdrawal-, or interaction-effects from unproven medications (some that even require a “boost” from a second medication!).Please know that I am not an anti-pharmaceutical drug person, nor am I saying that people should ignore the advances of modern medicine (no Tom Cruise here). I am concerned, however, that our knee-jerk response when dealing with problems today is becoming more and more directed at what medicines are out there to “fix” our pain, rather than going back to a simpler, and arguably more effective approach – that is, to understand pain and adversity are parts of life, and that we can (with a little effort) really overcome some pretty unbelievable things in life by exercising some patience, developing solid game plans for future success, and leaning on our support team of loved family and friends who are there to help us.So that’s my long-winded answer to the greatest mental skill to develop: Resiliency!!
May 3rd, 2010
I must applaud Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban for his recent comments about fully integrating a sport psychologist within his team. In fact, I just wrote a blog last week about the dire need in professional sports to bring on these services in light of today’s athletes and their growing list of off-field problems. Cuban gets it as a sport leader — he obviously sees that his players are his number one asset, and helping today’s young athletes on and off the field makes a lot of sense when you think of the tens of millions of dollars invested in them. Unfortunately, pro sports do not have enough Mark Cuban type forward-thinking owners — owners not afraid to break the “old school” sports mentality that coaches can handle and fix players problems – or that teams can quickly address problems reactively after they occur!Admittedly, Mark Cuban is a polarizing figure in sports — he can be vocal and often displays a lot of emotion from the stands (and if you are not a Mavs fan I could see how this can be annoying to you). Still, when I read his comments about integrating Dr. Kalkstein with the team, I felt like he took the words right out of my mouth (actually, he may have, check my blog article from last week and you will see how similar we think on this issue).Below is an excerpt of Cuban’s comments — see for yourself how brilliant his views are on comprehensive care and coverage for his players – its mighty impressive:…To balance as well as deepen the layers of advice he receives, Cuban has rehired sports psychologist Don Kalkstein to work full time with the Mavs. Cuban said he dismissed Kalkstein in 2007 at the request of Johnson before rehiring the psychologist last season.“Avery didn’t like him around,” Cuban said. “Avery wanted it to be his team. It was my decision to think, Well, Avery took us to the [2007 NBA] Finals and won 67 games, he’s earned that right. It turned out if we would have kept him, [Johnson] might still be here.”Why is a psychologist so important to the team?”When you have 20-something-year-old kids, they’re going to have fun, right?” Cuban said. “I don’t have any problem with that as long as it doesn’t bother your job. And so the minute it impacts your ability to do your job, I have a problem with that.”Cuban counts on Kalkstein to provide information on team chemistry — but to do so without betraying confidences.”He won’t give me the particulars on individuals, but he gives me the sense of the team,” Cuban said. “He won’t violate privacy, but I’ll ask how one guy fits in the team situation vs. another guy, how one guy can communicate with the coaches vs. another guy, will this guy be able to evolve and communicate with the coaches? We’ve got to be able to put everybody in a position to succeed, and the only way to do that is to be able to communicate with him or find somebody who will.”Chemistry is critical. Sometimes there are little nuances of things that negatively impact the chemistry that over the course of the long season you’ve got to be able to nip in the bud. And if you don’t — you see it with teams all the time, and most teams just hope they work themselves through and put it on the coach or the GM [to fix the issues]. But just because you coach basketball or you evaluate basketball talent, that doesn’t mean you’re great at sports psychology or understanding the chemistry of a team. And just because it worked in the ’80s doesn’t mean it’s going to work in the ’90s or the 2000s or the 2010s.”You’ve got to be able to cut bait and know when you’ve got problems and know when you can solve those problems internally and when you can’t, and know what you’re going to do about them. There are guys we traded just because of addition through subtraction.”So Kalkstein helps? “He always does, yes,” Cuban said. “And you put that together with your own personal experiences and what you see. He travels with us, he’s out there with the guys shagging balls, and he’s behind the bench with the coaches.”It’s not like the players have formal sessions with Kalkstein. “No, he just talks to them — let’s go out and shoot, and he’ll shag balls for them and just talk to them. And again, I won’t ask him what he tells them or what he asks them, because I want them to know that it’s private and that he doesn’t share that with me at all. But he helps to qualify our roster — here are the guys who are going to be able to communicate, and here’s where the communication problems are going to come. … You’ve got to know everything.”He’s the reason why we drafted Devin Harris [with the No. 5 pick in 2004], because when he interviewed Devin over some of the other players he said, ‘This guy has heart, he has this-this-this-this’ — and he was right.”According to Cuban, Kalkstein urged the Mavericks to not draft another highly rated player in 2004 and vowed to quit if they overruled him to pick the player anyway. “He said, ‘If you don’t have any use for me, you’re not going to listen to me.’ “
March 30th, 2010
Why Journaling is ImportantAlthough some athletes may think journaling is silly and a waste of time, successful athletes know that journaling can actually be a great help when it comes to tracking goals, monitoring athletic progress, and measuring skill levels against previous seasons. All of this, of course, leads to better mental toughness and improved sports performance! (Sports Success 360). Athletes van develop a human performance improvement plan by using their journal on a regular basis.Many professional and elite-level athletes keep a journal and use it on a daily basis. When I work with athletes, I suggest they get into the habit of making brief, daily entries that answer the following three questions:1. What did I do well today?2. What do I need to work on?3. What other things are important for me to note today?So for a baseball player (as an example), a basic journal entry might look like this:What I did well today – got deep into the count when hitting, had good footwork around second base for double plays, and kept our team fired up when we rallied late in the gameWhat I need to work on – still a little shakey on my throws to 1st base, my mind wanders a little when we have long innings, and my back tightened up late in the game so I should spend more time stretching before the next gameOther things – I need to buy a new pair of cleats, I also need to help the team by offering to help organize the end-of-season family team picnicAs you can see from the example above, journaling can be very quick and to the point – yet still very effective. After only a few weeks you will be able to go back and see the progress you have made, leading to greater self-confidence and more regular peak athletic performances!Why Journaling WorksPerhaps the greatest advantage of journaling is that it improves self-discipline and increases memory retention. By getting in the habit of journaling daily you will gain confidence in your mastery over your sport. Journaling also helps with memory retention since most of us are pretty bad about remembering things (can you remember what you had for lunch yesterday??!).Journaling is also a great tool when it comes to breaking a slump. For example, if you have a really great game be sure to journal a longer entry for that day – then go back and re-read that entry on tough days, or if you feel you are losing your self-confidence and trying to get out of a slump. You will be amazed how quickly your emotions and attitudes will change and recharge in a positive way by simply reliving a previous accomplishment written in your journal!How to Journal- Purchase a big notebook (or make something creative) with lots of pages. Feel free to personalize your journal with pictures, quotes, and anything else that motivates you and makes you feel good.- Consider using the 3-question journaling method outlined in this article – or develop your own style. There is no ‘wrong way’ to journal.- Journal daily just as you would go to the gym or practice your sport.- Bookmark your best days so you can go back and visit those entries whenever you need a quick “pick-me-up.”- Keep all your personal goals in your journal and track your progress – and feel free to be creative, as your journal should be as unique as you are as a person!Please visit Advanced Human Performance Systems for exciting, easy-to-understand Peak Performance videos, audios, assessments, and feature articles!
March 22nd, 2010
Human perception is a really funny thing – what people “see” is really as individual as each person. Our perceptions rely in large part on past experiences, our values, and our expectations based on times in the past when we were in similar situations. In some cases, when kids have a tough time improving in their sport their perception can change very quickly from looking at situations as challenges to instead seeing them as scary and threatening. Obviously, the perception your child takes when it comes to athletic skill improvement and mastery will make all the difference in the world when it comes to his or her eventual success (
Mind of Steel).So how does your child’s perception impact his or her athletic success? Very simply – what he or she “sees” when preparing for a practice/game is a very unique, subjective human experience and will ultimately play a major role in whether he or she works hard and with great confidence – or “chokes” on the very first play. More specifically, successful athletes will typically see challenges when they approach practices and games, whereas inexperienced young athletes will tend to see overwhelming, fearful situations that they perceive to be more than they can handle (
Sports Success 360)Teaching your child the importance of perception, especially how it plays such a major part in athletic success, is vitally important for your child’s self-improvement (regardless of whether he plays little league, AAU, or pop warner football). When you look at a bed of roses, do you see the flowers or the thorns? Both are there, yet it is the individual who determines what to focus his or her attention toward. With sports, teaching your child to interpret difficult situations as challenges will help your child “play to win,” whereas allowing tough situations to scare him or her will consequently put your child’s mindset in a “play to avoid losing” perception.When your child perceives situations as challenges, his or her mind and body will work in synchrony and greater self-confidence will emerge. Research clearly shows that confidence is directly related to peak performances, and your child’s perception will dramatically impact his or her confidence!On the other hand, when your child perceives situations as catastrophes, his or her body will immediately respond with anxiety, which will in turn cause all kinds of problems with focus, concentration, and ultimately athletic success. When your child “chokes,” more often than not he or she missed the play not because she didn’t know what to do, but instead because she never really felt as though she was going to make the play in the first place. Again, your child’s initial perception of the situation probably played a major role in the outcome, not necessarily her skill set.The next time your child goes out and plays, think about the following tips for success:> Only your child can determine whether a situation is a challenge or a threat. Remind your child of this each time he suits up to play!> If your child begins to get nervous about a situation, try to help him or her reframe the problem. For example, if the game starts off rough, remind your child about how much time you have to be successful and still come out on top.> Remind your child that he or she is playing against other kids roughly the same age and skill level. For most kids, this gets quickly overlooked in pressure situations, or in situations that are unfamiliar. Just like with the pros, on most days anyone can beat anyone – it’s all about who comes to play!> Always reward your child for effort, even if the result isn’t winning or success. As your child begins to see your happiness with his or her effort, future situations will be met head on with even more confidence and a mindset that looks at situations as challenges rather than threats. With this mindset you can be guaranteed your child will play up to his or her highest ability!
www.drstankovich.com
March 17th, 2010
When I work with athletes looking to improve their game, one of the first things sports leadership ideas I remind them of is that there is never an excuse for not being ready to play. And while this message can certainly be watered down some when it comes to really young kids with lower maturity levels, it is still important that parents work with their kids on some level so that their child’s attitude and emotional state are healthy, positive, and productive before the start of each game. The result of this mindset is greater confidence, resiliency, focus, and quite likely a greater chance for athletic success (
The Parents Playbook).While it may be true that your child is not the fastest, strongest, or most skilled athlete on the field, one area where she can be at least equal to her teammates is in her mental preparation before games. Being prepared includes staying positive, thinking about what she needs to do in the game, and mentally rehearsing the plays before the game starts. Additionally, she can quickly think through the things that are relevant (i.e. knowing what to do when she enters the game) versus what is irrelevant (i.e. who is in the crowd watching). Mental toughness can lead to increased playing time, regardless whether your child is involved in pee wee sports, varsity sports, or recreational girls and boys sports leagues.Being ready for games means having a positive, upbeat attitude (and remember, attitude is something we have under our control). Being ready also means that your child compartmentalize all the things he needs to do and put them aside moments before a game, knowing that after the game he will go back and complete those tasks at that time.Kids often struggle with being ready before games, and the results can be devastating. Think about it for a moment – if your child is not mentally prepared, it is quite likely he will perform below his ability, leading to increased frustration (and possibly an injury, or early retirement from the sport). On the other hand, kids who go into games prepared often “play above their head” and actually improve in their ability as their focus and confidence makes up for their shortage of skills.Unlike athletic talent, where kids often vary dramatically, mental preparation is something every child can learn and develop and level the playing field with their peers. Below are a few additional tips to help you get started:> Teach your child about the importance of keeping a positive and upbeat attitude. Your child’s attitude is something that is controllable, and your positive modeling can really help> Before each game do a quick run-down of the things she needs to think about in order to be successful. Your role modeling will make a huge difference!> Talk to your child about how pre-game preparation plays into game success. The more your child buys into this idea, the sooner he will begin to emphasize the importance of being mentally prepared.> Help your child develop a pre-game routine that allows her to feel comfortable, relaxed, and ready to go. As long as the routine is safe and does not interfere with the team, it will probably be OK. Some ideas might include using imagery, listening to music, or simply reviewing personal goals before going out to compete.
www.drstankovich.com
March 8th, 2010
Bouncing Back & Why it is Important“Bouncing Back” is your ability to quickly and confidently let a bad play or failure immediately get out of your system by turning your attention to the only thing that is important – the next play. Ask any sports psychologist about how letting adversity go quickly impacts personal resiliency (or mental toughness),and you will quickly learn how this is anan important variable to sport (and life) success (Sports Success 360)Unfortunately, far too many athletes allow a bad play or two completely take them out of their rhythm and interrupt their sports performance, and the result is the athlete ends up playing terribly for the rest of the game. Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever watched your game go straight downhill only because you were still swearing at yourself from the last play? If so, read on….How Bouncing Back Impacts SuccessIn order to play your best you must play with confidence, composure, and have an appropriate focus level at all times. This is easy to do when you are winning – but what happens when things don’t go so well?? Typically when an athlete begins to get upset with him- or herself, the internal anger and frustration leads to increased anxiety, which in turn leads to negative self talk and thoughts coupled with a tense, overly-tight body. Obviously this is not good if you want to reach your full athletic potential.Athletes who learn how to quickly bounce back in a game or practice do not experience these reactions – instead, they are able to keep their focus on the next play and their minds and bodies in synchrony. The great thing about bouncing back is that it is 100% under your control – as only YOU can decide to get your head back in the game and become excited about the next play.There is no reason in the world to get so mad you cannot focus, or become so upset that you can barely stay in the game. The only way you will ever improve in sports (and life) is by quickly letting negative energy go and refocusing your attention to future improvement.Is bouncing back tough to do? The short answer is that probably for most people it is a challenge — but so was learning the skills associated with your sport, as well as mastering academic subjects in the classroom. The truth is developing resiliency should be viewed the same as any skill building experience, and will have its challenges along the way. The good news is the sooner a person begins to emphasize the importance of resiliency, the sooner he or she will see dramatic, positive outcomes as a result.How to Bounce Back> The first thing to remember is that you can bounce back at any time. There is nothing magical about bouncing back, and the moment you decide to get your head back in the game you will dramatically improve your chances for on-field success> Hold yourself accountable to yourself, your teammates, and your coaches. Getting mad and upset about the last play – especially if it costs you on the next play – is not doing anyone any favors. Many athletes use simple behavioral cues while playing to symbolize “letting go” of the last play. For example, you might pinch some grass and throw it to the wind, or gently slap your legs to symbolize you are leaving that last play behind.> If you play in a sport where you can take a few seconds between plays to quickly regain your composure, do it! Examples include a basketball player between free throws, a baseball/softball pitcher between pitches, or a wrestler who goes out of bounds on his or her way back to the mat. During this quick break, take 1-2 deep breaths and say a word like “focus” to yourself to get back in the game.www.drstankovich.com
February 20th, 2010
The Olympics are the world’s greatest stage for athletes – and also the biggest stage for drama, pressure, sports performance highlights and unfortunately, choking. It’s the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows – all played out before an eagerly awaiting world audience (
Mind of Steel).So why do some elite-level athletes display great mental toughness and perform their best when the pressure is on – while other athletes fail terribly, even though they know how to execute the athletic skills they have developed over many years of hard practice? To answer that question, and hopefully provide insights to adults who coach young athletes, I offer the following 3 steps designed to maximum athletic success – especially in the clutch:1.) You must develop “muscle memory” (known by its technical term classical conditioning). Muscle memory is essentially the ability to act and react without much, if any, thinking. For example, think how you would automatically respond if you heard a police siren right now – how would you immediately think, and how would your body physically react? What about if somebody quickly threw their arms in your face unexpectedly, how would you immediately react? What if somebody was just about to run their fingernails across a chalkboard — in fact, did you just flinch?! These are all examples of muscle memory (or classically conditioned responses).In order to develop muscle memory in sports, you must first practice athletic skills precisely and repeatedly in non-threatening, low pressure situations – like in an empty gym. This may become boring at times, but as the mind and body begin developing successful “partnerships” with each other by getting used to the drills, muscle memory is developing. From this point, begin to work the drills into practice situations with more pressure, and continue to develop a hierarchy of increasingly tougher situations until the skills are mastered.2) Trust your skills. The next step after muscle memory has developed is to trust your skills. This means that rather than thinking deeply in game situations about what you should do, trust that you will automatically and successfully play your game. Realize that you will make mistakes as this is simply part of being an athlete – but you will also play more successfully as you will be using the skills you have worked hard to develop and are proven to work. Unfortunately, many athletes forget this in pressure situations, and react by trying to second-guess what they should do. The result is usually added pressure, more anxiety, “forced” play, and “choking.”Trusting your skills means learning from your losses – and this is OK! As you train yourself to accept failure as a part of life so long as you make a learning experience from it, you will undoubtedly reach your full athletic potential.3. Develop confidence. Muscle memory and trust will only develop into the superior range of human performance only when confidence is added. Self-confidence (also known as one’s level of self-efficacy) is the degree to which you feel as though you can successfully complete a task. Having confidence is not something that necessarily needs to be displayed to others in any way – although it often is witnessed by others through a certain controlled “swagger” (but not arrogant or cocky). When an athlete plays to win, rather than to avoid losing, it is safe to assume the athlete is confident in his or her abilities.A great way to increase self-confidence is to regularly set and closely monitor personal goals. It is vitally important that goals are specific, measurable, controllable, and believable. In addition, short-, mid-, and long-term goals should be set, and they should be recorded so they are not easily forgotten. Increased self-confidence develops as goals are reached, and is easily transferred to game situations for peak athletic performance.Elite-level athletes not only master the physical and technical aspects of becoming a champion, but they attend to the “mental” skills as well. When we watch Olympians perform before the world, it is often their mental strength and toughness that determines whether they fail or succeed. When they are “perfect,” you can easily see how their muscle memory, trust, and confidence have allowed them to excel. Conversely, when we see athletes choke (meaning they do not execute a skill set they have previously mastered), it is often due to their under-developed muscle memory, lack of trust in their skills, and low level of self-confidence. In other words, rarely is the poor performance due to a lack of physical conditioning, or attempting a skill that has never been tried before.What’s best about developing mental strength is that it is an athletic transferable skill that can easily be used in all areas of life, including academics, career, and all human relationships!
www.drstankovich.com
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