"You Don't Need Me!" - Optimizing Mental Fitness Without a Coach

In today's fast-paced world, the quest for better brain health and a healthy mindset is more important than ever. While many turn to mental conditioning coaches for guidance, there's a compelling case to be made for taking matters into your own hands. Let's face it, mental conditioning coaches can be amazing, but they can also come with a hefty price tag. While mental conditioning coaches offer valuable guidance, nurturing your brain and cultivating mental fitness are achievable goals you can pursue independently. Here's your toolkit for a DIY brain upgrade:

1. Neuroplasticity - Your Brain's Built-in Upgrade Button: Your brain is remarkably adaptable, a quality known as neuroplasticity. By consistently engaging in stimulating activities, you can strengthen neural connections and foster cognitive growth.

2. Meditation - Cultivating Calm and Clarity: Meditation practices like mindfulness meditation enhance focus, reduce stress, and improve emotional regulation. Even brief (anything under 5 minutes) daily sessions can yield significant benefits.

3. Boogie with Binaural Beats - Brainwave Entrainment: Techniques like binaural beats and brainwave synchronization can gently guide your brainwave patterns into desired states, promoting relaxation, focus, or creativity.

4. Sleep, Glorious Sleep: You knew this was coming, right? Prioritizing quality sleep is a non-negotiable for optimal brain function. Aim for 7-8 hours of shut-eye nightly, establish a regular sleep schedule, and create a relaxing bedtime routine. Quality sleep is fundamental for cognitive function and emotional well-being. Establish a regular sleep schedule, create a relaxing bedtime routine, and optimize your sleep environment.

5. Visualization - Programming Your Mind for Success: Visualization involves mentally rehearsing desired outcomes. This powerful technique can boost motivation, enhance performance, and cultivate a positive outlook.

6. Structure and Routines - The Pillars of Consistency: Feeling scattered? Routines and structure provide a sense of control and predictability, which can dramatically reduce stress and improve mental clarity. Creating daily routines and structure provides a sense of control and predictability, promoting mental clarity and reducing stress.

Remember, consistency is key. By incorporating these practices into your daily routine, you can embark on a transformative journey towards optimal brain health and a strong mental core, empowering yourself to thrive.

For more information about mental conditioning, go to: Strengthening Your Mental Core, to sign up for our basic, self-paced online course.

NOTE: This blogpost was assisted by AI.

Your Flow State Questionnaire

 

I am often asked the question "How do I know if I need help with mental conditioning and coaching?" The following questionnaire may help to determine current your mental fitness or how well you establish "flow state conditions."

Here's a 15-item yes or no questionnaire to assess your mental fitness and your current ability to create a flow state:

1. Do you often find it easy to concentrate on the task at hand?

2. Are you able to maintain a sense of calm and focus even in stressful situations?

3. Do you feel a sense of enjoyment and fulfillment while engaging in challenging activities?

4. Are you able to block out distractions and maintain sustained attention?

5. Do you feel a strong sense of confidence in your abilities to overcome obstacles?

6. Are you able to quickly adapt and adjust to unexpected changes in your environment?

7. Do you frequently lose track of time while engaged in a task you enjoy?

8. Do you often experience a sense of effortless and automatic movement in your activities?

9. Do you have a clear sense of goals and purpose in your daily life?

10. Are you able to fully immerse yourself in activities, feeling completely absorbed in the present moment?

11. Do you feel a strong sense of control over your thoughts and emotions?

12. Are you able to find a balance between challenge and skill in your activities?

13. Do you often experience a deep sense of satisfaction and accomplishment after completing a task?

14. Do you feel a sense of clarity and mental clarity during your daily activities?

15. Do you find yourself naturally and effortlessly entering a state of flow in various areas of your life?

Scoring:

- Give yourself one point for each "Yes" answer.

- A higher score indicates a greater likelihood of being mentally fit and entering a flow state.

Note that this questionnaire is not a scientifically validated assessment tool but can serve as a rough guide to self-reflect on mental fitness and the potential for experiencing flow. For a more accurate assessment, it's recommended to consult a qualified mental health professional or use validated assessment tools specifically designed for this purpose.

To learn more about mental conditioning, enroll in our new online, self-paced course: "Strengthening Your Mental Core."

NOTE: This questionnaire was developed with the assistance of AI.

Building Your Antifragility Skills

“Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; antifragile gets better”.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2012). Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

In my coaching practice, my approach has evolved to help individuals develop resilience and cultivate antifragility through a combination of mindset development, behavioral and emotional skill-building, and mental strategic planning. 

Here's a step-by-step guide to enhance resilience and foster antifragility:

1.  Understand the concepts: I begin by exposing them to the concepts of resilience and antifragility. Resilience refers to the ability to bounce back from setbacks, challenges, or adversity, while antifragility goes beyond resilience by using setbacks and challenges as opportunities for growth and improvement.

2.  Assess current mindset: I assess the individual's current mindset and beliefs about adversity, failure, and setbacks. This helps identify any limiting beliefs or negative patterns that may hinder their ability to develop resilience or embrace antifragility.

3.  Cultivate a growth mindset: I work on fostering a growth mindset, emphasizing that challenges and setbacks are opportunities for learning and growth rather than fixed limitations. This shift in mindset helps individuals view adversity as a chance to develop new skills, gain experience, and become stronger.

4.  Identify strengths and weaknesses: By conducting a self-assessment or using appropriate tools, I help the individual identify their existing strengths and weaknesses related to resilience and antifragility. Understanding their starting point allows for targeted development in areas that require improvement.

5.  Develop coping strategies: Together, we would explore various coping strategies and techniques that can enhance resilience. This may include stress management techniques, neutral self-talk, reframing perspectives, setting realistic goals, and practicing self-care. These strategies equip individuals with the tools to navigate challenging situations effectively.

6.  Embrace discomfort and uncertainty: To foster antifragility, I encourage the individual to embrace discomfort and uncertainty intentionally. This involves gradually exposing themselves to new experiences, taking calculated risks, and stepping out of their comfort zone. By doing so, they can develop the capacity to adapt, learn, and thrive in unpredictable environments.

7.  Reflect and learn from setbacks: When setbacks or failures occur, it is important for the individual to reflect on those experiences and extract valuable lessons. By reframing setbacks as opportunities for growth, they can identify areas for improvement, adjust their strategies, and learn from their mistakes.

8.  Encourage continuous learning: I foster continuous learning by encouraging the individual to seek new knowledge, acquire new skills, and broaden their perspectives. This may involve reading relevant books, listening to podcasts, attending workshops or conferences, engaging in reflective exercises, or seeking mentorship from experienced individuals.

7.  Develop a support system: Building a strong support system is crucial for resilience and antifragility. I help the individual identify and cultivate relationships who can provide guidance, motivation, and accountability during challenging times.

8.  Set meaningful goals: Finally, I assist the individual in setting meaningful and realistic goals that align with their values and aspirations. By working towards these goals, they can build confidence, stay motivated, and reinforce their resilience and antifragility skills.

Throughout the coaching process, it is important to tailor the approach to the individual's specific needs, challenges, and circumstances. The goal is to empower them to develop resilience and embrace antifragility, allowing them to not only bounce back from setbacks but also thrive and grow in the face of adversity.

For more detailed information on resilience and antifragility, enroll in our new online course:  Strengthening Your Mental Core.  

Hard Work and Practice: The Foundation of a Buzzer Beater (VIDEO)

“I don’t think anything like that is ever rehearsed. It’s just something that happens from hard work and practice. That’s just not rehearsed. That’s what makes it so great. You don’t think. I think if you think, then that’s how you mess up. You just got to let it fly and not think.”

-- Angel McCoughtry, WNBA Atlanta Dream star.

McCoughtry shot and made a three-pointer with 1.5 seconds left to give the Atlanta Dream a 76-74 win on Tuesday night over the Minnesota Lynx.

It was the Dream's first lead of the second half, and ultimately, their first home win of the season.  The win broke a nine-game losing streak for the Dream against the Lynx, behind McCoughtry’s 18 points and Tiffany Hayes’ 20 points.   

Watch the buzzer-beater below, on Twitter:  

The @minnesotalynx had beaten the @AtlantaDream 9 straight times. Until this: pic.twitter.com/PZvTna7uWl

— espnW (@espnW) May 30, 2018

Excerpts taken from:  www.highposthoops.com/2018/05/30/atlanta-dream-minnesota-lynx-mccoughtry-hayes-williams

I Hate to Break It to You, but You've Got the Yips

Some call it "a pressure-induced involuntary muscle movement."   Others call it "a loss of control of your shot."  In most circles, it's called the yips.  

As you may be aware or you may have experienced, the yips are the loss of fine motor skills in athletes. The condition seems to occur suddenly and without an apparent trigger, cause or adequate explanation.  It usually appears in mature athletes with years of experience.  It has been poorly understood and we have, to this point, no known treatment or therapy. Though rare, athletes affected by the yips sometimes recover their ability, which may require an overall or partial change in technique. However, many at the highest level of their sport are forced to abandon their livelihood.  Some are still at or near the peak of their careers.

The yips manifest themselves as muscle twitches, jumps, shakes, jitters, flinches, staggers, and jerks. The condition occurs most often in sports which athletes are required to perform a single precise and well-timed action such as in baseball, golf, tennis, bowling, darts, and cricket. 

There are many suggestions that it is a muscular problem or neurological issue.  However, technical solutions that focus on major changes in technique or motion are largely ineffective.

On a less severe but more frequent note, many athletes go through slumps, some that last longer than others.   For example, in basketball, jump shooters and free-throw shooters often go through periods of time where their shooting percentages decrease significantly or their shooting becomes streaky, or both.  In either case, their ability to successfully make their shots has been altered.  Likewise, tennis players can lose their ability to serve in a flash.  Golfers lose their ability to putt, or drive the ball off a tee.    

Whether you are experience the yips, or you are in a slump, it is clear to me that even a minor shooting, serving, putting, or pitching problem, has its source and/or is quickly exacerbated and maintained by an athlete's internal dialogue; their self-talk.

In my last blogpost, I talked about strengthening your mental core.  Your self-talk or internal dialogue is an important part of your mental core.  

If you take a look at slumps in putting and teeing-off in golf, shooting in basketball, or serving in tennis, self-talk or internal dialogue is crucial in understanding the beginning, middle and end of a slump, or more problematically, the development of the yips. 

The most successful athletes are often the best mentally conditioned.  Their self-talk is either positive or non-existent.   As I and many others involved in sports and performance psychology know, self-talk affects performance.  During competition or practice sessions, the ability of an athlete to eliminate harsh or negative self-talk can improve performance dramatically.  

Unfortunately, many athletes do not or cannot quiet their inner dialogue, particularly their inner critic.  Excessive self-talk, whether positive or negative, is like having fans (or one particular fan) in the stadium, the arena, or in the gallery yelling at you at various intervals right before and during your shot or serve.  A fan who wants to disrupt you might yell:  "Miss it!"    A supportive fan might yell:  "You can do this!"   Encountered at the wrong time (i.e., at the moment you are executing your task) either can disrupt. 

Your inner dialogue during competition, might sound like this: 

"I don't think I can make this."  "If I miss this, my coach is gonna bench me."  "This is a lot of pressure."  "It's all on me."  "What if I miss?"  "I should have practiced this shot more."  "Come on, you've got this!"  "Would you just relax?!"  

Now, your self-talk is not necessarily intended or designed to disrupt.  Often, as with a supportive fan, it is usually intended to calm you or focus you on the task at hand.  It might be meant to provide encouragement or motivation.  Unfortunately, like an enthusiastic parent yelling instructions (or encouragement) to you from the stands, the net effect is that it disrupts your concentration and focus.  Over time, it erodes your self-confidence because the message is that you need last-second help, encouragement and instruction.  It's not a good message, really.  More importantly, it interferes with deep muscle learning and disrupts muscle memory.  Self-talk can undermine all the hard work that you have put in.  

With these types of messages, your brain is interrupting your shot, and your muscles are saying, "Wait, what?"   Because of this sudden emergency interruption, your muscles are saying "I must be about to do something wrong, otherwise, why would my brain be talking to me right now?" 

So, while you are busy talking to yourself, your muscles are reacting to your inner message by either trying to adjust, overcontrol, restrict, or over-correct your shot.  In most circumstances, you will ever so slightly slow down, stop or inhibit your motion  (shorting the shot) or over-correct (by shooting long).  Once you begin to overcorrect during the shot, your regular motion is affected.   Sure, you might still make the shot, but the probability has been changed, often dramatically.  

With enough disruptive self-talk occurring on a regular basis in practice and during competition, an athlete's ability to effectively develop and firmly establish smooth fine motor movements is compromised.  Self-talk affects the encoding of muscle memory through a series of micro-disruptions. With a sufficient stream of micro-disruptions, small disruptions of fine motor movements occur, resulting in an inefficient, and often erratic set of fine motor movements.   As your motor movements are affected, so is your comfort with your shot.  Any ongoing discomfort begins to erode your self-confidence.  Eventually, your self-talk produces self-doubt which causes you to not only question yourself but to question the fine motor movements themselves.

That's the way you forget how to shoot, putt, throw, kick, serve.  It's your inner critic thats attacking your muscle memory.  This constant internal criticism can erode what you have spend hours trying to perfect.  It's a type of waterboarding.  Death by a thousand cuts.

The more that I work with athletes and look closely at their self-talk, it appears that self-talk is prevalent enough to cause physiological disruption in fine motor movements.  At first, it affects individual shots, causing enough disruption in the athlete to miss any particular shot.  If the athlete's self-talk is disruptive enough and frequent enough, it causes shooting slumps; and, if an athlete's self-talk is chronic enough will create a more severe disorder, the yips.

My experience is that many, if not all, athletes have, at least, a very mild case of the yips.  With enough practice, most athletes can overcome harsh, negative, and disruptive self-talk.  However, when self-talk is at it's most disruptive, it can affect even the most rehearsed shot.  

In fact, I contend that any missed shot has, at some level, been disrupted by self-talk.  A missed shot becomes a slump through increasingly negative self-talk, followed by increased self-consciousness about subsequent misses.  The yips are simply the extreme consequences of extreme self-consciousness.  At its worst and most frequent, negative self-talk could "metastasize" into the yips. 

So, what can you do about your early stage yips?  

Be aware that your self-talk is disrupting your deep muscle learning and memory.    Don't let the yips get to you.  Want to make your shot consistently, or serve with confidence?  Want to avoid slumps?  Quiet your self-talk.  Shut your inner critic down.  Your muscle memory will thank you for it.     

For more information about strengthening your mental core, self-talk, mindfulness, mental imagery, sports psychology, etc. download Mindfuel, the mental conditioning app:  http://appmc.hn/1aekztQ. 

Mental Conditioning for the Recreational Athlete or Weekend Warrior

Several months ago I wrote in this blog about Your Fitness Identity.  This post is a follow-up to that. In that post, I discussed the importance of identifying, assessing, enhancing, establishing and/or regaining your fitness identity.

When I talk to many people about their recreational sports participation for any length of time, it is clear that in addition to their pursuit of enjoyment and perhaps momentarily reliving past glory, a majority of us experience moderate to considerable angst, frustration, disappointment, a sense of failure, self-criticism, and performance anxiety.  Much of it tends to be very similar to the negative feelings of our youth. Rather that achieving what we want from recreational sports (improved fitness, stress relief, a break from a long day at work, social connection, team camaraderie), we end up having surprisingly familiar patterns of negative feelings.   Where do those feelings come from? Where are those feelings supposed to go? What can we do about it?  Can we enjoy our sports without reliving the past?

Most people think that hiring a mental conditioning coach or a sports psychologist is strictly for elite athletes who aspire to participating in professional sports.  The common perception is also that most of the athletes that reach out to for help with mental conditioning are having difficulty performing in their chosen sport.

Additionally, rarely is mental conditioning considered as something to enhance or improve current performance or for achieving superior performance.  It is typically thought of as a fix for severe problems in performance not necessarily for growth, enjoyment, or development.

The reality is that more and more non-elite athletes are hiring coaches and psychologists to simply get the most enjoyment that they can out of recreational sports that they love.   These athletes realize that regardless of their level of proficiency or activity level, engaging in a  program of mental conditioning can help them to get the most out of the time they spend participating in those activities.

These athletes come to the realization that they could enjoy their sport(s) more and reduce or eliminate the anxiety and frustration they experience before, during, and after they play their sport. Getting some help with mental conditioning is a good idea.

We think nothing of taking music lessons or taking an evening course at the community college. Those of us who love sports, competition, and fitness should consider finding a mental conditioning coach or sports psychologist to help us to get the most out of our recreational sports experience. You don't have to be a professional athlete to get help.

The Team Virus: Have You Caught It?

How quickly can a coach lose his influence on the team?   When teams lose, we tend to blame the coach.   Is it fair?

Yes and no.  Peer pressure can destroy a team.   Team culture will dictate the outcome.  Culture and work ethic are viral. When you have individual players that negatively influence the team, you lose the team.  Do you have a team virus?

As a coach, you want your players to talk, to communicate, to give each other information and feedback about the situation at hand. However, you don't want players to "throw each other under the bus" during the game.  

For example, watch out for players who call out, blame and berate other players during the game. When things go wrong, do you have a player who will yell at other players for mistakes, blown assignments, bad passes, lack of hustle, etc.?   Often if a player is yelling at his/her teammates, they have lost focus on their own responsibilities, even for a split second.  If he/she yells at a teammate, after the fact, you now have two unfocused players (maybe more, if the other players hear it and start to worry about their mistakes and whether they will be blamed and ridiculed, too).

The other team will pick up on this and will smell blood.  They are more likely to go on the attack and take advantage of this negative dynamic.  

Watch for body language and non-verbal behavior in your players for evidence of the team virus.

A missed assignment, a mistake, or a blown coverage is for the coach to address and correct. Make sure your team understands this. If a teammate gets involved in the coaching (especially during play), that may not be what you want.  In fact, if you are a player in the game, on the court, in the field, you want to quickly forget the mistake and move on.  Instructions are better given before play, not after a play when players can do nothing about it anyway.

Coaches should coach and players should play.  Don't give your opponent the advantage by letting your players coach themselves and negatively affect team cohesion.

Don't let negativity and player influence go viral.  Don't let your season get away from you due to a team virus.  

The End of the "To-Do Lists"

Where has a "To-do list" ever gotten anybody?

Time management gurus stick to the notion that having a sound "to-do list" is a great tool for efficiency and productivity. Nothing new has come out of the time management field in a long time. Of course, there is some value in having a "to-do list." And, granted, it feels good to check-off or put a line through each item. You may even feel relief in knowing that you may have gotten someone off your imaginary back. But, is that real value? Will your feeling last? Who cares?

Let's think. Do you really get a sense of satisfaction out of getting those types of items done. Will you really remember accomplishing anything when you look back on the day? Do you really feel that you have achieved anything? I say not.

I talk to executives and managers all the time. I particularly find that during job interviews candidates are drawn to jobs and opportunities in which their talents will be deployed to make a difference. However, in most instances, once they are hired and as their role is developed and clarified, their performance is often measured in small ways; in ways that reflect the old "to-do list" mentality. Their talents are wasted, the company flounders, and disappointment sets in all around. It is a set up for failure and disillusionment; an opportunity thrown away.

What about a "to-make-a-difference" list? What about a well-thought out list of high-impact actions that will add long-term, lasting value? What about a list of "game-changing" moves that will be remembered well beyond today? What about actions that will be easily shared by others and quickly remembered at annual review time? What about actions that support your vision of success, for you and the organization? Think about that the next time you start jotting down your "to-do list."

Instead, make it a "to-make-a-difference" list? How different will that list be? How different will you feel putting a dent in that list? I can hear the change in your energy level and motivation already. Go ahead, try it.