But Not For Long

I've got a secret weapon for mental toughness.  

The lyrics of a very popular song from B.o.B. featuring Trey Songz includes a phrase could be the most valuable mental conditioning tip you can have for dealing with adversity.

"But not for long."

Every athlete and performer makes mistakes and experiences errors during practice as well as during games and competitive events. Mistakes are part of the game, and there is no such thing as perfection. You can always do better, and you can always improve. Problems occur when errors weaken an athlete’s confidence and mental focus. Successful athletes are able to let go quickly after a mistake. 

When you focus on a past mistake, you create noise in the system, you increase mental distraction, your mindset becomes negative, and this can erode and destroy mental toughness. The negative self-talk we tend to get into after a mistake distracts us from the focus and concentration we need to achieve our best performance.

It is quite easy to get into a negative frame of mind, dwell on mistakes, and focus on failure.  We all do it to some extent.  We can get caught up in negative self-talk.  However, we need a way to get back on track.  We need a way to re-focus, to re-boot as quickly as possible.   

"I'm having a bad day."  

"I'm playing badly."  

"My opponent is making me look bad."  

"That was embarrassing."  

"I'm not ready for this."  

"This isn't working." 

"But not for long."

Try to be aware of your negative self-talk.  Try replacing your typical negative self-talk with this phrase:

"But, not for long."

Give it a try.  This is a great way to increase your mental toughness and improve your emotional resilience.  Let me know how it goes.   

Performance: A Function of Talent, Skills, Preparation, and Mindset

I am a performance video junkie.  In following people on Facebook or perusing YouTube videos, I have watched an abnormally crazy number of great performance videos related to all types of activities. What has been amazing to me about the comments (beside the incredibly inappropriate and/or negative ones) is the frequency of comments about how talented the performer is.  The second most frequent comment is how the viewer wished he/she could do that.

These comments provide great insight into the type of mental conditioning that is so pervasive and so counterproductive to success and excellence. Many people incorrectly assume that performance, success and excellence are primarily a result or function of talent (by definition, a seemingly fixed asset).  Thus, their wish is that they had been annointed somehow with the talent for that activity, sport, etc. Alas, they weren't lucky when talent was handed out.  But, what's luck got to do with it?

What they do not realize is that those so-called talented people were also simply highly invested in learning to do the activity.  Ultimately, each of those individuals spent an incredible amount of time mastering the steps involved in the achieving the result that you see:  the performance.

As Carol Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford, points out, successful people approach problems as a learning process. While invested in the result, they see it as an opportunity to learn and grow and, therefore, are not paralyzingly afraid of an imperfect result. They view their skills as capable of change, growth and improvement. Dweck identifies this as a growth mind-set.

Individuals with a fixed mind-set, on the other hand, see their talent or ability as finite (and, typically pre-determined). You're creative and artistic, or you're not. You're good in math, or you're not. You're a great player, or you're not. If you see yourself this way, Dweck says, any mistake or failure is dreadful.  But also, any attempt to learn and grow is also to be avoided.

So, if you possess a fixed mind-set, you think your future success is determined by the hardware and software package (i.e., talent or potential) that was given to you at birth.  

Dweck's work has had major implications for coaching and peak performance.  The way we talk about performance to others and ourselves, she says, tends to foster one mind-set or the other. "You're so talented," is praise from someone with a fixed mind-set and might make developing athletes, performers, and students begin to fear their performances.  This type of "feedback" is such that any failure, setback, or less than optimal performances that could suggest they aren't so good. not so talented.  This dynamic sets up the development of anxiety and aversion of the activity itself.   

"You must have worked very hard to do that well," is an example of a more effective communication of praise.  This statement is more rewarding, reinforcing and encouraging of more hard work.  It leaves room for more risk-taking and discovery.

People with a fixed mind-set are constantly judging their underlying talent, Dweck says, and think others are judging them, too. "The growth mind-set is not about universal judgment," Dweck says.

If too focused, people get caught up in their self-concept and identity.  I am good or I am bad.  I am talented or I am not.  Learning and growth takes a back seat to the protection of the self.

What Facebook and YouTube video posts don't typically provide are the images of the long hours of grueling and monotonous practice that goes into the performances that we see posted.  Of course you don't see those posted.  That would be too boring.  Nobody would sit in front of their computer, tablet, or smartphone watching that.  But that is what you need to understand, acknowledge, and praise when you comment on those videos.

If I could, I would create coaching software that allows you to see a great performance video once and then the video would become unavailable to the viewer until they had watched a follow-up video that showed them all the necessary steps to achieve the results.  After a specified number of hours of viewing the practice video, the performance video could then be viewed again.  That would be great coaching software.   

Until then, I challenge you to consider that the next time you are on Facebook or YouTube and see a video of a great performance, you comment:  "I bet that took hours and hours of practice." Now, that would be a useful comment.      

Subtle Lesson in Leadership (VIDEO)

I attended a great professional basketball game on Tuesday night. It was the deciding Game 3 of the WNBA opening round, conference semifinal match up between the Eastern Conference's #1 seed, Atlanta Dream versus the #4 seeded Chicago Sky in Atlanta's Philips Arena.

The game included a classic individual match up pitting the Dream's leading scorer and two-time WNBA scoring champion, Angel McCoughtry, against last year's WNBA rookie of the year, Elena Delle Donne.

I expected a great game, but I did not expect a greater lesson in leadership in the Sky's 81-80 comeback victory over Atlanta to win their Eastern Conference semifinal series 2-1. The Dream had led by as many as 20 points and were up by 17 with just over 8 minutes left, at home, no less.

Turning Point

What all the news wire cover stories did not mention was the importance of an incident that, in hindsight, was the real turning point. Both stars struggled during the first half. As a team, Atlanta shot the ball well in the first quarter. Atlanta kept pouring it on in the second quarter and led by as many as 20 when Erika deSouza drove to the basket to give Atlanta a 44-24 lead with 5:46 left. The Dream was shooting 60% from the field and playing great team basketball.
  

The Sky looked beaten.  Delle Donne had scored only two points in the first quarter. Angel was doing a great job on her defensively.  The team was helping McCoughtry with stifling defense.  Delle Donne could have given up, she could have let frustration get to her; but, she persevered and scored an important 13 second-quarter points. She drilled a 3-pointer that cut lead to 52-41 just before halftime. A solid performance by the Sky's star, but her team was still behind. She showed great poise, grit and determination, but it wasn't looking like enough for an historic comeback.

However, lost in the Dream's big lead and forgotten by halftime, was an all too typical Angel McCoughtry meltdown near the end of the half.  Although McCoughtry had reportedly been displaying considerably more maturity this season, this was crunch time with playoff survival and advancement hanging in the balance.  With 3:20 left in the first half, McCoughtry was fouled by the Sky's Tamara Young, on a shot toward the basket. 

Young had been doing a great job of defending McCoughtry.  The Dream star had been frustrated by Young's physical, pesky defense.  McCoughtry got in Young's face and they had some words. The officials gave McCoughtry a technical foul for her troubles. McCoughtry's teammates, realizing that McCoughtry continued to talk to the referees, physically pulled her away from a second technical foul and automatic ejection. They realized that they needed their teammate to stay in the game and seal the win.

During the subsequent timeout, the entire Dream team surrounded McCoughtry to keep her cool and relaxed. Dream teammate DeSouza even resorted to rubbing McCoughtry's ears to keep her from flaring up again. Seemingly, it worked.  Despite the break in momentum, the Dream still led 72-55.  It seemed that the Dream had recovered.  

Delle Donne Sparks The Rally

Ever tenacious, though, Chicago scored seven straight points, including a three-point play from Delle Donne, to cut the margin to 10 points with 7:02 remaining. Sensing blood and following Delle Donne's lead, Chicago continued to attack and take advantage of Atlanta's increasingly poor shooting and passing. Still rallying, the Sky scored six straight points to complete a 14-2 run and trim the deficit even more to 74-69 with 4:27 left.

"We just got away from what we were doing so well," Dream coach Michael Cooper said. "We took some quick shots and bad shots and let it kind of get away from us." Without their poise nor the leadership of Angel McCoughtry, the Dream was in jeopardy of throwing away a clearly winnable game.  

It became clear that McCoughtry's tantrum had led to the entire Dream losing their team poise and focus. With the Dream looking for leadership, McCoughtry wasn't the same player who scored 39 points in the second game of the series in Chicago. On Tuesday night in Atlanta, she only shot 5-for-18 from the field and scored 17 points. Most tellingly, McCoughtry made one of eight shots in the cruicial fourth quarter. 

"I think we were playing to win," Dream player Sancho Lyttle said. "We just stopped executing, and all of a sudden it was a one-point lead and we wondered, 'How did that happen?'"

What happened was that the Dream's star player failed to accept the leadership challenge. She failed to keep her cool and deal with adversity. She failed to assert her will and lead the team to victory.   

Meanwhile, the quiet and poised Delle Donne hit a runner with 8.2 seconds left enabled the Sky to complete a 17-point, fourth-quarter comeback and beat the Dream by one point. The resilient Delle Donne posted a game-high point total on 10-of-19 shooting from the floor and 11-for-11 for the line. The 10 field goals matched her career high.  McCoughtry, who had drawn the defensive assignment to guard Della Donne, had been physical and somewhat effective, but Della Donne, kept her composure and continued work hard for her points.  

"We put the ball in her hands, and she made the plays," Chicago coach Pokey Chatman said. 

"In the fourth quarter, they put the ball in my hands. The team trusted me," Delle Donne said.

The Comparison and the Future

By contrast, following a number of questionably poor shots after her meltdown, Dream forward Angel McCoughtry's attempt at a game-winning jumper from the right side bounced on the rim several times before falling away as the horn sounded.

"It was a resilient effort by my team," Chatman said. "They stayed the course, and when it got late, my star player stepped up."  The role model for that resilience was Delle Donne.  The difference was one point but the real difference was leadership. The Sky had it, the Dream didn't.

The Sky moves on and the Dream looks ahead after another season of disappointment.  Can Angel McCoughtry find maturity and develop the leadership that she and the Dream so desperately need?  Will Elena Delle Donne lead this #4 seed to a championship through grit and resilience?   

  

  

Excerpts from the Chicago Tribune and ESPN.go.com (August 27, 2014).  







espn.go.com