A Very Focused and Grounded Rafael Nadal Wins 6th French Open

"A big personal satisfaction, especially when you started [the tournament] without playing your best.  Finally, I was able to play my best when I needed my best.

"[The French Open] always is the tournament where I feel that I have more chances to win. This is my biggest chance of the year [to win a Grand Slam]. I know if I win this tournament, my season is fantastic. I then can play with more confidence and less pressure." 

--Rafael Nadal, after winning the 2011 French Open over Roger Federer.  

Nadal beat Federer without playing his best tennis throughout the tournament.  So, he had to deal with it and accept his less than stellar playing.   

"The real Rafa is both the Rafa who wins and the Rafa who plays well, and the Rafa who suffers and doesn't play that well," Nadal said. "You have to face this situation."

Typically, Nadal is exceptional at Roland Garros in Paris -- 45-1 for his career, and the same number of titles there as Bjorn Borg -- but the Spaniard already also has shown that he is much more than the King of Clay. And Sunday's victory only will raise more questions about whether Federer truly deserves to be called the Greatest of All Time if he is not even the Greatest of Right Now.

Nadal leads their head-to-head series 17-8. That includes a 6-2 advantage in Grand Slam finals and a 5-0 edge at the French Open (in the 2005 semifinals, and the 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2011 finals).

Nevertheless, this is not what drives him.  

"When you talk about these statistics, when you try and make these comparisons, really it's not very interesting to me," continued Nadal, who would have ceded the No. 1 ranking to Novak Djokovic with a loss Sunday. "I'm very happy with what I have, with who I am. I'm not the best player in the history of tennis. I think I'm among the best. That's true. That's enough for me."

But, does Nadal have Federer's number?  Toni Nadal, Rafael's uncle and coach, spoke plainly after Sunday's match.

"The game of Rafael is not too good for Roger," Toni said, adding that Federer's "mentality against Rafael is not the best."

On Sunday, Federer raced to a 5-2 at the outset, but blew a set point by missing a drop shot that landed barely wide.  That seemed to unnerve Federer and open the door for Nadal. 

Nadal then won seven games in a row. Later, when Nadal went up a break in the third and led 4-2, the match appeared over, until Federer charged back to force a fourth set.

But Nadal once more assumed control, winning the last five games, then dropping to his knees and leaning forward with his hands covering his eyes.

"I was able to play my best when I needed my best," Nadal repeated. "For that reason, today I am here with the trophy." 

Excerpts from ESPN.com (June 5 & 6, 2011).

Confidence: How Lady Gaga Has Become the Most Famous Pop Star of This Century

“I think it’s wonderful to be confident about what you create.  I think you have to be. I say that with the humbleness of the fans being so wonderful, but with the integrity and sureness of my abilities as a musician.”

“Every day, in the mirror, on the stage, in interviews, to go to sleep, to finish that chorus, I’m always in the boxing ring.  But I have a one-two punch: ambition and drive.” 

--Lady Gaga, discussing her confidence and work ethic. 

Lady Gaga’s multimillion-selling album, “The Fame,” was released in 2008, which has sold more than four million copies in the United States alone.  The million-selling EP “The Fame Monster,” released in 2009. Together, they generated seven Top 10 singles.

Her new album, “Born This Way”, was released on May 23 and sold 1,108,000 copies in the United States in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Some 662,000 of those sales, or about 60 percent, were digital downloads, the most any album has ever sold in a week.  

Lady Gaga, was born Stefani Germanotta and was still playing small clubs as late as 2007.  She has become the biggest pop star of the 21st century so far.  She has 10 million Twitter followers.


Excerpts from the New York Times.   

Anatomy of a Comeback: Mavs Recover from 15 Point Deficit in Game 2

"You can just sense it in us that we weren't going to give up, we were going to be resilient." 

--Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Terry.

The Miami Heat were fifteen points up in the fourth quarter of Game 2 when the Dallas Mavericks roared back to win the game, 95-93.  The Heat might have relaxed just a little.  But the Mavericks did not give up.  The Mavericks had to rely on many of the championship behaviors and personality characteristics of world-class peak performers.  Let's look at the ingredients of an historic comeback.    


Resilience and Tenacity


"Definitely a huge comeback for us and we never gave up, and that was big," Dirk Nowitzki, All-Star forward for the Mavericks said.  Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 24 points.  


Persistence


"Dirk is the kind of guy that is going to be persistent and we're going to keep going to him. No matter what they try to do, we're going to keep going to him," Mavs center Tyson Chander said. "We know eventually they're going to wear down because they're spending a lot of energy trying to keep him out of the game."


Emotional Stability 


"We're a veteran team and we don't get too high with the highs and too low with the lows," Nowitzki said.  Nowitzki had to deal with an injury to a finger in his left hand.  Despite the injury Nowitzki won the game with a shot with 3.6 seconds on the clock.   The Heat led 88-73 with 7:15 remaining, but Dallas held the Heat to just one field goal from there on.


Ability to Deal with Ambiguity


"In this league you have to play 'til the end, especially in the Finals," said Nowtizki, who finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds. "You never know what can happen in this league. And we kept fighting." 


Confidence 


"Just a different series, but we always believe we can come back regardless of the score," Shawn Marion said. "The game is over when the final buzzer rings."


Mental Toughness


"No man, Dirk's a warrior," Dallas guard DeShawn Stevenson said. "I've been on this team for a year-and-a-half and I never seen nothing like it. He's a true warrior. To hit a game-winner on that torn finger, to play the way he played with that torn finger, with people slapping on him, says a lot about him and what he does."


Failure is not an Option

"Guys just stayed together. Even with that last 3-pointer that Chalmers [Miami guard] made, everybody just looked forward and said, 'Let's find a way to win the game.' " 

--Jason Kidd, Mavs point guard.  

Ability to Deal with Adversity


"This team has been through some difficult situations," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. "We've been down big a couple of times in the playoffs. We have shown that we have the ability to come back, and the guys believe that if we get stops, we'll always give ourselves a chance."


The Mavericks are making a habit out of overcoming large deficits in these 2011 NBA Playoffs. Tonight's comeback marked the fourth time the Mavericks have overcome a double-digit deficit during this poststeason run, one during each round. 


Teamwork

"Look, everybody is important on our team," Carlisle said prior to Game 2. "Heap it all on one guy, this guy or that guy, we've had to do things collectively all season long, defensively, offensively.
"We never know exactly who is going to score the points, but every element that we have, whether it's (guard J.J. Barea's) penetration, (center Brendan) Haywood's presence around the basket, Tyson's energy, you go right down the list, we need everybody to do what they do."

It looked like the Heat had the game won and had earned control of the series.  However, because of the Mavericks mental toughness and will to win, the series is tied 1-1 and the team is going home to Dallas for the next three games; and the Heat have lost home court advantage.  It's anyone's series, but the Mavericks have taken a huge psychological step towards a championship.    

Excerpts from NBA.com & ESPN.com (June 3, 2011).

A Legacy of Greatness: FC Barcelona

“We would like, in 50, 60 years, people are reminded of this team as one of the best. If this happens for us, it’s marvelous.” 

--Barcelona Manager Pep Guardiola, who's team won the Champions League soccer title against Manchester United on Saturday.   

Lionel Messi and David Villa scored second-half goals as Barcelona overpowered Manchester United, 3-1, on Saturday to win the UEFA Champions League final at Wembley Stadium in London.  Messi’s goal in the 54th minute was his 53rd in 55 games for Barcelona this season.


Guardiola won the title as a Barcelona player in 1992 and as its coach two years ago.  


To add pressure, Barcelona received a huge blow before the match, as captain Carles Puyol was deemed unfit to start.

Nevertheless, the match ended the debate about which team was the best in Europe, and renewed the one about whether the current Barcelona squad is the best club team ever.  The title was Barcelona’s third in six years and its fourth over all in the competition.  In beating Manchester United, Barcelona stakes claim to the most prestigious club title in the world, and fueling a debate about whether it is one of the best teams in soccer history. 

An estimated one million fans lined the streets as FC Barcelona paraded the UEFA Champions League Trophy on an open-top bus journey from Madrid's airport. 

This great team also includes a soccer icon in Lionel Messi.  

“I think this genius is impossible to describe,” Pep Guardiola, Barcelona’s manager, said. “That’s why he is a genius. He has instinct. He loves to live with pressure. He is one of the best ever created.” 

“No one plays with as much joy as Messi does,” Eduardo Galeano, the celebrated Uruguayan novelist and author of “Soccer in Sun and Shadow,” said in an e-mail. “He plays like a child enjoying the pasture, playing for the pleasure of playing, not the duty of winning.”

Are you leaving a legacy of excellence?  


Excerpts from the Citizen Daily, Bleacher Report (May 29, 2011), and New York Times (May 21 & 29, 2011) .

The Miami Heat Gets Through the Fire of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals

"We had to go through a lot of adversity.  That struggle that we went through in March, where we lost five straight -- all of them close games, where we didn't execute down the stretch and weren't able to close games out -- that helped us. As painful as that was, we had to go through that fire together to be able to gain the confidence where we could be successful now in the postseason."

--Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, after his team won the NBA Eastern Conference playoff finals with a 83-80 win over the Chicago Bulls.  

The Heat came back from a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win the game in Chicago, against the top-seeded Bulls.  The Heat won the series 4-1 after losing badly in first game of the series.  So, the Heat are no strangers to adversity.


The Heat will now face the NBA Western Conference champions, the Dallas Mavericks, who beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 4-1 in that series.  The Mavericks beat the Heat in both of their regular season games.  In addition, the Heat and the Mavericks faced each other in the 2006 NBA Finals, in which the Heat won 4-2 after trailing 0-2 after the first two games.  


Great team players possess a mental toughness and a particular mindset that sets them apart.  This mental conditioning allow them to fight through fierce competition, adversity, and pressure.  This unique personality characteristic puts them in the best position to succeed.


Success requires perseverance and determination.  Success involves the ability to persist through difficulties.  To these athletes, failure is not an option.


Success requires tenacity and the willingness to pay the price, including enduring the pain, suffering and hard work that it takes to practice, prepare for and fight through the exhaustion of a long regular season and the playoffs.  


Finally, to achieve the goal of a championship, the players must be driven to incredibly high levels of performance.  They must have the ability to deal with adversity through their extreme emotional strength and resilience.  They must have a tolerance for pressure and stress.  They must quickly bounce back from setbacks (from missed shots and fouls to single game losses).


Both the Heat and the Mavericks have been through considerable adversity to get to this point:  The NBA Finals.  They have prepared for months and years for this.  Who will prevail?  Who will have the mental toughness to take the title?


How about you?  


Are you prepared for success?  Can you fight through adversity with tenacity and perseverance?


Excerpts take from ESPN.com (May 26, 2011) and The Handbook of Peak Performance.    

Mavericks Roar Back from Behind and Take a 3-1 Lead in NBA Playoffs

"Throughout every season, there comes a time and a situation where they're going to test the courage and the mettle and the inner strength of your team.  This was one of those times. It's a defining moment of your season. It's one that we're going to look back on when it's all done and say, 'Hey, that was the game.'" 

--Jason Terry, Mavs guard, after the Mavs won Game Four of the Western Conference finals in the NBA playoffs.

The Dallas Mavericks are only one win away from the NBA finals.  Trailing by 15 points with only 5 minutes to play the Mavs made a comeback to remember.  They tied the game in regulation 101-101 to go to overtime and get the win.    

The veterans Dirk Nowitzki scored 40 points, and Jason Kidd hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 40 seconds left in overtime.  The rally stunned the Oklahoma City Thunder 112-105 on Monday night and allowed the Mavs to take a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference finals.  


“One thing about this team all year, they’ve been a resourceful group, they keep believing, and we’ve been extremely opportunistic,” Mavericks Coach Rick Carlisle said. “The way they hung in tonight was fantastic.”


Excerpts from ESPN.com (May 24, 2011)

What Victory Means to A Champion

“It’s special because you’ve been practicing since you were young. It’s what you dreamed of, what you see on TV, those big trophies. And it’s just a moment. The first thing that comes to mind are all those days that were so hard when you had to push through them…[when] you never knew if you were going to have a chance to hold a trophy. But you did [everything to do it]…and you’re not regretting…It’s a really cool, incredible feeling.”

--Maria Sharapova, who captured the 2011 Italian Open, talking about what winning means to her.  

Sharapova beat Sam Stosur 6-2, 6-4 in the Italian Open final last Sunday for the biggest clay-court title of her career.  This tournament is a key warm-up for the French Open, that begins next week.  Sharapova will now clearly be one of the favorites at Roland Garros in Paris, also a clay court.

After a three-hour rain delay, the seventh-seeded Sharapova won the opening four games, then cruised easily in a total of 1 hour and 23 minutes to follow up her victory over number-one ranked Caroline Wozniacki in the tournament semifinals.  A former No. 1 herself, Sharapova had been struggling to regain her top form since undergoing right shoulder surgery in October 2008 -- which caused her to miss 10 months of tennis.  

Excerpts from InsideTennis.com (May 2011) and ESPN.com (May 15, 2011).

Leadership Lessons: The Pursuit of Osama bin Laden

Perhaps not since President John F. Kennedy stared down the Soviets during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960's has a United States President been so clearly in charge and purposeful (at a time when perhaps his political career was so on the ropes).  

In successfully pursuing and eliminating Osama bin Laden, President Barack Obama displayed and has continued to display an inspiring level of leadership that has earned the respect of this country and our allies abroad.  President Obama has established a strong legacy and has solidified his stance as a respected leader here and throughout the world. His place in history is now safe. He is the leader that we hoped for and expected when we elected him.  He took his role as Commander-in-Chief seriously and took responsibility when it was most needed.  

So, what did he do?  What leadership model does he leave for us to follow?

• Vision:   Single-minded Pursuit of a Desired Outcome
• Responsibility and Accountability for Doing the Right Thing
• Patience
• Tenacity
• Perseverance

It took 10 years for us to find bin Laden.  We could have failed in our mission had we struck too soon or at the wrong place or without proper preparation.  We also could have struck in such a way that could have been questioned for years, particularly if we had been left with no proof of bin Laden's death.    

• Dealing with Ambiguity
• Calculated Risk Taking
• Failure not an Option

President Obama could not be assured of success, however, he moved forward when he needed to increase the likelihood of a positive outcome.  He was particularly vulnerable to attacks from political opponents.  

• Courage in the Face of Criticism
• Willingness to Accept the Consequences

President Obama used all the resources at his disposal:  strategic thinkers and experienced advisors; and deployed the right tactical strike team of the highest level of competence to achieve his goal.

• Full Use of Intelligence and Best Information Available
• Due Diligence
• Realistic Cost/Benefits Analysis
• Careful Planning
• Delegating To Those with the Right Skills

President Obama has made good decisions that have been hailed around the world as being culturally and politically sensitive when the wrong moves would have been costly, moving us backwards in the fight against terrorism and damaged our reputation with allies.  His mishandling of Osama bin Laden's remains could have been disastrous.    

• Sense of Humanity, Respect and Humility

Again, I applaud President Obama and thank all the people that were involved in this critical mission.  Congratulations.  We appreciate what you have done and what you have left us as a model for leadership. 

Mental Focus: Spurs Stay Alive in NBA Playoffs

"You really don't think about the magnitude of making or missing it, you just think about trying to get the best shot that you can get.  It went in today, but I think it's the best shot I could have got in that situation."

--Gary Neal, San Antonio Spurs rookie, who miraculously sent the fifth game of the NBA series into overtime with a three-point shot on Wednesday night.  

Neal is an undrafted 26-year-old rookie and former European journeyman who the Spurs signed this season after giving him an audition on their summer league team.  Neal's shot tied the score and helped the Spurs to rally to keep them from elimination.  


Neal was the NBA rookie leader in three-point shooting percentage this year.  

Peak performance in any sport requires a tremendous amount of mental energy to maintain focus on the multiple factors that need your attention. Split-second decisions regarding play selection, direction and speed of your shot, best steps for execution, an assessment of your opponent's capabilities, the condition of the court, etc. all require one to maintain a high level of focus during actual play.

Researchers in psychology and physiology have determined that individuals must regulate this high focus or it will lose its overall effectiveness and potency through continual use, resulting in "focus fatigue."

The time between plays or points needs to be used to relax, to wind down, to move into a lower level focus state and to regroup in preparation for the next point or play. The next play or point will again require a high level of focus.




Excerpts from the HuffingtonPost.com (April 28, 2011) and Focus:  Peak Performance Field Guide #4.  

NBA Opening Round Requires Team Peak Performance Mindset

A look at the NBA playoffs this weekend shows what mental preparation and conditioning is going on behind the scenes as teams look to find or maintain an emotional edge.  


Boston Celtics

“I love our team.  We do some things that are a little nuts, but they have a way to play together and they trust each other and as a coach; that’s all you can ask for.”
--Doc Rivers, head coach of the Boston Celtics, after beating the New York Knicks and sweeping the opening round series with their Eastern Conference rivals, 4-0. 

Despite a subpar regular season, the Boston Celtics are moving forward to the second round in the NBA playoffs.   

The Three C's of Team and Organizational Wisdom

"Compete with your competitors, but collaborate with your customers, and cooperate with your colleagues."

Competition.  You see it at home in children.  It's called sibling rivalry.  It is natural.  You see it at school with students.  The school system instills it in us and reinforces it.  At work, bosses insist on it.  Competition is the name of the game.  "Winning" as Charlie Sheen calls it.  I see it in the workplace.  It's everywhere.  It particularly comes out when resources are scarce.  I win, you lose.  It is the law of the jungle.  It gets played out in every company there is.

Unfortunately, my experience as a corporate consultant has been that in the workplace, this type of "winner take all, all the time" mentality is very destructive and is likely to keep your company from succeeding and being profitable.  I have seen it time and time again.

Why?  Because the competitive behavior that has been learned so well is difficult to tone down, even when it is necessary for success.  In order for companies to be successful they have to rein in their competitive streaks, at least internally with customers and colleagues. But, most bosses, businesses and organizations don't believe it...until it is too late.    

So, several years ago, I developed a game, "Pass and Shoot," that I play with teams during team training and retreats, etc.  This game is derived from the Prisoner's Dilemma game that was popular years ago.  At the beginning of the game, the instructions are to win.  The way to win is through trust, cooperation, communication, information sharing.  Teams can win if they are willing to cooperate and communicate, rather than being naturally adversarial and overly competitive.  However, once the players' competitive juices (and a little paranoia) start to flow, it is very difficult to control.  Players in the game with do whatever is necessary to avoid cooperation and will find it more important to block another team from looking good, rather than work for a win-win scenario (which is what the stated objective of the game is).  In most instances, participants would bet on their instinct to mistrust and protect.  They would rather see the entire ship go down than let down their guard and collaborate.  

"Pass and shoot" and other games of this type prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that competitive instincts are very difficult to control and can be the downfall of most teams if one is not aware of the pitfalls and consequences.

So, what is to be done?  First of all understand that the competitive nature of humans must be acknowledged as well as harnessed and directed at the competition outside the company not within the company or with customers.  Secondly, make sure that people learn how to collaborate with customers to determine what they need and how they need it delivered. After all, you are there for the customer and the customer is buying your product or service with their money. Thirdly, it is important to curb your competitive nature when working with colleagues. You need each other to succeed.  Lastly, though it is difficult to do, it is more important that you work toward a common goal than it is to be seen as an overly competitive, stab you in the back person who loses control, steps on others, assumes the worst of others and can't "play in the sandbox."

So, like I said, remember:  Be competitive with competitors, but be collaborative with customers and cooperative with colleagues.  Doing anything else will jeopardize your team and create barriers to success.

What do you think?  

 



 

 

Rory McIlroy: Will he bounce back?

"It was a character-building day, put it that way, I'll come out stronger for it." 

 --Rory McIlroy, 21-year old professional golfer, who was leading the 2011 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on the last day only to falter out of contention on the last nine holes.   

McIlroy began Sunday's final round with a 4-stroke lead. By the end of the tournament he was 10 strokes behind the eventual winner, South African Charl Schwartzel.  McIlroy shot a final round 8-over-par 80 to fall into a tie for 15th place. 

However, based on this interview, I predict that Rory McIlroy will bounce back from this failure quickly and have the focus, perseverance and tenacity to fight his way back in the world of professional golf.

It appears he will put it behind him and learn from his mistakes. More importantly, he is not reading too much into his play on the back nine.  

Though he is young and inexperienced, he put a positive, philosophical spin on the loss.

"For 63 holes of this golf tournament I was leading," said McIlroy.

Excerpts from ESPN.com (April 10 & 11, 2011).

Confidence: How Important Is It?

"I didn't have any doubts, but I wasn't sure I was going to win."  

 --Gabriella Sabatini, a former professional Aregentine tennis player, who was one of the top players on the women's circuit in the late-1980s and early-1990s. She won a women's singles title at the U. S. Open in 1990, the women's doubles title at Wimbledon in 1988, two WTA Tour Championships in 1988 and 1994, and a silver medal at the 1988 Olympic Games. 

Despite considerable athletic talent, strong popularity and the beauty of a screen star, Sabatini seemed to consistently conflicted about her ability to win.  Many critics and experts had expected much more from Sabatini and felt that her overall career performance had left something to be desired.  

"Confidence isn't optimism or pessimism and it's not a character attribute. It's the expectation of a positive outcome. It is essential" - Rosabeth Moss Kanter, author of the book, Confidence.

Framing and optimism are everything, as Andre Agassi demonstrates in this great quote from a panel (with Lance Armstrong) at the Milken conference in April 2006:

After wrist surgery, Agassi was ranked number 141 in the world in 1998. As Agassi said, he tried to look on the bright side, "only 140 people in the world could beat me."

A lack of confidence effects capability and reduces all-round ability. When confidence is high, real breakthroughs are possible.

It's possible to affect and, thus, manufacture confidence. Indeed it is a vital process to avoid the kind of expectation trap described below.

According to psychologist Albert Bandura, performers' situational-specific confidence, or 'self-efficacy', is based on four primary sources of information.

The first and most important factor is past performance accomplishments. What we have achieved in training and competition forms the basis of future expectations of success or failure. Repeated success naturally leads to positive expectations of further success, higher motivation and enhanced self-belief.

Unfortunately, the drawback of this principle is that failure can give rise to a downward performance spiral and a 'snowball effect' whereby a performer starts to believe that success is unattainable.

Of course, such an athlete does not mysteriously lose his or her physical skills and talents, but without confidence in these abilities high-level performance is rarely achieved. This is the 'expectation trap', which has put many a gifted athlete into permanent decline.

In research, confidence has been shown to consistently distinguish between highly successful and less successful athletes. Although many people mistakenly assume that confidence reflects performance - i.e. we become confident once we have performed consistently well - it is becoming increasingly evident that confidence can be established, or 'manufactured' beforehand.


Several assumptions that can interfere with self-confidence and positive ways of thinking are:

ASSUMPTION: I must always be successful at every challenge that I undertake. This assumption is a totally unrealistic assumption. In life each person has his strengths and his weaknesses. While it is important to learn to do the best that one can, it is more important to learn to accept yourself as being human, and deficient. Let yourself feel good about what you are good at, and accept the fact that you don’t know everything and you don’t need to.

ASSUMPTION: I must be perfect, and loved by everyone, and satisfy everyone. Again, this assumption is a totally unrealistic assumption. All human beings are less than perfect. It’s well advised to develop personal standards and values that are not very dependent on the approval of other people.

ASSUMPTION: Everything that happened to me in the past remains in control of my feelings and behaviors in the present.

ALTERNATIVE: While it is true that your confidence was especially vulnerable to external influences when you were a child as you gain maturity appreciation and point of view on what those influences have been. In doing so, you can choose which influences you will continue to allow to have an effect on your life. You don’t have to be helpless based on what happened in the past.

HERE ARE SOME STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING CONFIDENCE 

Emphasize Your Strengths. Grant yourself credit for everything that you can do. And bestow upon yourself credit for every new experience you are willing to try.

Take risks. Adopt the attitude of: I never fail, because there are NO failures. However, sometimes I find out what doesn’t work and once I’ve learned what doesn’t work in a given situation, I can test something else.

Use Self-Talk: Use self-talk as a tool to counter harmful assumptions. Then, tell yourself to stop. Substitute more reasonable assumptions. For example, when you catch yourself expecting yourself to be perfect, remind yourself that it is impossible to do everything perfectly, and that it’s only possible to do things to the best of your ability. This allows you to accept yourself as you are working towards improvement.

VISUALIZATION (Make mental movies): Picture yourself in scenes that you currently have low levels of self confidence in. But see yourself behaving in the way that a person who has tremendous confidence  would. There are powerful Self-hypnosis and NLP processes that you can use to instill a sizable amount of self-confidence from within your subconscious mind. There are even NLP techniques that will let you take confidence that you do have in areas of your life, and then transplant that confidence to areas of your life that require more self-confidence!

Excerpts from Inside Tennis (April 2011) and the Peak Performance eCoach.  

I Know, I Know, You Were Expecting Something Pretty

The NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Final is supposed to be a thing of athletic beauty and artistic splendor.  It is expected to be spliced into an awe inspiring "One Shining Moment" video.  Right?  


If you read what has been written and hear what has been said about the game between Butler and champion UConn, the words "ugly," "embarrassing,' "bad basketball," "poor shooting," etc. are most frequently used.  For many it was uninspiring and, certainly, not an exciting brand of basketball.  You aren't going to have many people looking at the game films or the highlights over and over, year after year.  


However, I suggest that you should look at this game very closely.  Despite the lack of beauty, one team was going to be champion.   One team would take home a trophy that every team and player in the country covets and few possess.  


What I learned from this game, is that this championship and every championship is about two teams slugging it out for supremacy. This game was about mental toughness.  It was about keeping your head in the game and never giving up.  It was about believing in your system and executing, and dealing with setback after setback.  Both teams took leads that they could have built upon.  Only one team did.   

Jeremy Lamb, UConn freshman, who gave his team a much needed spark in the second half, said, “I saw one time we scored, one of them put his head down. I said, ‘We got ‘em.’” 

This game was mental as well as physical.  This game was about effort in the face of adversity.  

"Every time we play hard, great things always happen to us," Kemba Walker, the MVP of the NCAA tournament, said.

This game was about perseverance.  It was about overcoming barriers.  It was about dealing with strong defensive pressure.  Every shot was contested.   Both teams wanted it, both teams gave maximum effort.  Both teams continued to run their offense and make adjustments to take advantage of their opponents. 


Despite being down by 3 points at halftime, Coach Jim Calhoun of UConn understood the championship would hinge on which team was able to mentally withstand the other.

"The halftime speech was rather interesting," Calhoun said. "The adjustment was we were going to out-will them and outwork them."

In the second half, UConn responded and took home the trophy.


We were unstoppable," Walker said. "That's why we're national champions."



Excerpts from CBSsports.ca and ESPN.com (April 4, 2011).