September 5, 2024 • 40 mins
Back in 2014, my head coach, Jake Gilbert, walked into a quarterback meeting where we were doing some mental training. He looked at what we were doing and said, “We have to do this for the entire team.” I remember thinking, I don’t know how to train 130 guys all at once! Little did I know, that conversation would change everything—leading to a book, a podcast, and even a complete shift in my career.
In this episode, we’re breaking down the Focus Cycle, which has become the foundation of everything we do with athletes. This is not just a generic approach. It’s a systematic framework that helps you stay aware of what’s happening in high-pressure moments and gives you practical tools to take back control of your mind and body.
If you’ve ever been curious about what mental performance training is all about, or if you’re a coach looking for a better way to train your athletes mentally, this episode is for you.
GET THE WORKSHEET: mentaltrainingplan.com/focuscycle
Are you an ATHLETE looking to take your training to the next level? Check out our website to learn more about 1-on-1 training opportunities:
mentaltrainingplan.com/athletes
Are you a COACH looking for an affordable year-round mental performance training program? Check out the MTP Academy available through our website:
mentaltrainingplan.com/academy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, welcome to the Coaching Minds podcast, the
official podcast of MentalTraining Plan.
We help teams and individualsperform at their best when it
matters the most.
It has been a little whilePodcast listeners appreciate you
guys joining us Been absolutelyblown away.
We haven't had really any newcontent throughout the course of
(00:21):
the summer and we're stillgetting all kinds of listens and
downloads throughout the courseof the summer.
And we're still getting allkinds of listens and downloads
throughout the summer.
So appreciate you guys stillcontinuing to share the podcast.
The MTP Academy is alive andwell.
We are now officially in 11states.
The feedback has been fantasticfrom coaches, from the players
(00:47):
that are going through theprogram.
Incredibly grateful for thoseof you that are helping spread
the word about what we do.
Please continue to do that ifyou find value in these episodes
.
Today we're kicking off a littleseries all about focus cycle.
Like I said, we have had just aa ludicrous number of
(01:11):
individuals and teams that havebeen going through this, and so
you know there there are.
On one hand, I want to be ableto send people to this resource
who you know.
Maybe they they were not therewhen their team went through
this and so you know that we cansend them to this podcast and
say go through here, get caughtup, um.
(01:32):
I also want to be able to sendperspective parents that are
like well, maybe I want you,working with my athlete um, to
have a better understanding ofwhat that process looks like and
what the focus cycle is allabout.
So those of you who arelong-time listeners, this is
probably going to sound familiar, but we're also going to be
(01:57):
diving in a little bit deeper inthe upcoming episodes, taking a
look at okay, we've implementedthis, we've been trying to do
the focus cycle.
Now, what are some of thedifficulties that we can run
into, what are some of the timeswhere it gets hard to do this
and what do we do then?
If you want a copy of theworksheet, there's a link in the
show notes where we can sendthat to your email.
(02:20):
You're more than welcome to dothat, or just take out a piece
of paper and jot down some notesas you go.
But objective number one wewant to give you the tools to
control your mind and bodyduring big moments.
And then objective two help youdevelop a game plan for when,
where and how you will use thesetools In my book called Focus
(02:45):
Cycle.
The example that I used was arattlesnake and me and my family
were walking on a trail to goback and see a waterfall and all
of a sudden heard a rattlesnakestart rattling.
We were down in Tennessee.
It absolutely froze me.
I was like, oh my gosh, whereis that?
(03:06):
What are we going to do if itbites one of the kids?
And what happened scientificallyis basically there were
intercalated amygdala clustersthat orchestrate a switch in
fear state.
That's a fancy way of sayingthat.
There is a switch in youramygdala and chemically it gets
(03:27):
turned on or off between a highfear state and a low fear state.
And we know that when we're inthat fear state, we can't
perform at our best.
And so, when we're in fear mode, we need to figure out what's
the fastest way to turn off thatswitch so that we can get back
(03:48):
into performance mode.
And what we're going to talkabout today is just how what we
focus on, what we say toourselves and how we control our
bodies creates those emotions.
And, rather than just beingheld captive to how we react,
what can we do to take backcontrol?
And so, like I said, if youhave not downloaded the
(04:09):
worksheet yet.
I would encourage you to dothat.
We're going to be starting onthe front side where it says
Focus Cycle Worksheet at the top, and you'll notice that Big
Moment is up there in the topleft-hand corner.
And so I want you to thinkabout like what big moment flips
that switch in your mind beforeor during competition.
(04:34):
For some athletes that might bebefore a big tournament.
Maybe for a pitcher it's afterwalking a batter For a
quarterback, maybe that'sthrowing an interception.
If you need more time, go aheadand pause this and fill out in
that box where it says bigmoment, what flips that switch
(04:55):
for you before or duringcompetition?
Next is going to be focus.
So we know that focus affectsperformance.
If you put a pupillometer on adirt bike rider, that's just a
fancy sensor that tracks whereyou look and you put muscle
sensors on their arms.
When dirt bike riders look atan obstacle that they're trying
(05:18):
to avoid, it actually slightlytakes them toward that, and so
they're taught to look at wherethey're trying to go, not at
what they're trying to avoid.
Because we know focus affectsperformance.
If we were to look at brainimaging of someone that's
shooting a free throw or takinga golf swing that they've taken
(05:41):
hundreds of thousands of times,we would see neurons firing in a
certain pattern.
We would call that musclememory.
When it happens over and overand over and there's almost like
this highway built up and ourneurons get really good at
firing in a certain pattern butall of a sudden, if we're
thinking, oh my goodness, thisis the state finals or the NBA
(06:05):
finals, and the crowd is nowchanting at me or you know, we
get distracted.
We would see this nice neatpattern that's been happening
over and over and over.
Now looks kind of jumbled andwe've got neurons that are kind
of sporadically firing.
We're trying to stay focusedand we're trying to shoot this
(06:25):
free throw or make this golfswing, but we just don't have
access to that same musclememory because we know focus
affects performance.
So in that box in the bottomleft-hand corner it says bottom
up is the part that we're in, inthat box where it says focus.
(06:46):
I want you to think about, fromthat big moment that you just
wrote down, what were youfocused on at that time?
For some people that's maybeinto the future, oh no.
What's the score going to be?
Are we going to win?
Are we going to lose?
Is this going to be a bogey, adouble bogey?
In some people it's going intothe past like a bad shot that
(07:09):
they had in the past or a badhole they had, or a bad game, or
oh no, the last time we playedthese guys.
Sometimes they get worriedabout bad technique or past
failures.
What other people think.
Is coach going to be mad or momand dad going to be mad?
Go ahead and write down in thatbox that says focus, in the
(07:29):
bottom left-hand corner, whatwas on your mind.
And again, if you need moretime, just press pause.
Next, we're going to move on toself-talk and we know the
average person has about 48.6thoughts per minute, which means
when that rattlesnake startedbuzzing, my mind wasn't going
(07:52):
huh, this is dangerous.
No, it was more like oh my gosh, what is that?
Where is that coming from?
What are we going to do if itbites one of the kids?
This is going to ruin thevacation.
Are we going to be able to getto the hospital?
Can they land in a helicopterin here?
Are we going to be able to getto the hospital?
Can they land in a helicopterin here?
Can we even call the police orEMS, like I don't know if our
cell phones even work out here.
My mind was just racing and sowhat I want you to think about,
(08:26):
in that box that says self-talkdown in the bottom left-hand
corner, what did that voice inthe back of your mind say during
that big moment?
Was it a gosh?
I can't believe I did that.
Is it a?
I don't know if I'm good enoughto do this.
Go ahead and write that down.
Next we're going to talk aboutlike, what reaction did you have
physically in your body?
And we know that in these highpressure situations or these big
(08:48):
moments, that breathingincreases, your heart rate
increases, your mouth gets dry,you get butterflies in your
stomach because your digestivesystem temporarily shuts down,
your pupils dilate, sometimesmuscles tense up, your liver
releases fats and sugars.
All of a sudden we got moreadrenaline pumping through our
(09:09):
body.
What are the physical reactionsthat you notice in that big
moment?
And in the bottom left-handcorner, where it says body, go
ahead and write that down.
I'd say some of the reallycommon ones would be like shaky
hands, tight shoulders,butterflies in the stomach.
But go ahead and write downthose physical things that you
(09:31):
noticed and then we're going tomove on to emotions and I want
you to think like were youworried?
Were you stressed in thatmoment?
Were you anxious?
And where it says automaticemotions, I want you to think
about, like, in that big moment,what emotions did you feel?
(09:53):
Maybe unconfident, maybeanxious?
I've got some athletes thatjust get angry, they just get
mad.
Go ahead and write that down,or write those down, and then
you know what we normally do.
Next is we watch this video andit's a really cool video that's
out there on YouTube and ittalks about how the lower part
(10:17):
of your brain, or, in theirdiagram, the red part of the
brain, does some thingsautomatically.
You don't have to think aboutit.
It makes your heart pump it,you know, it helps your
intestines digest food, all ofthe things that just happen
automatically and sometimes inthat lower part of the brain you
(10:37):
know.
Let's say, for example, like acar lays on its horn, you don't
have to think lays on its horn,you don't have to think, oh, I
should get back up on thesidewalk.
No, it's just like an automaticreaction.
If you're stepping off the curband a car lays on its horn, you
just jerk back up onto thatcurb and similarly in a
(10:59):
high-pressure situation.
A lot of times our brain justsays threat, it doesn't like it,
it's uncomfortable, and itkicks off this fight or flight
reaction in this middle, in thisgreen part of the brain, the,
what you know, the, the amygdalais in there and basically we
feel these emotions.
Maybe now we're unconfident,maybe now we're scared, and then
(11:22):
what we want to do with therest of the time is figure out
how can we use the top and thefront part of the brain and
their diagram it's the blueportion of the brain to really
think through and say, hey, it'sall right, we're good, like we
don't need to freak out, let'sjust get back to playing the
(11:43):
sport that we love.
Obviously, we can't watch thevideo on a podcast, but what I
really want you to understand iswhat you've written down so far
on this worksheet down at thebottom, what you were focused on
, what that little voice in theback of your mind was saying,
how your body reacted, theautomatic emotions that you felt
(12:06):
.
That's just a reaction and justlike when the car lays on its
horn, our body reacts and somethings just automatically happen
.
But then we can calm ourselvesback down and say it's okay, I'm
going to pay more attention,I'm going to look both ways.
All right, we're good, let's goahead and cross the street.
What are those tools that wecan use in that big moment to
(12:31):
help you take back control?
And so where I want to start iswith emotions, and I want you to
think about, like, where do youplay at your best?
What emotions help you performat your best?
What emotions help you performat your best?
And in that box where it saysintentional emotions, like I
(12:51):
want you to write down is itcalm, is it confident?
Is it in control?
Go ahead and hit pause if youneed a little bit more time, but
just fill those out for how youwant to be feeling in that box
that says intentional emotions.
And then next we're going totalk about the body.
(13:11):
And you know, if I were to justsay, hey, the next time you're
stressed, just take a deepbreath, that just feels like
fluffy unicorns and rainbows,like, yeah, okay, why don't you
give me something that'sactually going to work?
But if, on the other hand, Ican say, look, the vagus nerve
(13:35):
connects to that lower part ofyour brain and it goes through
every major organ in your bodyand you can't control your heart
rate, at least not directly.
You can't control how much fatand sugar your liver is
releasing, you can't control howmuch blood is in your stomach
or if it all gets pumped intoyour muscles and you've got
(13:58):
butterfly feeling now in yourstomach.
But you can interrupt that,basically kind of a fire alarm
signal that's just pulsing upand down that vagus nerve by
controlling your lungs.
And so what we do next is youknow we'll teach athletes how do
you inhale.
(14:18):
I want to make sure that youryou know your belly button is
sticking out.
You don't want to suck in yourstomach and then try to take a
big deep breath, because thatreduces lung capacity.
And you know, a lot of peoplewill teach, teach you to inhale
through your nose, because thatslows your breathing down a
little bit.
Um, some athletes haveallergies and that just doesn't
(14:41):
work.
So take a big, slow, long, deepbreath and we'll have them
inhale for four and then we'llhave them hold for four so that
the lungs have time to absorbthat oxygen that's in there, and
then we'll have them exhale sothat we can get rid of that
carbon dioxide, and then we'llhave them pause, because if we
(15:04):
can stretch out that timebetween inhales.
We're going to be able tostretch out that time between
heartbeats, and so we'll.
You know, just like what the USmilitary does.
We'll teach them inhale forfour, hold for four, exhale for
four and pause for four for four, and you can do, you know you
(15:30):
can do that on your own andyou'll feel, hopefully, your
heart rate start to slow down.
Or you know, if you've got likea Fitbit or an Apple watch or
you know some other device thatyou're wearing and you can track
your heart rate, maybe you canwatch this.
Or you can hop on a treadmilland you can practice getting
your heart rate up and thenbringing it back down.
We'll actually walk peoplethrough.
(15:50):
How do you come up with acustomized breathing pattern?
You know, take out a stopwatchand time your inhale and then
write that down and then timeyour hold.
Make sure that those twonumbers, you know, at least add
up to eight.
Make sure that the inhale is atleast four seconds, and then
(16:11):
we'll do the same thing forexhale and pause, and we'll have
them.
You know, take that big, deepbreath and then hold and then
start the timer as you exhale,as you, you know, get rid of
that carbon dioxide.
How long is comfortable for you?
We want it to at least be fourseconds.
And then the pause.
(16:33):
You know we'll inhale and thenhold and then exhale and then
start that timer and figure outhow long until we need to
breathe again.
And make sure that those youknow the first two the inhale
and the hold at least add up toeight.
Make sure the next two theexhale and the pause at least
add up to eight.
And then you know there's somespace on the back of the, on the
(16:57):
back of the worksheet.
If you're following along onthere and you'd like to pause
the episode, take out astopwatch and come up with
what's comfortable for you.
And you know the next one thatwe'll do is called forced
muscular relaxation.
And so if you make a fist andtake a big deep breath and hold
(17:22):
and then, as you start to exhale, loosen up your hands, kind of
shake your hands out, this timewe're going to do it again, but
we're going to clench our fistsand then we're going to roll our
forearms and then squeeze ourbiceps and shrug our shoulders
and take a big deep breath andthen hold and then, as we exhale
(17:46):
, we're going to shake out allthose muscles and relax all
those muscles.
So that's called forcedmuscular relaxation.
So just like the lower part cancontrol your breathing or you
can decide to take back controlwith that top part of your brain
, we can do the same thing withmuscle tension.
(18:09):
You know, my wife, for example,when she was taking a test or
when she's really stressed nowat work, sometimes she'll just
get like this tension in hershoulders.
She's not even paying attentionto it, it's just the lower part
of her brain is thinking thisis a threat, we got to be ready
to fight or we got to be readyto it.
It's just the lower part of herbrain is thinking this is a
threat, we got to be ready tofight or we got to be ready to
run.
And so now you know we can usethat top and that front part of
(18:34):
the brain to say no, it's allright, we're good, we're going
to relax, there is no threat,let's just, let's take back
control of this muscle tension,let's force these muscles to
relax.
So you know, right there in thetop right hand corner on your
worksheet, where it says body,what tools can help you control
(18:55):
your body.
Really, we've got two of them.
So you know, number one, writedown whatever your breathing was
, whether that was four, four,four, four, or you know, I like
to inhale for six, hold for two,exhale for eight and then pause
for one, whatever that was,write that down.
And then also in that body box,in the top right hand corner,
(19:20):
write down FMR, or forcedmuscular relaxation.
But you know, now physically,we're starting to take back
control of our body.
We're turning off that firealarm that's telling every organ
in our body to panic.
We're creating, we're gettingsome blood flow to the top and
(19:41):
the front part of our brain sowe can think clearly, we're
taking back intentional controlof muscle tension, we're
releasing that tension and kindof relaxing those muscles.
So that's, you know, that's thenext step in creating these
intentional emotions.
We're not going to just hopethat we will feel confident,
(20:03):
like, let's do the things thatit takes to create that
confidence.
And so that's, that's.
The first part is taking backcontrol of your body, and the
second is let's addressself-talk.
You know cause we've got those48.6 thoughts per minute.
So you know, if I, if I, miss aputt, all of a sudden it's oh
(20:24):
my gosh, I can't believe I didthat.
Was it?
Did I not make a good enoughread?
Was my wrist not locked?
Like what?
What happened?
Coach is going to be so upset.
Gosh, that's another bogey.
Like, what are we going to do?
We're going to lose, it's goingto be all my fault.
And instead of listening to allthese negative thoughts, what
we're going to do is speakpositively to ourselves.
(20:47):
And so, you know, I've got someathletes that you know we'll
use a Bible verse like I can doall things through Christ who
strengthens me.
That's going to be their plan.
When that little voice ofnegativity starts whispering in
the back of their mind, they'rejust going to speak truth, you
know, or like a mantra I can, Iwill.
(21:08):
Or you know I, I have what ittakes, or something like that.
And then I've got otherathletes that like to use what
we call a go-to statement.
And so, really, there's twoparts to this.
The first is go ahead and writedown why are you, you, great?
And if you're following alongon the worksheet, on the back
(21:29):
side there there's a box whereyou can write down, like list,
the, the reasons why you'regreat.
And you know if you're a, ifyou're a golfer, don't put
things on there like I can drivethe ball really far, because
what happens if you're playingagainst an opponent who can
drive further than you?
Or I'm really good at makingthree-point baskets?
(21:52):
Like we don't want thoseresults or those outcomes,
because if you're having a badshooting day on the basketball
court, this, this whole thingkind of goes out the window.
So instead we're thinking maybeit's the insane amount of time
that you put in, maybe you justput in more time than other
athletes your age, or maybe it'syou work really hard and that's
(22:16):
you know.
You're just going to write downlike the hard work is is why I
know I'm great at my sport, evenon the days where things aren't
going well.
I'm having an off day, likethey can't ever take that away
from me.
Or maybe you're just gritty.
You're tough, you're nevergoing to quit.
Whatever, whatever those thingsare for, you go ahead and fill
(22:38):
those out in that first box andthen in the second box, where it
says what I will achieve,you're writing down like what
are the things that you want tobelieve in that moment, the
things that you're workingtowards?
You know some athletes aretrying to be the best at what
they do, so I'm the bestquarterback in the state, or
(23:00):
something like that.
Other athletes need to believe,like they have what it takes,
something like a I belong outhere on this court, you know, or
I've earned this spot on thefield, or something like that.
Other athletes maybe need tobelieve that they're not going
to be defeated by theiropponents.
(23:20):
Like I have what it takes, Iwill not be stopped, or I'm an
unshakable force, something likethat.
That's just you're believingthat you have this powerful
presence, that you belong outthere and you're not going to be
just pushed around by yourcompetition.
(23:41):
And we're going to write itdown as if we've already
accomplished it.
So I am the best player in thestate, not, I will be the best
player in the state, and thenwe're going to take those two
and we're going to combine youjust a quick story I was I was
(24:04):
in my second year as offensivecoordinator, so I'm I'm the guy
that's called, I'm the coachthat's calling the plays for the
offense, and on our high schoolfootball team and you know we
were playing this team thattheir defensive coordinator had
been coaching longer than I'dbeen alive and my self-talk was
not in a great spot.
(24:25):
It was like I don't know ifwe're going to be able to beat
these guys.
I don't know if we're going toscore any points against this
team.
I don't know if we're going tobe able to win this game.
And I'm in the middle of, youknow, getting my master's at the
time and I'm in this sportspsychology class and I'm reading
this textbook about a statementthat you can go to when
(24:47):
negativity starts to creep in.
And so you know, in that firstbox, my list was literally I put
in a lot of time and I'morganized.
That was it.
And then in that second box, Iwrote down I'm the best coach in
the state.
(25:07):
And it was like there was thislittle voice on the side of my
shoulder going best coach in thestate, you're not even the best
coach on your staff, what areyou talking about?
And then it said you're goingto combine those two and come up
with your go-to statement.
And so I wrote down, I put inthe time, I put in the work, I'm
(25:30):
the best coach in the state.
And then it said say it 50times a day.
And I'm like 50 times a day, isthis actually going to do
anything?
And it was like well, I mean, Idon't really have a lot to lose
, so started saying it I put inthe time, I put in the work, I'm
(25:50):
the best coach in the state.
I put in the time, I put in thework, I'm the best coach in the
state.
And you know what happened atthe end of that day?
Absolutely nothing.
And so I did it again on Mondayand I was like I put in the
time, I put in the work, I'm thebest coach in the state Nothing
.
And again on Tuesday, nothing.
(26:11):
And at this point I'm like allright, am I like?
Am I being punked?
Is somebody going to pop outwith a video camera and be like
ha ha, gotcha idiot?
And I kept saying it.
And on Wednesday, by the end ofthe day, something changed and
all of a sudden in the back ofmy mind, that little voice of
doubt was like you know, you doput in a back of my mind was
(26:38):
like forget those guys, likelet's go play.
And we scored like 42 or 48points, something like that
Great showing for the offense,especially for a high school
football game, and we lost.
So you know, on one hand therewas some good parts.
(27:01):
On the other, there were somebad parts, like Neither one of
those had anything to do with.
Was this successful?
Those were just results.
What determined was thissuccessful or not was could I
just get out of my own head anddo my job?
(27:21):
And the answer was absolutely.
And so from there it was like,oh my goodness, this actually
works.
So that's what you kind of needto put together.
Next is, how do you combinethose, those thoughts from the
first part of the reasons whyyou know you're great, like what
(27:41):
separates you from other people, what have you done to earn the
right to be confident, and thencombine it with that second
part, what you will achieve,what you're working towards?
Because if I would have justsaid I'm the best coach in the
state, I'm the best coach in thestate, the part of my brain
that wants to fix things wouldhave said, no, you're not.
(28:04):
But instead, if I was to say Iput in the time, I put in the
work, I'm the best coach in thestate, over and over, that same
part of my brain that wants tofix things can't throw out the
whole statement because it knows, like the first part of that is
true, and so eventually itstarts to come around to all
(28:26):
right, well, I mean.
I mean, maybe the second partis true.
So if you need some more timeto think about it, go ahead and
pause the video and come up withyour go-to statement.
And then at this point I alwaystell the athletes it's really
up to you.
If you like this idea of thego-to statement and you want to
use it, great.
If you'd rather use a Bibleverse or you'd rather have some
(28:50):
other kind of mantra, that'sjust short and sweet, totally up
to you.
What matters is you have a plan.
What we don't want to do isjust hope that we're going to
somehow be positive and speakingconfidence to ourselves in this
big moment or the next timethis big moment pops up.
(29:11):
So tool number three go aheadand put it on the front of the
worksheet in that top rightcorner where it says self-talk.
Go ahead and write down, youknow.
Are you going to say confidenceand refocus?
Are you going to say controlthe controllables.
Are you going to say your go-tostatement?
Are you going to pick averseables?
Are you going to say your go-tostatement?
Are you going to pick a verseLike go ahead and write that
(29:32):
down, come up with your plan.
And then the last one is whatare you going to focus on.
And so, again on the back,you've got four boxes there and
we've got things that are inyour control and things that are
not in your control.
We've got things that matterright now and things that don't
(29:54):
matter right now.
And you know, just kind ofthinking through, fill out each
one of those boxes.
What are the things that youcan control?
And that would be maybeattitude, maybe effort, maybe
what you're focusing on.
What about things that youcannot control?
How good your opponent is, howgood your teammates are playing?
(30:16):
Is the coach upset with you?
Did the ref make a bad call?
What's the weather?
Like All those things.
And then, with the things thatmatter right now, one of the
examples I really like to use isif you're a golfer and you want
to be the best golfer that youcan be and you're slicing your
long irons, does that matter?
(30:38):
Well, yeah, of course it does.
Like, do you need to fix that?
Yeah, but do you need to fixthat right now, in the middle of
a tournament?
Like, should you be three holesin still worried about slicing
your four iron on the second tee?
(30:58):
No, absolutely not.
So what are the things thatmatter right now versus, maybe,
the things that you can fix inthe future.
Maybe you can go see your swingcoach or maybe you can get some
extra practice in, you know,next week or you know, maybe you
can do some things to improvethat outside of this moment,
(31:23):
right now.
And then, what are the thingsthat do matter right now?
Maybe your pre-shot routine,maybe your free throw routine,
maybe that's focusing on thisplay or this pitch or this serve
, and as you fill out the backof this worksheet, what this
really does is it gets thingsout of your working memory where
(31:46):
they're kind of imaginary andyou've got all these ideas
floating, imaginary and you'vegot all these ideas floating
around.
You've got all these thoughtsfloating around and we really
start to see them now show up onpaper and it's like I can
either control this or I can't.
This either matters right nowor this doesn't matter right now
, and we start to realize likesome of the stuff that we're
(32:08):
focused on during competition ismaking things way worse.
And so what is your plan?
Moving forward?
You and maybe that's I'm goingto focus on this shot or this
(32:34):
play, this series, thispossession, whatever, maybe it's
I'm going to control thecontrollables, the things that I
can control.
I'm going to do those to thebest of my ability.
But go ahead and fill that out,come up with your plan, and so
hopefully at this point theathletes are feeling pretty good
about objective Number one.
(32:55):
Give you the tools to controlyour mind and body during big
moments.
And you know, to be honest,everything that we've done up to
this point isn't going to makeyou a better athlete, unless you
(33:17):
go find some way to do itduring competition.
And so the bottom half of theworksheet, there where it says
game plan, what we want to do onthe left hand side is figure
out like what are all thesituations that might try and
flip that switch.
What are some of the bigmoments?
Like you know, for golferssometimes it's that first tee
box, or for pitchers that thatfirst pitch.
(33:40):
All eyes are on you.
How are you going to set thetone here?
Maybe it's after you screw up,you shoot an air ball, you throw
an interception.
Maybe it's after you screw up,you shoot an air ball, you throw
an interception.
Maybe it's something thatshould be easy to do, like
sinking a three-foot putt ormaking a free throw, or maybe
(34:00):
it's.
You know you can handleadversity once or twice.
But if you walk a batter andthen you give up a hit and then
you give up a home run, like now, all of a sudden you're rattled
, maybe it's, you know, afterafter multiple bad plays, the
wheels just kind of fall off.
And so list all of those eventsdown the left-hand side, and
(34:24):
then we've got to figure out,like, what are you going to do
about it?
So we talked about fourdifferent tools that you can use
to take back control of yourmind and body.
You know, what are you focusedon?
What are you going to be sayingto yourself?
How are you going to controlyour heart rate, your muscle
tension?
And so some athletes like tothink of it, you know, maybe, as
(34:47):
like first aid.
If my daughter trips and fallsand she has a boo-boo on her
elbow, like daddy can kiss itand in her two-year-old mind,
boom, everything's fixed.
But you know, maybe she fallsand actually scrapes it on the
concrete and so now she needs aband-aid.
Or, you know, maybe it's prettybad and we need to go get
(35:09):
stitches, and it kind ofescalates as things get worse.
So, you know, maybe for some ofthe situations you just need to
take a deep breath, or you justneed to say your go-to
statement and maybe for othersit's you need to focus on this
play and do your forced muscularrelaxation and then maybe, when
(35:32):
things get really bad, likeyou're going to pull out all
four tools.
But there needs to be a plan andyou know I've got some golfers
who will literally do all fourof these in between every shot
and it's just part of theirpre-shot routine.
And you know that's a littlemore plausible for, like a
(35:54):
football game where there's aplay and then there's a stoppage
in action, or golf, you hit theball, now you have to walk up
and go find your ball, get readyfor the next shot, versus like
a basketball game where there'sjust constant motion.
So you know you've really gotto figure out what is it going
to be for you that puts you incontrol of your mind and body
(36:18):
and that bottom half of theworksheet I always like to tell
athletes.
Like when I was coachingquarterbacks, my high school
quarterbacks hung that up ontheir locker so that I knew what
their plan was.
They knew what their plan was.
Their teammates knew what theirplan was and we can all kind of
help hold each otheraccountable.
Like what are you going to bedoing in this situation?
(36:40):
And then after the game, we canevaluate well, did you do it
and did it work?
Did it not work?
And that's where you know, inthe next episode we'll be
starting to look at okay.
Well, if things aren't working,why are they not working?
Because you know, I always liketo give this example.
(37:02):
If scenario A is you hit a golfball and you slice it off into
the rough and the whole timeyou're walking up to golf ball
and you slice it off into therough and the whole time you're
walking up to that ball andyou're like gosh, I can't
believe I did that.
I did it again.
I've been working so hard atnot slicing the ball.
Why is this happening?
Coach is going to be sofrustrated.
(37:22):
I'm so frustrated.
I just don't understand whythis isn't working.
I'm probably going to get abogey or worse on this hole.
We're going to lose.
It's going to be all my fault,and then you've got to take the
next shot.
Like that's scenario A.
If scenario B on that same walkup to the golf ball, you thought
(37:46):
about literally anything else.
Up to the golf ball, youthought about literally anything
else dump trucks or cookies,anything else that's not so
stinking negative, that's not sostuck in the past and just
putting you in a foul mood andcreating all these negative
emotions.
And you got these negativethoughts swirling around in your
(38:08):
head like anything else isgoing to be better than that.
I mean scenario B.
You're going to be in a betterspot to go hit that ball.
But what if instead, like,there was scenario C and the
whole time up to that ball, youwere reminding yourself of all
the time that you've put intodeveloping your game and all the
(38:31):
hard work that you've put in,and the fact that you've earned
the right to be confident andone bad shot in the past doesn't
override the hundreds ofthousands of great shots that
you've had during practice andthe fact that you're prepared
for this moment and you havewhat it takes.
Now you're ready to hit thatball, and so scenario C is
(38:55):
always going to be better thanscenario A.
But sometimes it's difficult andthings just don't automatically
work and it's hard, and so thenwhat do we do?
And you know, that's what.
That's what we'll get into next.
That's where this starts to goa little bit deeper.
You know, that's where I'vebeen doing this with individuals
(39:17):
for a long time and they needhelp working through those
scenarios.
But you know, at this pointhopefully we feel good about
objective number two help youdevelop a game plan for when,
where and how you will use thesetools.
We don't want to be evaluatingIs this working?
We don't want to be thinkingabout do I need to practice, do
(39:39):
I need to change, do I need totweak this?
We just want to go, do it,preferably in a competitive
setting.
I probably wouldn't do thisright before a state
championship, but maybe earlierin the season, some scrimmages,
maybe in the off season.
Find some time where you cantry this and see how it goes and
(40:03):
figure out what works and whatdoesn't work, so that we can
continue to make progress.
You know, this isn't aboutperfection.
This isn't about making everysingle negative emotion go away.
It's just the journey towardsbeing in a better spot so that
(40:25):
you are more preparedemotionally, mentally,
physically, so that you can doyour best and you can perform at
your best when it matters themost.
As always, if you've gotquestions, please don't hesitate
to reach out.
Really appreciate you guysjoining us for this episode.
If you've got questions, sendthem our way and, until next
(40:46):
time, make your plan and put itto work.
Hey, welcome to the Coaching Minds podcast, the
official podcast of MentalTraining Plan.
We help teams and individualsperform at their best when it
matters the most.
It has been a little whilePodcast listeners appreciate you
guys joining us Been absolutelyblown away.
We haven't had really any newcontent throughout the course of
(00:21):
the summer and we're stillgetting all kinds of listens and
downloads throughout the courseof the summer.
And we're still getting allkinds of listens and downloads
throughout the summer.
So appreciate you guys stillcontinuing to share the podcast.
The MTP Academy is alive andwell.
We are now officially in 11states.
The feedback has been fantasticfrom coaches, from the players
(00:47):
that are going through theprogram.
Incredibly grateful for thoseof you that are helping spread
the word about what we do.
Please continue to do that ifyou find value in these episodes
.
Today we're kicking off a littleseries all about focus cycle.
Like I said, we have had just aa ludicrous number of
(01:11):
individuals and teams that havebeen going through this, and so
you know there there are.
On one hand, I want to be ableto send people to this resource
who you know.
Maybe they they were not therewhen their team went through
this and so you know that we cansend them to this podcast and
say go through here, get caughtup, um.
(01:32):
I also want to be able to sendperspective parents that are
like well, maybe I want you,working with my athlete um, to
have a better understanding ofwhat that process looks like and
what the focus cycle is allabout.
So those of you who arelong-time listeners, this is
probably going to sound familiar, but we're also going to be
(01:57):
diving in a little bit deeper inthe upcoming episodes, taking a
look at okay, we've implementedthis, we've been trying to do
the focus cycle.
Now, what are some of thedifficulties that we can run
into, what are some of the timeswhere it gets hard to do this
and what do we do then?
If you want a copy of theworksheet, there's a link in the
show notes where we can sendthat to your email.
(02:20):
You're more than welcome to dothat, or just take out a piece
of paper and jot down some notesas you go.
But objective number one wewant to give you the tools to
control your mind and bodyduring big moments.
And then objective two help youdevelop a game plan for when,
where and how you will use thesetools In my book called Focus
(02:45):
Cycle.
The example that I used was arattlesnake and me and my family
were walking on a trail to goback and see a waterfall and all
of a sudden heard a rattlesnakestart rattling.
We were down in Tennessee.
It absolutely froze me.
I was like, oh my gosh, whereis that?
(03:06):
What are we going to do if itbites one of the kids?
And what happened scientificallyis basically there were
intercalated amygdala clustersthat orchestrate a switch in
fear state.
That's a fancy way of sayingthat.
There is a switch in youramygdala and chemically it gets
(03:27):
turned on or off between a highfear state and a low fear state.
And we know that when we're inthat fear state, we can't
perform at our best.
And so, when we're in fear mode, we need to figure out what's
the fastest way to turn off thatswitch so that we can get back
(03:48):
into performance mode.
And what we're going to talkabout today is just how what we
focus on, what we say toourselves and how we control our
bodies creates those emotions.
And, rather than just beingheld captive to how we react,
what can we do to take backcontrol?
And so, like I said, if youhave not downloaded the
(04:09):
worksheet yet.
I would encourage you to dothat.
We're going to be starting onthe front side where it says
Focus Cycle Worksheet at the top, and you'll notice that Big
Moment is up there in the topleft-hand corner.
And so I want you to thinkabout like what big moment flips
that switch in your mind beforeor during competition.
(04:34):
For some athletes that might bebefore a big tournament.
Maybe for a pitcher it's afterwalking a batter For a
quarterback, maybe that'sthrowing an interception.
If you need more time, go aheadand pause this and fill out in
that box where it says bigmoment, what flips that switch
(04:55):
for you before or duringcompetition?
Next is going to be focus.
So we know that focus affectsperformance.
If you put a pupillometer on adirt bike rider, that's just a
fancy sensor that tracks whereyou look and you put muscle
sensors on their arms.
When dirt bike riders look atan obstacle that they're trying
(05:18):
to avoid, it actually slightlytakes them toward that, and so
they're taught to look at wherethey're trying to go, not at
what they're trying to avoid.
Because we know focus affectsperformance.
If we were to look at brainimaging of someone that's
shooting a free throw or takinga golf swing that they've taken
(05:41):
hundreds of thousands of times,we would see neurons firing in a
certain pattern.
We would call that musclememory.
When it happens over and overand over and there's almost like
this highway built up and ourneurons get really good at
firing in a certain pattern butall of a sudden, if we're
thinking, oh my goodness, thisis the state finals or the NBA
(06:05):
finals, and the crowd is nowchanting at me or you know, we
get distracted.
We would see this nice neatpattern that's been happening
over and over and over.
Now looks kind of jumbled andwe've got neurons that are kind
of sporadically firing.
We're trying to stay focusedand we're trying to shoot this
(06:25):
free throw or make this golfswing, but we just don't have
access to that same musclememory because we know focus
affects performance.
So in that box in the bottomleft-hand corner it says bottom
up is the part that we're in, inthat box where it says focus.
(06:46):
I want you to think about, fromthat big moment that you just
wrote down, what were youfocused on at that time?
For some people that's maybeinto the future, oh no.
What's the score going to be?
Are we going to win?
Are we going to lose?
Is this going to be a bogey, adouble bogey?
In some people it's going intothe past like a bad shot that
(07:09):
they had in the past or a badhole they had, or a bad game, or
oh no, the last time we playedthese guys.
Sometimes they get worriedabout bad technique or past
failures.
What other people think.
Is coach going to be mad or momand dad going to be mad?
Go ahead and write down in thatbox that says focus, in the
(07:29):
bottom left-hand corner, whatwas on your mind.
And again, if you need moretime, just press pause.
Next, we're going to move on toself-talk and we know the
average person has about 48.6thoughts per minute, which means
when that rattlesnake startedbuzzing, my mind wasn't going
(07:52):
huh, this is dangerous.
No, it was more like oh my gosh, what is that?
Where is that coming from?
What are we going to do if itbites one of the kids?
This is going to ruin thevacation.
Are we going to be able to getto the hospital?
Can they land in a helicopterin here?
Are we going to be able to getto the hospital?
Can they land in a helicopterin here?
Can we even call the police orEMS, like I don't know if our
cell phones even work out here.
My mind was just racing and sowhat I want you to think about,
(08:26):
in that box that says self-talkdown in the bottom left-hand
corner, what did that voice inthe back of your mind say during
that big moment?
Was it a gosh?
I can't believe I did that.
Is it a?
I don't know if I'm good enoughto do this.
Go ahead and write that down.
Next we're going to talk aboutlike, what reaction did you have
physically in your body?
And we know that in these highpressure situations or these big
(08:48):
moments, that breathingincreases, your heart rate
increases, your mouth gets dry,you get butterflies in your
stomach because your digestivesystem temporarily shuts down,
your pupils dilate, sometimesmuscles tense up, your liver
releases fats and sugars.
All of a sudden we got moreadrenaline pumping through our
(09:09):
body.
What are the physical reactionsthat you notice in that big
moment?
And in the bottom left-handcorner, where it says body, go
ahead and write that down.
I'd say some of the reallycommon ones would be like shaky
hands, tight shoulders,butterflies in the stomach.
But go ahead and write downthose physical things that you
(09:31):
noticed and then we're going tomove on to emotions and I want
you to think like were youworried?
Were you stressed in thatmoment?
Were you anxious?
And where it says automaticemotions, I want you to think
about, like, in that big moment,what emotions did you feel?
(09:53):
Maybe unconfident, maybeanxious?
I've got some athletes thatjust get angry, they just get
mad.
Go ahead and write that down,or write those down, and then
you know what we normally do.
Next is we watch this video andit's a really cool video that's
out there on YouTube and ittalks about how the lower part
(10:17):
of your brain, or, in theirdiagram, the red part of the
brain, does some thingsautomatically.
You don't have to think aboutit.
It makes your heart pump it,you know, it helps your
intestines digest food, all ofthe things that just happen
automatically and sometimes inthat lower part of the brain you
(10:37):
know.
Let's say, for example, like acar lays on its horn, you don't
have to think lays on its horn,you don't have to think, oh, I
should get back up on thesidewalk.
No, it's just like an automaticreaction.
If you're stepping off the curband a car lays on its horn, you
just jerk back up onto thatcurb and similarly in a
(10:59):
high-pressure situation.
A lot of times our brain justsays threat, it doesn't like it,
it's uncomfortable, and itkicks off this fight or flight
reaction in this middle, in thisgreen part of the brain, the,
what you know, the, the amygdalais in there and basically we
feel these emotions.
Maybe now we're unconfident,maybe now we're scared, and then
(11:22):
what we want to do with therest of the time is figure out
how can we use the top and thefront part of the brain and
their diagram it's the blueportion of the brain to really
think through and say, hey, it'sall right, we're good, like we
don't need to freak out, let'sjust get back to playing the
(11:43):
sport that we love.
Obviously, we can't watch thevideo on a podcast, but what I
really want you to understand iswhat you've written down so far
on this worksheet down at thebottom, what you were focused on
, what that little voice in theback of your mind was saying,
how your body reacted, theautomatic emotions that you felt
(12:06):
.
That's just a reaction and justlike when the car lays on its
horn, our body reacts and somethings just automatically happen
.
But then we can calm ourselvesback down and say it's okay, I'm
going to pay more attention,I'm going to look both ways.
All right, we're good, let's goahead and cross the street.
What are those tools that wecan use in that big moment to
(12:31):
help you take back control?
And so where I want to start iswith emotions, and I want you to
think about, like, where do youplay at your best?
What emotions help you performat your best?
What emotions help you performat your best?
And in that box where it saysintentional emotions, like I
(12:51):
want you to write down is itcalm, is it confident?
Is it in control?
Go ahead and hit pause if youneed a little bit more time, but
just fill those out for how youwant to be feeling in that box
that says intentional emotions.
And then next we're going totalk about the body.
(13:11):
And you know, if I were to justsay, hey, the next time you're
stressed, just take a deepbreath, that just feels like
fluffy unicorns and rainbows,like, yeah, okay, why don't you
give me something that'sactually going to work?
But if, on the other hand, Ican say, look, the vagus nerve
(13:35):
connects to that lower part ofyour brain and it goes through
every major organ in your bodyand you can't control your heart
rate, at least not directly.
You can't control how much fatand sugar your liver is
releasing, you can't control howmuch blood is in your stomach
or if it all gets pumped intoyour muscles and you've got
(13:58):
butterfly feeling now in yourstomach.
But you can interrupt that,basically kind of a fire alarm
signal that's just pulsing upand down that vagus nerve by
controlling your lungs.
And so what we do next is youknow we'll teach athletes how do
you inhale.
(14:18):
I want to make sure that youryou know your belly button is
sticking out.
You don't want to suck in yourstomach and then try to take a
big deep breath, because thatreduces lung capacity.
And you know, a lot of peoplewill teach, teach you to inhale
through your nose, because thatslows your breathing down a
little bit.
Um, some athletes haveallergies and that just doesn't
(14:41):
work.
So take a big, slow, long, deepbreath and we'll have them
inhale for four and then we'llhave them hold for four so that
the lungs have time to absorbthat oxygen that's in there, and
then we'll have them exhale sothat we can get rid of that
carbon dioxide, and then we'llhave them pause, because if we
(15:04):
can stretch out that timebetween inhales.
We're going to be able tostretch out that time between
heartbeats, and so we'll.
You know, just like what the USmilitary does.
We'll teach them inhale forfour, hold for four, exhale for
four and pause for four for four, and you can do, you know you
(15:30):
can do that on your own andyou'll feel, hopefully, your
heart rate start to slow down.
Or you know, if you've got likea Fitbit or an Apple watch or
you know some other device thatyou're wearing and you can track
your heart rate, maybe you canwatch this.
Or you can hop on a treadmilland you can practice getting
your heart rate up and thenbringing it back down.
We'll actually walk peoplethrough.
(15:50):
How do you come up with acustomized breathing pattern?
You know, take out a stopwatchand time your inhale and then
write that down and then timeyour hold.
Make sure that those twonumbers, you know, at least add
up to eight.
Make sure that the inhale is atleast four seconds, and then
(16:11):
we'll do the same thing forexhale and pause, and we'll have
them.
You know, take that big, deepbreath and then hold and then
start the timer as you exhale,as you, you know, get rid of
that carbon dioxide.
How long is comfortable for you?
We want it to at least be fourseconds.
And then the pause.
(16:33):
You know we'll inhale and thenhold and then exhale and then
start that timer and figure outhow long until we need to
breathe again.
And make sure that those youknow the first two the inhale
and the hold at least add up toeight.
Make sure the next two theexhale and the pause at least
add up to eight.
And then you know there's somespace on the back of the, on the
(16:57):
back of the worksheet.
If you're following along onthere and you'd like to pause
the episode, take out astopwatch and come up with
what's comfortable for you.
And you know the next one thatwe'll do is called forced
muscular relaxation.
And so if you make a fist andtake a big deep breath and hold
(17:22):
and then, as you start to exhale, loosen up your hands, kind of
shake your hands out, this timewe're going to do it again, but
we're going to clench our fistsand then we're going to roll our
forearms and then squeeze ourbiceps and shrug our shoulders
and take a big deep breath andthen hold and then, as we exhale
(17:46):
, we're going to shake out allthose muscles and relax all
those muscles.
So that's called forcedmuscular relaxation.
So just like the lower part cancontrol your breathing or you
can decide to take back controlwith that top part of your brain
, we can do the same thing withmuscle tension.
(18:09):
You know, my wife, for example,when she was taking a test or
when she's really stressed nowat work, sometimes she'll just
get like this tension in hershoulders.
She's not even paying attentionto it, it's just the lower part
of her brain is thinking thisis a threat, we got to be ready
to fight or we got to be readyto it.
It's just the lower part of herbrain is thinking this is a
threat, we got to be ready tofight or we got to be ready to
run.
And so now you know we can usethat top and that front part of
(18:34):
the brain to say no, it's allright, we're good, we're going
to relax, there is no threat,let's just, let's take back
control of this muscle tension,let's force these muscles to
relax.
So you know, right there in thetop right hand corner on your
worksheet, where it says body,what tools can help you control
(18:55):
your body.
Really, we've got two of them.
So you know, number one, writedown whatever your breathing was
, whether that was four, four,four, four, or you know, I like
to inhale for six, hold for two,exhale for eight and then pause
for one, whatever that was,write that down.
And then also in that body box,in the top right hand corner,
(19:20):
write down FMR, or forcedmuscular relaxation.
But you know, now physically,we're starting to take back
control of our body.
We're turning off that firealarm that's telling every organ
in our body to panic.
We're creating, we're gettingsome blood flow to the top and
(19:41):
the front part of our brain sowe can think clearly, we're
taking back intentional controlof muscle tension, we're
releasing that tension and kindof relaxing those muscles.
So that's, you know, that's thenext step in creating these
intentional emotions.
We're not going to just hopethat we will feel confident,
(20:03):
like, let's do the things thatit takes to create that
confidence.
And so that's, that's.
The first part is taking backcontrol of your body, and the
second is let's addressself-talk.
You know cause we've got those48.6 thoughts per minute.
So you know, if I, if I, miss aputt, all of a sudden it's oh
(20:24):
my gosh, I can't believe I didthat.
Was it?
Did I not make a good enoughread?
Was my wrist not locked?
Like what?
What happened?
Coach is going to be so upset.
Gosh, that's another bogey.
Like, what are we going to do?
We're going to lose, it's goingto be all my fault.
And instead of listening to allthese negative thoughts, what
we're going to do is speakpositively to ourselves.
(20:47):
And so, you know, I've got someathletes that you know we'll
use a Bible verse like I can doall things through Christ who
strengthens me.
That's going to be their plan.
When that little voice ofnegativity starts whispering in
the back of their mind, they'rejust going to speak truth, you
know, or like a mantra I can, Iwill.
(21:08):
Or you know I, I have what ittakes, or something like that.
And then I've got otherathletes that like to use what
we call a go-to statement.
And so, really, there's twoparts to this.
The first is go ahead and writedown why are you, you, great?
And if you're following alongon the worksheet, on the back
(21:29):
side there there's a box whereyou can write down, like list,
the, the reasons why you'regreat.
And you know if you're a, ifyou're a golfer, don't put
things on there like I can drivethe ball really far, because
what happens if you're playingagainst an opponent who can
drive further than you?
Or I'm really good at makingthree-point baskets?
(21:52):
Like we don't want thoseresults or those outcomes,
because if you're having a badshooting day on the basketball
court, this, this whole thingkind of goes out the window.
So instead we're thinking maybeit's the insane amount of time
that you put in, maybe you justput in more time than other
athletes your age, or maybe it'syou work really hard and that's
(22:16):
you know.
You're just going to write downlike the hard work is is why I
know I'm great at my sport, evenon the days where things aren't
going well.
I'm having an off day, likethey can't ever take that away
from me.
Or maybe you're just gritty.
You're tough, you're nevergoing to quit.
Whatever, whatever those thingsare for, you go ahead and fill
(22:38):
those out in that first box andthen in the second box, where it
says what I will achieve,you're writing down like what
are the things that you want tobelieve in that moment, the
things that you're workingtowards?
You know some athletes aretrying to be the best at what
they do, so I'm the bestquarterback in the state, or
(23:00):
something like that.
Other athletes need to believe,like they have what it takes,
something like a I belong outhere on this court, you know, or
I've earned this spot on thefield, or something like that.
Other athletes maybe need tobelieve that they're not going
to be defeated by theiropponents.
(23:20):
Like I have what it takes, Iwill not be stopped, or I'm an
unshakable force, something likethat.
That's just you're believingthat you have this powerful
presence, that you belong outthere and you're not going to be
just pushed around by yourcompetition.
(23:41):
And we're going to write itdown as if we've already
accomplished it.
So I am the best player in thestate, not, I will be the best
player in the state, and thenwe're going to take those two
and we're going to combine youjust a quick story I was I was
(24:04):
in my second year as offensivecoordinator, so I'm I'm the guy
that's called, I'm the coachthat's calling the plays for the
offense, and on our high schoolfootball team and you know we
were playing this team thattheir defensive coordinator had
been coaching longer than I'dbeen alive and my self-talk was
not in a great spot.
(24:25):
It was like I don't know ifwe're going to be able to beat
these guys.
I don't know if we're going toscore any points against this
team.
I don't know if we're going tobe able to win this game.
And I'm in the middle of, youknow, getting my master's at the
time and I'm in this sportspsychology class and I'm reading
this textbook about a statementthat you can go to when
(24:47):
negativity starts to creep in.
And so you know, in that firstbox, my list was literally I put
in a lot of time and I'morganized.
That was it.
And then in that second box, Iwrote down I'm the best coach in
the state.
(25:07):
And it was like there was thislittle voice on the side of my
shoulder going best coach in thestate, you're not even the best
coach on your staff, what areyou talking about?
And then it said you're goingto combine those two and come up
with your go-to statement.
And so I wrote down, I put inthe time, I put in the work, I'm
(25:30):
the best coach in the state.
And then it said say it 50times a day.
And I'm like 50 times a day, isthis actually going to do
anything?
And it was like well, I mean, Idon't really have a lot to lose
, so started saying it I put inthe time, I put in the work, I'm
(25:50):
the best coach in the state.
I put in the time, I put in thework, I'm the best coach in the
state.
And you know what happened atthe end of that day?
Absolutely nothing.
And so I did it again on Mondayand I was like I put in the
time, I put in the work, I'm thebest coach in the state Nothing
.
And again on Tuesday, nothing.
(26:11):
And at this point I'm like allright, am I like?
Am I being punked?
Is somebody going to pop outwith a video camera and be like
ha ha, gotcha idiot?
And I kept saying it.
And on Wednesday, by the end ofthe day, something changed and
all of a sudden in the back ofmy mind, that little voice of
doubt was like you know, you doput in a back of my mind was
(26:38):
like forget those guys, likelet's go play.
And we scored like 42 or 48points, something like that
Great showing for the offense,especially for a high school
football game, and we lost.
So you know, on one hand therewas some good parts.
(27:01):
On the other, there were somebad parts, like Neither one of
those had anything to do with.
Was this successful?
Those were just results.
What determined was thissuccessful or not was could I
just get out of my own head anddo my job?
(27:21):
And the answer was absolutely.
And so from there it was like,oh my goodness, this actually
works.
So that's what you kind of needto put together.
Next is, how do you combinethose, those thoughts from the
first part of the reasons whyyou know you're great, like what
(27:41):
separates you from other people, what have you done to earn the
right to be confident, and thencombine it with that second
part, what you will achieve,what you're working towards?
Because if I would have justsaid I'm the best coach in the
state, I'm the best coach in thestate, the part of my brain
that wants to fix things wouldhave said, no, you're not.
(28:04):
But instead, if I was to say Iput in the time, I put in the
work, I'm the best coach in thestate, over and over, that same
part of my brain that wants tofix things can't throw out the
whole statement because it knows, like the first part of that is
true, and so eventually itstarts to come around to all
(28:26):
right, well, I mean.
I mean, maybe the second partis true.
So if you need some more timeto think about it, go ahead and
pause the video and come up withyour go-to statement.
And then at this point I alwaystell the athletes it's really
up to you.
If you like this idea of thego-to statement and you want to
use it, great.
If you'd rather use a Bibleverse or you'd rather have some
(28:50):
other kind of mantra, that'sjust short and sweet, totally up
to you.
What matters is you have a plan.
What we don't want to do isjust hope that we're going to
somehow be positive and speakingconfidence to ourselves in this
big moment or the next timethis big moment pops up.
(29:11):
So tool number three go aheadand put it on the front of the
worksheet in that top rightcorner where it says self-talk.
Go ahead and write down, youknow.
Are you going to say confidenceand refocus?
Are you going to say controlthe controllables.
Are you going to say your go-tostatement?
Are you going to pick averseables?
Are you going to say your go-tostatement?
Are you going to pick a verseLike go ahead and write that
(29:32):
down, come up with your plan.
And then the last one is whatare you going to focus on.
And so, again on the back,you've got four boxes there and
we've got things that are inyour control and things that are
not in your control.
We've got things that matterright now and things that don't
(29:54):
matter right now.
And you know, just kind ofthinking through, fill out each
one of those boxes.
What are the things that youcan control?
And that would be maybeattitude, maybe effort, maybe
what you're focusing on.
What about things that youcannot control?
How good your opponent is, howgood your teammates are playing?
(30:16):
Is the coach upset with you?
Did the ref make a bad call?
What's the weather?
Like All those things.
And then, with the things thatmatter right now, one of the
examples I really like to use isif you're a golfer and you want
to be the best golfer that youcan be and you're slicing your
long irons, does that matter?
(30:38):
Well, yeah, of course it does.
Like, do you need to fix that?
Yeah, but do you need to fixthat right now, in the middle of
a tournament?
Like, should you be three holesin still worried about slicing
your four iron on the second tee?
(30:58):
No, absolutely not.
So what are the things thatmatter right now versus, maybe,
the things that you can fix inthe future.
Maybe you can go see your swingcoach or maybe you can get some
extra practice in, you know,next week or you know, maybe you
can do some things to improvethat outside of this moment,
(31:23):
right now.
And then, what are the thingsthat do matter right now?
Maybe your pre-shot routine,maybe your free throw routine,
maybe that's focusing on thisplay or this pitch or this serve
, and as you fill out the backof this worksheet, what this
really does is it gets thingsout of your working memory where
(31:46):
they're kind of imaginary andyou've got all these ideas
floating, imaginary and you'vegot all these ideas floating
around.
You've got all these thoughtsfloating around and we really
start to see them now show up onpaper and it's like I can
either control this or I can't.
This either matters right nowor this doesn't matter right now
, and we start to realize likesome of the stuff that we're
(32:08):
focused on during competition ismaking things way worse.
And so what is your plan?
Moving forward?
You and maybe that's I'm goingto focus on this shot or this
(32:34):
play, this series, thispossession, whatever, maybe it's
I'm going to control thecontrollables, the things that I
can control.
I'm going to do those to thebest of my ability.
But go ahead and fill that out,come up with your plan, and so
hopefully at this point theathletes are feeling pretty good
about objective Number one.
(32:55):
Give you the tools to controlyour mind and body during big
moments.
And you know, to be honest,everything that we've done up to
this point isn't going to makeyou a better athlete, unless you
(33:17):
go find some way to do itduring competition.
And so the bottom half of theworksheet, there where it says
game plan, what we want to do onthe left hand side is figure
out like what are all thesituations that might try and
flip that switch.
What are some of the bigmoments?
Like you know, for golferssometimes it's that first tee
box, or for pitchers that thatfirst pitch.
(33:40):
All eyes are on you.
How are you going to set thetone here?
Maybe it's after you screw up,you shoot an air ball, you throw
an interception.
Maybe it's after you screw up,you shoot an air ball, you throw
an interception.
Maybe it's something thatshould be easy to do, like
sinking a three-foot putt ormaking a free throw, or maybe
(34:00):
it's.
You know you can handleadversity once or twice.
But if you walk a batter andthen you give up a hit and then
you give up a home run, like now, all of a sudden you're rattled
, maybe it's, you know, afterafter multiple bad plays, the
wheels just kind of fall off.
And so list all of those eventsdown the left-hand side, and
(34:24):
then we've got to figure out,like, what are you going to do
about it?
So we talked about fourdifferent tools that you can use
to take back control of yourmind and body.
You know, what are you focusedon?
What are you going to be sayingto yourself?
How are you going to controlyour heart rate, your muscle
tension?
And so some athletes like tothink of it, you know, maybe, as
(34:47):
like first aid.
If my daughter trips and fallsand she has a boo-boo on her
elbow, like daddy can kiss itand in her two-year-old mind,
boom, everything's fixed.
But you know, maybe she fallsand actually scrapes it on the
concrete and so now she needs aband-aid.
Or, you know, maybe it's prettybad and we need to go get
(35:09):
stitches, and it kind ofescalates as things get worse.
So, you know, maybe for some ofthe situations you just need to
take a deep breath, or you justneed to say your go-to
statement and maybe for othersit's you need to focus on this
play and do your forced muscularrelaxation and then maybe, when
(35:32):
things get really bad, likeyou're going to pull out all
four tools.
But there needs to be a plan andyou know I've got some golfers
who will literally do all fourof these in between every shot
and it's just part of theirpre-shot routine.
And you know that's a littlemore plausible for, like a
(35:54):
football game where there's aplay and then there's a stoppage
in action, or golf, you hit theball, now you have to walk up
and go find your ball, get readyfor the next shot, versus like
a basketball game where there'sjust constant motion.
So you know you've really gotto figure out what is it going
to be for you that puts you incontrol of your mind and body
(36:18):
and that bottom half of theworksheet I always like to tell
athletes.
Like when I was coachingquarterbacks, my high school
quarterbacks hung that up ontheir locker so that I knew what
their plan was.
They knew what their plan was.
Their teammates knew what theirplan was and we can all kind of
help hold each otheraccountable.
Like what are you going to bedoing in this situation?
(36:40):
And then after the game, we canevaluate well, did you do it
and did it work?
Did it not work?
And that's where you know, inthe next episode we'll be
starting to look at okay.
Well, if things aren't working,why are they not working?
Because you know, I always liketo give this example.
(37:02):
If scenario A is you hit a golfball and you slice it off into
the rough and the whole timeyou're walking up to golf ball
and you slice it off into therough and the whole time you're
walking up to that ball andyou're like gosh, I can't
believe I did that.
I did it again.
I've been working so hard atnot slicing the ball.
Why is this happening?
Coach is going to be sofrustrated.
(37:22):
I'm so frustrated.
I just don't understand whythis isn't working.
I'm probably going to get abogey or worse on this hole.
We're going to lose.
It's going to be all my fault,and then you've got to take the
next shot.
Like that's scenario A.
If scenario B on that same walkup to the golf ball, you thought
(37:46):
about literally anything else.
Up to the golf ball, youthought about literally anything
else dump trucks or cookies,anything else that's not so
stinking negative, that's not sostuck in the past and just
putting you in a foul mood andcreating all these negative
emotions.
And you got these negativethoughts swirling around in your
(38:08):
head like anything else isgoing to be better than that.
I mean scenario B.
You're going to be in a betterspot to go hit that ball.
But what if instead, like,there was scenario C and the
whole time up to that ball, youwere reminding yourself of all
the time that you've put intodeveloping your game and all the
(38:31):
hard work that you've put in,and the fact that you've earned
the right to be confident andone bad shot in the past doesn't
override the hundreds ofthousands of great shots that
you've had during practice andthe fact that you're prepared
for this moment and you havewhat it takes.
Now you're ready to hit thatball, and so scenario C is
(38:55):
always going to be better thanscenario A.
But sometimes it's difficult andthings just don't automatically
work and it's hard, and so thenwhat do we do?
And you know, that's what.
That's what we'll get into next.
That's where this starts to goa little bit deeper.
You know, that's where I'vebeen doing this with individuals
(39:17):
for a long time and they needhelp working through those
scenarios.
But you know, at this pointhopefully we feel good about
objective number two help youdevelop a game plan for when,
where and how you will use thesetools.
We don't want to be evaluatingIs this working?
We don't want to be thinkingabout do I need to practice, do
(39:39):
I need to change, do I need totweak this?
We just want to go, do it,preferably in a competitive
setting.
I probably wouldn't do thisright before a state
championship, but maybe earlierin the season, some scrimmages,
maybe in the off season.
Find some time where you cantry this and see how it goes and
(40:03):
figure out what works and whatdoesn't work, so that we can
continue to make progress.
You know, this isn't aboutperfection.
This isn't about making everysingle negative emotion go away.
It's just the journey towardsbeing in a better spot so that
(40:25):
you are more preparedemotionally, mentally,
physically, so that you can doyour best and you can perform at
your best when it matters themost.
As always, if you've gotquestions, please don't hesitate
to reach out.
Really appreciate you guysjoining us for this episode.
If you've got questions, sendthem our way and, until next
(40:46):
time, make your plan and put itto work.
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