September 10, 2024 • 23 mins
In this episode, we continue our deep dive into the Focus Cycle, exploring what to do when athletes struggle to implement this powerful tool during competition. Coaches, you’ve laid the groundwork, but now it’s time to troubleshoot. Whether your athletes are forgetting to use the Focus Cycle, not taking it seriously, feeling overwhelmed with thoughts, or trying but just not succeeding, we’ve got you covered. We’ll break down the most common challenges and provide practical strategies to help athletes regain control of their mind and body in high-pressure situations. If you're looking to fine-tune your mental performance training and equip your athletes to handle the heat of competition, this episode is a must-listen!
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 you welcome to the coaching minds podcast, the
official podcast for mentaltraining plan.
We help teams and individualsperform at their best through
online and in-person training.
More than 20 years ago, Iexperienced firsthand what it
feels like to struggle duringcompetition and had no plan to
take back control of what wasgoing on, not only in my mind,
(00:21):
but also physically, on thebaseball diamond.
We talk about all the timemaking a plan and putting it to
work, because just hoping you'llbe able to perform at your best
in big moments isn't a strategythat high performing athletes
use.
So if you're looking for toolsto help you perform at your best
on the field or in theworkplace, you've come to the
right place.
Today, I'm so excited to divein a little bit deeper to the
(00:45):
focus cycle.
If you did not listen toepisode 119, I would encourage
you to pause this episode rightnow.
Go back and listen to 119, andthen come back.
This is going to dive in alittle deeper.
This is assuming that you'vealready used the focus cycle.
So, just as a quick reminder,this came from 2013.
(01:08):
We go down to statechampionship and we've got some
guys just losing physicalcontrol.
They got shaky hands trying tocatch a kick.
We got guys that just mentallywere not able to make the right
decisions, making silly plays.
We had kids emotionally losingcontrol.
We had tears on the sidelineand it was like where do we even
(01:31):
begin to address these problems?
Because everybody's gotsomething different, but really
it was the same things that weregoing on.
There was some big event andthen what people were focused on
saying to themselves and howtheir body was reacting
physically were creating theseemotions and we weren't able to
(01:54):
play at our best.
And you know, we brought insome experts that that next off
season to.
You know, teach our guys, hey,you know, use this and do this
and try that.
And I would say it worked forlike 80% of our team.
But then there was always asmall pocket of athletes that it
was like well, what about thoseguys?
(02:15):
They need something a littlebit different.
And so we developed thisframework, called it the focus
cycle, wrote a book on it.
It is definitely the most commonpresentation that I do for
in-person trainings for teams,for companies.
It's my starting point withathletes that I work with
(02:36):
one-on-one every time and afterthey make their plan, then they
go and put it to work and thensometimes, when they come back
and I say how'd it go, theanswer is they didn't work.
And so today we're going to belooking at what if it's the
(02:57):
focus part that just quoteunquote didn't work.
Now, what do I do If I'm a, ifI'm a coach, and my player says,
hey, this tool that you have meuse, it's not working.
Well, what do I do next?
Or you know, if I'm a, if I'man individual athlete, and I did
the focus cycle and I've got myplan and I tried it out and
(03:19):
something's not working, what doI do next?
So to to start us off, you knowwhen, when an athlete comes back
and says I was, I'm, I'm havinga hard time with the focus
element, um, the first thingthat that I asked them as well,
did you focus on what we wrotedown?
(03:40):
And a lot of times that's, youknow, next shot or the next play
or the next possession, but notgetting caught in the past.
We're not worried about, youknow, things that have happened.
We're not worried about thefuture, we're dialed in in the
present moment, right now.
Sometimes they just forget todo that and you know, I've had
(04:04):
athletes that are like oh yeah,shoot, yeah, I forgot about that
, and so you know we had thisplan, but then, when it was time
to put it into action, it itdidn't happen, and so you know
what do we do next time?
Is that something that maybe youcan write down on your hand?
This play or this pitch, thisserve?
(04:28):
Is it something that you canpractice during practice?
Can you remind yourself beforeevery single play or every
possession at practice this week?
Hey, I'm going to dial in rightnow.
I'm going to focus on this play.
Is it something that you canpractice using visualization?
(04:49):
Can we do a visualizationactivity where you're seeing
yourself in that moment, wherewe're going through, we're using
as many of the five senses aspossible, we're making this as
realistic and as lifelike aspossible, and then we're
practicing.
Okay, I've got some other thingsthat I could be focused on, but
(05:10):
I'm going to choose to dial inon and focus on this.
That would be where I start.
You know, did you actuallyremember to try and focus on
this play or whatever you wrotedown?
Maybe, maybe that wascontrolling the controllables.
Did you actually try to do it?
If they tried to do it, thenthe next thing I'm going to ask
(05:33):
is like all right, let's, let'stake that sheet back out and
let's, let's look at all thethings that you wrote down that
you could control and could notcontrol.
And then it's like, oh, couldcontrol and could not control.
And then it's like, oh, uh, I,I didn't really.
I didn't really do a lot ofthat.
And so if, if that's the case,then I would say maybe they
didn't take the activityseriously.
(05:54):
And there have certainly beentimes where, you know, not so
much in my one-on-one sessions,because I'm sitting there, it's
literally me and this athlete inthe room and I'm looking across
the table at what they'rewriting down and I can see if
they're not taking this seriousand they're not coming up with
enough.
You know things that they canor cannot control.
(06:16):
Then I'm going to walk throughit with them and we're going to
do it together.
But in a team setting where,you know, I've I have had times
where I'm working with a golfteam, for example, we do the
focus cycle session.
This athlete comes back to thecoach and says this just isn't
working.
The athlete reaches out to meand you know we then okay, well,
(06:40):
let's, let's look at that sheet.
What do you have written downin all those boxes and it's not
much.
Then in my mind I'm saying, asthe coach, like, okay, you
didn't take this serious, so weneed to actually go back and we
need to go through the activityagain.
So you know, we need to figureout what are the things that you
(07:01):
can control or cannot control.
What are the things that youcan control or cannot control in
that moment.
Sometimes the issue is, you know, let's say, like a golfer, for
example, they wrote down.
When we did this as a team,they wrote down.
My big moment is before thegolf match starts starts, and
(07:30):
then where they actually gothung up later on in the
tournament was after they wentbogey, bogey, double, and now
the wheels are starting to falloff and now they don't know what
to do.
Okay, well, perfect.
So now we're going to go back.
We now have a new big momentand we're going to go through
and we're going to figure outwhat can you control in that
moment, what can you not control.
And we're going to talk throughthings like you know, the, the
(07:53):
past scores, the, the score thatyou just wrote down for the
previous hole.
Can't do anything about that.
What, how you're going to endup at the end of this round,
can't do anything about that.
What are the things that youcan control?
Well, your attitude and youreffort, your intensity, your
focus.
Then we're going to figure outwhat are the things that matter
(08:16):
right now and the things thatdon't matter right now.
We're going to go through thiswhole activity again and we're
going to basically now come upwith again, and we're going to
basically now come up with okay,well, now that you know all of
these things that we shouldn'tbe focused on, all this stuff
that you've written down, thatyou've gotten out of your mind,
(08:36):
now we're a little bit moredialed in on what we should
focus on, and maybe that's goingto be our routine.
Maybe that's going to be thethings that we can control, and
maybe that's going to be ourroutine.
Maybe that's going to be thethings that we can control.
But a lot of times, just takingthe athlete back through the
process again can be superhelpful.
Another common thing that Ihear is I tried, but I just
(08:59):
couldn't do it, and it's like Iknew what I was supposed to do.
I know exactly how this issupposed to be working, but I'm
telling you it didn't work.
And so what I do a lot of times.
In that case and I'll actuallyinvite all of you to do this
right now go ahead and try thisyou're going to count backwards
(09:27):
by fives.
So a hundred 95, not that's.
You're just going to say itkind of, you know, quietly,
mumble it out loud to yourself,and the only other instruction
is don't listen to anything thatI say until the activity is
over.
Makes sense, all right, makessense, all right.
(09:49):
So you're gonna start at 195, 90, 80.
I want to hear you say it outloud ready, go?
No, no, wait, wait, that you'renot doing it right.
No, that's wrong.
Oh, you're going the wrong way.
Why are you counting down byfive?
You, you never.
You didn't even listen to me.
Are you doing what I asked youto do?
Why are you not doing what Iasked you to do?
This is wrong.
This is wrong.
You can't.
You kind of get the idea, and soyou know it's, it's kind of
(10:12):
weird and it's kind ofuncomfortable and the athlete
sort of looks at you andsometimes they need a prompting
like keep going.
But eventually, like they getthe picture that they can choose
to count down by fives and thenI say, well, what if, instead
of just me telling you you'redoing it wrong.
You were standing in the middleof pick.
(10:34):
Whatever local athletic venueyou're at, we're in the Indy
area.
So I say, let's say you're inthe middle, you're standing at
the 50-yard line of Lucas OilStadium and now, instead of just
me telling you you're doing itwrong, now you've got 65,000
people that are yelling at youand screaming and saying you're
terrible, it wrong.
Now you've got 65,000 peoplethat are yelling at you and
screaming and saying you'reterrible, you can't count,
(10:57):
you're no good.
Like if I said if you can gofrom a hundred down to zero,
counting backwards by fives,I'll give you a million dollars.
Would you be able to, like,dial in on that and focus on
that and do that?
And yes, yes is the answer.
You would absolutely be able todo that.
(11:19):
And so, like, what we want themto know is yes, it's difficult.
Yes, there are distractions.
Yes, I was telling you you'renot doing it right.
You're going to have, maybeopponents talking trash, maybe
the coach isn't helping you out,maybe your teammates are saying
negative things, maybe all thenegative voices are just in your
(11:40):
own head, but like there aregoing to be things competing for
your attention.
But that doesn't mean that justbecause it's hard, that you
can't do it, you can do it.
It's just maybe going to take alittle bit of practice.
It's going to take maybe alittle bit of intentionality.
And so helping them understandthat hard isn't the same as not
(12:06):
possible, I think, is a greatfirst step and just encouraging
them like, okay, we tried this,it was hard.
We know there's other thingscompeting for our attention.
Let's try it.
And maybe a maybe a little bitlower stakes or more of a low
key situation.
Maybe we want to do this atpractice, maybe we want to do
this, you know, right here inthe team room outside of
(12:27):
practice.
Give them the confidence that,yes, they can focus on what they
choose.
Um, there are focus activitiesthat you can do.
Uh, there's.
There was an actually like awebsite or an app that was
called like focus grids orsomething like that, and they
had imagined like a, a, a, threeby three square that has the
(12:51):
numbers one through nine onthere, and you know, the first
time you say, all right, you'regoing to circle every number in
order and they do that.
And then you say, all right,now cross them off going
backwards.
And so then they go nine, eight, seven, six, and they do that,
and then you know you putanother grid up there.
(13:11):
And then this time, maybe youwave your hand in front of their
face and give them a little bitof distraction, maybe you yell
in the background and say no, no, no, you're not doing this
right, stop.
And what they get used to doingis focusing on the task at hand,
whether that's counting up fromone to nine, whether that's
counting backwards, whetherthat's circling all the evens,
(13:34):
underlining all the odds.
Like you, give them a task andthey focus on that task and
ignore whatever else is going on.
Sometimes I'll send them homewith a little worksheet that I
made up.
That's just got a bunch ofdifferent grids on there, and
they'll actually be able topractice using those grids at
home.
Maybe do it with the TV on,maybe do it at the kitchen table
(13:57):
while mom and dad are having aconversation, or something like
that.
Maybe put your phone right nextto it with all those
notifications and all the beepsand the flashes and the things
that are popping up, andpractice focusing on what you
choose, because you can do it.
(14:17):
It's just hard.
Next one that I would say isprobably the most intense is
like I just yes, I know, butit's just so hard and I've got
so many other thoughts swirlingaround.
And if that's the case, thenthere's a few things that we can
(14:39):
do beyond just the focus grids,which I think are a fantastic
activity.
One of them is just silentbreath counting.
And so tell the athletes, setan alarm for 10 minutes on your
phone, or maybe even fiveminutes on your phone, and I
want you to sit in a room that'sdark and I want you to close
(15:03):
your eyes and all I want you todo is count how long you inhale
and then count how long youexhale.
And so they're literally justsitting there in the dark One,
two, three, four, five.
One, two, three, and that's allthey're doing.
(15:24):
And undoubtedly, there are goingto be other thoughts that try
to work their way, like oh man,this, this is uncomfortable, my
back's kind of tight, or why arewe doing this?
This is a waste of time?
Is this actually doing anything?
Am I doing this right?
How do I know if I'm doing thisright?
And as those thoughts come in,all we're trying to do is
(15:47):
redirect our focus back to thebreath.
Why?
Because we're trying to reducebrain activity we're trying to
slow down, kind of the you knowthe opposite of PTSD.
You know, ptsd is where, like asoldier on a battlefield, for
(16:08):
example, is in such a highthreat situation they are.
Just their brain is completelyin that that fight or flight
mode all the time and thatswitch almost just gets like
stuck on and they can't calmback down.
This is trying to do theopposite to your brain.
This is trying to take awaysome of that extra stimuli.
(16:31):
This is trying to slow downbrain activity.
This is trying to get you torelax, to realize that we don't
have to be completely go, go, go, go, go, turned on, a hundred
percent engaged, entertained allthe time.
And so this is this issomething that you know some
(16:52):
athletes will absolutely lovethis.
I'll be honest.
Some athletes, it makes themsuper uncomfortable and they
don't like it.
Um, but we need to findsomething that's going to slow
down their brain.
I've got a golfer who triedthis and she hated it.
But then she went to a yogaclass with one of her teammates
(17:13):
and all they were doing wasstretching and listening to, you
know, their instructor tellthem to inhale and when to
exhale, and it was like theywere doing the exact same thing.
Neurologically, they're reducingbrain activity.
They had some physical elementstied in with it.
So, you know, find some way toreduce brain activity.
(17:39):
Find some activity that's goingto help you with that.
There are mindfulness apps outthere.
The Calm app was one that Iused for a while.
They used to give free lifetimeaccounts to educators.
I don't believe that they dothat anymore.
There's YouTube videos outthere.
(17:59):
There are resources that canhelp you slow down.
I know getting into likeEastern meditation kind of weird
some people out.
This doesn't have to haveanything to do with religion or
anything like that, or being onewith the religion or anything
like that, or being one with theuniverse or anything like that.
This can be purely.
You are thinking about thepresent moment that you are in
(18:23):
right now and focusing on whatyou're doing, which, at this
moment, is just taking somebreaths.
Um, we, you know.
Another thing that I'll talkabout a lot with athletes is
like what's your input?
You know, what are the, whatare the things that you consume?
Help me understand when you'reat home.
Are you on your phone?
(18:45):
Are you playing video games?
Are you watching tv?
Like what are the things thatyou're filling your mind with
all the time, because a lot oftimes, athletes especially will
get into this comparison game,where their algorithm has so
many highlight videos andrecruiting clips of other kids
that they just get so caught upin playing the comparison game
(19:09):
and so they're literally layingin bed, raising cortisol levels,
increasing anxious feelings intheir amygdala, like they are.
They are doing more harm thangood with their phone, and so
it's like take some time to getoff your phone and put it away
and put it in airplane mode or,better yet, turn it off.
(19:31):
Put it away at least a halfhour before you're trying to go
to bed and quit filling yourmind with all kinds of input and
content and just relax and restand really recover.
Another one that I think issuper powerful is journaling,
(19:53):
and so there was there's, anactivity that that we use,
called the permission to forgetjournal.
We're like a golfer who, let'ssay, is worried about slicing
their long irons in the middleof a round.
Say, that's all right, just putit in the, put it in the
notebook, fix it later, and whatthat does is it gets it out of
your working memory and so yourbrain is able to go oh, there's
(20:16):
a plan for that.
We'll fix it later.
We don't need to be in panicmode.
Let's just go back to playinggolf and it comes from.
There was a study that was done,a sleep study, where they
tracked the quantity and qualityof sleep alongside of
self-reported stress levels.
And, no surprise, as stresswent up, the quantity and
(20:39):
quality of sleep went down.
But what was amazing was thenumber of people who, when they
just gave them a notebook andthey said write down whatever's
on your mind, nothing else, noother instructions, no fancy
writing prompts, just write downwhat's on your mind, nothing
else, no other instructions, nofancy writing prompts, just
write down what's on your mind.
Almost across the board therewas an improvement in quantity
(21:05):
and quality of sleep, even inthe face of stress.
Why?
Because it's just like a to-dolist.
If you've ever ever been, ifyou've ever felt stressed out
and you just you feel like youhave a million things going on
and you come up with a to-dolist and it's like, all right,
I'm gonna knock these off one ata time and it's like, oh, all
(21:27):
right, this doesn't feel sooverwhelming, I'm not so
stressed or panicked or anxious.
It's you're getting things outof your working memory and
you're clearing your mind andyou're saying, yes, I have these
thoughts, but I don't need toworry about them right now, I
can take care of it later.
And so you know, journaling isa super powerful activity and a
(21:50):
good place to start is justwhat's on your mind, just do a
brain dump, unload everythingout of your brain so you don't
have to carry it.
It can be somewhere else.
Sometimes, just the act ofwriting down.
You know I'm thinking aboutthis.
And now, instead of thisimaginary thought that's just
(22:13):
rolling around inside of yourmind, now it's this concrete
thing on a piece of paper thatyou can see and you're like, oh
wait a minute, if I was fillingin that chart that we did with
Coach Carnes, that would be inthe box.
That I cannot control.
And it's like, once it becomesa tangible thing, a real life
thing that is written down, thatyou can see, now we can do
(22:33):
something about it.
Now it's not just theseimaginary, anxious, what ifs
that are rolling around insideof our head all the time.
So that is where I usuallystart.
There are some other things, ifwe need to go a little bit
deeper, that I do with athletes.
There are some other things thatI've actually got a team of
(22:53):
counselors that I refer peopleto that can go a little bit
deeper even than what I do, butif you need help in this area,
please don't hesitate to reachout to me, happy to help out in
any way that I can.
If you are a coach, I wouldhighly encourage you to check
out the MTP Academy.
We offer year-round performancetraining for your team.
(23:17):
You don't have to be the expert.
All you do is print theworksheet, play the video, we
deliver the content and then youcome alongside your kids and
say, hey, what's this plan youput together?
How can I help you implementthis?
Or how can I help hold youaccountable, remind you things
like that?
So appreciate you guys tuningin today.
If you found value in thisepisode, please share it with a
(23:39):
friend or maybe another coachthat you think might benefit
from this discussion and, untilnext time, make your plan and
put it to work.
Hey you welcome to the coaching minds podcast, the
official podcast for mentaltraining plan.
We help teams and individualsperform at their best through
online and in-person training.
More than 20 years ago, Iexperienced firsthand what it
feels like to struggle duringcompetition and had no plan to
take back control of what wasgoing on, not only in my mind,
(00:21):
but also physically, on thebaseball diamond.
We talk about all the timemaking a plan and putting it to
work, because just hoping you'llbe able to perform at your best
in big moments isn't a strategythat high performing athletes
use.
So if you're looking for toolsto help you perform at your best
on the field or in theworkplace, you've come to the
right place.
Today, I'm so excited to divein a little bit deeper to the
(00:45):
focus cycle.
If you did not listen toepisode 119, I would encourage
you to pause this episode rightnow.
Go back and listen to 119, andthen come back.
This is going to dive in alittle deeper.
This is assuming that you'vealready used the focus cycle.
So, just as a quick reminder,this came from 2013.
(01:08):
We go down to statechampionship and we've got some
guys just losing physicalcontrol.
They got shaky hands trying tocatch a kick.
We got guys that just mentallywere not able to make the right
decisions, making silly plays.
We had kids emotionally losingcontrol.
We had tears on the sidelineand it was like where do we even
(01:31):
begin to address these problems?
Because everybody's gotsomething different, but really
it was the same things that weregoing on.
There was some big event andthen what people were focused on
saying to themselves and howtheir body was reacting
physically were creating theseemotions and we weren't able to
(01:54):
play at our best.
And you know, we brought insome experts that that next off
season to.
You know, teach our guys, hey,you know, use this and do this
and try that.
And I would say it worked forlike 80% of our team.
But then there was always asmall pocket of athletes that it
was like well, what about thoseguys?
(02:15):
They need something a littlebit different.
And so we developed thisframework, called it the focus
cycle, wrote a book on it.
It is definitely the most commonpresentation that I do for
in-person trainings for teams,for companies.
It's my starting point withathletes that I work with
(02:36):
one-on-one every time and afterthey make their plan, then they
go and put it to work and thensometimes, when they come back
and I say how'd it go, theanswer is they didn't work.
And so today we're going to belooking at what if it's the
(02:57):
focus part that just quoteunquote didn't work.
Now, what do I do If I'm a, ifI'm a coach, and my player says,
hey, this tool that you have meuse, it's not working.
Well, what do I do next?
Or you know, if I'm a, if I'man individual athlete, and I did
the focus cycle and I've got myplan and I tried it out and
(03:19):
something's not working, what doI do next?
So to to start us off, you knowwhen, when an athlete comes back
and says I was, I'm, I'm havinga hard time with the focus
element, um, the first thingthat that I asked them as well,
did you focus on what we wrotedown?
(03:40):
And a lot of times that's, youknow, next shot or the next play
or the next possession, but notgetting caught in the past.
We're not worried about, youknow, things that have happened.
We're not worried about thefuture, we're dialed in in the
present moment, right now.
Sometimes they just forget todo that and you know, I've had
(04:04):
athletes that are like oh yeah,shoot, yeah, I forgot about that
, and so you know we had thisplan, but then, when it was time
to put it into action, it itdidn't happen, and so you know
what do we do next time?
Is that something that maybe youcan write down on your hand?
This play or this pitch, thisserve?
(04:28):
Is it something that you canpractice during practice?
Can you remind yourself beforeevery single play or every
possession at practice this week?
Hey, I'm going to dial in rightnow.
I'm going to focus on this play.
Is it something that you canpractice using visualization?
(04:49):
Can we do a visualizationactivity where you're seeing
yourself in that moment, wherewe're going through, we're using
as many of the five senses aspossible, we're making this as
realistic and as lifelike aspossible, and then we're
practicing.
Okay, I've got some other thingsthat I could be focused on, but
(05:10):
I'm going to choose to dial inon and focus on this.
That would be where I start.
You know, did you actuallyremember to try and focus on
this play or whatever you wrotedown?
Maybe, maybe that wascontrolling the controllables.
Did you actually try to do it?
If they tried to do it, thenthe next thing I'm going to ask
(05:33):
is like all right, let's, let'stake that sheet back out and
let's, let's look at all thethings that you wrote down that
you could control and could notcontrol.
And then it's like, oh, couldcontrol and could not control.
And then it's like, oh, uh, I,I didn't really.
I didn't really do a lot ofthat.
And so if, if that's the case,then I would say maybe they
didn't take the activityseriously.
(05:54):
And there have certainly beentimes where, you know, not so
much in my one-on-one sessions,because I'm sitting there, it's
literally me and this athlete inthe room and I'm looking across
the table at what they'rewriting down and I can see if
they're not taking this seriousand they're not coming up with
enough.
You know things that they canor cannot control.
(06:16):
Then I'm going to walk throughit with them and we're going to
do it together.
But in a team setting where,you know, I've I have had times
where I'm working with a golfteam, for example, we do the
focus cycle session.
This athlete comes back to thecoach and says this just isn't
working.
The athlete reaches out to meand you know we then okay, well,
(06:40):
let's, let's look at that sheet.
What do you have written downin all those boxes and it's not
much.
Then in my mind I'm saying, asthe coach, like, okay, you
didn't take this serious, so weneed to actually go back and we
need to go through the activityagain.
So you know, we need to figureout what are the things that you
(07:01):
can control or cannot control.
What are the things that youcan control or cannot control in
that moment.
Sometimes the issue is, you know, let's say, like a golfer, for
example, they wrote down.
When we did this as a team,they wrote down.
My big moment is before thegolf match starts starts, and
(07:30):
then where they actually gothung up later on in the
tournament was after they wentbogey, bogey, double, and now
the wheels are starting to falloff and now they don't know what
to do.
Okay, well, perfect.
So now we're going to go back.
We now have a new big momentand we're going to go through
and we're going to figure outwhat can you control in that
moment, what can you not control.
And we're going to talk throughthings like you know, the, the
(07:53):
past scores, the, the score thatyou just wrote down for the
previous hole.
Can't do anything about that.
What, how you're going to endup at the end of this round,
can't do anything about that.
What are the things that youcan control?
Well, your attitude and youreffort, your intensity, your
focus.
Then we're going to figure outwhat are the things that matter
(08:16):
right now and the things thatdon't matter right now.
We're going to go through thiswhole activity again and we're
going to basically now come upwith again, and we're going to
basically now come up with okay,well, now that you know all of
these things that we shouldn'tbe focused on, all this stuff
that you've written down, thatyou've gotten out of your mind,
(08:36):
now we're a little bit moredialed in on what we should
focus on, and maybe that's goingto be our routine.
Maybe that's going to be thethings that we can control, and
maybe that's going to be ourroutine.
Maybe that's going to be thethings that we can control.
But a lot of times, just takingthe athlete back through the
process again can be superhelpful.
Another common thing that Ihear is I tried, but I just
(08:59):
couldn't do it, and it's like Iknew what I was supposed to do.
I know exactly how this issupposed to be working, but I'm
telling you it didn't work.
And so what I do a lot of times.
In that case and I'll actuallyinvite all of you to do this
right now go ahead and try thisyou're going to count backwards
(09:27):
by fives.
So a hundred 95, not that's.
You're just going to say itkind of, you know, quietly,
mumble it out loud to yourself,and the only other instruction
is don't listen to anything thatI say until the activity is
over.
Makes sense, all right, makessense, all right.
(09:49):
So you're gonna start at 195, 90, 80.
I want to hear you say it outloud ready, go?
No, no, wait, wait, that you'renot doing it right.
No, that's wrong.
Oh, you're going the wrong way.
Why are you counting down byfive?
You, you never.
You didn't even listen to me.
Are you doing what I asked youto do?
Why are you not doing what Iasked you to do?
This is wrong.
This is wrong.
You can't.
You kind of get the idea, and soyou know it's, it's kind of
(10:12):
weird and it's kind ofuncomfortable and the athlete
sort of looks at you andsometimes they need a prompting
like keep going.
But eventually, like they getthe picture that they can choose
to count down by fives and thenI say, well, what if, instead
of just me telling you you'redoing it wrong.
You were standing in the middleof pick.
(10:34):
Whatever local athletic venueyou're at, we're in the Indy
area.
So I say, let's say you're inthe middle, you're standing at
the 50-yard line of Lucas OilStadium and now, instead of just
me telling you you're doing itwrong, now you've got 65,000
people that are yelling at youand screaming and saying you're
terrible, it wrong.
Now you've got 65,000 peoplethat are yelling at you and
screaming and saying you'reterrible, you can't count,
(10:57):
you're no good.
Like if I said if you can gofrom a hundred down to zero,
counting backwards by fives,I'll give you a million dollars.
Would you be able to, like,dial in on that and focus on
that and do that?
And yes, yes is the answer.
You would absolutely be able todo that.
(11:19):
And so, like, what we want themto know is yes, it's difficult.
Yes, there are distractions.
Yes, I was telling you you'renot doing it right.
You're going to have, maybeopponents talking trash, maybe
the coach isn't helping you out,maybe your teammates are saying
negative things, maybe all thenegative voices are just in your
(11:40):
own head, but like there aregoing to be things competing for
your attention.
But that doesn't mean that justbecause it's hard, that you
can't do it, you can do it.
It's just maybe going to take alittle bit of practice.
It's going to take maybe alittle bit of intentionality.
And so helping them understandthat hard isn't the same as not
(12:06):
possible, I think, is a greatfirst step and just encouraging
them like, okay, we tried this,it was hard.
We know there's other thingscompeting for our attention.
Let's try it.
And maybe a maybe a little bitlower stakes or more of a low
key situation.
Maybe we want to do this atpractice, maybe we want to do
this, you know, right here inthe team room outside of
(12:27):
practice.
Give them the confidence that,yes, they can focus on what they
choose.
Um, there are focus activitiesthat you can do.
Uh, there's.
There was an actually like awebsite or an app that was
called like focus grids orsomething like that, and they
had imagined like a, a, a, threeby three square that has the
(12:51):
numbers one through nine onthere, and you know, the first
time you say, all right, you'regoing to circle every number in
order and they do that.
And then you say, all right,now cross them off going
backwards.
And so then they go nine, eight, seven, six, and they do that,
and then you know you putanother grid up there.
(13:11):
And then this time, maybe youwave your hand in front of their
face and give them a little bitof distraction, maybe you yell
in the background and say no, no, no, you're not doing this
right, stop.
And what they get used to doingis focusing on the task at hand,
whether that's counting up fromone to nine, whether that's
counting backwards, whetherthat's circling all the evens,
(13:34):
underlining all the odds.
Like you, give them a task andthey focus on that task and
ignore whatever else is going on.
Sometimes I'll send them homewith a little worksheet that I
made up.
That's just got a bunch ofdifferent grids on there, and
they'll actually be able topractice using those grids at
home.
Maybe do it with the TV on,maybe do it at the kitchen table
(13:57):
while mom and dad are having aconversation, or something like
that.
Maybe put your phone right nextto it with all those
notifications and all the beepsand the flashes and the things
that are popping up, andpractice focusing on what you
choose, because you can do it.
(14:17):
It's just hard.
Next one that I would say isprobably the most intense is
like I just yes, I know, butit's just so hard and I've got
so many other thoughts swirlingaround.
And if that's the case, thenthere's a few things that we can
(14:39):
do beyond just the focus grids,which I think are a fantastic
activity.
One of them is just silentbreath counting.
And so tell the athletes, setan alarm for 10 minutes on your
phone, or maybe even fiveminutes on your phone, and I
want you to sit in a room that'sdark and I want you to close
(15:03):
your eyes and all I want you todo is count how long you inhale
and then count how long youexhale.
And so they're literally justsitting there in the dark One,
two, three, four, five.
One, two, three, and that's allthey're doing.
(15:24):
And undoubtedly, there are goingto be other thoughts that try
to work their way, like oh man,this, this is uncomfortable, my
back's kind of tight, or why arewe doing this?
This is a waste of time?
Is this actually doing anything?
Am I doing this right?
How do I know if I'm doing thisright?
And as those thoughts come in,all we're trying to do is
(15:47):
redirect our focus back to thebreath.
Why?
Because we're trying to reducebrain activity we're trying to
slow down, kind of the you knowthe opposite of PTSD.
You know, ptsd is where, like asoldier on a battlefield, for
(16:08):
example, is in such a highthreat situation they are.
Just their brain is completelyin that that fight or flight
mode all the time and thatswitch almost just gets like
stuck on and they can't calmback down.
This is trying to do theopposite to your brain.
This is trying to take awaysome of that extra stimuli.
(16:31):
This is trying to slow downbrain activity.
This is trying to get you torelax, to realize that we don't
have to be completely go, go, go, go, go, turned on, a hundred
percent engaged, entertained allthe time.
And so this is this issomething that you know some
(16:52):
athletes will absolutely lovethis.
I'll be honest.
Some athletes, it makes themsuper uncomfortable and they
don't like it.
Um, but we need to findsomething that's going to slow
down their brain.
I've got a golfer who triedthis and she hated it.
But then she went to a yogaclass with one of her teammates
(17:13):
and all they were doing wasstretching and listening to, you
know, their instructor tellthem to inhale and when to
exhale, and it was like theywere doing the exact same thing.
Neurologically, they're reducingbrain activity.
They had some physical elementstied in with it.
So, you know, find some way toreduce brain activity.
(17:39):
Find some activity that's goingto help you with that.
There are mindfulness apps outthere.
The Calm app was one that Iused for a while.
They used to give free lifetimeaccounts to educators.
I don't believe that they dothat anymore.
There's YouTube videos outthere.
(17:59):
There are resources that canhelp you slow down.
I know getting into likeEastern meditation kind of weird
some people out.
This doesn't have to haveanything to do with religion or
anything like that, or being onewith the religion or anything
like that, or being one with theuniverse or anything like that.
This can be purely.
You are thinking about thepresent moment that you are in
(18:23):
right now and focusing on whatyou're doing, which, at this
moment, is just taking somebreaths.
Um, we, you know.
Another thing that I'll talkabout a lot with athletes is
like what's your input?
You know, what are the, whatare the things that you consume?
Help me understand when you'reat home.
Are you on your phone?
(18:45):
Are you playing video games?
Are you watching tv?
Like what are the things thatyou're filling your mind with
all the time, because a lot oftimes, athletes especially will
get into this comparison game,where their algorithm has so
many highlight videos andrecruiting clips of other kids
that they just get so caught upin playing the comparison game
(19:09):
and so they're literally layingin bed, raising cortisol levels,
increasing anxious feelings intheir amygdala, like they are.
They are doing more harm thangood with their phone, and so
it's like take some time to getoff your phone and put it away
and put it in airplane mode or,better yet, turn it off.
(19:31):
Put it away at least a halfhour before you're trying to go
to bed and quit filling yourmind with all kinds of input and
content and just relax and restand really recover.
Another one that I think issuper powerful is journaling,
(19:53):
and so there was there's, anactivity that that we use,
called the permission to forgetjournal.
We're like a golfer who, let'ssay, is worried about slicing
their long irons in the middleof a round.
Say, that's all right, just putit in the, put it in the
notebook, fix it later, and whatthat does is it gets it out of
your working memory and so yourbrain is able to go oh, there's
(20:16):
a plan for that.
We'll fix it later.
We don't need to be in panicmode.
Let's just go back to playinggolf and it comes from.
There was a study that was done,a sleep study, where they
tracked the quantity and qualityof sleep alongside of
self-reported stress levels.
And, no surprise, as stresswent up, the quantity and
(20:39):
quality of sleep went down.
But what was amazing was thenumber of people who, when they
just gave them a notebook andthey said write down whatever's
on your mind, nothing else, noother instructions, no fancy
writing prompts, just write downwhat's on your mind, nothing
else, no other instructions, nofancy writing prompts, just
write down what's on your mind.
Almost across the board therewas an improvement in quantity
(21:05):
and quality of sleep, even inthe face of stress.
Why?
Because it's just like a to-dolist.
If you've ever ever been, ifyou've ever felt stressed out
and you just you feel like youhave a million things going on
and you come up with a to-dolist and it's like, all right,
I'm gonna knock these off one ata time and it's like, oh, all
(21:27):
right, this doesn't feel sooverwhelming, I'm not so
stressed or panicked or anxious.
It's you're getting things outof your working memory and
you're clearing your mind andyou're saying, yes, I have these
thoughts, but I don't need toworry about them right now, I
can take care of it later.
And so you know, journaling isa super powerful activity and a
(21:50):
good place to start is justwhat's on your mind, just do a
brain dump, unload everythingout of your brain so you don't
have to carry it.
It can be somewhere else.
Sometimes, just the act ofwriting down.
You know I'm thinking aboutthis.
And now, instead of thisimaginary thought that's just
(22:13):
rolling around inside of yourmind, now it's this concrete
thing on a piece of paper thatyou can see and you're like, oh
wait a minute, if I was fillingin that chart that we did with
Coach Carnes, that would be inthe box.
That I cannot control.
And it's like, once it becomesa tangible thing, a real life
thing that is written down, thatyou can see, now we can do
(22:33):
something about it.
Now it's not just theseimaginary, anxious, what ifs
that are rolling around insideof our head all the time.
So that is where I usuallystart.
There are some other things, ifwe need to go a little bit
deeper, that I do with athletes.
There are some other things thatI've actually got a team of
(22:53):
counselors that I refer peopleto that can go a little bit
deeper even than what I do, butif you need help in this area,
please don't hesitate to reachout to me, happy to help out in
any way that I can.
If you are a coach, I wouldhighly encourage you to check
out the MTP Academy.
We offer year-round performancetraining for your team.
(23:17):
You don't have to be the expert.
All you do is print theworksheet, play the video, we
deliver the content and then youcome alongside your kids and
say, hey, what's this plan youput together?
How can I help you implementthis?
Or how can I help hold youaccountable, remind you things
like that?
So appreciate you guys tuningin today.
If you found value in thisepisode, please share it with a
(23:39):
friend or maybe another coachthat you think might benefit
from this discussion and, untilnext time, make your plan and
put it to work.
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