It is a given that the mind and body are intrinsically connected. As a general rule of thumb: If one feels crummy, the other follows.If one feels great, the other does too. When the body experiences a lot of physical and psychological stress (a sports season being one example), it wears quite significantly on the body and the mind. It’s not enough to take a day off. Instead, one needs a Reset Day- a day completing dedicated to getting ‘back on track’- physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. There is something significant about taking a full day, a dedicated effort, a sense that one will be different (i.e. rested) after the said day than they were before.

To my clients, I recommend taking a Reset Day which consists of the following in order:

• Physical: You can do something physical but not too taxing- shooting, stretching, walk through, even getting in the pool. And it shouldn’t last more than 45 minutes. Anything more than that is psychologically taxing.

• NO FILM! I know this is difficult for coaches but film is way too psychologically draining.

• Regeneration- When I was playing in Europe we did a regeneration day every week, which basically consisted of sitting in hot mineral (muddy) water with old men looking at us. Here in the USA, a training room hot or ice bath is recommended along with any other rehab individual athletes need.

• Down time- I would recommend some sort of relaxation time. For my clients they have rest and relaxation guided visualizations that they listen to with their eyes closed laying down in the locker room. For you it might be soft music or a meditation session. It’s okay if your players fall asleep. They need to let their bodies and mind really rest on this day.

• Reflective time- journaling or talking in small groups can be a helpful exercise (especially if your team hasn’t been playing great). This shouldn’t be too long-20 minutes max. This isn’t designed to be a retreat, just a time to unwind their minds.

• Hydration/Nutrition- Fill up their water bottles (once or twice) and have them force fluids throughout the day. Have them agree to a healthy dinner or arrange a special training table meal.

• Sleep!!!!-Have your players decide what a reasonable bed time is that night. It should be earlier than usual and decided upon by everyone. You can print out thisarticleI wrote about the importance of sleep and how much it affects athlete’s performance. If you’re players experience sleep issues, natural remedies such as melatonin can be very helpful.

To schedule a FREE 30 minute consultation to discuss your team’s Reset Day click here.  It is not required that you use or will use Positive Performance services to benefit from this consultation.

I work with athletes a lot on fear. The problem is this: most athletes think feeling fear is a weakness. It’s not. Our bodies are designed to feel fear- the problem lies only in the lack of tools to deal with fear, letting fear run your life, being scared of fear. Fear is often just about being uncomfortable. Being uncomfortable is a GOOD thing, only then can one learn how to deal with being uncomfortable.

I’ve had a few experiences lately that have made me think about fear in a very personal way: two were in the ocean, one was on a flying trapeze. (yes that’s me in the photo flying through the air).

I went snorkeling in Hawaii over the holidays, which normally wouldn’t be that significant except for this time in particular. It was a terrible idea. Once my boyfriend and I finally walked over the rocky shore and got in the water, the tide shifted and we were caught in a washing machine of currents. The strength of the ocean was throwing us around while the tsunami warning siren went off from shore. One second we were thrown up against lava rock, the next we were dragged out to sea with the tide, we were getting tossed around with the waves and swallowing water. We couldn’t swim in, and we couldn’t hold on to the rocks. It was terrifying.

We did eventually find a rock that we held on to as the ocean tried to break us free. We waited and then swam to the next rock bloody and bruised, finally making our way to each rock closer to shore.

The experience was scary of course, but it really made me think about fear in a new way. When I felt the tide shift, when I felt that powerlessness in the strength of the ocean, when I heard the tsunami warning system go off, I wanted to panic. My mind started thinking, ‘this is the end, we are caught in a tsunami, we are screwed.”

But I didn’t panic. I started thinking of options- which rock to swim to, when to let go, what angles would work best. My boyfriend did the same and we made it safely to shore, with a little less skin on our knees and a lot more respect/fear of the power of the ocean.

A few days later we were in the water again on boogie boards and we heard someone yelling “HELP, HELP”. Turning around we saw two snorkelers waving their hands in the air and screaming 100 feet from us. My boyfriend and I started swimming towards them as they tried to stay afloat in the strong current. When we got there, the man was white as a ghost, trembling and gasping for air. He was completely panicked. We gave him a board to lean on and reassuring words that he wasn’t in fact going to die today. He immediately relaxed, coughed up some water and started breathing normally.

We got back to shore and the young man came up to us, still in shock and not entirely sure what had just happened.  He said thanks and told us as soon as he saw us that he knew it was going to be okay. That’s all he needed. Fear had over took him and he wasn’t being rational.

I had never really completely understood the correlation between panic and drowning. It made sense to me that it wouldn’t help the situation but I hadn’t seen it in action until this trip. And even more than that, the correlation between panicking and breathing and drowning. Because that is the key here- panicking leads to uneven breathing, which leads to swallowing water, which leads to more panicking.

As if that weren’t enough excitement in my life, when I got back to Seattle, I took a trapeze class with my sister in law. It was awesome. But talk about an opportunity to panic! I got strapped in to a harness and dropped myself off of a moving trapeze bar, did a back flip off the swinging bar and did a catch with a man swinging on the opposite bar. I am not a gymnast, these things do not come second nature to me. In fact, every single part of my body was screaming, ‘what are you DOING?’ Jumping from high platforms, thrusting your head back into the air and holding on with just your legs 30 feet in the air is against most of our instincts.

Again it was a rational fear, but it was applied in an irrational way. I was harnessed in, with someone literally holding a rope that could suspend me in air if need be. The fear I experienced was not helpful- it makes you tight in breathing, cramps up muscles or makes them shake. It affects your body moving easily through the air-one can’t backflip with a hesitant mindset or muscles that aren’t firing. In fact, a hesitant, scared mindset is the one thing that can make the trapeze dangerous, just like panicking in the ocean and breathing in water.

The lessons in all this is that fear is a not a good or bad thing, it’s entirely how it is applied. There are places that fear is helpful and it can certainly keep us safer, but it’s also not something we should try to avoid. Fear is our bodies response to something new, not necessarily something dangerous, and only by facing our fears, recognizing the rational and irrational ones and then working through them, can we grow outside of our comfort zones.

Read more about our Mental Training Services or sign up for our newsletter by clicking here. 

Why not give yourself a gift this season? The gift of stress reduction. Get somewhere comfortable where you won’t be disturbed. Turn off your phone, close your eyes, and just listen by clicking here:  RelaxationVisualization

You know the player: he or she is so ridiculously hard on themselves that they might as well be playing with handcuffs on. They obsess about mistakes, they have anxiety about failure that hasn’t even happened, they are at times even harder on themselves than you are on them.

One of the biggest issues I see repeatedly in my work with athletes is the tendency to expect perfection, be obsessive about details, be competitive to the point of making yourself sick with anxiety. I call it a ‘rigid’ mindset. High standards are of course desirable, and if you ask any coach they’d obviously prefer perfectionist athletes over unmotivated and lazy. But the problem with this perfectionism is that it almost always leads to anxiety, fear, and unnecessary stress.

I know this because I had this tendency myself. And the upside was that this rigid mindset kept me in the gym shooting for hours, made me lift weights on days when my body woke up screaming, and wouldn’t let me quit until I did the entire workout, shot a perfect swish, or won whatever competition I was engaged in. It was a very good thing when applied to my work ethic.

But then I got a little older and my work ethic was solidified. I was in the habit of outworking people, I was set in my routines of shooting and lifting and running. I knew how and what to do to keep me at the top of my game.

And I started noticing that this mentality that had gotten me so far, was now holding me back when it came to competition. And this is why:

This rigid mentality that can be so helpful in our quest for improvement, actually holds us back when we take it into performance and competition.

In other words, we can continue to be obsessive about the work that goes into success, but we must learn to turn that off when it comes to performing successfully. Players must play with a ‘free’ mindset and let go of the rigidity of perfection.

This can be much easier said than done, unless of course one learns some mental skills training, which is what I did. Sometimes I would revert, try to control the game, try too hard, feel anxiety and stress when things didn’t go perfectly, but by then I was training my mind and had the skills and tools to get back to the right mindset. And so I learned a simple but profound truth: Be obsessive about your work ethic, but then let the game flow through you.

Next time we’ll talk about the skills and tools I used that allowed me to do this.

As always you can learn more at our website www.positiveperform.com

This is the most recent article I wrote for Coach & Athletic Director Magazine:

There is often a sink or swim mentality in competitive sports-either athletes ‘get it’ or they don’t. It’s survival of the fittest. Which would make sense if you had an unlimited number of athletes but seems sort of silly when you don’t. Why not give them the all the tools they need to optimize their potential? Wouldn’t every team in America benefit from having more of their athletes survive and thrive?

The Navy SEALS certainly think so. They are known of course to have the toughest military training in the world. When they talk about sink or swim, they really mean it.

The SEALS stand for sea, air, and land fighting. Their training includes jumping out of airplanes, nearly drowning and generally playing with death all in a day’s work. You might ask what this has to do with sports. A lot actually. Of course it’s different than athletics in some respects but surprisingly very similar in others: they recruit young people, train them vigorously, and then have them perform in highly stressful situations.

Their recruiting process in notoriously stringent. The Navy SEALS want the best of the best:  the toughness, the fittest, most intelligent candidates they can find. And they get them.

Then they train them to perform, to execute, to make split second critical decisions under pressure. 

The problem was it wasn’t working. Despite their dream team of candidates, 75% of them were failing in the first weeks of training.

This posed a huge problem of course. Not only did they need new graduates, it was also really expensive.

So they started to pay more attention and what they noticed was this: the candidates weren’t failing physically, they were failing mentally. Despite their highly educated, highly screened pool of recruits, many of them lacked the mental skills necessary to be successful.

For example, one component to their training program involves the notorious underwater battle training. Cadets, in full scuba gear, work on a combat type activity underwater while their instructors tamper with their hose, tank, and tear their mouth piece away so they can’t breathe.

The natural response for these cadets is to panic, after all it feels like they are drowning. Naturally, their brain evokes the fight or flight response: their cognitive functions shut down, their respiratory and cardiovascular functions heighten, fine motor skills deteriorate and primal instinct rules. They can’t think, they can’t problem solve, and they can’t be rational.

This is all in a swimming pool mind you but their brain doesn’t care. They perceive a threatening situation and instinct takes over. Which is entirely natural. That’s why the failing candidates weren’t mentally weak, they were simply human. What they hadn’t yet learned was how to control their instinctive reaction to stress.

But the SEALS soon realized that recruits could be trained to respond to threats properly through mental conditioning.  When they were taught to relax, breathe and focus on short-term goals (as in the next 10 seconds), use positive self-talk, and visualize they could deal with the stress of the situation and find a solution (See Positive Performance’s BAVS™method in the sidebar). Panic was replaced with solid decision-making. 

Their mental conditioning program is based around the concept of neuroplasticity (brain plasticity), which is the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life.

For decades scientists believe that the human brain was static. They believed that after a certain developmental stage was passed, our brain stopped growing and changing.

What we know now is that our brain is highly adaptable. Not only can the brain compensate for physical changes such as injury and disease, but it can adjust the neuron’s activities in response to new situations or to changes in environment. In laymen’s terms, the brain can change and adapt with the correct training.

A great example of this is so simple we don’t even recognize it. What happens when you hear a whistle? You stop and look. Do you have to think about it? No. Is it is a skill that you were born with? Of course not, it’s a learned skill. You react to an impulse in a predictable way because your brain has been TRAINED to do so. It has physically adapted, through neurological changes, to perform in a certain way.

We take this brainpower for granted with our physical body- mostly because we can see the changes. When our neurons start firing faster in agility drills, we can see the results. When our physical skills improve and get more fluid due to neurological changes, we believe in it. When it comes to purely mental skills, however, we don’t trust that the brain has the capacity for change and improvement.

It does.

As the SEALS have shown, the brain can even be taught to override our primitive instincts, which we used to assume were hardwired. In fact, the SEALS mental training has been so effective that it increased their pass rate by over one third.

This knowledge has huge implications for athletes. Your athletes may not be heading into war zones or jumping out of airplanes but in essence, the brain doesn’t know the difference. Our fight or flight response hasn’t evolved to recognize real threats versus imagined threats. Which is why our brains read every competition as a potential life or death situation. (It’s also why we get a rush of stress hormones in traffic.) And it’s why the SEALS cadets have a primal reaction in a swimming pool with plenty of rescuers surrounding them. It’s not the absolute actual threat, it’s our PERCEPTION of a threat.

You won’t find an athlete, at any level that doesn’t feel this primal stress and pressure. For most athletes, their sport is the single most intense thing in their life. Most of them feel more acute pressure on the athletic field than they do in school or social situations. After all, when they are playing their sport they have an audience, they have expectations, and they have a huge potential for failure. Many if not most have very few coping skills when things get difficult. Which is why their primitive instincts take over and we say things like they are “scared to death” or they are “a deer in the headlights.”

There is nothing wrong with them feeling this way initially. Sports provide challenges, which are a great test of their mental skills and capacity.  In fact, much like the SEALS instructors, coaches work relentlessly to put their athletes in those types of difficult situations in the hopes that they will grow and adapt.

But what we can learn from the SEALS is how to better facilitate that growth and adaptation. Sure we can throw our young athletes in the pool, let them panic, and hope that they eventually learn to swim. Some will, some won’t. Or we can take the time to train their minds so they develop the mental skills required to react appropriately, stay afloat and eventually thrive, on the playing field and off.

So this year, as you decide on a physical training plan, think about a training plan for the brain- you’ll be amazed at how many of your athletes are fully capable of not only surviving, but thriving, when given the correct mental tools. 

As always go to our website for more information on mental training. www.positiveperform.com

Close your eyes, take a deep breath and think about one of your earliest memories of basketball. Think of a time when you were a little girl or little boy playing on a playground by your house, shooting hoops with your dad or your sister or a neighborhood friend. Remember how much fun it was, how freeing it was, how you wanted to stay out there all day long.

That’s a small part of a guided visualization I do regularly with the athletes I work with. This simple, sort of silly paragraph of text can be enormously powerful. Whether these athletes are struggling with confidence, not having fun, unmotivated, or frustrated this exercise can often lock them into a positive mindset in the matter of a few minutes.

For coaches it’s important to do the same thing- lock into the love of why you do what you do. With all the stress and pressure college coaches deal with, getting back to the root of your motivation can help drive you forward in a healthy, positive way. Too often, as we all aspire for greatness, we lose the perspective we need to enjoy ourselves along the way. If you are so inclined, do the following exercise for yourself and see how you feel (if you were a player you can also do the first exercise):

After you read this paragraph, close your eyes, take a deep breath and think about one of your earliest memories of coaching basketball. Think of the pure enjoyment you got out of helping young people grow through their sport, helping them overcome obstacles and challenge themselves. Remember how much fun it was, how rewarding it was, and how content you felt giving your all to the sport you love. Remember how those young athletes looked at you, the first time someone called you ‘Coach’, the first time an athlete gave you a hug and said ‘Thank you, Coach’. Remember a big victory that tested you and tested your athletes- a game that mattered not because of the score but because it helped you grow. 

This August as you (hopefully) have time for a break, I challenge you to think about your earliest memories of coaching, your motivation, your energy, your endless passion. It can give you a renewed focus for this season and help you ensure your inner drive is fueled by positive thoughts and your passion for helping young people be all they can be.

Interview with Gonzaga’s Head Women’s Basketball Coach Kelly Graves.

Warning:

-You may very well feel like this is a waste of time.

-You will probably worry if you are doing it wrong and judge yourself.

-You may feel stupid for spending time doing something so simple.

-You may feel more anxious at first because you will be more aware of your inner thoughts and feelings.

-Your mind will probably wander to all sorts of important and unimportant things.

Vacations can give us time for self-reflection, which is good but can also unlock feelings of being unproductive or stir up old emotions that are easier to ignore in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Back in the day, I hated taking days off. I thought it was boring.  And I never thought about rest in the context of a larger picture. It just felt lazy. My first real vacation wasn’t until I was well into my 20s and even then I remember running on the beach feeling sort of odd without the structure of practice.

And that sort of drive is typical for many athletes and coaches, we are all used to going going going. That’s mentality is what got us to where we are…. It can also be the kiss of death for ambition, health, happiness and many other useful and productive emotions.

But vacations serve a vital purpose in our overall reach for success. But for some of us, we need to prepare to enjoy our vacation. Here’s how to make your vacation the most productive, healthy, and healing getaway you’ve experienced:

*plan ahead- delegate delegate delegate responsibilities that just can’t be ignored for a week (recruiting, players, emails etc.) There are some things that need to be dealt with every day, it just doesn’t always have to be done by you.

*limit technology- If you can’t completely ignore your phone and computer, give yourself some limits ahead of time and stick too them. Have a certain time every day that you check them (once or maybe twice) and don’t bring your phone with you on excursions or to the pool-it’s easier to ignore your phone if you can’t hear your phone.

*reframe rest- discipline is a good thing. So be disciplined about rest, vacation, downtime. Standing still in life and regrouping is as much a part of moving forward as going, going, going.

*exercise not workout- I can rest my body for a few days and then I just get antsy, my legs and back start to ache and I feel heavy. So I don’t think a vacation has to include a lack of movement. So I exercise. It might not be in the gym, it might not even be long or tiring unless I really feel like it. I listen to my body. I enjoy nature. I do something active-running outside, hiking in the mountains, biking through the wine country, swimming in an outdoor pool, playing tennis on a sunny morning.

*have some alone time- As stated earlier, self-reflection time is not always fun but it is necessary. Some people prefer busy vacations and that is fine, but make sure you have some alone time to think and regroup and analyze your goals. Vacations can help ensure we are staying on track with what we want but it’s difficult to have time to think if you are constantly around others.

Where is your favorite vacation spot? Share with us here. 
My top 5:
1. Greek Islands (Santorini, Crete)
2. Fallen Leaf Lake, Tahoe
3. Portola Valley, CA
4. Eilat, Israel
5. Split, Croatia

Let’s face it, most seasons end in disappointment with a loss or some kind of unfinished business. The silver lining in all this is that disappointment can be a powerful motivator. But it can also be crushing.

Some teams grow, some crumble. Much of this has to do with an individual’s outlook and confidence; much of it has to do with the culture of the team and the coaches expectations.

This is the time of year to challenge your athletes to improve. The taste of failure can be the fuel that motivates them this Spring and Summer to be ready to wipe that taste away come Fall.  OR, it can be the evidence they need that all their hard work just isn’t worth it.

Here are 3 things coaches can do to ensure their team is one that grows from adversity:

1. Let them decide their poison

There is no way to avoid pain. You either risk the pain of disappointment or the pain of regret. Many people pick the pain of regret simply by default because there isn’t such a tangible risk to it and it’s far less public. There are a LOT of people that live in fear and you no doubt have some of them on your team. I know it’s difficult to relate. It might even be really irritating. But remember, they might just need a little help making a decision.

It can be helpful for them to refocus by thinking about which they choose: The pain of regret or the pain of disappointment. The pain of regret is easy to ignore, the pain of disappointment is not. And although disappointment can be a sharper pain, it also comes with it the wonderful feeling of success, of pride, of accomplishment. Regret has no such silver lining. If they really want to give everything they have, agree to hold them accountable in that. But always try to let them come to that decision on their own.

2. Encourage them to focus on short term and long term goals

It’s important for athletes to have a long-term vision for their career but research has proven what most of us already know, we need short-term rewards. Weekly, monthly, even daily progress checks can be a huge motivator for athletes. They need to feel invested in their progress and get a regular feeling of accomplishment and achievement. Writing down goals, sharing progress reports, utilizing charts posted in the locker room can be huge for your athletes. Believe it or not, none of us have moved that far away cognitively from the ‘gold star for good behavior’ model. (even YOU!) If you are frustrated with this generation’s short-term attention span, their inability to deal with more than 140 characters, start using it to your advantage.

3. Use Peer Pressure wisely

Research into modern warfare has proven the fear of letting comrades down is a MORE powerful motivator than self-survival. Soldiers will worry more about defending their fellow soldiers than they will about dying.

If you can identify a few athletes on your team that work hard and can lead, give them some authority and let them hold their teammates accountable. It’s much easier for most of us to let down an authority figure (often with a ‘screw you’ mentality), than it is for us to let down a teammate, friend, peer. There is a stronger sense of shame attached to letting down the group and one that you can use to your advantage. Instead of a coach yelling, have a teammate speak- it just might be the kick in the butt that your players need.

For more information on Positive Performance and what we can do for your program click here. 

Sometimes athletes hit a plateau and stop improving the way that they want. This can be frustrating and lead to some very negative and unproductive mindsets. When an athlete is working hard physically and still not improving, the reason is usually mental.

Visualization can help athletes work through that in a few ways:

• 1. by visualizing past successes and learning from them
• 2. from studying their ideal mental performance state in a controlled environment
• 3. by exploring places for improvement away from the intensity of competition.