Athletes are creatures of habit. You see them doing certain exercises and warm-ups before a competition and then you wonder why do it that way, while another athlete is doing something totally different.
When I speak with coaches and their teams I like to stress that there are ways to help the athletes get ready and develop into tougher, more focused, and even more resilient athletes.
If you are a coach you can follow these steps with your team to help them reach a tremendous new level.
If you aren't sure about a few of these steps please feel free to connect with the Coach and he will be happy to go through the process of the steps.
THE TOP 7 WAYS TO DEVELOP TOUGH, FOCUSED, AND RESILIENT ATHLETES
1 TEACH THEM TO BREATHE.
The fight or flight response is real and it’s also cumulative. If they are stressed about school or life, it will show up on the playing field. Remember, a little stress makes you tough, a lot of stress makes you weak. Pro Tip: Make sure you breathe, too. Even if it’s a few breaths in practice, timeouts, or breaks. Even small changes can make a big difference.
2 CELEBRATE FAILURE AND RISK.
Start by talking about your own failure in the pre-practice huddle. Being vulnerable and honest builds immense trust and credibility. Show your ‘ugly’ stuff and they’ll respect you more. Pro Tip: Make failure a ‘thing’, one day a week, someone (starting with you) shares a failure story and gets high fives.
3 ENCOURAGE POSITIVE SELF-TALK IN AN ACTIONABLE WAY.
Build up their self-awareness with questions like: “When you failed in that drill, what were you saying to yourself?” Then, help them SELF-correct with questions like, “What would have been a more helpful way of speaking to yourself?” Pro Tip: Combine this with the mistake/reset ritual for maximum impact (see tip #6).
4 DON’T PRETEND LOSING SHOULDN’T HURT BUT MAKE IMPROVING THE FOCUS.
When you lose, talk about how proud you are that they fought to win (if they did). Always focus on the process of improving. Pro Tip: Keep the standards consistent so even when you win, call them out if they didn’t really push themselves.
5 TEACH POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS AND HOW TO VISUALIZE REALISTIC GOALS.
Talk about your own goals, even if you think your adult goals won’t be relevant to them. They need to see you growing and stretching and dreaming (and failing). Pro Tip: Not sure where to start with affirmations and visualizations? See step 7 to learn about our popular BRAVR™ method.
6 HELP THEM CREATE A MISTAKE/RESET RITUAL FOR WHEN THEY DO FAIL, ESPECIALLY IN COMPETITION.
This ritual has to be utilized in practice, too. Repetition is key. Pro Tip: For step-by-step instructions on mistake rituals and other competition routines, join us in our free masterclass for coaches: GameFace: Inside the Minds of Great Competitors.
7 TEACH THEM HOW TO VISUALIZE AND DO IT TOGETHER AS A PRE-PRACTICE MENTAL WARM-UP.
We all need time to focus. It shouldn’t take long but it’s well worth a few minutes to warm up their minds just as you do their bodies. Pro Tip: You can read about our mental warmup with our popular 5-minute, the 5-step method in The BRAVR™ How-To-Guide.
Whether if you are a athlete reading this or a coach, these simple but very powerful steps will help you and your game. As some have said, whatever advantage you can get use it for you to be better then what you are up against.
Coach Nye
Comments