Welcome to Coach Traub's Newsletter
Mental Skills Tips!!!!
Mental Skills Training = Performance Enhancement and Personal Growth
My mission is to over-deliver value on goods and services designed to help you "win" the mental game. I always welcome your comments, questions, stories, or
MVP nominations.
This issue's theme:
TRUST
Getting into a trusting mode unleashes an athlete's potential and requires simply
that he or she is
confident and
focused
.
-Coach Traub
Contents:
Article: Getting Into Trust Mode
Coaching Point: Are You an Enabler?
"Overheard" from Inside the Minds of Great Athletes
EXTRAordinary Quotes
Getting Into Trust Mode
Today's Mental Skills Tip -
My definition of 'winning' the mental game, revisited:
I will give my best effort one step at a time and accept whatever happens
. Athletes give their best effort when they are performing from a trusting mode. To do this, they must be confident and focused (as opposed to distracted by thinking too much) while performing.
In competition, execution is the name of the game. It is much more important than talent, reputation, potential, or even desire, . Execution is a function of both physical skills and mental skills, but physical skills won't change much during one season or one post-season. In a week, day, or even an instant, however, mental skill can fluctuate from Mars to the Moon.
The team that wins the big game will be the one whose players get into their "trust mode" more often than their opponents.
There are other important mental skills, too, but "trusting it" has to be at the top of the list.
How does an athlete get confident and focused, so that he can
trust it and let it happen
? He learns to consciously increase his confidence by preparing well and by developing an optimistic explanatory style. When something tries to get in the way, like a mistake, a stroke of bad luck, or an opponent's behavior, this championship athlete won't let it interfere with his confident attitude or body language. He knows the mistake was just a one-time thing and that he's still good, and he doesn't let things outside of his control bother him.
By emphasizing good thoughts and carrying himself with poise, he gets his mind right and his body right. He is creating ideal state, which sets the stage for a peak performance.
I've said it before, and I'll say it many more times: the three steps needed to give a best effort performance are:
(1) create ideal state (e.g. confident, having fun, intense, under control, and relaxed)
(2) commit to a plan of attack, and
(3) focus singularly on the task-at-hand.
In step two, he defines what he wants to do on the next play in controllable terms with the simplest plan possible for the current situation. He's programming his own computer so that he doesn't have to think about it while he does it. He knows that to trust it and get his brain out of the way, he must
keep it simple.
Committing to his plan allows him to just see it and act or react. At 'go' time, step 3, he trusts that he's doing everything he can to give his best effort, so he is at peace and can focus wholly on the task-at-hand. No regrets about the past; no worries about the future. He will do the opposite of thinking too much. This focus on the process of doing his job
unleashes his potential. He is trusting it and letting whatever will happen, happen.
COACHING POINT
- The most important coach any athlete will ever have is himself, but you're pretty high up on that list, too. You influence your athletes/kids/teammates with every communication you deliver, verbal and non-verbal. If trusting is so important for their performance and you want to win, you'd better make your communications lead to trusting more rather than less. Unfortunately, it is possible to slip up and communicate mechanical corrections, strategic teaching
points, restated standards, and negative emotions too often. I'm not saying don't do these at all. I'm suggesting that you should be aware, especially during intense competition, of whether or not your communications are likely to help you get what you want most. Perhaps that teaching point could wait until after the game and perhaps your own emotions that are tied up with winning and losing could be hidden so that those around you feel like winners as long as
they continue to give their best effort.
POINT 2:
Keeping a log is a great way to increase awareness and promote effective adjustments. I have a one-page worksheet for athletes for self-evaluation relating to getting into a trusting mode. If you would like it, free, simply reply to this email and request it.
"Overheard" from the Minds of some Great Athletes:
Poor Self-Talk can be transformed
into
Fantastic Self-Talk
Counter: I stink.
to I've done this well many times before.
Reframe: I've gotta fix my mechanics
.
to
That was just a mistake - they happen. I've gotta TRUST my mechanics.
Change: I'm not sure about that (strategic plan). to
Go with it or change it, but I've gotta COMMIT to what I want to do here.
Change: Please, God, let me do well.
to
I trust that I will give the best effort possible, and I can live with whatever happens from there.
Counter: I gotta...
to
Trust it. Just see it and do it.
Counter: I just need a little extra right here.
to
I've got plenty of juice. I'll just let it come to me and it'll work out well.
You can bring Coach Traub straight to your
team.
Banquet Speaking. Practice Workshops. Peak Performance Camps. Performance Enhancement Seminars.
Tug McGraw,
"You gotta believe."
Joe Montana,
"Confidence is a very fragile thing.'"
Harvey Penick
, "You must accept your disappointments and triumphs equally."
Nancy Lopez
, "The first thing I do after losing is forget it."
Coach Wooden Quote-of-the-Month:
"Don't permit fear of failure to prevent effort. We are all imperfect and will fail on occasions, but fear of failure is the greatest failure of all."
Coaches Reminder:
"They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."
For getting this far, I have warm wishes for you...
May your hunt for excellence be fruitful and never-ending.
May you not only hold on to the dreams you've had, but also dream greater
dreams
than before. May you not only enjoy this land and its wealth, but also
enjoy the wind at your back as you make it a better place to live
by giving and loving generously.
God bless.
Coach Traub
Enjoy your job. Know your job. Do your job!
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