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Mental Approach

Three things occur whenever we do anything:

  1. Our approach – how prepared we are for any task.
  2. The outcome of any task.
  3. Our response to the outcome.
    • We control two of those things.
      1. Approach
      2. Response

Mentally we must be aware of these two things in everything we do.

When we don't like the outcome of any event we must look inside to find the answer and we need to ask these things of ourselves?

  1. What was I trying to do?
  2. What went wrong?
  3. What do I want to do next time?
    • The answers we find will develop our plan for the next task.
    • We should take responsibility for our approach and response, and disregard outcomes during a task.
    • WE need trust that a good approach and a good response are means that are most likely to bring about good ends.

Self Talk

Each of you is the most important coach you will ever have in your life.

  1. Each of you must examine quickly what is happening during competition. Your difficulty might be one of three things.
    • Psychologically: Ex. having distracting thoughts or trying to do much.
    • Philosophically: Ex. taking the wrong shot at the wrong time.
    • Mechanically: Ex. forgetting your keys for successful dodges.
    No one else can coach you immediately before or during your execution of any task – besides YOURSELF!!
  2. As a performer you must have the presence of mind to take the time to gather and control your thoughts. When things are going wrong for you, your instinct is to get out of the "wrongness" quickly. So you might accelerate your thinking process and accesses to body movements. You rush yourself and very often spin out of control. Unfortunately this tendency is counterproductive. YOU MUST LEARN TO SLOW YOURSELF DOWN, GATHER YOUR THOUGHTS AND COMPOSURE MAKE A MENTAL AND/OR PHYSICAL ADJUSTMENT WITH AN AGGRESSIVE MIND BUT RELAXED MUSCLES: APPROACH THE NEXT TASK.
  3. You must coach yourself in positive terms, telling yourself what you want to do, rather than what not to do.
  • Each of you must take the responsibility of learning how to coach yourself during competition.
  • Individually when we are unhappy about what is going on during competition each of you must take the opportunity to pause and make himself aware of the problem.
  • Remember to coach yourself on what you want to do rather than what you don’t want to do.
  • Exhale deeply, to relieve possible tension.
  • Recognize that positive self-talk will enhance his ability to perform, whereas negative self-talk will focus on and encourage failure.
  • During competition, talk about the task and how to approach it to yourself.

Positive ways to self talk during competition:

  • I will…
  • I'll find a way…
  • I'll adjust…