The Mental Game of Rafa Nadal

For any athlete or coach who is looking for ideas and information on mental skills (especially if your sport is tennis), I would highly recommend RAFA by Rafael Nadal and John Carlin. Nadal does an excellent job of sharing his personal story about his development as a tennis player and athlete, and how he mentally prepared himself for every practice, game and tournament.

The following are some quotes from his book along with several questions that you can ask yourself in developing your own mental skills training and mental conditioning program. 

"...what I battle hardest to do in a tennis match is to quiet the voices in my head, to shut everything out of my mind but the contest itself and concentrate every atom of my being on the point I am playing. If I made a mistake on a previous point, forget it; should a thought of victory suggest itself, crush it."

How do I focus my mind, tune out distractions, and play in the present moment?

"...you had to think better than your rival to succeed. And to think straight, you had to keep your cool."

Do I know what mental or emotional triggers could force me to lose my cool? What can I do to be mentally prepared before and during the game or competition to keep my cool?

"Some players rage and despair when they are aced, or when they are the victims of a magnificent passing shot. That is the path to self-destruction. And it is crazy, because it means you believe yourself to be capable, in some kind of ideal tennis world, of subduing your opponent's game from start to finish. If you give your opponent more credit, if you accept that he played a shot you could do nothing about, if you play the part of the spectator for a moment and generously acknowledge a magnificent piece of play, there you win balance and inner calm. You take the pressure off yourself. In your head, you applaud; visibly, you shrug; and you move on to the next point, aware not that the tennis gods are ranged against you or that you are having a miserable day, but that there is every possibility next time that it will be you who hits the unplayable winner."

How do I mentally and emotionally respond to a good move, maneuver or play by my opponent? Do I overreact and therefore destroy my composure and confidence? What can I do to refocus on myself, what I control and concentrate on what I want to achieve and accomplish?

What Do You Want To Think About?

What is the difference between thinking about what you do want to do and what you don't want to do?

When you think about what you don't want to do:

* You visualize yourself making a mistake
* You worry about what you can't control

* You feel nervous and anxious
* You are impatient

* Your muscles become tight

* Your breathing is shallow

* You shy away from the action

* You hold back and miss an opportunity

* You move slower

* You worry about how you look to others

* You take your head out of the game

When you think about what you do want to do:

* You visualize yourself making the play

* You feel more confident and composed
* You focus on what you do control
* You are patient with yourself

* Your muscles are more relaxed

* Your breathing is deeper

* You want to be part of the action

* You are more proactive

* You are looking for the opportunities

* You move faster

* You don't worry about how you look to others

* You keep your head in the game

So, what do you want to think about?  

Playing With Power
Empower Your Mind
 Elevate Your Game


If you want more clarity about how to play, 
and want to be clear about what you are doing, 
then you need a purpose.

If you want to feel more confident about yourself 
when you practice and play, 
then you need the right perspective.

If you want more control over yourself 
as you practice and play, 
then you need to have a presence of mind.

If you want to be more composed 
while you practice and play,
 then you need to be poised.

If you want to play with courage 
every time you step into the game, 
then you need to become passionate
about what you are doing.

If you want to strengthen your character as a player, 
then you need to practice and play with perseverance.


If you want to empower your mind and elevate your game, 
then you need to build the "six pillars of mental power" - purpose, perspective, presence, poise, passion and perseverance. 

Capture The Moment

Recently, I have been reading several articles about why our youth want to participate in sports. In everyone of them, the articles cited various polls that had been taken, and in each poll the same reason came in at number one. The main reason young people want to play and participate in any sport is to simply have fun.

That got me thinking. Not only about young athletes but any athlete. What is it about sports that draws us in? What is it about any particular sport that compels a ten year old girl on a soccer team or a thirty year old professional baseball player to want to play?

I would like to propose that any of us who sign up to play are doing it because we want to or are at least hoping to have fun. The challenge for all of us who are athletes is to make sure that whether we just signed up to learn a new sport or have been playing for fifteen years is that we are still having fun. And for the athletes who are no longer having fun, and enjoying the sports experience, maybe they need to re-evaluate or reconsider why they are still playing. 

So, what does it mean to have fun? It's about finding and embracing that moment when you are fully engaged in what is happening, are feeling a sense of enjoyment and excitement about what is happening, and believe that you have achieved or accomplished something that has personal meaning to you. Putting it all together, there is a strong inner sense of empowerment and elevation. You are on top of the world and nothing can bring you down.

Over time, I think that a lot of athletes have lost the "capacity" to have fun. It's now become about the expectations of others, worrying about being better than the next athlete, wanting to be popular, drowning in a desire to just win no matter what or afraid of stopping because you have already invested so much time, energy and money. And because they don't know how to recapture that feeling of having fun, many of them are mentally and emotionally running on empty.

My hope is that coaches, parents and athletes who serve as mentors, can help athletes learn how to have fun. And one approach to doing this is by teaching them how to "capture the moment". This moment can take place in a practice, playing in a game or even at a team meeting. 

An athlete can capture the moment when he or she takes the following steps:

 Be mentally present to the moment you are in

 Find one thing in that moment that you are grateful for

 Identify your personal strengths that you brought into the moment

  Ask yourself what you can learn by being in that moment

Congratulate yourself for playing in that moment 

  No matter what happens in the moment, say "thank you"

Discover how that moment made you a better athlete and person

By taking these steps, the moment becomes very meaningful to the athlete and thereby is transformed into an extraordinary experience that he or she will want to hold onto for a long time.  

PS. Still have a lot of other thoughts and ideas about this topic. Will continue writing about this in future posts.

Playing From The Inside Out
Being Internally Directed & Driven To Play Your Best 

"Achieving inner excellence is a process. Building mental muscle, like building physical muscle, requires time and effort. The more you work on the inside, the more it will show on the outside."

Gary Mack

MindGym

"The better you are within yourself, the better your chances of playing well."

Rafael Nadal

RAFA

The most competitive and successful athletes play from the inside out. They have an internal sense of ownership with regards to being mentally prepared and conditioned to give their best performance. And while they will take direction and guidance from coaches, they understand and appreciate that their performance on the field or court is ultimately a result of making the smartest split second decisions in any game-time situation. These decisions come from athletes who are internally directed and driven to play their best game.

Athlete-centered coaching proposes that giving the athletes a sense of ownership over their learning will give them the ability to become more self-aware and self-sufficient, and thereby provides them with the necessary skills to make informed decisions; especially when they are competing (Kidman, 2005). By being able to make choices and having some sense of control over what they are learning, these athletes become internally motivated to discover the most relevant and useful ideas and information to successfully perform. And because they are internally directed and driven, they are capable of making the best decisions in a competitive environment. This is essential to athletes who find themselves in fast-paced games where coaches have fewer or limited opportunities to directly speak to their players during the game.

"...informed decisions by athletes are essential to performance success..."

Lynn Kidman

Athlete-Centred Coaching: Developing Inspired and Inspiring People

Mental conditioning, and asking meaningful questions, should be a part of all training and practice sessions throughout the season. These questions will help enable the athlete to appropriately respond and make any necessary mental adjustments because he has identified and practiced those mental skills which give him the ability to make effective and informed decisions on the spot. This commitment to mental conditioning will provide the coaches with a unique opportunity to develop empowered athletes who truly understand and appreciate that their power "comes from within, not from without", can develop a sense of self-efficacy, and, at the same time, will commit themselves to elevating their performance to a higher level (Kidman, 2001).

In scheduling and presenting the training and practice sessions, the coaches should develop and implement a mental conditioning program that shows the players how to mentally prepare themselves for any challenging game-time situation. By collaborating with the athletes, the coaches identify various scenarios in a game that could put the team at a disadvantage, and together, they begin to explore how to mentally control the emotional effects of the pressure and stress which they will encounter during these different situations (Kumar & Urs, 2012). After these scenarios have been identified, the coaches and players will then prepare a series of mental rehearsals in order to practice how they plan to mentally respond and recover.

Learning how to be resilient and resourceful, the athlete is developing the mental capacity to effectively manage any challenging situation that he will encounter during the game. Being mentally tough at that critical moment requires the athlete to be mentally sharp and emotionally strong. He is learning how to be confident and condition his mind to cope with any frustration or negative feelings (Yukelson, 2010). It's being patient with himself, keeping his poise, maintaining the right perspective and persevering until the challenge is over or has been resolved.

In their quest to become better players, these athletes can acquire six internal gears that will set them apart from the average athlete. They can develop these special gears by learning how to use a specific set of questions to improve their overall approach to playing the game and how to use various mental skills for different game-time situations. By taking a proactive approach to thinking, the athletes provide themselves with the necessary tools to play with confidence and composure, thereby giving them the opportunity to make clear and concise decisions.

An internally directed and driven athlete knows how important these gears are to maintaining his concentration and elevating his competitive spirit. These internal gears compel an athlete to think on his own two feet, and will undoubtedly give him a sense of empowerment at any given moment during a game. He has positioned himself to become a more attentive and proactive player, and thereby has the opportunity to effectively respond and play a pivotal role in changing the outcome of any game-time situation.

1st Gear: Being Intentional
Being intentional is all about being focused. Knowing your goals and understanding the purpose of everything you do. It's being clear about what direction you are headed in and how each step that you take will get you closer to your chosen destination.

2nd Gear: Being Inquisitive
Being inquisitive is about being curious and asking questions that will help improve your game. The more questions you ask, the sharper and stronger your mind becomes. Each question builds your concentration in order for you to play with a clearer and more concise mindset.

3rd Gear: Being Insightful
Being insightful is simply knowing and acknowledging what it takes to successfully play the game - including what you control as an athlete and what you need to tune out to keep your concentration in the game. It's keeping your sights on what's most important to gain a clearer perspective of where you stand in any game-time situation.

4th Gear: Being Intuitive
Being intuitive is learning how to accurately anticipate what may happen and to have the appropriate response to a given game-time situation. In making the best decision in any situation, the athlete begins to assimilate what is happening in the game, anticipates what could happen in the next moment, and then to choose an action that reflects what he sees, what he expects and what he wants. By doing this, he will be able to focus, put things in a productive frame of reference and become a proactive player.

5th Gear: Being Inspired
Being inspired is finding whatever motivates you and pushes you to give your best. It's tapping into anything and everything that fuels your desire to play, and will drive  you to play with great intensity and focus. Maybe, it's a certain word or phrase, piece of music, past performance in a game, visualization or verbal commitment you made that energizes and engages you.

6th Gear: Being Influential 
Being influential is asking yourself how you can serve and support your team. It's believing in yourself and your role to help the team. It's knowing that your team's success depends upon your desire and determination to use your strengths and step up, seize the moment and serve the greater good.

References:
Kidman, L. (2005). Athletic-centred Coaching: Developing Inspired and Inspiring People. Christchurch, New Zealand: Innovative Print.

Kidman, L. (2001). developing decision makers: An Empowerment Approach to Coaching. Christchurch, New Zealand: Innovative Print.

Kumar, B.T. & Urs, S.R. (2012). Relationship of Selected Physiological and Mental Toughness of College Men Volleyball Players with the Game Performance. International Journal of Health, Physical Education and Computer Science in Sports, 7 (1), 119-122.

Yukelson, D. (2010). What is Mental Toughness and how to Develop it? Morgan Academic Support System; Penn State University. www.leaguelineup.com/ridgevb/files/MentalToughness

Mental Conditioning and Meaningful Questions

Enabling Athletes to Become Effective Decision Makers

"...informed decisions by athletes are essential to performance success..."

Lynn Kidman

Athlete-Centred Coaching: Developing Inspired and Inspiring People

For any athlete who plays a team sport, every moment on the field or court requires a quick decision. Deciding how to position yourself, support your teammates, respond to a mistake or turnover, defend, setting up the offense to score, deal with any verbal or physical taunting from the opponent, coming back from being down by five points or trying to stay focused with the distractions. Every decision is, in many ways, based upon the athlete's state of mind and what kinds of questions he asks himself.

To make the best decisions and become an effective decision-maker, an athlete must be able to concentrate, remain composed and play with confidence. As part of a mental conditioning program, these mental skills can be learned, during training and practice sessions, so that the athlete has the ability to make informed decisions when he is competing in a game. This program will make the athlete smarter and mentally sharper so that he can make the necessary adjustments to address any game-time situation.

Making an informed decision in a game-time situation, the athlete needs to know how to assimilate what is happening in the game, to anticipate what could happen in the next moment, and to choose an action that reflects what he sees, what he expects and what he wants. By doing this, the athlete will be able to focus, put things in a positive frame of reference and become a proactive player. He is essentially learning how to read the field or court, and master the moment.

"The key is seeing and doing. If you're focusing on anything other than reading the court and doing what needs to be done, the moment will pass you by."

Phil Jackson

Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior

According to Anthony Robbins (2007), a person will make three decisions at any given moment of the day that will determine his future - deciding what to focus on, deciding what things mean and deciding what to do to create the results one wants. So, in sports, and particularly in a game-time situation, it is important for an athlete to be mentally prepared to make the right decisions. The athlete must know how to mentally manage any moment in order to create the best opportunity for a successful performance. It's being in the right place at the right time with the right move. And it definitely begins with whether or not he is asking the right question and putting himself in the right state of mind.

Athlete-centered coaching proposes that giving the athletes a sense of ownership over their learning will give them the ability to become more self-aware and self-sufficient, and thereby provides them with the necessary skills to make informed decisions; especially when they are competing (Kidman, 2005). By being able to make choices and having some sense of control over what they are learning, these athletes become internally motivated to discover the most relevant and useful ideas and information to successfully perform. Athletes will learn how to think on their own two feet, and effectively meet various challenges and problems which they will encounter in a game-time situation.

It would appear that athletes who are internally directed and driven are more capable of making the best decisions in a competitive environment. This is essential to athletes who find themselves in fast-paced games where the coaches have fewer or limited opportunities to directly speak to their players during the competition. One of the key components of athlete-centered coaching that can empower these athletes is the ability to ask meaningful questions. These are open-ended questions which will require the athlete to consider and clarify what he needs to do to become mentally stronger and therefore, a better player in any game-time situation. As part of the mental conditioning program, this process of questioning can build a smarter and sharper mind-set that ultimately gives an athlete the mental and emotional skills to make informed decisions throughout the competition.

In training and mentoring athletes, coaches need to create an environment in which each athlete feels comfortable and, in fact, compelled to ask questions which will give him a greater sense of purpose and perspective. These meaningful questions can bring more clarity, composure and confidence to the athlete who wants to be prepared to think and respond on a "moment's notice" to the ever changing atmosphere of a very competitive game. Incorporating meaningful questions into the mental conditioning program of an athlete provides a valuable opportunity for him to not only gain a greater perspective of his strengths and skills but also to become more proficient in learning how to be mentally prepared to play with a higher level of concentration and perseverance. It is a very effective approach to developing the athlete's ability to make informed decisions. In essence, he becomes a more proactive player.

"You look for opportunities - moments some call risks - and you figure out how to manage those moments to create big moments."

Rex Ryan

Play Like You Mean It

Mental conditioning, and asking meaningful questions, should be a part of all training and practice sessions throughout the season. These questions will help an athlete become a critical thinker and learn how to be more intentional, insightful, intuitive and inspired. During a game, when the coach tells one of his players to "get your head into the game", he will be able to respond and make any necessary mental adjustments because he has identified and practiced those mental skills which give him the ability to make effective and informed decisions on the spot. This commitment to a comprehensive mental conditioning program will provide the coaches with a unique opportunity to develop empowered athletes who truly understand and appreciate that their power "comes from within, not from without", can develop a sense of self-efficacy, and at the same time, will commit themselves to elevating their performance to a higher level (Kidman, 2001).

Throughout the day, we continuously ask ourselves a number of questions. What many of us don't realize is that a lot of the questions that we ask ourselves only make us feel worse, more frustrated, out of control, indecisive and will basically contribute to a variety of negative thoughts, feelings and behaviors from one day to the next. In sports, too many athletes find themselves asking questions that take their power away and therefore, will deplete their mental and emotional energy. They feel drained, disappointed and often discouraged.

How many athletes do we know who are asking questions as "why am I a failure?"..."how come I can never get it right?"..."why am I not as talented as the other player?"..."why do I make so many mistakes?"..."how come the coach doesn't give me more playing time?"..."what's the use in trying?"..."why do the refs always make calls against my team?"..."why won't anyone help me?" If the athlete chooses to ask these kind of questions, then he will be given answers that only reinforce the negative nature of the original question. So, if an athlete asks himself why he is a failure, then his brain will simply give him a variety of examples of why he is a failure. And, if the  same athlete asks why he is not as talented as another player, then he will be given a list of all the different ways in which the other player has better skills and is more talented. Asking negative questions only contributes to an athlete losing his focus, sense of purpose and desire to play.

For the athlete who wants to motivate and inspire himself, it's very important that he chooses questions which make him feel empowered, and provides the positive self-talk and encouragement to give his best in a practice or game. He needs to ask questions like "what are my strengths?"..."what do I want?"..."what can I do today to become a better player?"..."how do I visualize success?"..."how can I support my team?"..."what can I learn to improve my game?"..."what am I grateful for?"..."how do I gain more confidence?"..."how do I make the most of this game-time situation?"

"Answers come from questions, and the quality of any answer is directly determined by the quality of the question. Ask the wrong question, get the wrong answer. Ask the right question, get the right answer. Ask the most powerful question possible, and the answer will be life altering."

Gary Keller

The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

References

Kidman, L. (2005). Athlete-centred Coaching: Developing Inspired and Inspirational People. Christchurch, New Zealand: Innovative Print.

Kidman, L. (2001). developing decision makers: An Empowerment Approach to Coaching. Christchurch, New Zealand: Innovative Print.

Robbins, A. (2007). Awaken The Giant Within. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster.

I had written this short piece on Sunday evening; before the championship game. After you read this, I have added an update about the Monday night game and one player in particular - Shabazz Napier.


March Madness and the Mentally Strong

We are now down to two teams for the national NCAA men's basketball championship game on Monday evening: Kentucky and Connecticut. There are probably a number of different story lines that could partly explain why these two teams have made it to the championship. But the one that intrigues me the most is the mental aspect of the game, and how the players on these two teams have mentally managed themselves.

Kentucky player, Aaron Harrison, stated that "you can't be scared to miss". In his three games to get to the championship , Harrison had only made 7 of his 26 three-point shots. Yet, it was his three-point shot at the end of the games against Michigan and Wisconsin that won those games for Kentucky. Another Kentucky player, Alex Poythress, was encouraged to stop thinking so much and just play. More specifically, he was just thinking of his mistakes and this was making him play timid. One of his teammates stated that when Alex would just play and not worry about the outcome he would simply play better. For Connecticut, DeAndre Daniels had stated that he wanted to "step up big time" for his team. He had informed several people that he wanted to come out and prove to all the naysayers that his team deserved to be in the national championship game.

If there is anything that determines who makes it to the final dance in March Madness, it has to be the teams who are mentally tougher and stronger than their competition. There is just something special and significant about those players who have a deep belief in themselves and their teammates to meet any challenge and to rise above it.  


Playing Big With Shabazz

The Connecticut Huskies beat Kentucky 60 to 54 to win the NCAA basketball championship. And it goes without saying, that the Huskies won that game on the shoulders of Shabazz Napier. Besides scoring 22 points, creating turnovers and grabbing rebounds, Shabazz was probably the toughest player, mentally, on that court. You could see it in his eyes and the way he moved - with or without the ball. For most of the game, he seemed to be in complete control of himself; especially on a mental level. 

It was reported that at different moments during the game, Shabazz would bring his players together to remind them what was at stake and that they would not be denied. You would have to believe that his mental tenacity is what kept the Huskies pushing forward; even when some of this teammates were struggling. He totally believed in himself and his team. 

One interesting note - it was reported that at the beginning of the season, the coach of the Huskies brought the team to the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas and told the players this is where they could end up to compete for the national championship. Very smart move on the coach's part to create a visual for the players; something that they could mentally focus on as they played out their season.