Play With Power

"There is tremendous power in total attention to the matter at hand."

"Freedom from mental distraction equals power."

Dan Millman
Body Mind Mastery: Training for Sport And Life

With mental preparation, you can become a more powerful player. It's when you have learned to play with a sense of purpose, presence of mind, right perspective, poise, passion and perseverance that you evolve into a more powerful and exceptional player on the court or field. A powerful player knows what he controls, knows what he wants, knows how to stay in the moment, knows his strengths, and knows to keep on learning. 

Tone Lanzillo
Mental Skills Coach
risson1954@gmail.com

To Be Unpresent

"I'm wholly unprepared, so I become unpresent."
Andre Agassi 
Open

As an athlete, to be "unpresent" on the field or court is probably the most significant indication that you are not mentally prepared to play your best game. To be unpresent means that you are not focused, are probably not concentrating on what you control, and are thinking or worrying about past events or future expectations. Your mind is anywhere or everywhere but where it should be; which is with what is happening right now and right in front of you.    

To be unpresent means that you can not tune out all of the irrelevant distractions surrounding you, and are unable to tune into what you clearly see and are doing at any given moment or game-time situation. Being unpresent means that you have mentally and emotionally pulled yourself out of the game. Your head and thoughts are simply not in the game.

You become unpresent when you start playing in a game and are still thinking about the last game that you lost. You become unpresent when you are thinking about a bad call that the refs made five minutes ago. You become unpresent when you are wondering if you will win the game and it's still the first half. You become unpresent when you are looking for who's on the sidelines or stands watching your game. You become unpresent when you keep looking at the scoreboard. You become unpresent when you focus on how you feel instead of what you see.

Do you have any problems with being unpresent? Do coaches or teammates talk to you, and then you ask them to repeat themselves because you weren't listening? Do you look away from the field or court and miss something that happened in the game? Do you get called for a foul or penalty because you didn't hear the ref blow his whistle to stop the game?

If you are one of those athletes who is often unpresent in practice or a game, then you need to step back and take a serious look at what you are not doing in your mental preparation to be present, and think about what could be taking you away from your mental game.

If you would like to figure out how to do this, drop me at email at risson1954@gmail.com.

Playing From The Inside Out 

"If you want to be truly successful, you can't be content with 'pretty good'. You need to find an extra gear."   Tim S. Grover -  Relentless
 

Exceptional athletes play from the inside out. They know that how they play and perform comes from their state of mind, and the time and effort that they put into their mental preparation. They are willing to take the initiative to develop their mental skills. These athletes are internally driven and directed to play at a very competitive level. They have learned how to mentally shift into three different gears which makes them mentally stronger and sharper.

You must use all of these gears throughout all of your training, practice and workout sessions in order to play and perform at a higher level at game time.

1st Gear - "Inquisitive"
An athlete must take the initiative to keep asking questions that focus on his or her development and progress. These questions are asked everyday and should be especially addressed when you are practicing or working out. Keep asking yourself..."What can I do today to become a better player?...How can I develop or improve a particular skill that I use in the game?...Where can I use my strengths and skills to help the team succeed?...What can I learn from watching the game films?"

2nd Gear - "Intentional"
An athlete needs to know what he or she is doing at any given moment of a practice or in a game. You want to know the purpose of the different drills and exercises in practice, as well as having a goal for the overall practice on any given day. It's important that you know where you are going whether it's for one practice or the whole season. You can set goals for training or practice that focus on the development and use of specific skills. 

3rd Gear - "Inspired"
An athlete needs to take ownership and responsibility for figuring out or finding what inspires and motivates himself or herself. Maybe, it's a quote, piece or music, moment in a film,  or playing for another person or athlete. Identify what inspires you and incorporate it into every training and practice session.


Tone Lanzillo
Mental Skills Coach
risson1954@gmail.com

The Mental Prep Playsheet

In developing the Mental Prep Playbook, I have designed a simple tool to help athletes visualize and mentally rehearse specific plays or game-time situations. Here is the overview for the Mental Prep Playsheet.

Take a piece of paper and do the following:

1. Write down the specific play or game-time situation that you want to work on.

2. Write down the primary role and responsibilities of your position for that play.

3. Write down a list of visual and verbal cues that provide an overview of your                           successful performance for that play.

4. Write down the positive feelings or emotions that you will experience from that successful      performance.

5. Before each practice session, sit down and read this playsheet. Then go back and review         the visual and verbal cues/prompts. After reading and reviewing this list, close your eyes,       and visualize and mentally rehearse this play.


Tone Lanzillo
Mental Skills Coach
risson1954@gmail.com

The Anchor

Find a word, phrase, image, piece of music or positive experience that you can use whenever you want to feel more relaxed and composed. It will help you to refocus, feel re-energized and remain steady.

Given the intensity and speed of playing sports, along with the physical demands and emotional stress of playing in a game, there will be times during that game when you may need the "anchor". It is a visual or verbal cue to steady yourself when you feel like you are struggling to keep your head above the turbulent waters of a very competitive and emotionally challenging game.

During any practice or training session, when you begin to feel emotionally stressed out, frustrated, angry or afraid, visualize yourself lowering the "anchor" as you replay that special word, phrase, image or music.  

Stephen Francis and the Success of the Jamaican Sprinters

Last weekend, I was watching both the women's and men's track teams from Jamaica win the 4 x 100 M relays at the Track and Field World Championships in China. Given the success of the Jamaican sprinters over the past 10 years from such a small country, I wanted to find out what has contributed to the success of these Jamaican athletes.

In a book entitled "The Gold Mine Effect: Crack The Secrets Of High Performance", author Rasmus Ankersen interviewed Stephen Francis who had helped establish the MVP Track and Field Track Club in Kingston, Jamaica in 1999. Francis told Ankersen that he believed that the Jamaican athletes should remain in their home country to train instead of going to the United States. Even though Jamaica didn't have the finances and training facilities of the U.S., Francis thought that he could develop successful sprinters at the international level.

Francis talked about what he would look for in a potential athlete to train and coach. He was looking for athletes who had a compelling story to compete and succeed. Francis stated that he wanted to know the personal stories of these athletes. He wanted to know what they were all about and how they had become who they were. Also, he was looking for athletes who had a strong desire to learn, using what they learned to get better, and then keep on learning.

For Francis, the success of these sprinters depended a lot on their mindset and motivation. He wanted athletes who had passion and perseverance to compete and succeed. And he wanted athletes who were never satisfied with their current performance, and continuously wanted to get better.

Francis believed that the ability to succeed was indicated by an athlete's passion and hunger to be better today than he or she was yesterday. He wanted to work with athletes with "cunning and resilience", and were able to bounce back from adversity.

What Do You Need To Know?

There are 9 things that athletes need to know to be mentally prepared to play their best game:

1. Know what you control
2. Know what you want to do
3. Know how to stay in the moment
4. Know what to ask
5. Know what makes you stronger
6. Know how to visualize your performance
7. Know what to tune out
8. Know how to respond to a mistake or difficult moment
9. Know what you're playing for

To be mentally prepared to play their best game, athletes need to know what to think and how to think when they step onto the field or court. It helps to mentally position themselves so that they are able to make the best decisions in any play or game-time situation. They become mentally stronger and smarter players.

If you would like to know more about the "9 things", and the mental prep test and mental prep playsheet, that are presented in the Mental Prep Playbook, drop me an email at risson1954@gmail.com. It can be presented as a workbook or in a mental skills workshop.