Slow The Game Down

"The great players see the game in slow motion, and you could see him doing that - not that he played in slow motion, but he thought in slow motion. I always thought he slowed that game down so much that he saw a shot opportunity before the defender saw the possibility that he would shoot it."

- Phil Martelli - 
Head basketball coach at St. Joseph's University  (Martelli was speaking about Creighton University basketball player Doug McDermott in an interview with Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Mike Sielski for an article posted on 6/24/14.)

You will often hear coaches talk about a specific quality that great players possess when they are competing and playing in a game. It's the ability to slow the game down in their minds and thereby are able to see the game unfolding in slow motion. Coaches have stated that players who can do this are more effective and successful in any game-time situation.  

So, how does a player learn to "slow the game down"? Here are several mental skills drills that any coach could have his players practice and review throughout the season:

Be and play in the present moment.

Players who find their thoughts bouncing back and forth between what happened ten minutes ago and what is going to happen in about five minutes can not mentally slow the game down. In fact, the game will probably feel like it is actually moving faster. As a coach who wants to promote this mental skill, you could stop practices at various times and simply ask the players to identify what they are seeing and hearing at that exact moment.  

Take a deep breath and "check" in.

Players who experience any stress or anxiety in a game often take shallow and small breaths. By doing this, the player has less oxygen going into the lungs and to the brain. And with the stress, anxiety and now less oxygen for the body, the player will probably become more tired, think less clearly and be less focused. Have your players take a deep breath. When they inhale, have they say "check" to themselves as a reminder to mentally check back into the game. And as they exhale, have them say "ok" to themselves as an affirmation that they are present and aware of what is happening.

Focus only on what you control.

Players who get easily distracted by things that they don't control will feel as if the game is speeding up. And by focusing on what they can't control, these players will become frustrated, angry and begin losing track of themselves and what they can control. At various times in a practice, bring out a hula hoop and place it at the feet of the   player who is getting upset or frustrated about things that he can't control. As the player stands in the middle of the hula hoop, have the player review all the things that he doesn't control and the few things that he actually has control over - mainly himself.    

"Attaining and sustaining success in sports always comes down to a survival of those most mentally fit. A strong commitment to excellence in training intensity and time over the long haul is required to progress as an athlete and to achieve your personal best. If you want to succeed and to move through difficult times, it is crucial to make an ongoing commitment to achieving superiority in your sport through the daily practice of cultivating a champion body and mind."

Jim Afrenow

The Champion's Mind: How Great Athletes Think, Train, And Thrive 

"When we lack the mental muscles we need to perform at our best - if we have too short an attention span, too pessimistic an outlook, or too rigid and narrow a perspective - we must build capacity by training systematically."
Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal




Would you like to develop and carry out a daily mental conditioning program to build your mental muscles, cultivate a "champion's mind" and elevate your performance?

Anthony (Tone) Lanzillo

risson1954@gmail.com

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