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.  

The Mental Peak
How Exceptional Athletes Play at the Highest Level

In sports, there is the physical game and the mental game. While most athletes find themselves focusing on and preoccupied with their physical game, it's the exceptional athletes who know how important it is to invest the necessary time and energy into developing their mental game. They understand that the mental game is essential to being a competitive and successful athlete. Exceptional athletes know that mental preparation is the only way to play at the highest level. They have learned to play with a sense of purpose, the right perspective, presence of mind, poise, passion and perseverance. 

Exceptional athletes know why they are playing, what they are doing at every moment, and where they want to go with their game.

Exceptional athletes know how to think positively and constructively about every moment of their athletic careers.

Exceptional athletes know how to stay focused in the present moment, and think clearly and objectively about that moment.

Exceptional athletes know how to stay composed and keep their emotions under control.

Exceptional athletes know how to motivate and inspire themselves.

Exceptional athletes know how to keep playing and giving their best even in challenging or difficult moments.

Tone Lanzillo
Mental Skills Coach
risson1954@gmail.com 

The "Mental Prep" Playbook

For all the coaches out there who will be using their playbooks to teach the players how to run and execute various plays in games, make sure that you dedicate some time in your team practices to helping your players be mentally prepared to play their best game. Besides having the players physically run through the different plays from the playbook, it would be very beneficial to show your players how to "mentally run" through these plays in order to keep themselves composed, focused and perform with more confidence.

Once the team has physically run through a designated play several times, you could then introduce the following mental prep exercise for all the players in that designated play. First, have the players get into their positions for this play. Then, tell the players to close their eyes and take a deep breath. After the deep breath, ask the players to visualize each step that they are going to take to successfully execute their role in the play. And as they visualize their performance, tell the players to positively talk themselves through the series of steps. Then, after they have finished the visualization, ask them to identify the positive feelings from visualizing their successful performance.

If you are handing out playbooks to the players, encourage them to invest some time after practice to write down their visualizations for each play and attach them to each play in the playbook.

Are Your Players Combat Ready?


"...since initiative vis-a-vis the enemy is the key to successful battlefield outcomes, the side that can make the best decisions more quickly usually wins."     

Christopher D. Kolenda 
Discipline: Creating The Foundation For An Initiative-Based Organization

One of the most valuable lessons that a coach can teach his players is to be able to think for themselves or on their own two feet - especially when they are playing in a game for their team. Given that a coach can't be on the field or court with his players during the game, and telling them what to do at every moment, it's important for each of them to be internally directed and driven to perform to the best of their abilities. There are two different mindsets that a player needs to develop in order for him to take the initiative and make the best split-second decision in any game-time situation. 

The R-3 mindset is all about reading the situation, recognizing the opportunities that are available in that situation, and then responding by choosing the right option for that situation. Players need to keep their minds in the present moment, clearly see what is happening without any negative judgments or emotions, be mentally focused on what they control, and then identifying how they can use their personal strengths to make the right move.

The 3-D mindset requires players to be deliberate, disciplined and decisive. Being deliberate is knowing what you want to do or accomplish. Being disciplined is keeping your focus on what you want. And being decisive is acting on what you want. Without knowing what they want to do and not being able to stay focused on what they want to do, they won't successfully play or perform their role in the game.

Learning and integrating these two mindsets into the players' mental preparation is essential to helping your players take the initiative and make the best decisions at game time.    

If you would like to learn more about the R-3 and 3-D mindsets, drop me an email at risson1954@gmail.com.