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Building Better Athletes

Mental Resiliancy

Growth Mindset

1/21/2018

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There are things that distinguish great athletes and champions from others. Most of the sports World think it’s talent, but many would argue it’s actually mindset. 
 
To be a champion in anything you have to have the mental abilities of confidence, concentration, and composure and you must use these abilities to seek your fullest potential. Recent research by Dr. Angela Duckworth has identified two mindsets about ability that people may hold.
 
Some hold a fixed mindset, in which they see abilities as fixed traits. In this view, talents are gifts – you either have them or you don’t.
 
People in the fixed mindset feel measured by setbacks and mistakes. They also feel measured by the very fact of exerting effort. They believe that if you have true talent, you shouldn’t need a lot of effort – Yet, there is no important endeavor in life - certainly not in the sports world- that can be accomplished and maintained without intense and sustained effort.

This is serious because many young athletes who have a great deal of talent at a young age can coast along for some time, outshining their peers. They may even come to equate athletic ability with the ability to outperform others without engaging in much practice or training. At some point, however, natural ability may not be enough, and others may begin to pass them by. Whether they can now learn to put in that needed effort is critical to their future success.
 
Other people, in contrast, hold a growth mindset of ability. They believe that people can cultivate their abilities. In other words, they view talents as potentialities that can be developed through practice - Everyone can get better over time. The term that has been popularized of a growth mindset is GRIT. Dr. Duckworth’s description of Grit: “The tendency to sustain interest in and effort toward very long-term goals.”  At the United States Military Academy, West Point, a cadet's grit score was the best predictor of success in the rigorous summer training program known as "Beast Barracks." Grit mattered more than intelligence, leadership ability or physical fitness.
 
People in the growth mindset understand that effort is the way that ability is brought to life and allowed to reach fruition. Far from indicating a lack of talent, they believe that even geniuses need great effort to fulfill their promise. People with a growth mindset not only believe in the power of effort, they hold effort as a value.
 
Developing a growth mindset is difficult, it’s hard-work, tedious, has many setbacks, and takes time. It’s especially difficult in today’s society where we have access to everything now and young people grow up in a World of getting things quicker and faster.

An example of this comes out regularly when working with kids to improve an athletes mechanics or technique. Often times, after only 2-4 reps of altering an athletes mechanics to be more advantageous, the athlete who is struggling to pick-up what we're working on will say - “It doesn’t work.”

After only 2-4 reps!? It may take hundreds if not thousands of reps to cement better mechanics, but that's the process it takes to make long-term improvements. This is common for coaches today as athletes have grown up in a world where they often get what they want, really quickly.
 
 
Characteristics of a Growth Mindset
  • Success comes from effort
  • Success comes from hard work
  • Success comes from practice
  • Intelligence can be improved
  • Setbacks are a natural form of learning
  • Learn at all costs,
  • Work hard, effort is key
  • Capitalize on mistakes and confront deficiencies
 
In the face of a setback they would work harder; they are resilient in the face of difficulties
 
Characteristics of a Fixed Mindset
  • People are Born Gifted
  • People have Natural Talents
  • Traits are set in stone
  • Intelligence is a fixed trait
  • They have a need to look smart at all costs,
  • Tasks should come naturally
  • They avoid challenging learning tasks
  • They hide mistakes and difficulties
 
In the face of failure they would reduce their effort or give up, become defensive, act up, act bored
​
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Mental Toughness

1/21/2018

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​Mental toughness is a popular term – but it isn’t well understood.
 
Why do some seem to have mental toughness and other not?
Can it be developed?
How can one become mentally stronger?
 
Mental toughness has been scientifically defined as "Having the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to: generally, cope better than your opponents with the many demands (competition, training, lifestyle) that sport places on a performer; specifically, be more consistent and better than your opponents in remaining determined, focused, confident, and in control under pressure." (
Jones, Hanton et al., (2002))
 
Put simply it comes down to the ability to cope with difficult training and difficult competitive situations and emerge without losing confidence
 
The realty is mental toughness is not a short-term mindset rather the result of long-term discipline, conditioning, dealing with pressure, intensity in practice/training/life.
 
Many think you can just become mentally tough by going through a tough workout or by getting a motivational speech - but it’s the same as anything else – it’s a long-term process.
 
I relate it to building physical strength.  You don’t go to the gym and think you’re going to get stronger and reach your physical peak after 1 training session – NO - you go to the weight room for multiple days per week and do this for months and years before you really start to develop your maximum strength and physical performance. The same rules apply to mental strength. It doesn’t happen in a day – it takes days and weeks and months and years of discipline, focus, attitude, behaviors, confidence, and training for it to emerge – It will never come from a speech or a single hard workout
 
“Attitude is a decision, and it is also a learned behavior, requiring discipline and energy to sustain.”
 
When you start looking into it, your talent and your intelligence don’t play nearly as big of a role as you might think. Research studies have found that intelligence only accounts for 30% of your achievement — and that’s at the extreme upper end. What makes a bigger impact than talent or intelligence?

Mental toughness.
 
So how can you develop mental toughness?

  • Commitment to more consistent practice - Mentally tough athletes are more consistent than others. They don’t miss workouts. They don’t miss assignments. They don’t make excuses. The do what must be done, even when they don’t want to. Every morning they wake up they are faced with the choice of whether or not they are going to be disciplined. They approach their work like a pro, not an amateur. 
 
  • Mental toughness is built through small wins – Mental toughness is cultivated through many of the choices that we make on a daily basis that build our “mental toughness muscle” and yes mental toughness is like a muscle, it needs to be worked to grow and develop. If you haven’t pushed yourself in thousands of small ways, of course you’ll wilt when things get really difficult. Simple things such as waking up o your first alarm, making your bed, cooking breakfast, being on time, etc.
 
  • Mental toughness is about your habits, not your motivation – It’s not a singular speech or workout or motivational video. Motivation is fickle. Willpower comes and goes. Mental toughness isn’t about getting an incredible dose of inspiration or courage. It’s about building the daily habits that allow you to stick to a schedule and overcome challenges and distractions over and over and over again.
 
  • Mentally tough people don’t have to be more courageous, more talented, or more intelligent — just more consistent.
 
  • To make yourself better create your own scouting report. Write it down and think about what hurts you the most in your game. Then go out and improve your weaknesses. You can do that everyday by thinking at sunrise - How can I be a champion today?  Then at sunset think - How was I a champion today?
 
  • A person’s state of mind will determine his/her outlook - Prime the brain with positive thoughts as happiness is the pre-cursor to success. Have fun in the process as humor and laughter and enjoyment is the best sports medicine.
 
  • When practicing and training be your biggest rival. Leave your comfort zone behind when you are training. Don't be afraid of failure in practice or games, but always learn from it. Sports are an endless thing of fine-tuning your skills. Embrace the challenges and don't run away from them.
 
  • Always have an in-season attitude – it always amazes me when athletes all of a sudden want to train harder, or do extra work, or take things more seriously because they are in the midst of championship game/meet – but the months leading up to that moment they were lackadaisical, inconsistent, and lacked focus. Always have the mindset that the most important event/game is around the corner.   Train with passion and a purpose.
 
  • Always be coachable; have an empty cup mentality. Take the knowledge people give you, even if you think something is a different way. People/coaches want to help you – be open to constructive criticism, as it’s not meant to tear you down, rather bring you up.
 
  • Excellence can be achieved only today—not yesterday or tomorrow, because they do not exist in the present moment. Today is the only day you have to flex your talents and maximize your enjoyment. Win one day at a time. Procrastination is no match for a champion.
 
“Hell is described as laying on your death bed and the person you’ve become meets the person you could have been”

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5 Tenants of Success

1/21/2018

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1. Control the Controllable
           
Few things in our life we can truly control, so control what you can –
Your Effort, Attitude, and Enthusiasm
 
2. Demonstrate Grit
           
All successful people demonstrate grit and perseverance
Greatness
Resides
In
Toil
 
3. Accountability
           
Successful people take accountability for their actions
 
4. Driven
           
Motivation is short-term, Drive is long-term.  What drives you every day?
 
5. Do the Ordinary, Extraordinary
           
Successful people take pride and focus in doing mundane tasks exceptionally well.  Master the fundamentals!

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Fail Forward

1/13/2018

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Failure is a predictor of success. This is, without question, one of life's great ironies.
 
“I have not failed, rather found 10,000 ways the light bulb didn’t work” – Thomas Edison
 
The more failure one encounters corresponds strongly to the more successes that person encounters. The most successful among us are, without exception, those who have failed the most - as a result of being those who have tried the most.
 
Recognize that you will spend much of your life making mistakes. If you can take action and keep making mistakes, you gain experience. The average entrepreneur fails 3.8 before they finally make it in business. When achievers fail, they see it as a momentary event, not a lifelong epidemic. The more you do, the more you fail. The more you fail, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better you get.
 
If you are succeeding in everything you do, then you're probably not pushing yourself hard enough, and that means you're not taking enough risks. You risk because you have something of value you want to achieve.
 
Athletes who beat themselves up (“I’m terrible, I suck”) get themselves behind in the count, behind in their sport, behind in everything. So stop beating yourself up over a setback, over losing, over not performing as well as you’d like. Instead see it as an opportunity to learn and grow. Don’t lose faith or get caught up in other’s success – keep approaching the setback head on and use a spring board forward - To know how to win/succeed – you first have to fail/lose.
 
Finally, always remember the next time you find yourself envying what successful people have achieved; recognize that they have probably gone through many negative experiences that you cannot see on the surface.

“It’s not that I’m smart or special, it’s just that I stay with problems longer “– Albert Einstein 

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    Michael Zweifel - Owner of BBA

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