As coaches, we want our athletes to develop their skills to the point where they become automatic, especially under pressure. Although nothing can replace the endless hours of practice that are required to make physical skills automatic, athletes can enhance their ability to perform sport skills automatically by using visualization.

Visualization or imagery is a proven tool of top-level athletes. Many successful athletes use imagery to create the perfect performance, seeing and feeling themselves perform at their potential. They also re-create past successful performances, calling to mind what they saw, felt, and thought. This kind of visualization allows athletes to create their performance twice: once in the mind and once when they actually perform the act they have visualized. In addition, visualization can help athletes manage their emotions, build confidence, refine their skills, improve focus at practice and prepare them for competition.

I like to think of visualization as mental movie making. Here’s a sample ‘script’ to help you introduce visualization to your athletes:

Picture yourself sitting in a theater watching a favorite movie. What images do you see as you look at the screen? What colors do you see? Who are the main characters? Who are the actors playing these characters? What are they doing? Now imagine yourself watching a different movie, one in which you’re the star. This movie will feature you performing at your absolute best at your sport. Imagine what you look like on the big screen. What are you wearing? How are you standing? What expression do you have on your face? Picture the opponent, the playing area, the fans, your coach, the referee. Make your images as vivid as possible. Engage all of your senses as you fill out the scene: sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. Watch yourself as you perform at your highest potential. Bring up all the emotional pieces as well: how it feels to perform well, the connection with your teammates, and so on.

In order to realize your potential as an athlete, make this movie again and again in your mind until it is vivid and believable. Remember, you learn new skills faster using a combination of physical practice and mental imagery than using either one alone.

 

Coach, visualization is a great tool for you as well. Incorporate it as part of YOUR preparation routine. See yourself running practice exactly the way you’d like to; coaching your best during competition; handling a difficult meeting or conversation with grace and integrity.

In addition, you can change your emotional state in the moment, by evoking the appropriate images during visualization. The chemistry of billions of cells within your body changes in response to what you imagine. In other words, you can change your emotional state by evoking the appropriate images during visualization. So if you need to calm down or psyche up prior to a practice, competition, meeting, phone call etc., take a few moments to visualize the appropriate images.

 

Enjoy the show!

Crowd noise. Cameras. Tricks by the opponent. Fans. Family. These are just a few of the distractions athletes face during competition – especially post season play. Maintaining focus and concentration for the entire contest is a huge task. Peak performance occurs when you are thinking in the here-and-now. Thinking about the past can lead to distractions, while thinking about the future can lead to choking.

Introduce your athletes to the three-second rule to deal with distractions in the moment. Train them to deal with distraction in three seconds or less. Some athletes use trigger words to bring them right back to the action. Examples include “Right back,” “Right here – right now,” “Focus,” and “Snap back.” In addition, have them try a quick visualization where they see themselves effectively dealing with the distraction in the moment.

An off-field process for dealing with distractions involves having your team list all the possible things that might distract them. Once each person has their list, then brainstorm in small groups ways to deal with each one. If they get stuck, encourage them to seek input from you or more experienced teammates. Then have your athletes visualize their new rituals.

 

The following chart summarizes antidotes to distractions:

 

On field	Off field
· Use the three-second rule.	· List all possible distractions.
· Use trigger words.	· Brainstorm responses.
· Visualize your responses.	· Visualize your new rituals.

 

Building and maintaining confidence is a daily practice. Here are some suggestions that apply to you as a coach AND can help your athletes build their confidence:

 

1. Be prepared! The more prepared you feel, the higher and more stable your confidence level. Make everything more precise: your practice plans, your diet, your game-day preparation and your sleep schedule.

 

2. Tune into your confidence formula. What kinds of practices make you feel the most confident? What drills? Is there a particular person whose advice gives you confidence?

 

3. Set realistic yet challenging goals. Have daily, weekly and monthly performance goals and keep a record of your results. These should be goals you have full control over – as opposed to winning and losing – which are not in your control.

 

4. Get fit! Top performers know the connection between feeling confident and being physically fit.

 

5. Build strong, supportive self-talk. Do this in the same way you build physical strength: through repetition.. Confidence is a FEELING – as such it is powerfully influenced by what you think, what you say to yourself and how you act! Negative or sloppy thinking tears away at precious confidence levels.

 

6. Learn from failures, then dump them. If you have a bad loss or practice, face it, take away whatever positive lessons you can, then forget about it. Leave the past failures behind. Don’t carry mistakes with you – correct them, then move on.

 

Remember:

“Success is never permanent. Failure is never failure. The only thing that really counts is to never, never, never give up”

- Winston Churchill

Imagine trying to communicate without being allowed to use any vowels in your words. Howmany words would you have access to? Imagine how limited your vocabulary would be and how you would struggle to get your point across. The same is true when athletes and coaches neglect or underestimate the value of nutrition.

In addition to coaching tennis for 14 years at Cal, I also co-taught a class to athletes in the department entitled High Performance Training for Student Athletes. One section covered nutrition. Well, to an athlete, most talk about nutrition sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher, “Wah,wa,wah, waha.”

Nutrition is one of the foundational pieces of peak performance. Unfortunately, athletes often do not appreciate how important their daily choices are in this area. Many will work hard to condition themselves but neglect the importance of nutrition, and hydration. In my experience most athletes are undernourished and under hydrated. As a result, they compete with a limited nutritional vocabulary and have access to only a portion of what they’re capable of achieving. When you pay attention to the basics, you maximize your potential as an athlete.

In class, I realized that what I had to say would not matter until they came face-to-face with their nutritional reality. So I developed a simple tool called the Nutri-Log. It worked wonders. It was easy to use and visually gave the athletes a clear picture of where they were.

Here’s a sample for you to download:  click here

Coach, I’d like you to step up to the nutritional plate and honestly fill out the Nutri-Log for 3 days.

Remember, we are role models. Our athletes learn a lot from us just by observing what we do. Do you model sound food choices? Are you hitting all the letters in the nutritional alphabet? The Nutri-Log is a great tool to use with your team. It’s value will multiply when you have first hand experience with it. Athletes respect us more when we ask them to “Do as I do” rather than “Do as I say.”

I have a lot of great stuff to say about the role of nutrition on and off the playing field. And I know you won’t hear me until you face your own reality. Get to work. Fill out the Nutri-Log and we will have some fun next week.

We all do it. Sometimes it’s harmless. Yet most of the time complaining kills teams. We’ve all had players (and/or assistants) who are a seemingly endless stream of complaints. Often it’s “recreational complaining” where it’s just talk. There’s no intention to do anything about the subject of the complaint.

 

Complaints about the weather, traffic, and time all fall into the category of recreational complaining. The secret to successful recreational complaining is to thoroughly enjoy yourself while you’re doing it.

 

The harmful style of complaining is covert. Inside every complaint is a hidden request – something the person wants but is not directly asking for. Instead of asking for what they want, they often complain about what they don’t have. Complaining is an energy drain – on you and those around you.

 

To get where we want to go in the world, it’s essential to get in the habit of making a request rather than complaining.

 

Let’s look at an exchange between a coach and an athlete:

 

Athlete: “Pat pisses me off. He never offers me a ride after practice – and he lives right next to me!

 

Coach: “I hear ya. That’s too bad.”

 

Contrast that with:

 

Athlete: “Pat pisses me off. He never offers me a ride after practice – and he lives right next to me.

Coach: “Really? What do you mean by ‘never’? Not ever?”

Athlete: “Well, not so far this semester.”

Coach: “I see. How often do you need a ride after practice?”

Athlete: “Tuesdays would be great.”

Coach: “Have you ever asked him for a ride this semester?”

Athlete: “Well, no, but….”

Coach: “Well, next Tuesday, ask him for a ride. If he says, “Yes,” great. If not, talk to him about it.”

Athlete: “Okay. Can’t hurt.”

 

Notice how the second conversation went from complaining to making a request. If team members (including coaches), stopped listening to complaints and instead demanded that the complainer make a request of whomever is in a position to do something about the complaint – the wasted energy of complaining would be put toward action.

So coach, you need to model the art of making requests. Here’s your assignment:

 

1. List all the COMPLAINTS you have about your team, job, life, health, family, etc.
2. Rewrite each complaint into a REQUEST.
3. Next, write down the name of the person WHO can resolve the complaint.
4. Now write in the date by WHEN you will make a request.
5. Go get your complaints resolved!

Good Luck!