Coaches are never neutral. Everything you do or don’t do impacts your player’s “Emotional Tank” – a term I discovered as a PCA trainer. We either fill a player’s tank or we drain it. There’s no middle ground. We all have an emotional tank. When our tank is full, we perform well. If the tank is empty, good luck.

 

Dr Loehr also taught me the importance of emotion and performance. He is known for the saying “Emotion Runs the Show!” Your athletes may have all the talent in the world, yet if they are not in the right emotional state during game competition, a great performance won’t happen that day.

 

Here’s a simple yet powerful tool to help you keep track of tank levels. At the end of the week, sit down with a copy of your roster. Look at each name one at a time and think back over all of your interactions with this athlete during the previous week. Bring to mind all the things you said and did as well as the looks you gave. Before moving on to the next player, give yourself a tank filling score (A-F) for the week and write it down next to their name. Do this for each athlete on your team.

 

• What do you notice?
• Are you happy with your scores?
• Are there players you need to focus on next week?

 

NOTE: Research suggests that 5:1 is the ideal ratio of positive (things that fill) to negative (things that drain) in terms of maximizing effectiveness. This ratio holds true in your personal relationships and with your team.

“I am the greatest” – Muhammad Ali

“I suck!” – unknown, unaccomplished athlete

Top athletes talk themselves into incredible performances. What goes on in their mind has a direct effect on their body.  Our thoughts prompt certain emotions that in turn have bodily or physiological consequences.  Thoughts about losing can lead to feelings of fear and anxiety.  In turn those feelings cause various physiological responses: increased heart rate, shortness of breath, muscle tightness, narrow vision, and reduced blood flow to the hands and feet.  All of these responses stand in the way of performing at our peak. It creates a negative cycle – anxiety and fear compromise the physiology, leading to poor performance that (in turn) creates more fear and anxiety.

The same is true on the positive side – positive thoughts lead to feelings of alertness, fun, challenge – and these feelings (in turn) produce positive physiological responses.  This cycle can be learned and taught through proactively training self-talk.

Self-talk is that little voice in your head – the one that may have just said, “What little voice in my head?” Self-talk messages often come from our childhood – we hear the voices of our parents, siblings, teachers, coaches, etc., anyone who influenced us in the past. Self-talk goes on all the time and is nearly impossible to turn off. Unfortunately, most of the messages are critical or negative.

It is almost impossible to eliminate negative self-talk. But it can be replaced. Coaches and parents often tell athletes to, “Change your negative attitude,” “Stop saying that, it’s negative,” or “Be more positive!” While this may be good advice, it leaves the athlete with questions. “How do I change my attitude?” “What else should I say?” “How can I be positive when I just messed up?”

It is important that we teach our athletes how to change their attitude and how to transform their negative self-talk. Here’s a powerful three-step process I helped develop with the Positive Coaching Alliance to transform negative self-talk. Let’s use the expression, “My backhand slice sucks,” as an example.

1. State the negative self-talk as a feeling: “I feel like my backhand slice sucks.”

This is a more accurate statement. “My slice backhand sucks” may or may not be true. What’s absolutely accurate is that the athlete feels like he or she can’t hit their slice in the moment. Tomorrow is a new day and with practice feelings can change.

2. Enlist the “Power of a Big But”.

What happens when the word “but” is used in a sentence? “Jan, I really like your shirt, but the color is a bit much.” Whatever comes before “but” is devalued leaving the recipient waiting for the negative ending. Usually we say the positive first and then devalue it with “but.” BUT, we can turn that around by using “but” to devalue the negative self-talk. Teaching our athletes to use the word “but” to their advantage can help transform their negative self-talk. “I feel like my backhand slice sucks, BUT…”

3. End with an “I’m-the-kind-of-person-who” statement. “I feel like my backhand slice sucks, BUT I’m the kind of person who never gives up.” Whenever an athlete catches himself or herself using negative self-talk, he or she can use this tool to transform it.

Coaches (and parents) plant the seeds for these positive statements. Our athletes will rarely come up with them on their own. But they will repeat what they hear from people they admire. Our job is to fill in the blanks for them.

Be prepared. Know your players and plant the appropriate seed for each individual – you’re the kind of person who “never gives up,” “loves to compete,” “bounces back,” “rises to the challenge,” etc.

Top competitors are extremely disciplined in what they think and say.  It is important to teach our players to control that little voice in their head and to teach them to talk to themselves the way a good coach or teacher would.

You expect your athletes to handle the pressure of competition. You want them to maintain their composure on the playing field no matter what.

Do you hold yourself to the same standard? The great coaches do. I believe in the saying “A team is a reflection of its coach.” The best coaches lead by example, so if you want your athletes to perform well under pressure, you need to as well.

I learned this lesson the hard way. I was the assistant coach at the University of San Diego while working on my master’s degree in sport psychology at San Diego State. For one of my course assignments I wore a portable microphone and was recorded on video while I coached a college tennis match.

There were no action shots or cutaways, just me the entire time. In those days, college tennis matches averaged several hours. After about thirty or forty minutes I forgot about the camera. Everything I did and said was recorded, everything.

Then all the data, my words, body language, demeanor, and so on were sorted into various coaching and teaching effectiveness categories. Finally, I had the dubious pleasure of sitting down with my peers to watch the recording, review the data, and receive feedback. Talk about intense! I learned more about myself as a coach that day than from anything else I’ve ever done.

So, if you really want to know what you are like as a coach under pressure, have someone record you during a competition. The bigger the competition the better. Then summon up your courage and watch the recording. Really study yourself. See what your athletes see when they look toward the sideline during the heat of the battle.

Do they see poise under pressure, or do they see upset, frustration, and negativity? You set the tone for your players. Be sure to reflect back to them what you want to see on the playing field.

Do you use a written practice plan 100% of the time? I ask this question at every coaches workshop I deliver – only few hands stay up when I emphasize 100%.

Most coaches average maybe 75% of the time. Yet we probably regret the 25% when we do not have a written plan. Having a written plan helps you to stay on task. A written plan is a tool a coach can use to make the best use of a very scarce resource, practice time, either by following the plan or by selectively deviating from the plan when it makes sense to do so.

Prioritize to make sure the most important things get done. Recognize that you can’t do everything. If a particularly important drill takes 15 minutes for players to benefit from it, then allocating five minutes is a waste of time. A written plan, even an imperfect one, gives you a framework to tackle a problem. You can always deviate from your plan – it’s shouldn’t be set in stone.

Players learn by doing – repetition or “reps” for short. Plan to maximize participation: This is often done easily by doing drills in pairs or in threes. This gives players the most reps and it keeps them involved and active. This requires planning and enough equipment to make this happen.

It is also important to go for quantity with quality. If an athlete is practicing a skill over and over again the wrong way, it will not do any good and she will have to “unlearn” it. The idea is to plan so that quantity of reps are done with quality.

Consider sharing your practice plan with your team before practice by either posting it or telling them directly. Also share your thinking about strategy and tactics. A lot of the fun in sports is the strategizing and thinking about how to get better, how to counter the other team’s strengths, etc. If you let your players in on your thought process, it will encourage them to begin to think strategically as well.

Triggers Words are a great way to maximizing the effectiveness of your coaching during competition.