Athletes base much of their outcome strategy on being able to intuitively produce the right action at the right time.

This forms part of their belief systems, instinctive direction and ultimately the sustained success of their performance.

When working with professional athletes, it is important that their internal drive and external performance needs are personally tailored to them.

However this very specific objective sometimes leads to some confusion for athletes and coaches around being either reactionary or being responsive!

These two actions may sound very similar in nature – but they have two very different drivers and consequences.

If we look at the specific behaviour of the ‘reactionary’ athlete, they are reacting to any and all situations:

• a perceived external force on them, such as their environment;
• the venue conditions;
• the pressure; and probably more importantly
• the other competitors actions

These athletes let their performances be directed, dictated and controlled by interpretation of their current situation – assessing – reacting – reassessing.

This mindset places the athlete in a constant observational role, not an action role. These athlete are then in damage control mode or constantly playing catch up as they wait for something to happen or someone to act before they can assess and react.

They have essentially surrendered their control over their performance to an external force limiting their options to counter actions.

When a Mind Coach builds an athlete’s optimal performance strategy, it is tailored specifically to that athlete and their skill-set and objective. It is not based on another athletes agenda or objective.

So by being a reactionary athlete and deviating from the designed path in order to react to another’s actions, an athlete is detracting from their own optimal performance strategy and objective.

I often tell athletes, ‘If you are chasing after another athlete then you will always be behind them – waiting for them to make the next move – it is better to lead yourself than follow another.’

The reactionary approach essentially ties the athlete into following their competitors path not their own.

If we now look at the specific behaviour of the ‘responsive’ athlete, these athletes have both their physical and psychological performances primed and ready to strike in a specific way, thus making them responsive to their own needs. This also allows them to make informed performance decisions based on their ability and their objective.

These athletes posses behavioural flexibility and can manoeuvre their performance within their optimal strategy based on their outcomes and situational needs. This gives the athlete the freedom and control to perform towards their objective and not be looking, judging and reacting to what others are or are not doing and using that as their gauge.

This single-minded focus gives our athletes clarity, objectivity, control and an optimally designed path to follow. This lowers performance anxiety and any second-guessing to what is coming next and also allows athletes to select the path that is right for them.

So the next time someone advises you they want you to have better reactions – tell them you would rather be responsive and compete on your own terms not those of your competitors!

There will always be environmental conditions or personal conditions outside the athletes control, so it is important an athlete remains open minded, cognisant of their ability and primed – responsive and ready to tap into their resources when called on.

I am often asked what it is I do for a living (sometimes even by those closest to me…). My answer is always the same – I take an athlete and I make a champion!

Although this response does little to clear up the confusion my family has about what I do for a job, achieving this outcome specifically is done through working both with and on an athlete.

Working with an athlete comprises working on their mental structuring, emotional stability and natural cognitive patterning to produce a sustainable, replicable and smarter performing champion.

However –

There is no Magic Wand included…

No one hit wonder…

No silver bullet…

No one technique where we mystically hypnotise, covertly re-pattern and take away the self doubt in an afternoon that will see them through to the rest of their lives…

Absolutely no picket fences and fluffy dogs!

We do utilise all those techniques – and more – and this takes dedication, time and commitment!

The same way an athlete knows they have to continually hone their performance skills, practice their training techniques and systematically nurture their physical body – the mental process is the same. In fact, if unattended, it can be less forgiving than the physical programme!

If an athlete neglects their mental and emotional development, it can have devastating consequences and have an immediate impact on both their performance and confidence!

Individual perspective and behaviour have been forged over their entire lives and it is these unique views on reality about what they can and cannot achieve that dictates the effectiveness of their behavior, and therefore, level of their success!

The mechanics of our reality is quite simple:

1. We experience an event, physical or imagined
2. We assess that event and create our own personal interpretation
3. We create an internal representation, an understanding
4. We apply a personal meaning to that and similar events
5. It becomes a distinguishing emotion

This essentially categorises that event as ‘something’ and assigns a perceived value.

Our individual perspective on the world is built upon these personal experiences from the copious amounts of data we come into contact with, then translated and used as puzzle pieces.

The good, the bad and the ugly in our lives, are decided upon by us, whether we consciously mean to or not.

For an athlete to truly produce their preferred performance, we must first understand and master the mind’s Information Filtration Systems, deciphering the picture it has painted, what emotional tagging system is adopted and what information is allowed in and what information is kept out – and why!

As we now understand, the pivotal influence over our performance is our mind. So athletes and coaches who wait until the train has crashed before they engage in effective mental training are going to be left behind.

There is no instant fix – when coaches see athletes almost magically transform under another coaches tutelage – this coach is fully engaged in mental training. It is the most effective way of producing a bigger, brighter and more productive attitude and belief in their athlete.

There is no doubt that physical talent is paramount and will probably get you so far towards your dreams, goals and aspirations but it is your mental agility and mental toughness that will make you a champion!

Image Credit: Flickr pillwoodlouse

I was recently asked to visit a newly constructed sporting facility as it proudly opened its doors to the sporting elite. It was billed as the best of it’s kind and I was exceptionally excited to see it in action.

I arrived and met with the other invitees, the press, the sponsors and us technicals. When we saw the building for the first time it was indeed impressive. Even from the outside it looked ultra modern and eerily menacing.

As we walked through the front doors we were greeted by a pristine, clean and busy hub. A state-of-the-art strength and conditioning gym; a lecture theater that would rival most major universities; a rehabilitation clinic many hospitals would sell a patient or two for (or at least their spare parts); a nutritionally managed canteen; a wade pool heated to optimise recovery; and lastly, a team meeting room that would make Google HQ jealous.

However, as we were lead around and proudly shown just what it was capable of, I was struck by just what it wasn’t doing. The more that opened and shut the more it was apparent to me it had been created looking from one aspect only. It was only catering to one discipline of the athlete’s preparation and competitive sustainability – there were gaping holes (in my opinion) in the thought process behind creating this athlete haven.

The physical aspect was truly outstanding, it came with everything: bells, whistles and even the kitchen sink. But so much more mental stimulation could have been built in to enhance and support the physical focus, to craft a more rounded environment for these sporting gladiators to prepare.

At the end of the tour I was asked my thoughts on the facility, and of course I willingly gave them. The centre truly was outstanding – however I do remember saying it was like entering into a 100m race with Usain Bolt having only one shoe on!

I am not too sure if they took my thoughts on board or not, it will be interesting to see!

When you look around at your own training environment, are you taking full advantage of what it has to offer, or is the vital ‘mental game’ missing.

I suggest conducting a walk-through of your facility with fresh eyes, even if you walk through it every day. Look at it with a different perspective. Does your centre:

-       cater to your athlete’s physical and mental needs

-       stimulate practical problem solving

-       condition left and right hemispheres independently and collectively

-       utilise peripheral learning, and

-       create an environment that motivates

The rapid expansion in our understanding of the brain and its capabilities through neural science has uncovered some of its amazing complexities and the more we understand the more we can utilise its natural powers. One such way is through our visual stimulants, those subconscious and peripheral learnings that sneak into our unconscious minds constantly. We know we only acknowledge a small amount of what our eyes can see yet our minds take so much more in.

Here are a couple of the ‘missing’ pieces from my tour:

In the reception there was no behavioural stimulation, no motivational triggers like posters of past champions, current champions, relevant video or stimulating audio. The clinical environment did nothing to lower anxiety or create a sense of calmness or belonging.

The Strength and Conditioning gym had no mental development exercises at all, no hemisphere stimulation games, coordination skill development, spacial awareness or cognitive patterning exercises or even strategic problem solving. When mixing physical and cognitive stimulation a greater degree of development can be obtained in both physical and mental areas.

Our right eye feeds into our left hemisphere of our brain and our left eye feeds into our right hemisphere of our brain so by placing stimulating imagery along the left hand side of a wall (just above eye level) will feed directly into our right spatially aware and ‘global’ side of the brain, whilst placing motivational phrases, or systematic strategies along the right hand side will feed directly into our left, more language and pattern oriented, hemisphere. These will be absorbed and categorised without us having to consciously process them.

This subtle layering has proven to covertly improve the cognitive stimulation and learning process. This strategy could be employed in the lecture theater, the team meeting room, the reception and even the canteen.

The rehabilitation centre was amazing, however little was geared towards the major role neural science plays in rehabilitation both physically and emotionally. I recently worked with a chiropractor who is taking this connection to a whole new level. Our mind controls our actions and so by stimulating the right neural receptors we in turn stimulate the correct body part.

One other area where I feel a great deal of emotional and communicative management benefit occurs is during peer interaction. Creating an open communication environment where team captains, managers and coaches are all on an equal standing with athletes, including juniors, allows different perspectives to add depth to the process. It also engages more productive and targeted communication.

Due to tradition this last aspect is often frowned upon by older players and avoided by organisations as they can feel threatened by the younger players. When handled correctly however it can add multiple dimensions to their influence and produce more targeted outcomes.

So take a look at what you have created and ask yourself, ‘Have I built-in the mental game here?’

You have spent years physically and technically preparing an athlete for the ‘big competition’, the one stand out event that will synergistically bring all that hard work together; set them apart from the crowd; and cement their name in sporting contention.

Only to find on the day they implode and choke!

Bearing witness as their minds spontaneously combust into a scrambled mess, a coach can only watch the athlete’s precision-controlled limbs take on a zombie-possessed life of their own. Their ability to problem-solve appears left in the trunk of the car along with that old gym sock, sweaty towel… and maybe now their hopes and dreams.

As a coach at this point you begin to wonder who the hell is this athlete?

Where is my athlete, the one I have spent all that time and effort in building?

Why did I not see this coming, how could I have got it so wrong?

What do I do now?

Relax…

… This is a very common scenario.

However, it is a scenario that frequently spawns a reaction that involves a complete re-evaluation of the whole process, the training schedule, the fitness structure and the technical application of the core skills!

This overhaul is time-consuming, disheartening and quite frankly probably totally unnecessary.

STOP – before you begin to unravel years of work and your coaching philosophy built up over a lifetime, first understand what has really happened here by following this simple process:

1. Was it really a train-crash or simply just a wrong turn?

Lets start by taking the high level emotions out of the situation and looking at it clinically.

2. From a disassociated perspective, ask “What could I do differently next time?”

Think backwards to the point where the wheels on the track first began to wobble and before the athlete careered out of control!

3. Did the wobble initiate weeks ago or was the first major wobble on competition day?

I often hear coaches speak of the athlete letting the pressure of the competition moment get to them or they allowed their competitors to get inside their heads or their confidence was shattered by their performance as they lost focus and objectivity.

As much as these may be contributing factors to the final derailment of the athletes performance the reality is the real core inefficiency is probably in the approach, for specifically the lack of structured approach.

The Competition Approach

The competition approach, is just that – the days leading into the competition and the day of the competition right up to where the athlete takes to the spot to perform.

I have been working with coaches and athletes my whole adult life and it’s the most rewarding profession I can imagine. And after all these years, I would consider the ability of a coach to ‘effectively’ mentally prepare their athlete for their performance day as one of their most valuable skills. On competition day and in much of what an athlete does, educating an athlete how to be responsive rather than reactionary is all in the planning.

Humans are creatures of habit, we are also by nature essentially quite lazy (although we ‘sell’ it as being efficient) and will follow a well-trodden and established path when faced with no obvious solution rather than assess and innovate a new tailored path. In fact, we are hardwired to seek out such established patterns and to be an early and loyal adopter.

Because of this most coaches follow the same system for competition – blindly applying time after time, athlete after athlete.

However these final steps before their performance is such a critical time for the athlete, a crucial time where they need to be focused, emotionally neutral, clear, concise and precise about their objective, confident that they can deliver what is required and comfortable in knowing that all the boxes have been ticked and that everything that could have been done has been done.

Often the reality is we see two polarities, where coaches and athletes are either completely disengaged or wholly consumed by the moment, following no obvious structured and designed approach, they are emotionally charged thus reactionary to everyone else’s movements and unable to apply what they have trained for or know to be the right move for them.

I also see coaches correcting intricate technique or even teaching the athlete new skills just before they take to the competitive arena.

This disorganised approach is a mental minefield as it is widening of the athletes focal aspect not a narrowing of their focal precision.

Last minute hurdles placed into their path is not beneficial to the athlete and in fact greatly inhibits them from performing at their optimum as it splits and defocuses their ability to mentally reproduce and apply.

Instead of emotionally loading them up, sludging their thought processes and giving them little opportunity to build confidence (a history of success), the key to preparing an athlete to perform efficiently and effectively involves funnelling the athlete into a heightened state of awareness and specificity of focus, ticking boxes and disengaging what isn’t needed to make them mentally leaner and more efficient.

So when you think about how YOU currently approach competition, are you mentally weighing them down? Do you have a replicable system that is prepping your athlete for success?

What scares you the most?

What scares you so much it totally impacts on your life, your decisions, relationships, professional integrity and your sporting performance?

Do you think about those fears multiple times a day, do they consume your every thought, direct your actions and force change to your desired or planned path?

In many people ‘Fear’ can be crippling, debilitating, it can stop them doing things that add depth and dimension to their life and fear can also inhibit their interaction with people and groups and limit their perception of options.

What would you realistically do to eradicate those fears from your life, to take back control of your outcomes and live a more responsive existence?

And what would you do differently if you didn’t have the fear hanging over your head?

Consider this: do you consider yourself an imaginative and mentally creative person? Someone who has a good imagination, someone who processes in 3D mental images, who can see great detail in their thoughts? If so, then your ‘Fears’ can hold a greater reality for you, the monster in the closet will seem all that more realistic, animated and tailored to you.

That’s not to say those who are more analytical processors don’t have fears, they do. Their fears are constructed a little differently – more based on their perception of logical outcomes rather than imagined possibilities – yet no less debilitating.

So what is fear?

Fear is simply the result of our own semi-irrational creations of possible outcomes, what we imagine COULD happen IF the THING was to take place.

Think back to your own fear – is your fear based on an actual proven event or the possibility of the event?

Fear is our brain’s internal self-preservation process. It’s our own a way of preparing us for the worst-case scenario and in order to cater for the absolute worst case-scenario we have to first imagine the worst case-scenario!

And then we cannot un-think what we have first thought.

It is this over active imaginative process that allows our brain to continually add more and more emotional weight to our fears, giving them dimension, perspective and life. And of course the more weight that we add the more realistic, probable and alive it appears to us.

It is important to understand that fear is merely an emotion, built on the same construction process as say happiness. Fear is an internally primed and cultivated chemical blueprint of how to respond to an event or potential event.

As with all emotional reactions when the emotion is removed from the reality the details become clearer and more manageable.

However when it is left to cloud the mind, it increases our emotional fogginess and disables our logical thought process, which inhibits us from putting the THING into perspective.

So, once we understand why we feel fear, how do we realistically manage fear? Especially a fear that has such a hold over us!

The good news is the same imagination process that created the monster can tame the monster. If we use our active imagination not to create the fine, realistic details of what could go wrong but to visualise action steps and a structured strategy towards what you want to happen and subsequently avoid the worst case-scenario. This gives our brain effective, realistic and applicable options.

We can lower our emotional anxiety, create greater clarity of thought and keep it all in perspective with effective and realistic visualisation.

So stop feeding the emotional monster and put it to good creative work.

Athletes are often told by their coaches they need to set goals and then set out to achieve those goals.

However many athletes are never educated in HOW to effectively set and or achieve goals or what the difference is between a goal and an objective.

As a professional Mind Coach I get all our athletes and coaches to set an OBJECTIVE, a big ticket outcome, and then plot and plan the Goals to achieve that Objective.

So the difference between an OBJECTIVE and a GOAL is an objective is the destination, the final outcome where as a goal is the path of stepping stones along the way. The design of this direction promotes sustained motivation.

Today we are going to look at something called NEURAL PATTERNING and an innovation we have created to really get this skill ingrained in the body is Blindfolded Rock Climbing.

The concept behind this exercise is to firstly teach the athlete how to gain clarity on their objective and then design and create their path in a systematic and specific way.

Learn how to achieve the confidence and self trust to follow your path step by step, knowing where to go, what to expect and how to achieve it.

Stage One: Create The Objective

Establish what you are striving for: International representation, an Olympic gold, a World Record or something more intimate such as a personal achievement.

Whatever the objective is, it needs to be clear, concise and precise with an understanding of what will be the final step, the recognition of job done.

Then the path to the objective is designed. Selecting goals that support and enhance the journey, and part of this process includes allowing the athlete to set their own goals to the objective and the reward system that goes with it.

Stage Two: Own The Objective

Once we have our established objective and our specifically designed set of goals as the pathway we need to embed this strategy into the neural pathway of the athlete, rendering it as the optimal behavioural option.

Having a pre-designed clear and structured path allows an athlete and coach to maintain focus and if the athlete does veer off the path, the specific point of reference will instantly show, allowing them to correct and bring it back on track (by utilising effective visualisation, both with associated and disassociated techniques).

If we take ownership of something, then we are more likely to stick to it, have an emotional connection to it and be motivated by it. The athlete designed this unique path so they are not bound by the strategies of others. By selecting the path that best suits them they hold themselves accountable to the outcome.

Stage Three: Follow The Path

A very effective exercise to teach the athlete the benefits of selecting, embedding and following a path is our “Blindfolded Rock Climbing” process. This is the last stage in building effective performance neural patterning.

The idea behind this is to feel comfortable in trusting our internal judgement – Once we remove our ability to see, adjust and react we must trust our internal picture.

Our eyesight overrides and over-writes our memory – instantly becoming our primary process – reacting to an ever changing environment. But what it CAN do is react without planning and we could easily find ourselves without options or on a path where we are following another athletes strategy.

So by creating our path, succeeding at the path and rewarding ourselves … and all whilst doing it blindfolded – we enforce our self belief and confidence in trusting our own judgement.

I am often asked to work with athletes who are experiencing confidence issues around their performance – when they are reminded of success by completing this Neural patterning process their confidence and self worth is instantly lifted. Once they have this point of reference they have a history of success, they see and feel their ability is once again reinforced.

By understanding how to design your own effective neural patterning process, you can design very specific strategies, tailored to give you the best chance at reaching your objective and performing at your optimum.

I have lost count of the number of times I have stood on a sideline, sat in a dugout, wandered up and down a poolside and heard coaches and parents criticise, cringe and even cry at the sight of their athletes conducting superstitious rituals before, during and sometimes even after they compete.

(One parent-coach once pleaded me to tell him what was mentally wrong with his daughter as she completed a complex sequence of foot movements before she competed her Gymnastics floor routine).

This is a scenario that is played out in every sport at every level. Some people perceive these unique rituals as something taboo, or something to be trained or beaten out of the athlete to discourage them from conducting this potluck performance behaviour.

A general armchair theorist may believe these athletes are just superstitious, or leaving their performance to luck, or perhaps appealing to a higher being to ‘bless’ them with a good performance.

So why would any athlete consciously choose to place their professional careers in the laps of the performance gods, rely on blind luck or even chance?

Would they truly allow their superstitious behaviours to determine the outcome of their performance that day?

If, like some, you buy into the theory of ‘luck’ then what is the point of conducting these rituals anyway? What are athletes training for if it is purely a game of chance?

A study recently released by Prof. David Eilam from Tel Aviv University found these rituals have a far greater importance than buying ‘luck’ credits from the performance gods! They instead allowed the athlete to ‘create’ their environment.

So the reality may not be OCD or leaving it to chance. Rather an attempt to follow a tried and trusted pattern, to create continuity and more importantly to gain a sense of control.

One of the factors that makes a champion is the continuity and sustainability in their performance. This is the ability to create and follow a winning formula irrespective of the circumstances, the opponent or even their competition.

One of the factors that brings an athlete or coach undone is the initiation of their own self-crafted anxiety. Anxiety is an emotional response based on ‘what could happen’ not necessarily what has, or will, happen. So it is a purely manufactured worse-case outcome.

When working with an athlete and coach, the first step is to meticulously build a pragmatic, practical and replicable structure to their training, preparation and competition. Building a tried and trusted personalised formula gives them a higher percentage of preferred outcome probability. This uniquely manufactured structure takes much of the ‘unknown’ out of their performance, removing a huge amount of anxiety and destructive imagination that could affect the performance, thus allowing the athlete to do what they do best – and that is perform.

When an athlete creates a ritual they are in effect doing the same thing: building a predetermined performance structure, a pattern, something they know, trust and can rely on and know intimately. This in turn has the same effect of lowering the athlete’s anxiety, reducing the amount of defocused thinking and curbs an over-stimulated imagination.

It also allows an athlete a perceptual sense of personal control, often within situations where they have very little or no control at all outside of their own skill-set. Athletes are often placed into a situation where the coach has probably selected the play, the strategy, the team. The individuals in the team may have been selected to complete a certain dynamic or depending upon the sport, based on reaction rather than creation. A sense of control gives the athlete an edge over their competitors.

So as a mind coach, do I encourage rituals? Absolutely I do.

I actively encourage athletes and coaches to build specific positive behavioural patterns, or Neurological Points of Reference (NPRs) in their pre-game plan:

• If they know what works for them and why, then repeat it habitually (ensuring, of course, they are not inhibiting performance or it being too intrusive on their life or sport).
• Anchor positive emotion to that pattern and allow the athlete to build on confidence, focus and sustainability – all the signs of a champion!

So the next time you see an athlete jump and touch the crossbar or tie their bootlaces multiple times or touch the ball a specific number of times, just know you are probably looking at an athlete who is taking control of their outcome.

If bad days become more and more frequent and the machine of expectation that surrounds a professional athlete has them completely derailed, it follows that their performance is likely to resemble a train wreck.

And this could mean the difference between being re-signed for the next season or dropped from a team and potentially losing millions of dollars in payment and endorsements. So once their attitude and synergy has turned festy and poisonous – these professionals look for something different.

Traditionally when athletes completely miss their mark and their performance begins to glide southwards their first instinctive response is to do more of the same – and that is physical training!

As a former athlete I myself have been put through the ‘traditional’ avenues coaches and athletes favour in an attempt to either avoid or turn a bad situation around – and it is within this tradition of reactivity that lies the systemic problem.

More gym work, more kicking practice, more hours of the same training… more… more… more… more…

The issue may be a technical anomaly or a physical inefficiency or even a lack of performance history and focus, but the head-down bum-up more, more, more approach typically perpetuates the emotional baggage and tainting of process that comes with these performances: the sense of desperation; the sense of expectation; the sense of anxiety; and ultimately the sense of failure.

On the surface I can see the thought process behind this traditional approach. Let’s face it, athletes are physical performers therefore focusing on the increase in physical response it ‘should’ in theory give them results.

But does it?

Stop for a moment and analyse this philosophy: if an athlete or group of athletes have just under-performed and experienced a poor result, irrespective of the cause, where is their mental and emotional objectivity likely to be focused?

Are they focusing on improving, correcting and moving forward? Or has the painful performance cemented in the mistakes made and the outcomes they delivered?

Like many dedicated humans their focus externally will be on correction, because that is what they consciously tell themselves, but in reality their mental and internal focus will be completely on the mistakes made and how NOT to repeat them.

If the mental focus is on NOT to repeat the mistakes, where are they likely to emotionally and cognitively end up? …  Repeating the same mistakes… and thus perpetuating the cycle of poor results, uncontrollable emotions, and more poor results.

It was reported that the Australian Rugby Union team went from one of their poorest performances at the Rugby World Cup 2011 straight into a training session the next day, trying to put right where they had gone wrong.

So if rushing from the competition venue to a training session is not the answer – then what is?

FOCUSED OBJECTIVITY

The two main reasons many athletes and coaches rush to do something active (and in their model of the world ‘actively’ deconstruct their performance) with more physical repetitions is because:

1. Athletes associate action with physical action not necessarily mental action and feel more in control if they are physically ‘doing something.’ So this is feeding their emotions rather than their technical issues.

2. Historically, it is what athletes have done. It has been traditionally handed down from coach to athlete. When things go wrong get back on the horse and just do it again. The legacy continues.

The solution lies in the ability to analyse.

Rather than embedding emotionally anchored physical repetition and doing something just because you have done it before, a more effective approach is to step back and analyse. Just analyse what worked, what didn’t work and how it can be mechanically corrected.

This level of objectivity allows an athlete to distance themselves from perpetuating the same result; to learn from the mistakes and to analytically correct the issues before they become embedded into their programme.

The 3D Coach™

The innovation of the 3D coach™ allows the athlete to analyse their performance in the following way:

First Dimension:
Look at their performance from their own perspective with all the emotions attached (associated to the event);

Second Dimension:
Look at their performance as another would see it mechanically, systematically and chronologically (dissociated to the event)

Third Dimension:
Once the athlete can see the performance for what it really was then they can see their performance from the perspective of how it would impact the long term outcome both corrected and uncorrected.

This process can deconstruct and reconstruct the event without the blurring of the facts with heavy emotion and allows the athlete to tweak and tinker with the skills without the fears associated with the past performance.

This all sounds very simple, and it is, but unfortunately under utilised. So the next time you or one of your athletes have an off performance, resist the urge to dive back in the gym and instead understand just where the improvements need to be!

The Coolangatta Gold is one of the most iconic and physically challenging multi-discipline events on the world’s sporting calendar and is the longest race of its kind spanning 46 kilometres.

This test of human endurance comprises an ocean swim, surf-ski, board paddle and soft sand run… and all in the heat of an Australian summer… as a field of the world’s top athletes compete for the coveted title of ultimate Ironman.

We spent the off-season mentally preparing for the race with specific technical visualisation, targeted focus exercises, hypnosis, internal recognition to external application and a very detailed and structured race-day plan.

By the beginning of the season he had become a well-oiled machine.

Part of the race-day motivation plan comprised:

• Mental compartmentalisation & performance accountability; and
• A rewards process

These are designed to maintain sustained motivation and manage emotional stability.

Both these skill-sets encourage the athlete to break the performance down into specific ‘achievable’ and ‘acknowledgeable’ units.

As an athlete, when focus is on each specific unit, you can:

1. Complete the unit;
2. Learn from it;
3. Reward it; and then
4. Move on!

The power in this process is it removes emotional attachment, mental fatigue or overwhelm, a vital aspect of the endurance mental game.

I had not worked within the Ironman ‘world’ before this but I had many times worked in endurance-based sports, so understood the unique mental and physical challenges they present.

Race day arrived, I knew my athlete wasn’t a favourite to win and he was very aware he wasn’t as physically strong as the race heavyweights. However we knew the race would need to be run in his head, so we were ready!

As I stood on the beach and watched the field of 50 competitors complete their final warm up, they were indeed a spectacle of ultimate human machines. I watched these sporting elites conducting their own rituals., waxing boards, consuming energy gels, packing water into the ski and running the race in their minds and noticed:  physically, they were the fittest athletes I had ever seen… they represented the top 1% of athletes on the planet, an intimidating bunch by any standards.

I also became aware of a sudden, dark, nervous buzz. The confident strutting became edgy shuffles, the mind games instantly stopped. This invisible, negative buzz filling the beach was now spilling over into the crew tents and crowd.

What I had not seen when observing this change was the surf had grown. I had seen these modern-day warriors battle much larger waves, stronger currents and harsher beach conditions during training – so why on race day had it become an issue big enough to make them so wary? And, why did they now start talking up the surf and talking down their ability?

The more I watched and listened, the common theme appeared to be ‘luck’ – or the curse of ‘bad luck’ to be precise.

I heard the coach of one of the favourites to win telling the TV crew ‘if the big waves don’t get him he may still have a chance.’ I was shocked, I couldn’t understand why a wave would select one athlete out of 50 and go after him!

Had I walked into the twilight zone… a place where the elements have objectives, held grudges?

Had this athlete upset the Water Gods at some point and this was his retribution?

Or was this all self manifested in their minds?

I asked the coach why he thought a whole years worth of preparation had come down to ‘luck’. He told me they couldn’t predict the surf and it was luck if they did or didn’t collect a wave that brought them back into shore or one that would stop them initially getting out.

But, I responded, doesn’t every athlete out there have the same opportunity to collect or not that same wave? Ultimately they manoeuvre themselves into the right position to collect the wave, and if they don’t it would be poor planning or poor execution– not luck!

I could see the blood drain from his face as his whole exit strategy had been exposed. The exit strategy of ‘Well, if I under-perform or under-execute the plan, I have an external force to lay the blame on.’

And the more I listened the more this cultural dependency on ‘luck’ as an excuse was evident. There was no denying these were fit guys, but mentally they had left themselves an out option. And it would appear it was part of the sport’s culture, rather than an individual athlete.

You see, psychologically having an exit strategy such as ‘luck’ lowers someone’s resistance to the physical and mental forces, and minimises their behavioural ability to keep on pushing through the tough times.

Given the option to bail out when the going gets tough becomes a very viable option when you have the ‘Bad Luck’ card to play.

After working within various sporting disciplines, I had observed the exit strategy in many different forms on many different occasions. But never had I observed this phenomenon weaved within the culture of a whole sporting discipline, as this one.

In my opinion, luck isn’t a viable excuse for anything. If we allow ‘luck’ to have a hand in our performance then we hand over a large amount of control to an external force – one that only exists in our minds.

It is the athlete’s way of keeping one hand on the door handle, ready if the going gets too tough to mentally run and have an excuse to do so.

When I conduct Open Mind Nights, they are an opportunity for coaches, athletes and parents to come together and move forward as one efficient unit – I openly promote the removal of the word ‘luck’ from their vocabulary and actively hand back control of the performance to the athlete.

Despite the large seas, the race was run and my athlete got a top five finish which was a phenomenal result and one that was made possible by the mental strategies he had and utilised.

Confidence is a hot topic in a coach or athlete’s world and something we intimately associate with both our success and our stumbles in life.

Often our greatest moments are attributed to our unshakable confidence in the face of competition, our belief in ourselves and the focus in our preparation and performance. Our domination and drive is celebrated and we become the self-appointed poster child for success.

On the flip side, when we stumble, our confidence is the first to feel the emotional bruises and cop the full brunt of the blame. ‘I didn’t feel confident’ or ‘I wasn’t confident in my skills I had prepared’ – and even ‘I didn’t have the confidence in my coaches choices for the routine or play.’

So clearly our confidence is a vital aspect of our behaviour and therefore our performance. It is something to be managed just as pragmatically as our physical fitness, technical skill-set and diet.

However, some coaches and athletes treat the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde  ‘confidence’ like the uncle no one talks about, hiding it away – viewing the psychology of confidence as a taboo subject, thinking if they don’t mention the word ‘confidence’ then it won’t break, fall down or behave inappropriately!

The truth is confidence is not a fragile or embarrassing entity to be tip-toed around – it is a system.

Confidence is simply a replicable pattern of specific neurological triggers and chemical stimulants in our bodies. It is robust and predictable. Being aware of this allows us to harness it and maximise on it for our own ultimate good.

And for this reason it deserves our full attention and respect!

In my experience, performance confidence issues are merely a lack of, or a stalling of, the positive forward momentum of recognition process.

What I mean by this very long term is – our confidence and motivation (intimately linked) is fuelled by consistent, periodic injections of acknowledgment and recognition of success – it needs to be fed in order to survive.

Like eating healthy foods, the results are not instant but gradual and cumulative. Like all sustainability – little and often is the key ingredient here for behavioural endurance.

I liken this to the frog jumping across the pond from one bank to another. In order to succeed the frog must select the path and hop from one Lilly pad to the next. This frog is unlikely to succeed by bounding all the way across in one leap, and with a couple of failed attempts may perhaps give up and settle for one side of the bank, believing it cannot reach it’s objective.

Each and every time we succeed at something (our lilly pads) – no matter how small – we are neurologically rewarded for our effort. We are rewarded with generous doses of serotonin and dopamine – this unique concoction of naturally-derived happy drugs are supplied to us by our own bodies as recognition and reward for achievement. This makes the successful action pleasurable, memorable and sustainable.

Serotonin and Dopamine, like many other natural chemicals are highly stimulating and exceptionally addictive. Our brain likes this reward system we have created and wants more and more of it, so urges and nudges us forward to the next success and reward point – eagerly waiting for the next hit. This forms a natural foundation for forward momentum.

Whilst it is our subconscious brains that have the higher understanding of what we are actually capable of – it is our conscious filtration system that normally ‘plays it safe’ and pulls us back into a conservative line. It is our conscious mind that also focuses on the failures rather than the successes, turning our attention to what we have NOT achieved rather than what we have achieved.

We know we get what we focus on – so if we continuously focus on our lack of success then our perception will be that we continue to fail more frequently, stemming the flow of rewards and thus killing off our motivation to succeed – and thus actually succeeding more infrequently.

If I asked you to turn up for work every day for the next 5-10 years and give 100% but you would never be paid or recognised for your effort how long could you sustain your motivation? If we do not recognise and reward our internal successes then we too tune out and have no reason to excel.

This natural reward high feeds our confidence, and sometimes fools our conscious mind into thinking we could, and should, take on more and more challenging tasks to gain the higher reward.

Many top athletes speak of being caught up in the moment, feeling un-stoppable and almost superhuman when at their peak. The reward driven highs becoming ‘the norm’ and a constant flooding of neural stimulants keeps them there.

(This is also part of the reason why retiring athletes struggle to maintain the stimulation in their life after sport – but that is a whole other topic we will cover in another post!)

Where the wheels fall off this neurological and emotional system is if we STOP or lose this positive forward momentum of natural rewards.

If we stop acknowledging our successes, we begin to suffer withdrawal from our happier days – like a drug addict without the next fix this begins to reinforce our subconscious doubts over our ability to ever again ‘score’ or succeed and be rewarded. The next logical step eludes us as we lose direction, focus and perspective.

The longer this period of time where our reward cravings are not met the bigger the desire is to have that ‘hit’ and the more important that next success becomes. All this does is increase our anxiety levels and feeds the emotional monster who has been focused on our failures.

This emotional cloud distorts our skill-set, our cognitive clarity and our perception in our ability to succeed.

And so a perpetual cycle of perceived failure is born – we have all witnessed it and maybe even lived it.

Breaking this slippery downward cycle and restoring forward upward momentum is a systematic process – just as the creation of the focused problem was in the first place.

After all, our confidence is fuelled by our success, acknowledgment and our neural-reward! And as this feeds the motivation engine, the strategy is simple:

1. Start setting small achievable goals, acknowledging them along the way, outwardly celebrating them and focusing on the success of what you did achieve not what eluded you.

2. Reward yourself again and again – it gains traction in the motivation game, like stoking the fire of a steam engine the more fuel you put in the better the results that come out.

Rewards do not have to be tangible, so set aside those flat screen TVs for now and focus on internal recognition, acknowledging yourself for your achievements in your session, day, week, season objective.

Begin a performance journal to enable you to follow your journey of achievement and see the patterns of success you create and duly reward them.

Confidence really is just an emotional measure of success and once we understand and respect that it can only serve us in our grander objectives.