www.e-russell.com

Mental Skills in Sport

Seminar Notes

Hugh Russell

Russell Associates

028 2827 8613 07850 664017

www.thinking.ie

Introduction Welcome to this course on Mental Skills in Sport. As a performance consultant for the last 20 years I am very excited about sharing with you, some of the mental techniques that many outstanding sports performers regularly use to enhance their performance. Most of us would agree that our performance seldom matches our potential on a regular basis and when I ask individuals about this, many often express frustration at not playing close to their potential. So what stops us playing to our potential on a more regular basis? What gets in the way are what some might call “personal interferences” and many of these “personal interferences” are mental rather than technical or physical. These mental interferences are too numerous to mention but may include negative self talk that can spiral out of control, negative emotions and stress resulting in a lack of emotional control that “kills” any chance of playing well or an inability to say focused and concentrated. What we are concerned about in this seminar is exploring how best we can handle those mental interferences, like managing pressure situations, avoiding the “choke” and developing mental toughness during competition. We can all remember Rory McIlroy on the last day of the US Masters golf in April 2011 and we can all recall Rory again winning the US Open. The composure demonstrated by Darren Clarke in winning the Open golf at Royal St George’s was immense and it was no surprise when he thanked Bob Rotella one of the most prominent sports psychologists on the golf tour in his winning speech. No doubt you have your own experience of the “choke” when the mind can go blank and you get caught in negative thought loops and make wrong decisions but worst of all is the effect this has on your future performance. Future doubt and anxiety are thinking patterns most of us can do without the next time we play. This seminar will help you take charge of those situations, to channel your energy in a way that gets you into “flow” or what is often referred to as the zone – the zone is when your performance is effortless, concentration focussed and you get lost in the performance. Wouldn’t it be good to know that your mental resources are working for you and not against you? Mental skills can be the difference that makes the difference or as Tiger Woods put it “It’s the guy in control of their emotions coming down the straight who wins.” Thank you for your investment in this seminar and I’m convinced you will fine it useful, practical and fun. So what specifically will I be exploring with you? Firstly, I will be talking how your mind works and explaining to you how you make sense of and process the massive amounts of sensory information that you receive. I will explain a little about NLP - neuro linguistic programming. NLP has been called the “science of excellence” and you may

have heard of it before, I will be explaining more about NLP as we go through the course and you will pick up all you need to know quite easily. When you finish the course - You will be able to use language in a way that has a positive effect on your mind i.e. you will learn how to talk to yourself and others in a way that gets results, also you will leave recognising the importance and implication of accepting some fundamental beliefs about your thinking. You will be able to develop sound mental routines, access an immediate confident state and to recognise and stop negative thought loops escalating. Essentially you will able to apply performance tools and technology to your mind. If that is not enough I will also show you how to manage what we call your emotional landscape and stay in the zone of high performance. Just before we start I would like you to answer some questions. These are - What are your specific learning goals for taking this course? Where and how do you see yourself applying what you might learn? If you were to apply effective mental techniques what positive benefit(s) would that get for you or your team? Thank you again and I hope you enjoy the seminar.

How does the Mind Work?

How does your mind work?

Take a little time and reflect about your beliefs and your thoughts. How do you think your beliefs and thoughts became established and installed into your mind? Most people would agree it was the combination of genetic factors and learning/conditioning from your experiences in life. Much of what is installed we have learned in the process of growing up and that learning whether conscious or unconscious may be helping or hindering your performance now. We know your mind has been bombarded with information from an early age perhaps even before your birth. We also know your brain has within its’ structure an information highway of neural connections – neural connections that create the patterns of thought, habits and attitudes that are your personality. The good news is the brain is capable of installing new neural connections and we are capable of changing old ineffective habits to new more empowering ones. Much of what we do, we do at an unconscious level, the unconscious mind often drives our emotional responses and our actions. What we need is a mind that supports and helps us to meet our challenges. In sport we need to feel motivated – motivation is a feeling, a drive, a desire. You can use your mind to direct your emotions and your actions.

The first step then is self awareness - to be aware of the thoughts that inhabit your mind. Habits and patterns become embedded, they often work automatically and under pressure your response may be an automatic process that may help or hinder your performance. Your mind is like a parachute both work best when open. To use the mind well you will want to utilise your imagination. It is important to remember that what you imagine you create. It is interesting to note the mind does not know the difference between a real or imagined event. Choosing the right thoughts that create positive pictures in your mind coupled with a positive emotional state is what mind programming is about. To change your mindset will require repetition and practice – NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming aims to give you a structure and set of techniques to do just that that. An NLP Model

You filter out lots of

information

You filter out lots of

information

INFORMATION

You experiencepicturessoundsfeelings

You talk to yourself

You You experienceexperiencepicturespicturessoundssoundsfeelingsfeelings

You talk to You talk to yourselfyourself

Emotional State

Emotional State

PHYSIOLOGYPHYSIOLOGY

PERFORMANCEPERFORMANCE

NLP stands for neuro-linguistic programming – neuro, (the brain), linguistic: the language we use to make sense of things and programming, the programmes that are running in our brains. We are all running our own unique programmes, the “software” if you like, when we interact with the world. NLP seeks to install programmes in your mind that help you to achieve your desired outcomes and to perform at your best. Richard Bandler and John Grinder developed the model in the 1970’s by exploring how excellent performers did things. NLP seeks to give you the tools and techniques to reprogramme your mind for outstanding performance ie if it needs reprogramming.

As many of the techniques I will be explaining are NLP techniques, firstly I would like to introduce you to the basic NLP model of what goes on when you process information and when you communicate with yourself and others. Information is received into the mind through your sensory perceptions – sight, sound, taste, smell and hearing and that information gets processed in your brain by the “software you are running.” Because the information coming to you is vast the mind sorts it by filtering some parts into your awareness and some out of your awareness. You do this by deleting information as if it didn’t exist, by distorting information in a way that best aligns with your view of things and by generalising information, you form rules about yourself, others and the world you inhabit. This is a natural process and it is the brains’ way of managing information overload. Your unique neural pathways form what we could call your “map” of the world – your map represents your conditioning, your perceptions, your reality and your views about things including your performance in sport. In your mind you experience your subjective reality as pictures in your minds eye, as sounds you hear in your head, as feelings in your body and by the internal self talk you have with yourself. Your unique experience then creates your emotional state and this may be positive or negative, helping or hindering you. Your emotions in turn influence your physiology and stress levels – often a major factor in sporting performance – and all this processing ultimately leads to your performance, good or bad. Now that’s a process and it is a process that happens quickly and often without conscious thought. To sum up - everything you experience is subject to your unique filtering process – your beliefs, values, unconscious programmes running in the back of your mind influence everything you do or do not do. You have been programmed and some of those programmes that are running may help you, but many may not. So how do we install programmes that will help and not hinder your performance?

It is better coaches give 2 or 3 pieces of information rather than 10 pieces,

no matter how valid.

As we filter out vast amounts of information then providing too much information to players will not help them. The constant shouting of instructions from the sideline has a limited affect during competition. Remember the players are filtering out most of what you say. So select the most important pieces of information and repeat. If you have a lot of information to share then it needs to be grouped into chunks to allow the brain to process and make sense of it.

Conscious/Unconscious Mind

Unconscious Mind

Conscious Mind

How to talk to the unconscious mind so that it listens

Holding conscious thoughts is a limited capacity that you manage by deleting, distorting and generalising information so it is your unconscious mind that manages most of what we do. You don’t need to think about breathing, moving, making sure your heart beats, your unconscious mind does that for you. Your unconscious mind performs the actions you need. You can be playing wonderfully well – in the zone – and suddenly your conscious mind becomes aware of an aspect of the situation e.g. “I only need 2 pars to win this golf championship” or while playing bowls you think “I only need 3 more shots to win” and before you know it you are out of the zone. “Choking” can be described as a process where you think too much, you become too conscious of your performance. You become too analytical, too left brained in your thinking. Bowlers will know when their conscious mind says “Don’t be short” what will happen - the arm is likely to tense up, the muscle becomes tight and the bowl is delivered short. We watched Greg Norman consciously become aware of his swing – to think too much - on the last nine holes of the masters in 1996. Jana Novotna snatched defeat from the “jaws” of victory at Wimbledon in 1993 when she analysed too much and could hardly throw the ball in the air to serve when coming close to victory. It is important to leave the detailed analysis to the practice ground and let your unconscious mind do the work for you when performing.

The conscious mind and detailed thinking in practice may be fine but outstanding performance is an unconscious process. The unconscious mind is a simple mind that takes all instructions literally. It is a programmed mind that develops patterns. The ultimate aim of outstanding performance is unconscious competence. For the most part thinking too much gets in the way. We all talk to ourselves and others during competition and coaching practice so this next part is about how you can talk to your unconscious mind and the unconscious mind of others so that the unconscious mind understands our instructions. Words for the Unconscious Mind

Words for the unconscious mindWords for the unconscious mind

TryTryButButAndAndDonDon’’tt IfIfWhenWhenYetYet

We hear instructions given by players and coaches and the above list of words are often heard. In bowls you will often hear “don’t be short” or in golf “try not to hit it right” These are words you have said to yourself or others. When coaching or leading a team some are to be used with caution. What are your thoughts on each of the words – good to use or not?

Try

TryTry

Statement AStatement A““I will try to improve my deliveryI will try to improve my delivery””

Statement BStatement B““I will deliver the bowl smoothly and slowlyI will deliver the bowl smoothly and slowly””

Let’s examine the word try. Read statement A and write down whether you think it is an effective instruction for the unconscious mind. Now read statement B. Which do you think the unconscious mind will respond to more positively? The word “try” is used by many people who rarely succeed. When we try something we give ourselves excuses for not doing something. Either you are committed to do it or not, give up “trying.” Those who “try” to achieve seldom do. “Try” offers the mind a ready made excuse for failure, a refuge to say “At least I “tried.” Don’t try to play a shot, commit to playing the shot. When you “try” the mind knows you are less than committed to the action. “I must try to practice more” just say “I will practice more” The unconscious mind likes certainty and when you “try” you are never certain.

Banish the word “try” from your vocabulary unless you actually want

someone not to succeed

If you are a golfer or bowler about to play in bad weather you could say “try” to an opponent on the first tee or green. “Try to enjoy your game today.” It puts an excuse into their unconscious mind before they start and presupposes it will be hard to enjoy. But, And

But, andBut, and

Statement AStatement A““You played well today You played well today ““butbut”” your your

concentration faded a little near the endconcentration faded a little near the end””

Statement BStatement B““You played well today and you need to You played well today and you need to maintain your concentration to the endmaintain your concentration to the end””

Statement CStatement C““ ““Yes we did not play well, but given the Yes we did not play well, but given the

preparationpreparation…”…”

Read statement A and write down what you might think if that was said to you. Would you have a positive or negative response? Most would agree we would feel a little negative - the “but” negated the positive praise you received. Read statement B and write down what you might think if that was said to you. Would you have a positive of negative response? Now we would hope the effect would be a little less negative and of course with all communication tone of voice and gesture will also influence the impact. “And” generally adds more information and that gets less resistance from others including yourself when you talk to yourself. So learn to use “and” with yourself as you have your internal dialogues. Now read Statement C, but is used in a different context. Do you think this is positive or negative? In this case the “but” is used to negate the first part of the statement and to maintain motivation. Again in this context it is a positive massage for the mind.

Use words like “but”, “however” only when you want to negate or minimise what has been said. Use “and” when you want to add to or agree with what

has been said

Don’t

DonDon’’t t Statement AStatement A

““DonDon’’t hit it right. Dont hit it right. Don’’t be shortt be short””Statement BStatement B

““The line is, I need your bowl here The line is, I need your bowl here ””Statement cStatement c

““DonDon’’t listen to what your critics are sayingt listen to what your critics are saying””Statement DStatement D

““Ignore your critics. Remember how you Ignore your critics. Remember how you played last weekplayed last week””

The word don’t is interesting. Reflect for a moment if someone says to you in bowls “Make sure you don’t knock him in” what do you think your unconscious mind will focus on most? Check out the statements B, C and D above - which have the most positive effect for your unconscious mind to follow? The unconscious mind cannot process a negative so always tell your unconscious mind specifically what you want not what you don’t want. Positively say it the way you want it

If, When

If, When, YetIf, When, Yet““If we can winIf we can win…”…”

““WhenWhen we go there we can winwe go there we can win…”…”

Use Use ““ifif”” when you want to imply doubt and when you want to imply doubt and use use ““whenwhen”” when you want to imply when you want to imply

certainty.certainty.

““I canI can’’t play the backhandt play the backhand…….Yet.Yet””

Use Use ““yetyet”” to alter the time frame for to alter the time frame for someone.someone.

Think about the words “if” and “when” - what impact do you think using these words have on the unconscious mind? “If” implies doubt in the mind. “When” implies certainty. “Yet” is a word that alters the time frame for someone you may be coaching. They may say “I can’t play a backhand” you simply add the word “Yet” to their sentence.

Mindsets

Mindsets

Be clear on what you want

(outcome focused) do

not be problem focused

Have a “cause”mindset. Blaming external

influences is counter

productive

Let’s now look at your mindset Are you outcome or problem focused? Generally you will find individuals are either problem focussed or outcome focussed in their thinking habits. Problem focussed individuals tend to dwell on the problems they are having, whether that is playing poorly or struggling with a certain aspect of their game or the conditions. For example “I can’t get the line or weight today, the green is poor.” Being problem focused is an everyday issue for lots of people in many different contexts however it is not a useful starting point for changing a pattern that is not working. We know you get more of what you focus on. So it is important to get individuals more outcome focussed. This is a fundamental principle of NLP. In sport the principle applies like this: Establishing a clear outcome that is positive and programming that into your mind is the first step of building an effective mindset. We will talk later about programming the mind but the first step is to establish what you want – be clear and focused on that. Set performance goals during practice and make these goals measurable. For example a goal which states “I want to improve my backhand today” is vague. If we ask how would you know? We could set a performance goal for practice, for example in tennis we could

set the goal “To serve 50% of first serves in and 100% of second serves in with 10 balls” Setting performance goals establishes a level of performance for a sportsperson. But remember you could achieve your performance goal and still lose. You could run the 100 metres in 10.25 seconds while the winner runs it in 10.00 seconds. Performance goals are set in consultation with the sportsperson and need to be realistic. You can break down goals into activities in practice but they still should be measurable. We will also explore later how being outcome focused is important in mental visualisation. Have you a cause or effect mindset? Individuals also can have an established mindset that they apply to life in general and sport in particular. If you have a mindset that places you on the “cause” side of events you will tend to see yourself as a person capable of shaping events. When reflecting on situations you will choose to think about things you can do or will do next time to influence the outcome. The opposite of the “cause” side are those individuals who think from the “effect” mindset. When playing poorly they may blame the wind, the conditions or something else. All may be valid but the “cause” person will be more proactive often setting performance goals during play or practice. Putting yourself on the “cause” side means choosing a mindset that takes responsibility for creating the outcome you want regardless of the conditions. What do you think are the implications having a “cause” or “effect” mindset when you play sport?

Pattern interrupt

Pattern Interrupt: use the conscious mind to interrupt negative, looping thought patterns

1. Identify a “pattern interrupt” word or phrase as a stop signal.

2. You could ask yourself “How much am I enjoying this? Give yourself a score then consciously put your attention on enjoying it more.

3. Remember the conscious mind is the creator the unconscious mind is the follower

Now although I said keep your conscious mind out of your performance let me give you one instance when it is desirable to use it. During your performance you may be suffering from a series of negative thought loops that are getting you down and having a negative impact on yourself and your teammates. For example you may be saying to yourself “I just can’t get this line today” if playing bowls or “I’m just putting poorly today” in golf or “It’s not my day today.” Can you list examples of some other negative thought loops? If these negative loops are not stopped they will spiral but worse they will form patterns of neural connections in your brain and that’s what forms a habit. I’m sure you can think of individuals who are programmed and have developed habitual negative thought loops. So what do you do if this happens to you? You use a Pattern Interrupt. 1. Identify a “pattern interrupt” word or phrase as a stop signal. 2. You could ask yourself “How much am I enjoying this?” Give yourself a score then consciously put your attention on enjoying it more or you could just say “enough” with a gesture. Then mentally focus on one positive aspect of your performance. 3. Remember the conscious mind is the creator the unconscious mind is the follower Remember you can also help others to use a Pattern Interrupt or you will start to “catch” the negative emotions that accompany negative thinking patterns.

Read the following tip and write down what the implications of this might be?

Misconception that Practice makes Perfect –Practice makes Permanent.

Only Perfect Practice makes Perfect, and that can always happen in the

mind.

Mental rehearsal: visualisation

Building Mental pictures of Building Mental pictures of successsuccess

Dissociated Dissociated pictures: pictures: Looking at yourself Looking at yourself as if in a movieas if in a movie

Associated Associated pictures: pictures: seeing out your seeing out your eyeseyes

Let’s now examine one of the most important aspects of mental skills -mental rehearsal.

Our NLP model has already informed us that we make pictures in our mind. Consciously creating those pictures of success is a fundamental of outstanding performance. Mental rehearsal that gets repeated creates memories, these memories get installed within our brains and become resources we can draw upon to enhance our performance. In a sense we are creating memories for our future use. Visualisation is a key skill in any performance and we can all do it. I would like to ask you now to close your eyes and see your self performing in your sport eg delivering a bowl, playing tennis etc. See yourself performing at your best, being successful. Have you got a picture? Yes! Now open your eyes. When you were doing that were you looking out from your own eyes or did you see yourself as if you were watching yourself in a movie? Looking out of your own eyes is called being “associated” and seeing yourself as if in a movie is called being “dissociated.” In doing any mental rehearsal practice, first see yourself dissociated – watch yourself performing well and see yourself winning and being successful. This method of visualisation is good for reinforcing the outcome you seek. Make the picture bigger, brighter, add colour and sounds. Remember to visualise success. To reinforce this pattern also visualise and see yourself as if looking out from your own eyes. Again see, hear and feel the experience. You may begin to feel the emotions of the experience more using this method. Step inside your body and see what you see, hear what you hear and feel what you feel. Repeat the visualisations as many times as you want. The more you do, the more you will programme your unconscious mind. You could practice any aspect of your game this way e.g. serving in tennis, driving in golf, delivering a bowl, scoring a penalty. Again remember always visualise success. An important point to note is that the brain does not know the difference between a real or imagined experience, so mental rehearsal is a wonderful way to “wire” your brain for success. For every physical thing we achieve there is a mental creation of it first. Individuals will often say “I can’t see myself winning” or “I can’t picture myself doing that” – you must create the mental picture of what you want first. Building mental pictures of success starts the process of building a strong self belief.

Anchoring

How do you use a

“trigger” to anchor

confidence?

Positive emotional anchoring has become an important aspect of mental performance. It is simply a stimulus-response process where a trigger produces a positive emotional effect within the individual. Of course we are triggered and anchored to many things and some anchors can be negative. These negative anchors trigger a negative response in us. Positive anchoring is used to quickly allow an individual to get into and really feel a resourceful positive emotional state in the present moment - to feel confident or calm etc. What I would like to do is share with you a method you can use to anchor an individual or yourself into a positive resourceful state. Here is the process you would use: Get the individual or yourself to identify several specific resourceful states they want to anchor. They could be the following: Totally motivated Totally excited Totally confident Really successful Totally energised Explain that you are going to use a technique called the circle of excellence as a method to do this.

This method uses the process of stepping forward into an imaginary circle, usually accompanied by a hand gesture, to boost a positive state of mind when under pressure. 1. Staying outside the circle, get the person to identify the state of mind they want to anchor eg confidence, motivation, energetic etc. 2. Ask them to step into the circle and think of a time when they really felt the emotion. Get them to notice the sights, sounds, smells and their feelings. They need to feel the emotion strongly. 3. When you notice the individual in the peak state anchor it with a distinctive hand movement that they don’t normally use. E.g. you could get them to pinch their index finger and thumb together. Always get them to release the anchor before they lose the positive feeling. 4. Then have them step out of the circle for 1 minute. Repeat steps 2 and 3 recalling a second experience when they were in the same best state. Get them to step out of the circle again and repeat the process several times. 5. Ask them to think of a time in the future when this state will be useful to them. 6. Get them to step into the circle imagining the success of the future event and firing off the distinctive hand anchor that you created at the same time. 7. The more you repeat the exercise the stronger the anchor will become. Anchors do lose their effect over time if they are not reinforced. Remember an anchor can be anything that triggers the response you want including music, a touch, a gesture, a smell, a taste etc. This is a good tip – if you are anchoring a resourceful state get into that state yourself. Remember emotions are contagious and those around us will “catch” our state. It is difficult to anchor motivation if you are not motivated or perhaps wish you were somewhere else.

Your emotional Landscape

How do you set your Emotional

thermostat?

Understanding your emotional map

We have talked a little about emotions and research has demonstrated the link between your emotional state and your physiology and balance. How you feel really does impact on your physiology and performance, getting into the zone is about recognising how your physiology is determined by what is going on in your emotional landscape. Essentially it is about managing your emotional state during your performance. For this exercise you will need to look at the emotional landscape worksheet. You will notice that the landscape is divided into 4 quadrants on 2 axis. One is a measure of your autonomic nervous system (ANS), you can think of the ANS as being like the accelerator (sympathetic system) and brake (parasympathetic system) on a car – the ANS helps balance our physiology, it speeds you up and slows you down during your performance. The other is a measure of the HPA axis specifically in relation to the amount of cortisol (stress hormone) and DHEA (associated with vigour/youth) you have in your body. To keep things simple cortisol is often called the stress hormone and prolonged exposure to it can have major negative implications including impaired performance. DHEA is often called the “youth” hormone and is associated with vigour and well being and physiological balance. Firstly if we take the ANS, a high arousal/ energy state produces adrenalin and boosts your sympathetic nervous system. It gets you ready for the fight or flight response, the opposite is the parasympathetic system characterised by a low arousal/ energy state.

On the horizontal axis we can see the low performance/high stress zone on the left associated with negative emotion and the production of cortisol and on the right the high performance/stress free zone associated with positive emotion and the production of DHEA. Think of high energy negative emotions e.g. anger. Make a list and write them in the quadrant – upper left. Think of low energy negative emotions e.g. depression. Make a list and write them in the quadrant – lower left. Think of high energy positive emotions e.g. excitement. Make a list and write them in the quadrant – upper right. Think of low energy positive emotions e.g. calm. Make a list. Make a list and write them in the quadrant – lower right. By placing the emotions on the landscape you can see clearly that the right side is the high performance side. It is the side that supports physiological balance, thinking straight and outstanding performance. Do you remember Tiger Woods saying “It is the guy in control of his emotions coming down the straight who wins” Where are you normally on your emotional landscape? Always check your emotional landscape and make a conscious effort to move to the right side - it will help your game significantly. Different sports may demand a high energy or low energy response but achieving the “zone” is always to be on the right side of the landscape. The Heartmath Zone performance programme is a structured 1 to1 coaching programme aimed at helping sportspeople access the high performance state. For more information contact me through the website www.thinking.ie Improving emotional self awareness and self management are keys to achieving “the zone” of peak performance.

If you are dealing with someone who always disagrees with you say “ I don’t

know if you will be able to do this..”

It fries their brain

If you coach others sometimes you get an individual who it seems always disagrees with what you say, you are coaching what we call a mismatcher. You say black they say white etc. Now here is a quick tip, just say to them “I don’t know if you will be able to do this” They will want to prove you wrong and do it. So that’s our seminar - let’s summarise the main points

Summary

Rus

sell

Ass

ocia

tes

Essential Mental Skills in SportEssential Mental Skills in Sport• Build a focussed mindset by

visualising what you want. Remember the unconscious mindcannot process a negative thought.

• Develop mental rehearsal routines,see, hear and feel what you want.Use associated & dissociatedpictures

• Develop positive inner dialoguesuse a pattern interrupt if needed.

• Boost confidence by anchoring.

• Get into a positive emotional state by understanding your emotional landscape

Hugh Russell

028 2827 8613

07850 664017

www.thinking.ie

Here are the main points in summary

• Build a focussed mindset by thinking in positive outcomes. • Remember the unconscious mind cannot process a negative. • Develop mental rehearsal routines, see, hear and feel what you want. • Use both associated & dissociated pictures to form thinking habits. • Develop positive inner dialogues and use a pattern interrupt if needed. • Boost confidence and other positive emotional states by anchoring. • Manage emotional energy by understanding your emotional landscape and get to

the right side of the landscape. My name is Hugh Russell and I hope you have enjoyed the seminar. For further information or to contact me email hugh@thinking.ie or visit the website at www.thinking.ie Telephone 028 2827 8613 07850 664017 Thanks for participating