Chaos Breakthrough and the Space Between

Athletically moving into a higher level of competition or trying to integrate a new skill can create and impasse for players. For kids moving into the next level and playing with opponents with more advanced skill levels presents an exciting opportunity to improve. The player that was a stand out in high school now plays for a college team and needs to establish him/herself as a solid performer.

Some athletes become stuck at this stage. Breakthrough or being able to compete effectively at the next level may occur by becoming physically stronger, faster, increasing endurance. Mentally, the player needs to know, believe and perform the skills they are capable of performing regardless if they are competing against the top player or a player from the middle of the rankings. By this time player need to have skill in controlling their emotional energy.

During this transition some players become stuck and want to remain with their "winning style."Being steady in the 16's won't be enough of a weapon to compete against player's with bigger and more varied shot selections. Shifting into a different style of play can feel chaotic. Players will lose some matches as they shift into a new style of play. Losing can feel chaotic to players who are used to being in the final 4 most tournaments.

It takes time to adjust to new levels of competition. What was once familiar territory has shifted. The new level introduces new players who present a different set of skills to problem solve. Eventually when the player keeps working and developing he/she reaches a breakthrough point. The big match that is finally won. The shift to knowing that they have developed the skills necessary to compete and succeed against the bigger players.

The space between is the time it takes to move from the decision to change, knowing what to change and how to accomplish it, doing the work and finally achieving the shift. The space between is the time where players who stay positive, set goals, work towards their goals, have great support and the talent to move onto the next level level do their most interesting and poignant self development.

Emotional Strength

"Depending on the circumstances, you should be as hard as a diamond, flexible as a willow, smooth-flowing like water or as empty as space." Morikei Ueshiba

The word emotion is from a latin word meaning "to set in motion." Sport is an acitivity that sets the body, and mind in motion. How athletes learn to direct that motion constructively is the difference between wasted energy and focused, useful energy. Sport educator, Jim Loehr
defines four primary indicators of emotional toughness for sport and/or business.

Emotional flexibility: the ability for openness, expansiveness, and nondefensiveness in the face of stress or unfamiliar situations.

Emotional responsiveness: Under stress of the athletic battle the ability to remain fully connected and engaged with the situation. Problem solving skills and creativity are helpful tools.

Emotional strength: In challenging situations emotional toughness is the ability to resist and exert great positive emotional force. It's easy to fall into the pit of doubt and attitude of fruitlessness when under great pressure.

Emotional Resiliency: The ability to come back after a setback, loss or disappointment.

A bit off the subject of sports but with all the key elements of the four indicators of emotional toughness and a great read is, "Walt Disney - The Triumph of The American Imagination."

Now for fun and practice:

Emotional responsiveness most closely relates to:

a) Withdrawing from a challenge because it requires too much thought.
b) Staying emotionally connected and involved.
c) The ability to be open, thoughtful and non defensive during times of turbulence.

Emotional Flexibility most closely relates to:

a) A kindness and thoughtfulness towards your opponents.
b) Resisting the urge to quit when the outcome looks bleak.
c) The quality of openness, expansiveness and nondefensiveness during adversity.

Emotional Strength most closely relates to:

a) Working out in the gym even when you don't feel like it.
b)The ability to focus on the activity long enough to get the job done successfully.
c) The ability to visualize lifting heavy objects.

Emotional Resiliency most closely relates to:

a) The ability to distract oneself from the thought of losing.
b) A comic strip character in "The Incredibles."
c) The ability to bounce back from setbacks, losses and emotional hits quickly and easily.

Mindfulness

Each athlete, coach, parent typically say things to themselves or believe certain things about what might happen about a sporting event. The thoughts may promote worry, anxiety, or free
them from worry, tension, anxiety. Thoughts, behaviors are the foundation of confidence or the decay of confidence. What sets up emotional reaction to an event is what a person or persons say about or perceive as the "threat" of an event. It takes some skill to let go of the "noise" and focus on preparing and participating fully in the event itself without judgement of the outcome.

Opportunities for mental distractions are bountiful. Typical worries begin as a one sentence fuse and often build into a mountain of "what ifs." The key is to be aware of the thoughts without being pulled into the whirl pool of them.

Youthful Learning

Participation in competitive sport is an important opportunity to grasp the nuances of how the sport is played and what works best against a variety of opponents style in games and matches. Crippling errors in developing junior athletic skills are:

a) Either the coach, player or parent interprets mistakes, errors, and experimentation that are a natural part of the learning curve process as failures.

b) Practice is one arena, being on the playing field, court, arena at game time and tested mentally, physically, technically, presents an emotional shift that time and experience enhances.

c) The player becomes so programmed that he/she doesn't have an opportunity to develop a unique style thus differentiating him/herself from other players.

d) Winning becomes so seemly vital at an early age that the results of competitive pressure to win becomes the standard not learning, growth and enjoyment of the activity. Is it a surprise that the burn-out rate for junior athletes is extraordinarily high?

Health: junior athletes that set their personal goals for performance and having those goals
celebrated by coaches and parents will be inclined to have more energy, joy in playing.

Sporty Ideas

Prior to competitive play many athletes have difficulty calming their nerves. To relieve symptoms of anxiety prior to or during sport activity try focusing on your breath. Following the flow of your breath for 20 seconds or more can aid in calming nerves. Your nerves calm down as your thinking calms down. Thoughts influence feelings. Shifting a physiology state from anxious and tight to relaxed and focused can be aided by a brief deep breathing exercise. The body cannot be anxious and relaxed at the same time.

For starters 4x4x5 breath technique: Breathe in deeply for the count of 4 seconds, hold your breath for the count of 4 seconds then release your breath for the count of 5 seconds. The technique can easily be practiced 2-3x's during breaks in sport.

Pick a sport:
Tennis, has a 20 second break between points.
Basketball, players utilize this before free throws or breaks in the game.
Baseball, plenty of opportunities during games whether on the field or waiting to bat.
Golf, better to be focusing on breath than all the thoughts that run through golfers minds.

The technique can be applied in most situations. While driving or operating any equipment keep your eyes open at all times!

Parental Transitions

I love parents. I love parents for giving their children the opportunity to recognize and develop their athletic talents. Parents frequently are the vehicle for the child athlete to be introduced to sport. Parents most often provide early stage emotional support, encouragement, help the athlete become exposed to teams, coaching, competition and arenas where they develop their skills. It all begins as fun and for the most part stressless. Where parents often get stuck in the process is seeing too clearly the potential of their athletic child without having conversations with the developing athlete about what his or her goals for the future may be.

One of my favorite stories is in the book, "The Life You Imagine." The book is about the New York Yankees baseball star Derek Jeter. One of the stories of Derek is when he was 8 years old he walked into his parents bedroom and told them he wanted to play for the Yankees. Right there and then his parents started talking with him about planning to make his dream a reality.
With his parents over time he created a plan for success. They didn't push him, they guided him, showed him options and helped him make choices. Yes, Derek Jeter started out with immense talent but these other pieces needed to be in place for his long term success.

Some tips for parents are to ask the athlete particularly when they are 11/12 years old, what are the goals? How much soccer, tennis, baseball, basketball, name any sport, does the athlete wish to participate in? Things for a parent to notice, how well balanced is the child athletes life in regards to having time to hang out with their peers socially? Is the child athlete still enjoying the process? Or is it becoming a job? When it takes on the energy of a job many adolescents start to rebel. They let coaches and parents know that the workouts aren't fun anymore. Losing or feeling like all their time needs to be spent practicing during the off season to regain their spot on the high school team isn't fun.

When parents sign athletes up for events or teams because the parent sees it as a good thing towards moving to the next level they miss an opportunity. When the parent talks to the athlete and offers them an opportunity to participate in an event or club sport etc. outside of the regular season and the athlete sees it as an opportunity then the situation works.

It is easy to sit in the bleachers and pick apart a child athletes strengths, weakness, needs. It is much more complex being the developing athlete on the playing field who is expected to win or be successful enough to play varsity sports or win a college scholarship. The transition piece for the parent is to invite the athlete into a discussion as to how he/she wishes to be involved in sport during the coming year. Lay out the choices and options and engage the athlete in a discussion regarding what they hope to achieve and how much time, effort, energy is probably necessary to make it to the next level.

So what is the transition piece for the parent? The parent brings the player to the athletic environment and supports their development. But it is the athletes future, their time, their energy, their performance, their motivation to improve and continue to compete. As the athlete matures he/she needs to be invited to make more choices for the future of their athletic development. This builds a healthier more trustworthy parent/child athlete relationship.

Imagery

Imagery is accessing all the senses including visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile and kinesthetic to create or re-create an experience in the absence of the actual stimuli....for example an athlete can use his/her experience to recall from memory pieces of information to develop a specific sport skill without any environmental props.

A hockey player can practice hitting a slap shot into the goal from a corner position after maneuvering past two defenders in front of him while sitting in a comfortable sofa chair with his eyes closed. It is believed that imagery works because it helps athletes develop a coding system of movement pattern in effect creating a mental blueprint.

Quck quiz:

1) True/False:

A player must be able to recreate all the sensory modalities for imagery to be worthwhile.

False: Many people develop their awareness and ability to recreate deeper sensory awareness as they practice imagery. They begin to notice things in their environment or within themselves with more perception. Prior to learning imagery a hockey player may not notice how tightly he/she grips the stick in pressure situations but through practicing imagery becomes aware of excess muscle tension in their hands.

Some athletes while learning to visualize begin with fuzzy images but begin to notice more useful cues within their environment which can later enhance their imagery practices.

2) For imagery to be successfull it needs to be practiced:
a) 5-15 minutes a day.

b) 10-15 minutes, Three or more times a week.

c) For 10 minutes just prior to the event.

In my experience each performer develops an ideal range of time for their visualization practices to be useful.
Daily for the short term as a person is learning the skills can help the player learn the techniques faster. But most players feel that daily is too much time to put towards the skill. Coaches can integrate the skills into a pre-practice or warm-down after practice so the whole team benefits from the skill.

Three or more times a week for 10-15 has been most successful for athletes I work with who are working on the skills independently.

Players who decide to use visualization just prior to participating in an event can benefit but
overall the usefulness of acquiring the skill is to prepare oneself ahead of time for the upcoming event. Although sometimes athletes who are over anxious report benefits even from this short time of imaging.

What's your experience?