Even if the Red Sox manage to win tonight’s game, it is essential that the organization look closely at what has contributed to their collapse this September.
As an outside observer (and a fan), watching the team dissolve is both heart-breaking and fascinating – kind of like watching a train-wreck – it’s tragic yet you can’t take your eyes off the scene.
Sometimes musicians say that they “always” make a mistake in the same place which they are playing their music. It’s as if they have no control over this unhappy situation. No matter how hard they focus on it, there it is again – the dreaded passage or phrase that bedevils them and – sure enough, they err again.
What’s happening is a reaction to an unwitting instruction they are giving themselves. By saying, “I hope I don’t screw it up again,” or “I better get it right this time, “ they are actually telling their brain “screw it up!”
I had the pleasure of meeting with a group of musicians the other day who asked me to consult with them as part of their preparation for an international competition. The band will be traveling overseas in a few weeks and wanted help with “managing their nerves” and “maintaining their focus.”
In asking them what their biggest challenges were, the immediate response was a litany of things over which they have no control such as the weather (the event takes place outdoors and so their instruments will be adversely affected if it rains); the crowds; the bias against Americans; and the unfamiliarity of the environment. Read the rest of this entry »
Continuing with the Olympic Mental Readiness Program, we have seen that Olympic athletes follow certain steps to ensure success. In addition to Simulation Training (creating an “as-if” experience and using mental imagery) champions rely on a detailed mental preparation for the competition. This involves 4 steps: Read the rest of this entry »
Yeah, yeah, I know…you’ve been meaning to get that whatever done for 3 months now but something always gets in the way.
Let’s be honest. That “something” is you.
After working with countless clients who are self described procrastinators, I have come to see procrastination as an anxiety problem.
In many case, it’s the drive for perfection and fear of failure that creates a nasty performance = anxiety cycle.
A typical scenario goes like this: Client starts to work on a project. Internal dialog gets cranked up – “I really don’t know enough about this. They’ll think I’m stupid. I’ll never be as a good as X. I don’t know where to begin.” And on it goes.
Of course such thinking either incites or exacerbates anxiety and when Client is anxious Client seeks to reduce anxiety. Working increases anxiety and not working reduces it. But Client is clever at disguising “not-working” by engaging in research which means searching the internet for more information which leads to discovering fascinating places to visit which leads to checking out cheap flights and boutique hotels which leads to an exchange of emails with friends about potential travel plans. And before you know it, 2 hours have gone by and although Client now has a dream vacation arranged, the Project is still not done.
So how does Client get a grip and get it done?
First step – recognize the work = anxiety relationship and then admit that Client engages in procrastination (or research) in order to reduce the anxiety.
Second step – identify and challenge the negative thinking that contributes to the anxiety. This ain’t easy but it is doable! Client keeps track of negative thinking to get attuned to nasty internal dialog. Client then evaluates and confronts cognitive distortions and changes them to be more realistic and objective. Likely, this alone will help calm Client.
Third step – change the negative association Client has with working on the Project. Client uses pleasant self-calming technique and breathing exercise to move into a nice, positive state of inner calm and then, and only then, Client begins to work on task at hand.
As soon as calm disappears, Client stops and employs relaxation technique again. Each time Client feels anxious or uncomfortable or was tempted to blog or surf the net, Client takes a deep breath and go back into the relaxation stance.
In other words, the Client is being taught to retrain mind and body to associate a pleasant feeling with work. Prior to this, Client had inadvertently trained him/herself to associate work with unpleasant feelings which was then avoided by “procrastinating.”
Clients always object to this recommendation saying they will never get anything done if they have to stop work when they get anxious but then they realize that they weren’t getting anything done anyway!
Client agrees to try and eventually is able to transform work style to an effective, productive one. The work = pain/anxiety relationship has been disrupted.
Yes, if you work in a cubicle this may be challenging.
Leave it to Charlie Brown to find the torrential downpour in every cloud. He could benefit from some mental toughness training to help him learn how to reframe those negative thoughts.
Unlike Charlie, I enjoy this season and hope you do too. I wish you every happiness this holiday season.
My guys, the irrepressible Red Sox, already have a play-off slot. They confront the Los Angeles Angels Wednesday night. I was tempted to take a mini-break from baseball until then but now I’m not so sure!
Seems to me tonight’s show-down between the White Sox and the Twins will be a game not-to-be-missed. The Chi-Sox won Monday night, forcing a tie breaking game tonight. Not only will tonight’s game be a contest of athletic superiority, it will also be a test of mental toughness.
Young pitcher, Gavin Floyd, performed well for the White Sox on Monday after some initial jitters detected by veteran pitcher, A.J. Pierzynski who tried to break the ice by asking Floyd if he was a “little nervous.” Floyd laughed and acknowledged he was but, in true baseball fashion said that “it was time to go out there and play baseball. There’s no time to be nervous.” Later, Pierzynski said, [Floyd] admitted he was nervous, which is good, because if you’re not nervous in that situation, there’s something wrong with you.; just admit it, because everyone is a little nervous in a game when your season is on the line. It’s a good thing because it means you’re alive and you’re into the game. He pitched great.”
It’s refreshing to see athletes admit they are human and experience anxiety in these high stakes situations. I’m reminded of something John Wayne said: “Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.”
Yeah. The test of courage is not an absence of fear but experiencing the fear and forging ahead anyway. It also helps if you have some tips on how to manage what is manageable.
Tonight, neither team has control over who wins. (We never have control over any outcome.) They cannot control who is injured, who is feeling exceptionally tired. They cannot control the fact that the other team might be better rested and in better shape. They cannot control the calls from the umpires. Each man must exhibit superb focus, composure, and confidence. Mental toughness can trump other factors any day. Players should focus on things they can control such as their thinking and their bodily response to stress.
In my post dated 9/19/08, I wrote about a Self-Calming exercise which helps if someone is too revved up. When we’re too revved up (like Floyd was early on in Monday’s game), we are likely seeing a situation as threatening. If we see a situation as threatening, our bodies tense up (not good for an athlete) and our brain releases a certain chemical cocktail that affects our ability to think clearly. Knowing this, an athlete can first, focus on his body, using some means to relax to the level that’s right for him. (Some players, like Kevin Youkilis, seem to play better at a higher level of arousal than others.) Often several slow exhales can do the trick.
Then some shift in the internal conversation has to happen. If Floyd was saying to himself, “Yikes! This is a BIG game…I can’t screw up…it’s up to me,” of course this would increase his anxiety and adversely affect his focus. (His focus should be external, not internal.) It may be that after that little talk with his catcher he was able to change his self-talk to something like, “Yes, this is a big game and I’m prepared. I’ve got a great catcher with lots of experience guiding me and he and others have faith in me. I’m getting better and better with each pitch.”
All the players tonight have to have similar conversations with themselves. They can’t get caught up in the enormity of the game. They have to focus on each pitch as if it’s the first. If a guy makes a mistake, he has to let it go and refocus on the task at hand. If an umpire makes a bad call, he has to let it go and refocus. Each guy has to go out there and focus on his own process.
As a Red Sox fan, I was sure happy to see my team bash the Rays last night however, as an empathic human I did feel bad for Rays’ pitcher, Scott Kazmir. He didn’t seem to have it last night. Nine straight balls in the first inning set up 3 runs brought in by Big Papi’s homer followed by a solo homer by Mike Lowell. And it went downhill from there!
So what happened? Kazmir usually fares much better. Was it the pressure of being so close to the play-offs? He looked ashen, sweaty, uncomfortable. After the game Kazmir said, “It felt like my body wasn’t there…I felt flat. I didn’t have the strength.” And it showed. What might have contributed to such a state? Well, anxiety can sure do that. Illness can too but Kazmir never said he was ill, just not mentally present.
It’s always a point of curiousity when an otherwise good performer falters. In my last blog I wrote about Jon Lester’s ability to ward off “bad thoughts.” I’ll never know what Kazmir’s thought process was prior to and during the game but I can conjecture that he felt the pressure of the responsibility of winning the game. The sensation of feeling like one’s body isn’t there is typical for an anxiety state. For an athlete especially, being and feeling connected to one’s body is critical. What could he have done differently? Well since he started feeling “off” when he was warming up in the bull pen, he could have seen that as a sign that he needed to do one (or all) of the following: (And this holds true for anyone out there who might be feeling “off” just prior to a big performance.)
Take a few moments and stop everything and reboot your personal computer, your brain. This means simply closing your eyes, exhaling slowly 3 times, then saying to yourself, “My mind is a blank screen.” After a few seconds open your eyes and refocus on the task at hand.
Take a few moments and with your mind’s eye, do a body scan, noting where you might be holding tension or – if you re feeling disconnected with your body, you can now re-connect by mentally embracing all parts of your body, noting how important your body is to your performance.
Remind yourself of your past successes and your performance goals (which are differnt from outcome goals; we have no control over outcome, only our own performance).
Ask yourself what might interfere with the upcoming performance such as unrealistic expectations, negative self-talk, worry, etc. Then once identified, work to reframe these thoughts into something that is either realistically positive or neutral.
Determine if you need to calm down or get revved up. If the former, focus on exhaling slowly. If the latter, engage in a brief stint of physical exercise.
These are just a few things Kazmir might have done that could have made a difference. Of course, I’m happy he didn’t!
Okay, so we lost the last 2 games against the Tampa Bay Rays but Monday night (9/8/08) was different. Jon Lester shut out the Rays in a splendid performance, demonstrating his increasing confidence and maturity on the mound.
For the purpose of this blog, what especially impressed me were his comments after the game. He said, “I didn’t have any bad thoughts to waste energy.” Translated, this means that he has managed the art and skill of shaking off negative thinking. “Bad thoughts” don’t disrupt his focus because he has learned how to either stop them or he reframes them into positive or neutral thoughts.
And negative thinking does “waste energy,” energy that should be directed to the task at hand – in this case, pitching. A while back, Josh Beckett pitched terribly in a game and later complained of tingling in his hand and fingers. Apparently this had been bothering him for a while. So what accounted for his bad outing? Was it the symptoms or his thinking about the symptoms? We all know how preoccupying it can be to have physical symptoms and not know exactly what might be wrong. Typically, most people think the worst. The worry removes the focus from the task at hand and affects performance. Once Beckett discovered there was nothing serious (and he had a few days rest) he returned to pitch effectively, including last night with the talented Rays. I suspect relief in knowing there was no serious medical issue allowed him to devote full focus to his game.
Entries (RSS)