Athlete Resource Center

How many times has the following scene unfolded in front your eyes (or in your head): an athlete makes a simple mistake, and they berate themselves.  Following an easy shot, for example, the athlete will say, “C’mon, your shot has been off all day.  Shoot more to the left, idiot!”  If you’re like me, you’ve seen this happen a lot (or are the athlete in the example).  This is another area of sport psychology that has a tremendous influence on your game.  Popular wisdom says that “positive thinking,” is the answer.  The truth of the matter is that it’s not that simple.

From my previous post on the mindset and athletic performance, you’ll notice that this self-criticism is an extension of the fixed mindset.  All that results from this situation is you feel more stress, more tension, and that leads to more mistakes.  The cycle repeats.  A recent book I read, The Inner Game of Tennis, helped me understand how to change your psychology to lead to better performance on and off the field.

It all begins with a simple concept and builds from that understanding: there are two main selves in us on and off the field.  How these two selves interact with each other determines our ability to execute successfully.  Through improving the interaction between these two selves, we improve our ability to execute successfully.  Think of it in the following way:

• Self 1 – This self is our conscience.  Through this self, we make judgements  of our performance.  These judgements hurt our performance regardless of if they’re good or bad thoughts.
• Self 2 – This self is our unconscious.  This is our muscle memory, nervous system, etc, all wrapped up into one.  This self is directly impacted by the judgements of Self 1.

The key.

The key to the inner game we play at all times, on or off the court, is to let Self 2 do its job without Self 1 interfering.  When Self 1 tries to control Self 2, our performance suffers.  We get in our own heads (”Make a shot already!”).  We try to make corrections forcefully, making us more tense (”Move your hips! Great, now your wrist is too stiff to swing, idiot!”).

So how do prevent Self 1 from controlling Self 2?  The answer is to quit making judgements of our performance as either Good or Bad.  It just is.  Trust Self 2 to perform well.  If you’re a basketball player, you’ve taken thousands of shots throughout your career.  Your body knows how to shoot the ball.  Let it do what it has done thousands of times without your interference.  The problem is, it’s easier said than done to just suspend all judgement.  However, we have a tremendous aid in this.

Get in the zone.  Focus your concentration.

We’ve all heard about “the zone.”  We’ve all heard the cliche: “it’s like time slows down!”  By getting into the zone, we don’t give our Self 1 the ability to make judgements on Self 2.  So how do we get into the zone?  Through focusing our concentration on something minute.  That can be the stitches on a baseball, the way a basketball spins in the air, even our own breathing.  By focusing our concentration so intently, we accomplish two things: letting Self 2 do its job without judgement, and expanding our senses to pick up more information leading to better performance.

The final step: practice your inner game.

Unfortunately, and fortunately, the inner game does not come easily, it takes a lot of practice.  This is both a good and bad thing: it’ll be hard for you, but your competition will have just as hard a time (if they even know about it).  Practicing is simple: go shoot hoops and focus on the arc of the ball.  Go practice your batting, and focus on the stitches as it comes to you.  Play catch with a friend, and focus on your breathing.  By practicing the inner game, you’ll get better.

Tying up some loose ends…

Positive thinking – The reason why positive thinking is detrimental is because we often lie to ourselves or fail to see reality as it is.  If our shots aren’t going through the hoop, saying “It’s okay, the next will go in,” only hurts our performance.  By failing to failing to see reality as it is, we lose the opportunity to make a positive correction to our technique.  Which leads us to…

Criticism / Instruction – So where do these fit in?  These are important, even more in the inner game.

1. As instructors, we want to provide instruction, but we have to provide it in a way that guides athletes to discover what works for them.  For example: bending the knees in a free throw.  There is no target amount. Everyone is different. An example of a good instruction would be: experiment with your knee bend.  Pay attention to how bending your knees feels, and what feels natural to you. This allows the athlete to experiment to find what works best for them.
2. As athletes, we want to experiment with what feels and works best for us.  When it comes to personal techniques, don’t take instruction literally.  How much you swing your hips, how stiff you keep your wrist, etc, changes from athlete to athlete.  Sometimes however, you need to take instruction literally, such as in football.  “You need to be ten yards before you cut to the left.”  Realize the difference between the two.

Finally, don’t think you’ve got the inner game down 100%.  Like many things in life, it’s one of those things that needs constant work,  As soon as you think you have it down, realize that Self 1 just made a judgement, and you’re back to the beginning.

In closing…

Read this post along with my post about mindsets and athletics, and analyze the similarities between the two.  Practice the concepts in both, and let your performance reach new heights.  Finally, buy both The Inner Game of Tennis and Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.  Devour both books.  While I do a pretty good job of expressing the information contained in both wonderful books, there is still much more to be learned from them directly.

As athletes, how we think about and approach our individual abilities has dramatic affects on and off the field.  If we believe we are born with a set amount of athletic ability, and can never improve upon it no matter what we do, that will greatly impact our athletic performance.  Likewise, if we believe we are born with an amount of athletic ability, but that we can improve our abilities through hard work, that will also greatly impact our performance.  Just from this example it’s clear to see that of the two above mindsets, which one we choose will greatly influence our abilities.

I’ve repeatedly wrote about the benefit, and necessity, of hard work.  While I knew this intuitively, my thoughts have always been scattered.  That all changed recently when I read Mindsets: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck.  I had a vague idea of what the book was about before I read it, figuring it would be just another book about the importance of not fearing failure, working hard, etc.  It’s a great philosophy to promote, but this is something I already knew.  I want this concept expanded.  Well, during my reading of the book, Dweck really tied up a lot of loose ends in my thinking about this whole philosophy, and helped my form more concrete thoughts.

Dweck is currently a professor of psychology at Stanford (previously at Columbia).  The main thesis of the book is that there are basically two mindsets we can adopt, they are:

• The fixed mindset – “Believing that your qualities are carved in stone – the fixed mindset – creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over again.  If you have a certain amount of intelligence, a certian personality, and a certain moral character – well you better prove that you have a healthy dose of them.”
• The growth mindset – “This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts.”

That’s it.  It seems pretty simple, but the implications for this are tremendous.  Through realizing which mindset we currently utilize, and switching from the fixed to growth mindset, we can greatly improve ourself in athletics, school, relationships, etc.  As she goes on to write, we can utilize both mindsets at the same time.  For example: in high school I believed I was either good in math or I wasn’t.  Yet after school every day I could be found in my school’s weight room, improving myself for the upcoming football season.  Funny, isn’t it?

Let’s examine these mindsets in an athletic context.  The athletes with the fixed mindset will be those who will never be found working out or practicing, hate playing against superior opponents, and take losing personally (those are just some of the characteristics).  These athletes, through believing in only a set amount of innate talent, want to constantly prove how great they are.  If they lose, have to work hard, etc, then clearly they don’t have as much talent as they think they do.  See how this mindset can be terribly limiting?

Now let’s examine the growth mindset.  The athletes with the growth mindset will always be seen improving themselves in the weigh room or practice field, love the challenge of playing against superior opponents, and view loss as feedback as to what they need to improve on.  Everything is an opportunity for growth for these athletes.  They’re always striving to take their athletics to a greater level.  Take Michael Jordan for example (which Dweck also uses in the book).  Jordan was cut from the team in high school.  If he would have utilized a fixed mindset, he would have said “well, basketball isn’ t my sport,” and quit.  But, as we all know, he didn’t.  He turned around, worked his butt off, and is the greatest basketball player to ever play the game.

I strongly encourage you to buy the book (it’s ten dollars, I think), analyze your mindsets in all areas of your life (not just athletics) and make the necessary improvements.  At the very least, answer the following questions and, based on your answers, analyze your current mindset and how you can improve upon it.

• Would you rather play against an opponent that will give you a sure victory, or against an opponent that will be a challenge?
• Do you believe that you’re born with a set amount of talent, and that no matter what you do, you can’t change it?
• Do you look forward to practicing, working out, etc?
• If you were losing in a competition, would you rather play it to completion or quit?
• Do you take all losses extremely harshly?  Or do you take losses as an opportunity to find weaknesses and improve upon them?