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Coach Traub:
Today?s Mental Skills Tip ? What does the phrase "If it was easy, everyone would do it" mean to you? To me, it brings good news that I can earn a competitive advantage by doing things that most other people won't do. Of course, it also brings the news that reaching any worthwhile goal is going to be inherently challenging, even difficult. So, how can we navigate these difficulties? By giving our best effort one step at a time, repeating what's working and changing what doesn't work. This system is guaranteed to work...eventually. But alas, it's the word "eventually" that's the biggest problem for so many people. We figure: "I worked hard. Now show me the results." Unfortunately, life and performance in sports are not that simple. It takes an undefined amount of time for the formula of "try and try again" to bear fruit. One goal of mental skills training is to accelerate the process of approaching potential, but even fabulous mental skills don't alleviate the need for time. Time, in turn, necessitates patience and faith, or the positive attitude that led to "winning" the mental side of the game in the first place will be lost. As John Wooden described in his Pyramid of Success, the mortar that holds it all together is made of patience and faith.
Patience and faith are also critical at the level of achieving a singular best effort performance. All athletes make the mistake at some point of trying too hard. In their attempt to make good things happen, they press (try to do too much). Rather than trying to "make it happen," elite performers learn to consistently "let it happen." What's the difference between these two? Patience and faith... that good behaviors will eventually and inevitably be rewarded! This certainly may not occur right away. It may not even happen in the format anticipated. But it will happen. On a single play, patience and faith are manifested by good rhythm rather than rushing, aggression that is balanced rather than out-of-control, and persistence with the belief that all that is needed now is my best effort, one step at a time. A couple of great mantras: "My best is always good enough!" and "Trust my routine. Stay with it." With patience and faith, the athlete is smooth, making a great performance appear easy. Without it, the same situation leads to a poor performance that looks very difficult.
COACHING POINT - Many athletes show their lack of patience and faith through a lack of poise when things go poorly. It is our job to teach patience and faith to the process of doing things right. Not only do we want them to maintain their poise on the outside, we want them poised on the inside. This can occur consistently when they accept adversity as good and stay faithful to the idea that doing things right will lead to success. Taking this idea one step further, I believe that doing things right is equal to success. (Wooden: success is the peace of mind that comes from doing your best. Obviously, this success -- as Wooden proved -- often leads to positive outcomes.)
Coach Wooden Quotes: "We must believe that things will work out as they should as long as we do what we should do. And we must let that suit us."
"Competitive greatness requires patience. Excellence requires patience. Most of all, success requires patience."
Today?s Mental Skills Tip ? What does the phrase "If it was easy, everyone would do it" mean to you? To me, it brings good news that I can earn a competitive advantage by doing things that most other people won't do. Of course, it also brings the news that reaching any worthwhile goal is going to be inherently challenging, even difficult. So, how can we navigate these difficulties? By giving our best effort one step at a time, repeating what's working and changing what doesn't work. This system is guaranteed to work...eventually. But alas, it's the word "eventually" that's the biggest problem for so many people. We figure: "I worked hard. Now show me the results." Unfortunately, life and performance in sports are not that simple. It takes an undefined amount of time for the formula of "try and try again" to bear fruit. One goal of mental skills training is to accelerate the process of approaching potential, but even fabulous mental skills don't alleviate the need for time. Time, in turn, necessitates patience and faith, or the positive attitude that led to "winning" the mental side of the game in the first place will be lost. As John Wooden described in his Pyramid of Success, the mortar that holds it all together is made of patience and faith.
Patience and faith are also critical at the level of achieving a singular best effort performance. All athletes make the mistake at some point of trying too hard. In their attempt to make good things happen, they press (try to do too much). Rather than trying to "make it happen," elite performers learn to consistently "let it happen." What's the difference between these two? Patience and faith... that good behaviors will eventually and inevitably be rewarded! This certainly may not occur right away. It may not even happen in the format anticipated. But it will happen. On a single play, patience and faith are manifested by good rhythm rather than rushing, aggression that is balanced rather than out-of-control, and persistence with the belief that all that is needed now is my best effort, one step at a time. A couple of great mantras: "My best is always good enough!" and "Trust my routine. Stay with it." With patience and faith, the athlete is smooth, making a great performance appear easy. Without it, the same situation leads to a poor performance that looks very difficult.
COACHING POINT - Many athletes show their lack of patience and faith through a lack of poise when things go poorly. It is our job to teach patience and faith to the process of doing things right. Not only do we want them to maintain their poise on the outside, we want them poised on the inside. This can occur consistently when they accept adversity as good and stay faithful to the idea that doing things right will lead to success. Taking this idea one step further, I believe that doing things right is equal to success. (Wooden: success is the peace of mind that comes from doing your best. Obviously, this success -- as Wooden proved -- often leads to positive outcomes.)
Coach Wooden Quotes: "We must believe that things will work out as they should as long as we do what we should do. And we must let that suit us."
"Competitive greatness requires patience. Excellence requires patience. Most of all, success requires patience."
