The 9 Mental Skills of Successful Athletes Applied to a COVID-19 World
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While Play Like a Champion continues to work with partners to provide support and resources related to the COVID-19 crisis (see section below), we believe it's also important to provide continuing education that partners can use to motivate their athletes to use this time off productively. During the month of April, we will run a three part series on how athletes can develop mental skills to get them through this trial and to improve their game when sports resume on the field. Coaches, send these notes and assignments on to your athletes to keep them engaged.
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Jack Lesyk, Ph.D., former sports psychologist for the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, has identified
nine specific mental skills
that contribute to success in sports. He refers to this as
"The Performance Pyramid"
. These nine skills can be developed with instruction and practice. Even though athletes around the country cannot practice or work-out with teammates at the moment, successful athletes will use this time to sharpen their mental skills and better position themselves when it is deemed safe to return to the competition that fuels them.
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Including today, three of April's notes will focus on the three levels of mental skills that form Lesyk's pyramid.
LEVEL I – BASIC SKILLS
These mental skills provide athletes with a broad foundation for attaining their long-term athletic and life goals. These skills also help athletes to sustain daily practice. They are needed and applied on a day-to-day basis and are used in both short-and long-term applications.
1) Attitude:
Successful athletes figure out that attitude is a choice; and they choose an attitude that is predominantly positive. They view sport as an opportunity to compete against themselves and learn from their own mistakes and failures. Successful athletes choose to pursue
excellence
rather than perfection and realize that no one is perfect – not their coaches, teammates, officials and certainly not themselves. Successful athletes also display respect for their sport, opponents, teammates, coaches, officials and themselves.
2) Motivation:
Successful athletes come to know that the best motivation is self-motivation. Trophies and championships are great, but true motivation comes from the desire to be their personal best both on and off the playing field. Successful athletes learn to persist through difficult tasks and difficult times (like a global pandemic).
3) Goals & Commitment
: Successful athletes set both short- and long-term goals that are
S
pecific,
M
easurable,
A
chievable,
R
elevant and
T
ime-oriented (
SMART
). They also know that a goal without a plan is only a dream. Lastly, successful athletes understand that falling short of a goal is
not
failure, it’s feedback. Feedback is critical to growth and success in sports and in life.
4) People Skills:
Successful athletes realize that they are part of a larger system that includes teammates, coaches, officials, family and friends. They are able to express at an appropriate time and in an appropriate way their thoughts, feelings, needs and support. They also learn how to deal with conflict, difficult opponents, teammates and coaches. The strive not to blame others for their own negative feelings/attitude, or short comings.
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ATHLETE ASSIGNMENTS
This week, here are four mental skills assignments to sharpen your Level 1 Mental Skills:
1) Measure your attitude on a daily basis
: This includes your attitude toward your teammates, coaches, parents, siblings and others. These are scary and frustrating times, you are bound to feel anxious, frustrated, sad or depressed at times before this mess is over. Your challenge is to note your attitude, and if your attitude is poor, do something to make it better. Choose to be positive!
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2) Search on YouTube for motivational videos
such as this one to the left.
When you find ones you like, make a note of them and share them with coaches and teammates. You can also search the Internet for motivational quotes. Copy them and share them with coaches, teammates and family. You may provide the motivation for others to keep their attitude positive.
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3) Set new goals for getting through this unprecedented crisis.
Make a commitment to develop plans to operationalize your goals. Your goals should focus on keeping in shape/working out, an appropriate and healthy diet, relaxation/fun (life balance), continuous learning, and staying connected to teammates, coaches, friends and extended family.
Here's a simple worksheet
you can use, or you can create your own.
4) "People Skills."
Staying connected and “in-sync” with important people in your life can fight off depression, isolation and loneliness. Stay connected with your teammates and coaches. Do more than just text. Seeing a familiar face and hearing a familiar voice (even via online/mobile video chats) lifts the spirit in ways no text message can come close to achieving. Remember, you can reach out to teammates and coaches to support them, but you can also reach out when YOU need some support!
If you take the time and put in the effort in to complete these four assignments to the best of your ability, you’ll be further developing your Level I, Basic Mental Skills during this time off the field of play. Stay tuned for our second note in this three-part series, which will focus on Level 2: Prepatory Skills – Self-Talk and Mental Imagery.
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COVID-19 Resources for Coaches
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With youth and high school sports shut down indefinitely, it's critical for the physical and mental health of young athletes that they maintain some routine and realize that their coaches still care about them, even if they don't see them on a normal basis. With that in mind, here are some tips for coaches during this time:
Communicate with Your Athletes:
Using appropriate methods of communication based on age and safe environment guidelines, keep in touch with athletes and parents during this time. Send an email, create a group text, setup an online team meeting via Zoom, or send out regular video messages to your team encouraging regular exercise. Send the information above to get your athletes working on the development of mental skills preparing them for this three part athlete-improvement series. This communication will help your athletes keep working on their skills and remind them that you care about them as their coach.
Establish Training Routines:
It's important that kids of all ages engage in physical exercise during this time. Help your kids by providing drills they can do at home or giving them daily/weekly workouts they can do to keep training and improve skills. Create your own instruction or search YouTube for thousands of sports-specific training videos for athletes of all sports. Check out our
website dedicated to keeping kids active
for additional resources and ideas.
Encourage Good Mental Health:
Isolation can be debilitating for people of all ages. For children and athletes used to a team environment, it's important that coaches help them realize they are still a part of something bigger than themselves, while promoting good mental health. Encourage athletes to establish daily routines that include social interaction with family, friends or teammates (online). Focusing on gratitude, good nutrition and plenty of sleep are also important here. We liked
this article with tips and resources from the Association for Applied Sport Psychology
.
Set Goals, Track Progress:
Above we provided
a simple worksheet
for your athletes to set and track goals. Encourage your athletes to share their progress with you weekly so they have an Accountability Partner. This will help athletes stay motivated and connected even without a normal season.
Play Like a Champion
has a number of other resources for partners as we work together to overcome the difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Sign-up for our free Friday Morning Rally
to get the latest information on the impact of COVID-19 in youth sports, and follow us on
Facebook
,
Twitter
and
Instagram
to get the latest information & share resources with others in our community.
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The Quotable Athlete (and Doctor)
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With sports on hold, many professional athletes have taken on an important role in the past few weeks, using their influence to encourage healthy habits and social distancing to combat COVID-19. One of the best examples comes from 2-time NBA MVP Steph Curry, who
interviewed Dr. Anthony Fauci last week
. The long-time director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases may be the face of our fight against COVID-19 and was a high school basketball player who still keeps a mini-hoop in his office. A good watch for anyone, perhaps it's a good video for coaches to forward to athletes as well.
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