I spoke with a pole vaulter the other day who has graduated.  Just some background here, this athlete was a very good jumper, top 5 in the NCAA, and two years in a row he no height-ed in the first round of the NCAA championships, (no height means, he did not make the height) He was ranked so high and was so talented that all he had to do in the first round was make one height and he would advance.  I asked him what was going through his mind during both of these competitions.  He told me that he was fixating on “all I have to do is make one bar, I have to make one height.” When he focused on these words his anxiety went through the roof and he said that he did not make good decisions. There is a direct relationship between anxiety, confidence, focus, and decision making, as anxiety rises, confidence, focus and decision making all decline.  The same happens in reverse, as anxiety declines, confidence, focus and decision making all rise, which results in a great performance.  This particular athlete was focused so much on the outcome of the event, that he almost forgot how to jump, he stopped executing specific skills that help him make the height.

The way that you can avoid choking in pressure situations is to reduce anxiety, by focusing on specific skills that will allow you to be successful, for pole vaulting it could be have a tall take off or run relaxed. Focusing on skills takes your mind away from focusing on the outcome.  In tennis if you focus on playing the entire match hitting the ball out front, and executing that skill on every shot will give you the best chance for success.  So again just to reaffirm what will help you avoid choking under pressure is, focusing on specific skills will and not the outcome will lower anxiety, thus raising confidence, focus, and decision making, allowing for a great performance.

There is one more key component here, it helps a great deal to ad a reassuring phrase to your game.  One that is popular is “I can do this!” or “I got this!” I have also heard “Today is my day!” These phrase when said just before performing really help to build confidence, concentration, and decision making.

I recommend that when you are doing mental skills training you use a performance journal, or a mental skills journal, to log the skills you will focus on and to write down your reassuring phrase.  When you write it down it becomes more powerful and real.

Another aspect to staying in the present is blocking out interference when it sneaks in.  Interference can be a number of things, worrying about the next play or perhaps winning the game, or dwelling on something that you did wrong or a mistake. These forms of interference can sneak in at any time during a competition.  Interference can also be external, perhaps thinking about stress at home, school or work, just life in general can be a form of interference  unless you learn how to stay in the present.

Now there has been a lot of talk about tiger woods lately and how will he play during this masters tournament.  I will just share how I feel about the matter, tiger is a great athlete, who is also human and makes mistakes,  but many have been saying that he will not be able to perform well because of the distraction from the media about how the public is treating or viewing tiger, but the fact of the matter is, tiger is a great athlete and he was very good at performing at a high level when he had this big secret about is lifestyle that he was keeping from everybody.  Now everybody knows about it, still the same situation, if he stays in the present he will perform very well.  Elite athletes who know how to use the skill staying in the present they are very good at compartmentalizing their life.  In tigers case, when he is on  the golf course he in on the golf course only focusing on hitting the next shot.  He does not let interference sneak in, he doesn’t worry about poor previous and he is not worried about how he will put if he is not on the green.  Only the next shot.  His life is his life but off the golf course.

This is a tremendous skill to develop that will help you perform at a very high level, because you are able to maintain focus on your objective and not worrying or being afraid or distracted by other aspects of life.  Tiger is very good about staying in the present even when he was trying to fix his life after everything hit the fan, he stepped away from golf for a minute and then fixed his life to the point that when he stepped on the golf course he would perform well.

I really enjoy watching athletes who are focused on executing their objective or the task at hand. I watched the Duke vs West Virginia game in the final four of the NCAA tournament. Even though I was cheering for WVU, I thoroughly impressed by how duke continually executed their plan each time down the court. They were focused, they were not worried about winning or losing, they were just focused on scoring the ball on one end and stopping the ball on the other end. Because they were focused on their objective there was no interference and when the time ran out, sure enough they had won the game.

On the other hand, you could see what had happened to WVU. In the second half when duke was up by 11 with about 10 minutes left in the game, players on the WVU team seemed to get distracted, perhaps thinking about the outcome of the game. Thinking “oh-no what if we lose this game, that would be devastating.” Their minds had shifted away from their objective of executing the play, to “we might lose.” I could see this fear in the players faces, I could see the slouching in the shoulders. Then WVU best player got hurt and it seemed like WVU just quit. They had not lost the game there was still a lot of time on the clock, but they did lose their focus and as a result their performance took a step down, turnovers, missed shots, no hustling around screens or contesting shots. Then sure enough when time had run out, they were on the losing end.

The challenge in this situation is can you say to yourself “did I give it my best?” Only each athlete can answer that, but I will say this, when your focus becomes outcome oriented or on the outcome of the game, that means that your focus is not on the task at hand. You may still win or you may still lose, but if you stay focused on the task at hand you will always come out on top, because you can say “I gave it my best.”

A performance journal is a powerful tool to help you set a clear objective that is in writing that will help you stay focused when interference enters your mind. As an athlete I have experienced countless times during a game or competition when a doubt or a fear or some sort of interference enters my mind, and every time this happens I just think back to what my objective was and then re-focus. Mastering this skill is something that will accelerate growth in practice and competition, thus allowing you to reach your true maximum potential.

Let me share a story about the building/development of confidence and how it can change the game.  I have worked with an athlete his who is a pole vaulter, we will call him Chris.  Chris has a lot of natural ability, he is pretty fast on the open track and he is pretty strong in the weight room, but the one thing that he lacked was belief in himself, or a little confidence.  He would often times tell himself and tell other people that he had confidence and he believed that he could jump high, but where his lack of confidence became evidence was when he actually got on the runway to jump. He did not believe he was fast enough, to get on big poles and jump as high as he wanted, until something interesting happened.  Chris decided he wanted to run the 100 meter dash as part of his training for one particular meet.  Chris went and ran 11.02, which for a pole vaulter is pretty quick.  Once Chris discovered that he was actually pretty fast, he began to improve dramatically. In practice he began running faster down the runway, and as a result of that he began to get on bigger poles. In his first outdoor competition he tied his lifetime best. That week in practice we moved him to a longer pole. The second competition he Improved on his lifetime best by 4 inches, and nearly 3 more inches on top of that.  In the sport of pole vaulting inches make a big difference.  Now Chris has the second highest mark in the nation.

The interesting point here is that Chris had it in him to jump this high all along, he just had to believe it.  Once he had the successful previous experience that suggested that he was pretty fast, he began running faster, because he had confidence that he could run faster, and the result is that his performance when up dramatically.  Physical ability is a large part of being a good athlete, but the mental skill of confidence or the mental ability is what allows for the physical ability to be effective.  You never know what you maximum ability may be if you don’t learn the Mental Skills that allow you to reach your maximum ability.

Learn more about these skills in the book The Fearless Mind, begin learning these skills with a Performance Journal, this will set you up for success.

Confidence is a feeling or a thought process in one’s powers or ability to succeed.  For example, I would exhibit confidence by saying “I am good at what I do.” or feeling a certain way, “I am confident in my ability to succeed.” It is easy to define confidence, but it becomes tricky when we try to define how confidence is developed.

Research shows that the number factor in the development of confidence is previous successful experiences, and the reason for this, is because we have a knowledge that a certain achievement is possible.  Confidence starts with a belief in one’s ability to succeed, then is usually driven by certain motivation to achieve and then a commitment to finish out the objective.  The key to successfully develop confidence is having the right objective, I talked about this in another post, the Performance Journal. (click here to recap) Having the right objective can accelerate the growth of confidence or completely destroy confidence.  For example setting an objective just slightly beyond a persons capability but not out of reach is the right kind of objective. Sometimes we set goals or objectives that are way out of our reach and so when we fall short we begin to doubt our ability and lose our confidence in our selves.  Just to recap, confidence is developed by previous successes, belief leads to motivation which leads to commitment which leads to action to accomplish a certain objective, once we have accomplished that objective it becomes a previous success, therefore building confidence.

Research shows that confidence is the number one aspect in the success of high performing individuals.  And it all starts with believing that I can achieve anything.  Once we have learned how to develop confidence we can repeat the cycle over and over until we have reached our final objective, no matter what it is.

Every athlete needs confidence to be successful, some athletes are really good at faking confidence and other have it, but the most successful know how to develop confidence and keep on developing it while at the same time removing doubt.  I mentioned at the top of this post that this skill is outlined in detail how to develop confidence in the book The Fearless Mind.

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Let me Just give an example of how the performance journals works. At the Beginning of every year people make New Years Resolutions, one of the most famous resolution made every year is to lose weight, Golds Gym and personal trainers make all or their money in the first month of the year because of resolutions. Lets take for example I want to lose 30 pounds. So I set my goal and I get motivated and the first week I work out every day and start eating a better diet, but I only lose 2 pounds. 2 pounds is pretty good for a none athlete, but 2 pounds is not 30 pounds so right away, people begin to think that 30 pounds is going to be harder then they originally thought. So the next week they may not be quit as diligent in the eating area or may not work out every day. Week two they may only lose 1 pound, but you can see here how their confidence begins to decrease and then motivation, belief and commitment then begin to decrease and finally they quit. By late February and early March, the folks at gold gym are just the regulars.

Now if we simple just adjust our objective a little or how we perceive our objective our results will be dramatically different. Let me explain, we will take the 30 pound weight loss example again, instead of setting our objective at 30 pounds we should set it at 2 or 3 pounds per week, then when we are super motivated and committed in week one, and we work out really hard and eat right and we lose 3 pounds in one week, we are very excited. We have succeeded in achieving our objective for week one. Now 30 pounds looks doable, our belief levels go up, our motivation goes up, and the next week work even harder and eat even better, again losing 3 or even 4 pounds. The Performance Journal helps you channel that energy the right way.

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Research suggests that we should be doing mental skills training 2 to 3 times a week. The Performance Journal allows for you to do this without having to consult with someone, the performance journal is designed to help you be accountable and help you achieve what ever you desire.

Dr. Craig Manning a sports psychology consultant has developed a performance journal that is easy to use at an affordable price you can check it out here. www.visualizeone.com

Buy a Mental Skills Journal Here