Once we are in this mental cycle off of the performance arena, we typically carry this attitude over to our on court/field performances.  As has been discussed in previous posts, once we are focusing on what not to do, there is no way we can maximize our potential or the effort that we put in. In fact, I have witnessed and experienced tremendously poor performances when homesickness has hit.

Back when I was playing on the pro tour at the age of 18 I found myself terribly homesick and wanted to go home. I didn’t, but I found myself lost and confused. I still remember the state of mind I was in. The majority of the time I was whining and complaining to myself. I was down and feeling sorry for myself. During matches I was going through the motions, questioning why I was even there. I realize now how I was sabotaging my own performance. In practice I would work extra hard, to the point of throwing up. This was an attempt to compensate for what I was doing during match play.

What do we do to get over homesickness? First, we need to stick it out. Going home only reinforces quitting. Second, we need to stay focused on what we CAN DO. Meaning the skills required to compete, our strokes, footwork, strategy etc. We don’t need to be callus or cold, like a lot of pro athletes try to do to cope with homesickness. If we channel our energy in the right direction we can avoid this form of interference. Lastly, with the technology available, it is easier to stay in touch with loved ones. Email, Skype, text, call, use whatever works to stay connected to avoid the loneliness that is at the root of homesickness. It isn’t easy, so don’t feel like a wimp, but it CAN be overcome.

Control is an interesting word. It is a word that we would pass over without really ever noticing. But after reading this post my guess is you will have a greater appreciation for this simple little word. Control or a lack of it is at the root of many psychological issues. When we don’t feel like we have control anxiety goes up. When anxiety goes up focus or concentration goes out the wind. When our focus is all over the place confidence takes a massive hit and it becomes increasingly difficult to make good decisions hence our over all performance is far below where it could be.

In all my years of observing, studying, and analyzing high performance—understanding what we have control over and what don’t have control over is possibly the single most significant factor that leads to high performance. Those that channel all their resources into what they have control over, what they CAN DO and learn not to waste their precious resources on what they can’t do achieve incredibly high levels of productivity.

Here is an example from another baseball player, Albert Pujols. Albert is considered be many to be the best player in baseball. This is what he said a few years ago when he had won the MVP award for the National League. The reporter asked him how do you perform so well, so consistently? Albert’s response “I just DO everything I can to help my team win.”

You may think this simple response doesn’t reveal much. But lets break it down. First, he says “do”, which shows that he doesn’t over analyze, he is not over thinking and allowing his mind to get in the way of his performance. Second, he says “everything I can” which tells us he is focusing his energy on what he is doing and is not concerned with what others are or are not doing. Meaning he is taking responsibility for himself and not wasting energy judging others. Lastly, although his mindset is very much attuned to the process of what he needs to be doing, his efforts are directed towards winning. He is playing to win in contrast to many to play not to lose. Further, he is not playing for us own stats, for his own ego. His energy is directed towards the task at hand. Every great athlete I have studied always focus on the task and not their ego.

I told you it would take a while to get through this article. If you listen carefully to what people both verbally and non-verbally (body language) say we can tell a lot about what they are thinking.

I love these sorts of articles because I believe it is best to learn from the best. Yes, research is important and if you read any of my stuff you will hear me often say “research says. . .” But real life experiences, real individuals, real athletes DOING IT triumphs research for me. I will probably take a few days of posting to get through this article as I break down the psychological factors that are attributing to Barry’s performance.

First, Barry Zito signed a seven year, $126 million contract with the Giants back in December 2006. Coming from the Oakland Athletics Barry had been a star with a significant winning record and a Cy Young award (the top award for a pitcher in major league baseball). But through the first three years with the Giants he struggled terribly with mediocrity posting a 31-43 record.

This is what he described as the root of his poor performance. “I signed a big contract and put pressure on myself to deliver for the fans. It turned out to be too results oriented.” When you try to get results instead of going through the process, results don’t usually happen.” Absolutely results don’t come. When we start thinking about the outcome (results) we open the door for fear to come in. Fear only exists in the future, it doe not exist in the moment. In the moment there is only action. When we direct our attention/focus to the moment we rid ourselves of fear and anxiety. Anxiety is a watered down version of fear, and anxiety is never going to help us perform better. Anxiety alerts us to danger, but it is not helpful in allowing us to execute and perform the way we know we can.

When we allow anxiety to get a hold of us, we take our focus off of what we need to do right now and performance immediately takes a hit. Think about how much extra baggage we carry in our performances/lives when we allow ourselves to worry about all of the could’ve, should’ve in our lives. But these could’ve and should’ve are not reality, they have never happen, so why waste energy contemplating them? Our energy is better served getting busy making a difference in the present. If we can improve upon the present we will hopefully make the future a better place.

I had another post ready to go today, or at least I was close to having it ready to go when I felt prompted to go in another direction. I think the post today follows nicely off of yesterdays.

Fatigue messes with our performance no matter how disciplined/high performing we become. Researchers have spent large amounts time looking into the reasons why plane crashes occur. What they have found is not what movies portray, the dramatic, catastrophe, were the engine blows up and the plane takes a massive nose dive. This is not the cause of planes crashing on a consistent basis. Nor are crashes the result of negligent individuals that have a history of poor performance. What they have found across multiple crashes is that fatigue is at the root of the problem.

Fatigue undermines the normally high performing into making mistakes, and not just one mistake, but, several mistakes that all come together to cause an accident. At times fatigued pilots failed to noticed warnings ten to fifteen times. The same appears to try across the board in our lives. When we are worn out we do dumb things, we say dumb things. I can attest to this.

Just yesterday I had one of those days where I was scheduled to the minute it felt like. One delay and I was going to be behind and that is not good when you are giving talks and you have a whole camp of over a hundred kids and coaching waiting for you. Simply, I couldn’t be late. One of the tasks I needed to get done was drop packages off at the post office. While I was at the post office I grabbed a diet coke (clear sign I was running low). But in my fatigued state, feeling run down, I grabbed a 500 ml bottle for $1:50 instead of the 2 litre bottle for $1:00. Not that .50 cents is that big of a deal but I dislike (hate) making bad decisions on any level. It took me about ten minutes to put this lesson behind me.

Bye the way the lesson was to SLOW DOWN and think. When we are fatigued we tend to worry rather than think. When are not thinking we make bad decisions. Simply, when fatigue sets in we do dopey things.

Note: The three other horseman of toxic and corrosive behavior are defensiveness, stonewalling, and contempt.

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.