10 Minute Toughness

A Summary from Coach Terry Horn, Burlingame, CA y a y n r g ,

By Jason Selk

that put you in a frame of mind to do your best. For some there may be more than one statement, such as a basketball or baseball player when playing on offense and then on defense. The key is to identify the single most fundamental idea of what it takes for you to be successful, allowing yourself to simplify your task. Simplicity keeps distractions away. It is very beneficial to know what to think before a competition or task. I try to use positive phrases. I could have said I try not to use negative sentences. Notice the difference. First, all positive. Second, eliminate dont thinking - such as saying what not to do. Tell yourself what you want to do. Around a pool - Walk! Versus Dont run. Ask about examples in their sports. Dont thinking increases stress and anxiety. Focus instead on what needs to be done. Avoid mental clutter which is random mental thinking. That is, unfocused thinking. Keep it simple. The essence of mental toughness is the ability to replace negative thinking with thoughts that are centered on performance cues and that contribute to improved self-confidence. Your body will listen to what your mind tells it. 60,000 thoughts a day make them positive thoughts. See what happens. Identify thoughts that produce consistently strong performances. Give me examples. If we are going to eliminate dont thinking, what are we going to replace it with? Think about what you want to happen and what it will take to make it happen. Life will be more enjoyable and you increase the odds that you will reach or exceed your perceived potential. Determine what you want to accomplish and lock your mind on what it takes to achieve that task or goal. Think about the path to success rather than thinking about the obstacles in your way. Then put your energy
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INTRO:
Premise of mental training: if you have a strong belief in your ability to perform well, the chances of your actually performing well greatly improve. Goals of mental training: calmness, confidence & being focused on what is needed to be successful to yield your maximum performance and potential ... and beyond. Mental training also helps with personal judgment and decisions in your personal life. Learn how to be your own coach. First, identify the process of succeeding, then establish a vehicle or methodology for mental training incl identifying the most beneficial thoughts and visualizing success. All based in concreteness and simplicity. 3 phases of mental training: Establishing an individualized mental training program, developing and utilizing an effective goal setting program and developing a relentless solution focused approach. Repeating theme of and keep asking yourself: What is one thing I can do that could make this better?

PHASE 2 - GOAL SETTING FOR GREATNESS

Effective Goal Setting Personal Rewards Program Tapping the Power of Goals

PHASE 3 - RELENTLESS SOLUTION FOCUS

Always Have a Solution The Solution-Focused Tool Mental Toughness

CENTERING BREATH
15 seconds: breathe in for 6 ; hold for 2; exhale for 7 Slow heart rate . Using the mind effectively is more difficult when the heart is racing. Count to 15. Especially in a pressure situation. Also, beneficial to simulate stress/high heart rate and perform through it.

PERFORMANCE STATEMENT
A specially designed form of self-talk or talking to yourself. Average person has up to 60,000 thoughts per day. Why not a selfcreated truly positive thought? From a mental perspective the most tried and true way to enhance performance is through self-confidence. Positive self-talk enhances self-confidence which enhances performance. Internal dialogue significantly influences performance. A performance statement specifically identifies the process of success and what it takes to perform at your best. Think about a statement you have told yourself before an event, performance, classroom test or social situation

PHASE 1 - MENTAL WORKOUT

Step 1. Centering breath: a deep cleansing breath that slows the heart rate Step 2. Performance statement: Step 3. Personal Highlight Reel: Step 4. Identity Statement: Step 5. Final Centering Breath When: before falling asleep or within 60 minutes of a workout or competition. At least 4x per week.

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into going down that path. Realize sometimes the hardest step is the first step. Allow for your mind to process positive steps. Performance statements serve two purposes: they help to avoid self-doubt, negativity and mental clutter. They help you to perform at your best by focusing on the tasks that need to be accomplished. Eliminating self-doubt and negativity is half of the process. Try this - dont think of a pink elephant with blue running shoes. -pause- What did you think about? How many things did you think about? The mind can only think about one thing at a time. Thus, if you are thinking about whats going wrong, you cannot think about what it takes to make it right. If you can only think of one thing at a time. Think about positive things. I can . . . I am able . . . I will. . . Performance statement must keep you in a positive frame of mind. Avoid the word dont. Remind yourself what you need to do. Create a brief phrase. Use what you think works for you.

You are more likely to be successful and work closer to your potential by listening to your positive performance statement. The more frequently you focus on your Performance Statement the more likely you are to be successful and work closer to your potential. Use your Performance Statement - especially if you catch yourself using the word dont.

5. Be aware of how you want to feel at different points and train yourself to achieve the results you want. Also, note your emotional state when you have done your best. Your muscles react the same way your emotions react - the more you train them, the stronger you get. 6. During visualization focus on what it takes to be successful - not perfect just successful. You dont have to be perfect to be successful. During visualization, if something goes wrong, replay it and fix it. The body will follow the mind. 7. After each successful visualization, give yourself credit for a job well done. 8. Watch the video at the speed you desire. Slow motion or regular motion or sped up. Visualization Practice #1. Take a minute to picture yourself in your sport in competition at actual speed. Pay attention to feeling the way you want to feel. Picture a good warm up followed by competition with the results you want. It is important to see yourself with a successful and winning result. Experience how it feels to perform your best. ... What camera angle did you use? What things did you see? What did you hear? What did you physically feel? Emotionally, what did it feel like to be successful? Did you give yourself credit for performing well? Visualization Practice #2. Take 60 seconds to picture yourself in the biggest competition of the year. See yourself performing exactly the way you want to perform including warm up, performance and results. Emphasize handling pressure better than your competition and you are more prepared for success than your competition. Experience what it takes to be successful. Were you able to highlight yourself as the most prepared athlete?
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Personal Highlight Reel

What would it be like to wake up in the morning turn on ESPN or YouTube and see highlights of your fabulous performance from yesterday? PHR is an advanced form of visualization. Visualize yourself doing a specific task well. Every minute of visualization is worth 7 minutes of practice. Visualization is the act of watching something in your mind before actually doing it.

8 Guidelines for visualization

1. Choose a camera angle: either (1) in the stands watching you or (2) your eyes are the camera lens or you are wearing a helmet mounted camera. #2 is the most beneficial as it creates muscle memory. 2. The more detail you place in the visualization the better. Pay attention to at least 3 of the 5 senses feeling, hearing, sight, smell, touch. Ask yourself sensory questions. 3. Do the visualization exercise many times but for short periods of time. 4. Visualize the entire event from warm up through conclusion. Note your thoughts and emotions at various points. Pay attention to the desired result.

Creating a Performance Statement:

1. Imagine the biggest competition of your life. 60 seconds before the competition your coach looks you in the eye and tells you to stay focused on one or two things to be a success. What are those one or two things? (Avoid the word dont.) 2. Again imagine the biggest competition of your life. This time you are the coach & athlete. What one or two things would you, the coach, name? Keep them short & simple. You decide how many statements you would like to have. They can change over time. Knowing what to think or scripting what to think is far better than letting thoughts occur naturally. Otherwise, your mind will likely revert back to negative thinking. And your body will listen to your mind.

Leadership in American Swimming through Education, Certification and Collaboration

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Which camera angle did you use? What did you see? What did you hear? What did you physically feel? Emotionally, what did it feel like to be successful? Did you give yourself credit for visualizing and performing well?

the more you improve your future prospects. This part must be done in detail but should last only about 60 seconds.

centering breath (15 seconds). 3 minutes and 40 seconds!

GOAL SETTING
Product goals or results goals are used before and after a practice or competition not during a practice or competition. These are quantifiable. These are goals for the season. Select about 3 measureable goals. Process goals or (what it takes to be successful and achieve the product goals) are used during practice or competition. These are the mechanics you wish to achieve. Visualize yourself in competition and in practice being mentally focused. The ultimate goal is the culmination of what you want to accomplish in the long run and how you will get there. This is a career goal. The work put in on these goals unlocks hidden potential, increases motivation, creates pinpoint focus, and re-energizes training and competition. Write down goals. Let others know your goals. This makes them part of your reality and will move them from your subconscious to your awareness. It will make you more accountable to yourself and increase your motivation. Making excuses will stop you from getting better. Dont make excuses. Dont justify shortcomings. Goals must be a part of daily training and utilized for them to work. Identify daily what you want to improve upon.

THE IDENTITY STATEMENT

A self-statement designed to improve self-image. Self-image is how you see yourself and the strengths and weaknesses you possess. Self-image determines what you will accomplish. It can be a limiting factor or a limitless factor. Self-image is a motivating factor determining behavior to live up to your expectations. Self-image is internally constructed. Creating a positive identity statement will help you choose a powerful self-image and increase your ability. An identity statement is something you constantly tell yourself. If you step to the starting line with a true belief in your ability, you have a greater likelihood of success. You cant outperform or underperform your self-image for very long. Self-image will regulate behavior and outcome. Self-image governs how successful you will become. You will act like the sort of person you conceive yourself to be. You cannot act otherwise. Create a two part identity statement. First part - indicate a strength you have or want to have which makes success likely. Second part - identify what you want to accomplish. Start with I am . . . (strong, more motivated, best prepared. . . ) Commit to using the identity statement. Use it when self doubt or negativity creeps in. Your body listens to what the brain tells it.

Create a personal highlight reel.

--Identify the best performance in the recent past where you felt great, performed well and had a positive outcome. Identify 3 to 5 highlights of the performance each lasting 10 to 20 seconds. OR, identify 3-5 highlights from a few of your recent best performances each lasting 10 to 20 seconds where you felt great, performed well and had a positive outcome. With such visualization you can release endorphins into your bloodstream increasing your confidence and consistency. Use freeze frame to identify the peak moments. --Now think about what you want to happen in the future such as a practice, tryout or game. Think about what you need to do to do well. Think about the way you want to feel before and during the event. Think about staying focused on what it takes to be successful. Think about what it is like to perform well with pressure. Think about being successful. Use as much detail as you would like. Remind yourself what you want to happen in the future. The more energy you put into this, the more you improve your future prospects. --Finally visualize what you want to happen in the future such as a practice, tryout or game. Visualize what you need to do to do well. Visualize or feel the way you want to feel before and during the event. See yourself staying focused on what it takes to be successful. Feel what it is like to perform well with pressure. See yourself as successful. Use as much detail as you would like. Remind yourself what you want to happen in the future. The more energy you put into this,

On a daily basis take 4 minutes to:

Write down what you did well in your practice or competition. Write down one specific thing you as a coach or athlete would like to improve upon in your next practice or competition.

REVIEW:
Five tools in the mental workout: take a centering breath ( 15 seconds), recite your performance statement (5 seconds), personal highlight reels - 3 reels of 60 seconds each (3 minutes), recite your identity statement (5 seconds), end with a

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Write down one thing you can do differently in your next practice or game that will bring into reality the improvement you just named. What do you have to sacrifice or mentally change to accomplish that goal? A comfort level. An idea about your capabilities. An idea about thresholds that are barriers. What else? What character strengths do you have to allow you to make the changes? Take 1 minute to review your writing and 5 minutes to do the mental workout. Goals are supposed to add motivation. The worthiest goals are the ones that produce true happiness. Dont feel pressure to set a goal that makes another person happy. Chose a goal that makes you happy. Otherwise, motivation wont follow. Also, set a reward for achieving the goal - a movie, new clothes, going somewhere, a special download. Make daily decisions based on achieving the goal. Think about how the goal interweaves with the person you wish to become. What are the important aspects of your life or characteristics you wish to achieve? Now you must create and maintain the integrity and discipline to pursue your goals. What is meant by integrity? By discipline? Ask yourself daily what are the three most important things in your life? Will your actions reflect your priorities? Choose goals for which you have a passion and participate in activities that you enjoy. Otherwise, the reward is without deep meaning. Dont confuse what others want with what you want. Reward yourself when you accomplish your goal. Make a date for yourself -say, within X weeks or months of achieving the goal. A goal-setting program is only of use when goal setting helps you accomplish something you would not have otherwise have accomplished. Set goals that will lead to greatness and you will maximize your potential.

Dreams are where we want to go. Goals are how we get there. A goal is to increase motivation. Goals help people give their best. The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender. Richard Quick: To me, a goal is what you are going to accomplish. Its not what you hope you can accomplish, or wish you could do, or what you dream about... I want the goal to be something that you absolutely are going to do, and therefore it changes everything about you. Preparation is training hard enough to make competition easy. Mental and physical preparation stoke self-confidence. Put time and energy into doing everything you know you need to do to be prepared. Be aware you are fully prepared. Write down your toughest competitor, the person you enjoy or would enjoy out-performing. Now write down how much effort they put into training on a 1-10 scale. Now write down how much effort you put into training on a 1-10 scale. What changes do you have to make? Winning versus losing is determined more on training days than on game days. You must train harder and smarter than your rival. Its more important to do the exercises, than to try to make them perfect. Its important to complete the exercise. Know some days will be harder than others.

improve. What is one thing I can do differently that could lead to the desired improvement? 5 Choose goals aligned with who you want to be and how you want to live. 6 Give yourself a reward for achieving a goal. 7 Have your goals embellish and control your work ethic. Mental and physical training put you in a place to succeed. Excellence is achieved through a solution-focused mind. However, we dwell on problems not solutions. Are you solution focused or problem focused. How do you react to obstacles? Do you or others around you hear you making excuses very often or posing solutions? Being solution focused means keeping your thoughts centered on what you want from life and what it takes to achieve what you want, as opposed to allowing thoughts of self-doubt and concern to occupy the mind. The difference between a solution focused and a relentless solution focus is how often you commit to replacing negative thinking with solutions. Ask what is one thing you can do right now that could make your situation better? Keep asking the question until the situation shifts. The board of life has a problems side and a solutions side. On which side do you spend more time? Where do you focus? Thinking about problems, problems grow. Thinking about solutions, solutions grow. Thinking about solutions is empowering and allows you to control your own destiny. Know that negative thoughts do not help you. Replace negative thoughts with a Performance Statement, an Identity Statement or a positive visualization. Know that we have the capacity for change. Address issues one at a time.
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Seven Principles for Optimal Effectiveness.

1 Each day focus on process goals - what it takes to achieve your product. 2 Take full accountability by not making excuses. 3 Write down your goal; tell others. 4 Daily fill out your Success Log. What 3 things did I do well today? Based on todays performance, what do I want to

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Ready, fire, aim. Dont overanalyze. Take action, then take action again until you hit the target. Always ask - Whats one thing I can do to make this better? And come up with an answer and a solution. Believing there is a solution to every problem is vital to success. Even better, know that every problem has multiple solutions. They may not be perfect, but they improve problematic situations. The more practice you have at solving problems, the more confidence you will have. Thus, we are more powerful than our problems. People feel uncomfortable, stressed out, angry, sad, unhappy, frustrated or other negative feelings as a direct response to a perceived problem. Define the problem. Find a solution - the simpler, the better. Completely follow through on the solution. Some solutions require quite a bit of effort. Know that inaction is a problem. Feel comfortable again. Who wants this $1 bill? Why didnt you come up and take it? What stopped you? What is stopping you from performing better? You cannot outperform of underperform your selfimage for very long. If you believe you have the control to change and influence your results in every situation, you are correct. First, decide what you want to accomplish and what it takes to get there. (Product and process goals.) Second, choose to act on the physical and mental plans needed to accomplish your goals. Third, One of two things happens: you either achieve your goal or you make adjustments to step one (relentless solution focus). The entire group/team must be solution oriented for best camaraderie and results. Attitudes are contagious. Feed on solutions and solutions will expand. (Feed on problems and problems will

expand.) Until there is a solution continue to ask What is one thing we can do to make this better? These steps gurantee you of being more successful than if you did not pursue these steps. Surround yourself with people who want to scale the same heights. If you want to have a great attitude, train yourself to have a great attitude. Mental toughness is when the mind is in control of thoughts that help the body accomplish what is wanted. Mental toughness requires training. Take responsibility for the training and the outcome. Become solution focused.

5 points of Mental Toughness

1. 2. 3. 4. Create a mental workout. Identify vision, product and process goals. Compete a success log daily. Do the mental workout before practice and before games. Develop a relentless solution focus.

5.

Criteria to determine how well you are doing:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Improved work ethic. Ability to focus better in practice. Ability to focus better in competition. Increased happiness and satisfaction. Improved performance.

Five Steps of the Mental Workout

-- 15 second Centering Breath. Breathe in for 6 second, hold for 2, exhale for 7. Work to control your heart rate. -- Performance Statement. Repeat the statement that most effectively focuses you to be successful in competition. -- Personal Highlight Reel. Spend 3 minutes visualizing what it looks like to be successful. Pay attention to how you want to feel during warm ups and in competition. -- Identity Statement. Mold your self image to bolster your confidence. Whatever you tell yourself, you are correct. -- Finish with a Centering Breath. Dont think about trying. Think about the one thing you can do to make yourself better and increase the likelihood of your success. Become a no-excuses person. Emphasize process over results. Process goals identify what it takes on a daily basis to achieve desired results. Goals only work if they are kept alive. Share them. Be accountable to them. When faced with adversity ask what is the one thing I can do to make this better? The answer does not need to be perfect, it just needs to improve the situation.

Goal Setting for Greatness.

What are the three greatest priorities in your life? Create an image in your mind of what you would like your life to be like in 10 years. List one product goal and three processes to accomplish that goal. List a second product goal and three processes to accomplish it. How will you reward yourself once you accomplish it? What sacrifices will it take? List your character traits that show proof you have what it takes to achieve your goal. Who will review your goals with you? Richard Quick: To me, a goal is what you are going to accomplish. Its not what you hope you can accomplish, or wish you could do, or what you dream about... I want the goal to be something that you absolutely are going to do, and therefore it changes everything about you.

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