NEW YEAR...SO WHAT'S NEW FOR YOU?

It is 50 degrees in St. Louis at the end of December and it certainly gives you race fever!  I have been online looking for the dates of various races and so far my calendar is still pretty empty--but I know that March will be here before we know it.  We still have a few things to do to be ready for the races.  We just started our To Do list for the car, the trailer, and the tow rig.  Well, that is a good start to get your "To Do" list ready and start actually "to doing."  It is also a good time to think about tucking away some savings into the race account so you have some of those entry fees ready to go.

But what is on your "To Do" list for YOU?  For your body and brain?  I always think all dragster drivers should practice getting in and out of the car about 20 times per day?  Ever notice how much harder it is to get in and out of the car after you are out of practice?  :)  It also might be good for you to think about your mental game.  Ever notice how much sharper most racers are in October than they are in March or April?  What mental things did you do well last year?  What mental things could you work on?  Are you a believer in practice trees?  If so, time to get out the practice tree and start practicing like it matters. 

If you need some motivation to get you "To Doing" well pull up some of your photos from last season--when you see the car sitting in staging lanes, you can almost feel the sun shining down on you, you can almost hear the sounds of the engines, and you can almost smell the fuel and rubber burning,  Wow...do you feel it?  Time to get your calendar ready, your to do list started, and your goals ready for a new year! 

Be thankful for your strengths and challenges

During the holidays a lot of people take time to be thankful for what they have. As athletes we should also be thankful for our strengths and our opportunities. But we should also be thankful for the challenges we have and our ability to work on them and improve. We can never really work on our challenges until we truly acknowledge them. The other thing that I have found for many athletes is that there is a fine line between some of our mental strengths and our mental challenges. For example, I was just working with a college level bowler and when I asked him his main mental strength it was his passion, his competitiveness, and his desire to win for himself and for his team. But then when we talked about his main challenge it was that sometimes he has so much passion and energy and wants to win so badly that when he makes even a minor mistake he can't rebound. I have another bowler and she focuses so much on her challenges that she forgets that one of her strengths is her constant desire to analyze, work hard, and fix her challenges. Take some time to think about your strengths and be thankful for them, take some time to think about your challenges, and also be thankful for them because they probably contribute in some ways to your strengths. Take some time to find ways to maximize your strengths and think of ways to work on your challenges. There are so many positive things in our lives but it is easy to get distracted by the problems, issues, and challenges. Reminding yourself of the many blessings and the opportunity to work on our challenges is something to be thankful for everyday. If you win all of the time, you are probably playing a game that is too easy. Challenges keep life and sports exciting.

In the Heat of the Moment....Performing when it matters MOST!

It has happened to every athlete in every sport at some point, at the exact moment when they most need to perform at their very BEST, they don't. You see the softball player strike out, the basketball player miss the free throw, or the drag racer cut a bad light in the final. Call it fear, call it choking, call it over-thinking, call it not being able to handle the pressure, it doesn't matter what you call it, athletes don't want to do it! This semester I am teaching a sport psychology class at McKendree University and I asked them what they MOST wanted to learn about in the class. The most common answer included this exact issue of dealing with pressure, staying calm, not choking, staying consistent, dealing with stress in a big game, and how to keep your composure during an intense moment.

This issue is complex, but I wanted to provide a few useful strategies to help:
1.) This is the MOST important. Practice hard! You will practice like you play. Take your practices very seriously. Try to make each moment of practice count. If you are a bowler, try to tell your brain that each time you bowl it is for the national finals and the win and you have to make it.
2.) When you perform, learn from your mistakes, be very calm and realistic about what you can fix. But try to fill your head with images of you succeeding and performing well under pressure.
3.) Rephrase your stress or anxiety. Instead of thinking, "I am nervous!" or "This is the BIG game" or "I hope I don't choke now!," think "I am excited and ready, bring it!" or "This is just another shot, I have done this a million times!" or "I love this stuff, this is why I have worked so hard to get to an opportunity like this!" Changing the way you phrase it helps your brain believe you can do it.
4.) If you ask MOST athletes or even fans why they LOVE sports, it is because of the competition and the intense moments. So when your brain starts to think, "Oh no, I am so stressed I am afraid I will choke, Yikes!" ask your brain very calmly..."OK, do you want to quit all of this and spend time planting tulips? We could do that and there isn't any chance of stress planting flowers." Most athletes just laugh, they would never want to really give up the intensity of their sport, so just own it...you love your sport. And when you love your sport it means all of it--the hard work, the sacrifice, winning, losing, and the intensity of the competition.
5.) Finally have a good pre-performance routine that includes BREATHING. The best way to calm down and perform is with a routine and a deep breath!

ENGAGEMENT--Giving 100%

People talk a great deal about being truly engaged in their activities and giving 100%. In fact, I hear athletes say they are going to give 110%. Well, giving 110% really doesn't make sense--you can only give 100% but I don't believe most people are willing to give 100% for most things. To be a great athlete or truly successful at anything you want, you have to give a lot. Maybe not 100%, 100% of the time. But a lot and usually more than what most of us really want to give. So when I hear students say they want to be successful but don't come to class, or if they do come to class they don't really give 100% when they are in class, it makes me think why? And when I work with athletes who say they want to be successful but don't work hare in practice or do other behaviors that they know don't help them, it makes me think why?
So truly engaged people give 100% at the time. When I am at the dragstrip in the staging lanes I try to be there mentally and physically 100%--I am not thinking about the past, I am not thinking about the future, I am just making sure the dial-ins are correct and I really thinking about the "right here and now." When I am teaching and doing my best, I am really engaged with the students, I am only thinking about the class--I am well-prepared, I am really listening, and I am genuinely excited about the content. So why don't we all live more in the moment, truly engage in the activity, work hard, and give 100%?
Well, I think some people are not truly dedicated to the activity. Of course I don't give 100% when I am folding clothes, for example, but I never said I wanted to be the best clothes folder in the world! If you are not giving 100% to something, see if you really value it.
I also think people are afraid to give 100% to something they really care about (e.g., school, work, sports, etc.), because if you fail and you give 100% you don't have as many excuses. But wouldn't you rather go down trying?
And finally, I think some people don't give 100% or don't truly engage with their activities because they are just not willing to give it their all. It takes a lot of mental and physical work to be "on" and truly engaged.
So decide, do you love what you are doing? Are you truly committed to your endeavors? Are you willing to do the hard work? Are you ready to get engaged 100%?

A little nitrous for your Brain!

In drag racing some racers put a bottle of nitrous on their cars. Most guys don't run the nitrous the whole way down the track, but rather they hit a little button and the "juice" gives them a little shot that will speed up their cars. Running nitrous or a little "juice" to pick up your car made me wish that all athletes could have a little bottle on their backs and when they needed a little burst of energy, a little burst of passion, or a little burst to keep them going they could push a green button to get a shot of juice. Well, first we don't have that and second if we did it would probably either be illegal or at least not safe. So what can you use as natural mental nitrous?
1.) First, we do all get little bursts of adrenaline when we compete. Adrenaline is kind of nature's natural nitrous. But depending on the sport the adrenaline is either not helpful or you run out of adrenaline. In golf and other very precise sports, for example, the adrenaline could actually make you hit too hard and it could cause you to lose accuracy. In some sports like drag racing, bowling, and other sports that last all day long, you simply can't have high adrenaline for hours and hours. The best athletes are able to control their emotions and utilize adrenaline when they need it.
2.) When you need a little burst of energy, focus, passion, or to keep going, try to remind yourself of why you love this sport. When I work with athletes I always ask them if they love their sport and to tell me stories of how much they love competing. This can give you the burst of energy you need.
3.) Another strategy to get that extra burst is to remember a time when you competed really well. Thinking about success always gives you a burst of energy.

So maybe you do have a nitrous button after all for your brain, the secret is knowing when and how to use it. Keep practicing giving yourself a little brain nitrous and Think Tuff!

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Driving Secrets are really ANY sport secrets

If you are in the staging lanes of a dragstrip, the bowling lanes, the golf course, the tennis court, or the softball field, there are a lot of similarities in the minds of the athlete.

In those few seconds before any athlete performs the mind is very similar across the sports or activity. What is interesting is that as I work with almost ANY athlete at ANY age at ANY level in ANY sport, they have a pretty common SECRET. So here it is...for most people right before they perform, their brain throws some pretty odd stuff at them and it is usually not positive stuff. For example, right before performance the brain may think "is this right?" "or you sure you did XXX" "you can't do this" or "Yikes, I am freaking out!"

But here is the next secret, the BEST athletes are able to ignore and respond to this negative brain talk with "I got this!" "I am well-prepared!" "I can do this!" and "Wow, I feel excited and ready!"

So even though I call my blog Driving Secrets, we are really talking about secrets for ANY sport!