Hello parents, last time we looked at Key #2 from, ‘The 4 Keys to Thinking Like a Champion.’ Today we’ll look at Key #3.
Remember champions are made, they are not born! An athlete can prepare all they want physically, technically and tactically but if they are not prepared to make the right decisions and choices during crucial moments of competition, all that preparation goes by the wayside.
Key #3 – Commit and Work
“Commitment is the foundation to great accomplishments” – Heidi Reeder
Knowledge is only great if it’s used. I tell all the athletes that I work with, it’s great that you’re here to learn more about the importance of the mental game and how much of an impact it has on your overall performance. The question is “are you going to commit to doing something about it?”
It’s easy to do the physical work an athlete needs to do to be successful and that’s because it’s tangible. We can see and feel it as athletes. When an athlete works out, they feel themselves getting stronger, having more stamina etc. The mental side of our development is not tangible, athletes don’t know how quickly or how they can measure results so it’s easy to ignore and eventually be pushed aside as not as important or worse irrelevant.
Athletes need to commit to developing their mental game! They need to add this to their schedule, just like they know when they go to train/practice, when games/competitions are they need to know when to sit down and ‘train their brain’. Step one, outline 2 days out of the week where you will sit down for 10 minutes and train your brain.
Now that a commitment has been made the next step is to simply, put in the work. There is no substitution for hard work and perseverance. The truth is - we don’t get what we wish for but there is a good chance we’ll get what we work for.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book - The Outliers, he outlines research that has shown that for anyone to develop their full potential in any discipline it takes 10,000 hours of training! That’s a lot of practice. To put it into perspective it would mean that if an individual trained 5 days a week for two hours a day, fifty weeks out of the year (take 2 weeks vacation) it would take 20 years to accumulate the 10,000 hours.
The lessons here, 1) Start as soon as possible. 2) There is no shortcut! Work needs to be put in, but in the athletic world not all work is of equal value. An athlete who strategically trains his/her brain will have a huge advantage over the competition
Champions not only commit and work hard but they make brain training a priority!
There you have it, Key #3. If you would like the free booklet ‘4 Keys to Thinking Like a Champion’ here is the link: http://www.coachgad.com/improve-mental-game/
- Coach Gad
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