Asking for help in a tough sports environment

October 31, 2011 By
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Robert Price of Elite Minds in DC visits with the Athlete’s Audio today to talk about the stigma that plagues athletes (and people in general) when it comes to asking for help.

Especially in the world of football, which may not be the most, shall I say, ‘sensitive’ environment…and one where the best skill players may not touch the ball but 4-7 times a game.

You’ve got to be ready, focused, calm, and confident to play your best, and Robert can help.

Robert’s consulting practice is Elite Minds

Elite Minds has worked with a wide variety of athletes in various settings. They have counseled collegiate and professional kickers, amateur tennis players, golfers of all levels, basketball players, gymnasts, hockey players, lacrosse, soccer, ice skating, field hockey, track, and many other recreational athletes. Their most recent work has been with the TEST Sports Clubs, TEST Football Academy, Athletes Edge, Chicago Bears, New York Giants, New Jersey Nets.

Robert Price has received Master’s degrees from both University of Maryland in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Sport Psychology and Johns Hopkins University in Clinical Community Counseling. Mr. Price also holds a bachelor’s degree from Hampton University, where he majored in Psychology and Learning Behavior Disorders. He played college football at the University of Pittsburgh prior to transferring to Hampton University. He is a trained teacher by trade and has worked with people in numerous capacities. He is a member of North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSA), Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), and American Counseling Association (ACA). He is a licensed clinical professional counselor in the state of Maryland, Washington DC and is a National Certified Counselor granted by the National Board of Certified Counselors, Inc.

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‘Train to Trust’ and the Tour de You | KC Wilder

September 18, 2011 By
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A Sport Psychology book for kids, (called Tour de You) using cycling as the theme hit the stands in the last year, and KC Wilder, PhD, knows both ends of that spectrum….the cycling, and the Sport Psychology.

She’s a PhD in Sport Psychology from Virginia, and a National champion cyclist.

Today, on the Athlete’s Audio Academy, it’s KC’s second visit, (first one’s here) and we discuss the idea of ‘Training to Trust’. That is, planning, preparing, and practicing in your training sessions so that you can just let it flow, and trust in your skills when the flag drops.

kcwilderco.com is her website, and she has articles, and additional information about her book there.

K.C. began her career with a 1989 Brown University bachelor’s degree in organizational behavior and management. She then focused on sport psychology, earning masters and doctoral degrees in that field from the University of Virginia. Her own athletic career is distinguished, with All-American cycling honors at UVA, a top twenty U.S. professional cycling ranking, two national Master’s championships, and a top ten finish in the Masters World Track championships among her numerous accomplishments.

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A 5-point system to make you a Star | Dr. Jack Bowman | Mind Plus Muscle

July 25, 2011 By
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Wouldn’t it be AWESOME if there was a quick visual reference for optimal mental performance??  Something that would keep  you from having to read, remember, and think about a bunch of things…when you’re trying to NOT THINK!?

We’re lucky to be joined today by one of the most recognized Sports Psychologists in the profession, and a pioneer in distance learning programs for mental training.  He’s created (and describes here) the ‘Perform Like a Star’ program for athletes of all ages, and ability levels.

UPDATE!!  Dr Bowman has published a pdf of the Perform Like a Star program on his Facebook Page.  Here’s a link to the pdf.

Meet Dr. Jack Bowman, Founder of the Mind Plus Muscle Institute in Suffolk County, NY.

Dr. Bowman has been a guest with us twice before, discussing internships for young Sport Psychologists, and trying to separate the good info from the hooey with regards to mental training on the web.

He’s a certified consultant with the Association of Applied Sport Psychology, and he’s listed on the United States Olympic Committee‘s registry of Sport Psychologists.  An advocate of Sport Psychology Training at all levels of sport, Dr. Bowman has been a pioneer in the application of Telecommunications and Information Technology to make Mental Training and Sport Hypnosis accessible to all athletes

In addition to the ‘Perform Like a Star’ program, Dr. Bowman created the Mental Training Room, an online learning program in 1993.  Yep…1993, and he’s been involved in numerous programs at AASP, and at the Suffolk County Psychological Association, including the creation of a Mental Training manual for marathon preparation (which you can download here), and a podcast with Dr. Richard Lustberg on Sports Psychology.  Dr. Bowman is also board certified as a clinical hypnotherapist, and offers customized Sports Hypnosis recordings.

Dr Bowman details two important components to any mental skills training program, Goal Setting, and Mental Rehearsal(or Imagery).  At the Mind Plus Muscle Institute, Dr. Bowman offers Mental Rehearsal programs for Baseball, Ice Hockey, Basketball, Lacrosse, Body Building, Running, Football, Soccer, Volleyball, Sped Training, Wrestling, Triathlon, Tennis, and Swimming.  He’s also got some good advice for athletes to know what to look for in mental training, and what to look out for.

Dr. Jack Bowman is the Director of the Mind Plus Muscle Institute for Applied Sport Psychology in Port Jefferson Station, New York. Since 1980 Dr. Bowman has served on the graduate faculty at the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he teaches the Psychology of Sport. In 1981 he founded the Mind Plus Muscle Institute where he has developed numerous performance enhancement programs, including the Mental Training Room that is currently being utilized by athletes at major universities and Olympic training centers world wide.

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Sports Choking, explained by a psychology pro

July 6, 2011 By
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Picture this situation as an athlete…and see if it’s ever happened to you:

‘Like two minutes ago, I was playing GREAT!  Now I can barely hit the ball!!  WHAT HAPPENED!!’

Framed through the Masters collapse, and US Open triumph of Rory McIlroy, PhD Sport Psychologist from the Minneapolis area Dr. Justin Anderson joins us today to talk some mental toughness, resiliency, and how the brain works (and changes) when faced with the ‘zone’ or faced with everything falling apart.  (As documented in this article in the BBC)

There are changes at the neural level in high pressure situations.  Flow, Self 2 (in the language of the Inner Game of Tennis), Muscle memory is the goal…but when the pressure cooks up…the chemistry in your head moves to different areas of your brain.  Your brain chemistry actually changes, and a new alchemy kicks in that the athlete doesn’t experience very often…let alone their normal state!

Your brain changes, your body tenses up…LOTS of inhibitive changes all at once.  Imagine how hard it is to hit a shot in THAT mindset!

Dr Anderson gives some GREAT tips on how to recognize some of your own self-talk, and tension growing in yourself, and how to get refocused on the present & the goal!  Even setting appropriate goals for learning from experiences, or reframing, are tips that you’ll hear in this Athlete’s Audio interview.

Dr Justin Anderson is a licensed Sport Psychologist in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. He specializes in sport and performance psychology, organizational psychology (primarily with family-owned and privately held businesses), and counseling psychology.  He publishes a blog on Sport Psychology topics, and can be found on twitter.

As an aside to our interview…preparation, and practice in all of the different physical and mental conditions that you’ll face is key to staying focused in competition.  Check this out to see how Rory practices.  The money quote is the last sentence: “So I can prepare…just like I’m there really.”

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Use your mind to practice your sport! Imagery with Dr. Jim Taylor

May 16, 2011 By
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Bay area Sport Psychologist, and prolific blogger on mental performance, Dr. Jim Taylor visits the Athlete’s Audio Academy to discuss one of the most popular, and effective mental training skills for athletes, imagery.

Of course, Imagery is something that we’re really interested in here at Athlete’s Audio!

He’s got some great tips for performers of all kinds, and some ways that you can use imagery to boost your confidence, practice new skills, replay successful scenes from past performances, and engage all of your senses.

Dr. Taylor blogs regularly on Psychology Today, his own website, and he has a great series of youtube videos on his channel, too.  He’s big on facebook, and twitter, too.

Dr. Taylor is the author of 12 books, and is currently writing his next parenting book tentatively titled Kids 3.0: Prepare Your Children for the Crazy New World of Popular Culture, Technology, and Social Media (Sourcebooks) will be published in the Spring of 2012.

Dr. Taylor blogs on business, sports, parenting, technology, politics, and popular culture on sfgate.com (San Francisco Chronicle’s web site), huffingtonpost.com, seattlepi.com, and the Hearst Interactive Media Connecticut Group web sites. His posts are read by thousands of people every week.

Dr. Taylor has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, UPN’s Life & Style, ABC’s World News This Weekend, and the major television network affiliates around the U.S..

He’s also a 2nd degree black belt, and former international ski racer.

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Visualization, Mental Imagery, and Meditation in elite sports

July 22, 2010 By

They call Phil Jackson the ‘Zen Master’ for a reason….

Here’s a fascinating story about how the Lakers use meditation to calm their minds, focus on the moment, and relax with all the pressure facing them.  It’s related to Game 7 of the NBA finals (which I know was a few weeks ago).

Arguably, the Celtics, and Lakers (and all professional teams for that matter) are physically pretty much the same.

When asked….they’ll all tell you that the game is mental.  But even they can be resistant to some of these approaches.  Read down into the article to see what some other NBA players think of meditation!  How could you argue with the Lakers’ (and Coach Jackson’s) approach??

Another real-life example comes from the mental preparation for the upcoming Tour de France, from Sports Psychologist Paige Dunn of XCEL Sports Psychology.  She’s writing for the Master the Shift Facebook Page as a part of Team Lance, and she’s a regular contributor to a number of magazines.

Scroll down to find the story titled:  TdF 2010: How Lance Recons the Alps.  It’s absolutely loaded with quotes about how mental imagery improves performance.

So here’s the question.  In these examples…The most elite athletes in the world are doing it.  In our Athlete’s Audio Academy video interviews below with elite sports psychologists, almost all of them discuss some sort of visualization, or mental imagery training.

So how are you training your mind?  What are you visualizing about your next game, match, round, race, or practice session?

Perhaps a more interesting question is ‘what is your opponent doing‘ to visualize beating you?

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What’s in your Thought Bubble??

April 4, 2010 By
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Extra special thanks to Dana Blackmer Ph.D., CC-AASP, founder of The Extra Gear for kicking off our Athlete’s Audio Academy learning resource for athletes.

Dana works with athletes on psychological skills, and had some great insights into how mental skills training can benefit all athletes, as well as military personnel, performing artists, and others.

A few highlights:

“What’s in your thought bubble?” When working with an athlete who’s struggling, Dana asks the athlete to reflect on the moment of difficulty, and observe what’s going on in the mind as if it were a thought bubble in a cartoon. “What’s going on in your thought bubble at that moment”

“What’s going on in your mind affects what’s going on in your body”

“Over 90% of Olympic athletes use some form of Mental Training”

“The Olympics tend to focus attention on the practice of Sports Psychology”

Dana is a great resource, and I look forward to working with him again. He can be reached at The Extra Gear.

 

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Reasons ‘WHY” Sports Psychology

March 19, 2010 By

Call me short sighted, but it never occurred to me that Sports Psychology could be useful in equestrian events, but Seana Adamson, Ph.D., and Gold Medalist in the US Dressage Federation has created a list for her riders, and it’s a good list for any athlete or performer. All credit to her. You can check out the rest of her info here.

Here’s her list.

1. Performance Anxiety: Do you ever feel so nervous that it interferes with your ability to concentrate? This is called performance anxiety, and it is a very common occurrence in athletes of all sports. There are many Sport Psychology techniques that can help resolve this uncomfortable feeling.

2. Concentration and Memorization: The slightest lapse in focus and concentration can easily lead to points lost in competition. When we forget to prepare our horse for each movement, the quality of each movement suffers. Even if there is no obvious mistake, this lack of preparation can cause the loss of single points throughout the test.

3. Body Awareness and Relaxation: Do you leave your best performance at home? Does your body feel a stranger the moment you enter the competition arena? Sport Psychology can teach you to perform well whether you are calm or nervous.

4. Imagery and Visualization: These powerful mental techniques can enhance any training program, and allow you to continue your practice off the horse.

5. Self Talk and Affirmations: Our internal dialogue, they way we talk to ourselves, can have a big impact on our self confidence. Sport Psychology can teach you to become more aware of your inner voice, and how that inner voice can impact your dressage performance.

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More Lindsey Vonn

February 22, 2010 By

….US skier Lindsey Vonn, who explained in a conference call before the Olympics that she usually spends an hour’s preparation in visualizing her races, and then uses breathing exercises at the start gate to calm down…

What are you visualizing about your performance, race, job, life, or passion?

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Lindsey Vonn Visualizing her Gold Medal run

February 20, 2010 By

MAN, NBC and the Olympic committee make it tough (as you would expect for all the money that changes hands over the broadcast/internet rights) to get video!

I’ve been looking for video of Lindsey Vonn’s pre-run mental rehearsal. Did you see it?? For me, who’s been using, and talking to athletes about visualization (and having many of them say it’s all voodoo…hocus-pocus) it was a huge validation!! I can’t seem to find even one link to that video. (If you find it…and it’s legal…please comment, and link!)

There were some great learns from Lindsey’s pre-game ritual for athletes of all levels. They’re oversimplified here, but I’m sure that her sports psychologist has her working on this visualization to:

-Remain calm, and focused (even when a billion people are about to watch her)

-Stick to, and execute the routine. No matter what the stage, or circumstance

-In her DAILY practice…practice seeing herself do it RIGHT every day, so that the vision is clear, and vivid.

-Do the mental reps in the equipment, and environment that she’s going to use in competition.

-Move physically just as you would as your mind moves you down the course. Lock in those mental pictures with physical feelings.

-Keep your mind in the now, and focus on the things that are in your control.

That last one really stuck with me from the moment. Here’s a wildly talented athlete, at the Olympics, one of the last skiers on the course, with her teammate already charging down the hill to (then) first place, and a TV camera in her face….and she’s STILL sticking to her mental training plan. Champion stuff.

There’s a list of elite sports psychologists to the right that can help you learn, practice, and perfect these skills. Holler at one of them, and maybe in a few years, we’ll be watching you on TV.

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