Parents and Mindset

Liberty Mutual has a program that is unfortunatley not to well know. It is call Responsible Sports and it is sharing the most important messages in sports. Having a growth mind set and learning to manage adversity in a health way is one of the most powerful lessons this program promotes. Here is a video of a USA national team player and Silver Medalist Courtney Thompson talking about the perspectives she brings to volleyball because of her parents. Courtney has a clear list of priorites that every player can learn from.

 

 

 

The "Eyes" Have it

Here are a few things that look into the “Visual” aspect of motor learning and performance. Volleyball is a visual –motor game and coaching a player’s vision is of the highest importance. Image how well you could play if a had been coached on how to see the game as much as you had practiced the movements of the game .

Article one from SI: Click Here

Research about passing and digging Click Here then open the pdf

Sustained Effort Matters

There is an interesting article on the Harvard Business Review site, which details the most effective strategies for achieving success. The author list nine possible strategies in order, the strategies that are most impactful are listed at the top. To see the article, click here. This work is the follow up to a previous article, which explains how the author’s research revealed nine strategies. To see the first article, click here.

The punch line of this is work is that persistence is king. Having the ability to stick it out good or bad will help you prevail over your challenges. Goal achievement and skill mastery are the result of effort; they are not accomplished with some mythical talent you’re born with.  Here are few quotes we enjoy about effort.

“Success is dependent on effort.” – Sophocles

“Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.” - Winston Churchill

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” – Confucius

“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my lord do you learn.” - C. S. Lewis

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” - Mahatma Gandhi

“Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.” - Napoleon Hill

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.” - Napoleon Hill

 

Seeking Greatness

A friend of our club is always saying that people just do not know how to commit. To find some one who will stay focused, pay the price, and forgo all the distractions of life, is rare. To give a sustained effort is very difficult, and it seems that work ethics often falter when there are challenges. That being said, for those with a growth mindset it is the effort and intention that counts.  Here is a clip from a very inspirational movie of a man whose commitment has produced amazing results. We highly recommend this film!

Here are few quotes we love and we think Jiro would to:

“the essence of boredom is to be found in the obsessive search for novelty. Satisfaction lies in … the discovery of endless riches and subtle variations on familiar themes” - George Leonard

“At the heart of it, mastery is practice. Mastery is staying on the path” - George Leonard

In this clip you will gain a greater understanding for how Jiro views work and what keeps him motivated.

Helpful Perspectives

Here are a few articles that every player and coach can benefit from. The first is from Dr. Rick McGuire, it's about managing your focus during competition. We have posted some work by McGuire before and we are still big fans of his work.  Click Here 

The second article is by on of McGuire’s students and it is about goal setting. This is a great read for an athlete and his comments are really on point. We strive to get 1% better with each skill we perform at each practice. The article by Rich has a similar theme and it explains the benefits of this approach nicely. Click Here

Lastly, on the subject of perspective, here is a video clip about making mistakes. All too often coaches find that their efforts aimed at improving results, teaching productive work habits, and advancing learning becomes derailed by defensiveness. This defensiveness is often rooted in the athletes fear of "being wrong". "Being wrong" is the moment you realize you have been making a mistake. For some, the only thing worse than knowing they were wrong, is realizing everyone else is aware of their error as well. Many players have been socialized to have a "fixed mindset" and their perception of mistakes becomes destructive to learning. One of the goals of our staff is to help players learn to love corrections and to see the opportunity for change once our errors are understood. We will all make mistakes and our focus must be on improvement. To keep making progress at a high rate we must be willing to face our messy reality and learn from our mistakes, for as the saying goes " to error is human". I hope that this clip will improve some perspectives and allow players to open up to the potential for change that exist in learning when we were wrong.

A Great Read

Recently I  had the opportunity to read the book "Leadership and Self Deception" and I cannot recommend it enough! For everyone who leads and or participates in a competitive environment I can really improve how you navigate the inherent challenges of your situation. Here is a clip from you tube that will give a partial preview of one of the books topic. Our need to be justified and our need to protect our self image/ego can really impact teams dynamics. Players, parents, and coaches can all benefit from this books conflict resolution information. The book also contains information can help us make clearer choices and teaches us to put our own distractions aside and focus on results. 

The most difficult opponent:

           Helping players and coaches see the light about the benefits of a growth mind set at some point will run into the opponent of growth, which is egotism.  While every person has an ego, not every person has the same need to defend, feed, fear, and obey the thoughts generated by our egos. The literature on the fixed mindset does a great job of address the aspects of our persona that is viewable to the public. Often there is discussion about how the public image is the motivator, but I am starting to believe that ego (self image) is the motivator and the fixed mind set is the protector and fuel of the ego.

A story: Working with a player the other day I told her that another kid from our club would be joining us to work on some hitting. This player immediately replied “Oh! Great now I can look like crap hitting next to her”. She and I have worked together for a while and she knows the difference between a fixed and growth mind set. I looked at her and said, “repeat that again”. She repeated the statement and got a touch embarrassed. Then, she started to defend the beliefs that she created with the statement. Sadly, her defense was based on a self-defeating prophecy that in her mind was certainly going to become the reality. The player’s defense sounded something like “She is better than I am and I will look lame hitting next to her.”   After listening to her and telling her that anyone can accomplish anything, I was left to wonder whose judgment she is so concerned about. This player also knows that I am not going to judge her and that I am know she can work and become as accomplished as the other player.  The other player coming in is a nice kid and supportive of everyone, so, she should not be worried about her.  What was going on here?  Ultimately, she was putting her own ego in danger and she was trying to cope with the stress. Her private thoughts of inferiority lead to her thoughts of public humiliation.

Often in the “mindset community” of coaches, I hear that public perceptions are the motivation for everything. However, I am personally stating to believe that our ego or ones “private self” is the real perpetrator.  Here is a quote to make the point, African proverb: “When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.” Ego is the greatest opponent and it is really hard to tell the difference between our ego and our own internal voice of reason. How often has a player or coach given a weak effort, rationalized excuses, blamed, and avoided a situation that they felt endangered their own sense of self worth? We all do it too often is the answer. Figuring out how to help players over come the egos voice of fear needs to be part of our goal.

Self-image has a private and public component. How we see ourselves (private), and how we want to be seen (public), are the forces behind our ego.  The Jahori Window Theory gives a great diagram of how this plays out. Under the column, “know to self” you will see Open (public knowledge/image) and Hidden (private knowledge/self-image) these are the two areas in which our ego makes decisions that are designed to keep us feeling good about ourselves. What seems to be key here is the power of the open self to feed the needs of the hidden self. The Blind area on the chart are things about our self that other extrapolate from our actions and this are can yield positive and negative behaviors. This “Blind Spot” creates some fear and anxiety for our ego. The blind spot is where as a coach things often go wrong. When, person hears feedback that is out of line with their self-image/intentions there is usually a defensive reaction. This ego defense can greatly hamper learning and progress. When this situation persists, the egos defense goes on the offense and at that point, coach ability and cooperation are dead.

Helping players see what is really in their blind spot is a tricky thing, and a principal that can help us understand how people see themselves is the understanding that “we judge others by their actions, but we judge ourselves by our intentions”. To understand a person’s motivating thoughts you cannot simply look at their actions. Even when we believe, we understand their attitudes their actions may not be consistent with their overt attitude. According to the Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein and Ajzen) we must first understand a person’s “intentions” to predict their actions. Our personal beliefs about the need actions and outcome of our actions, is balanced against the pressure we feel from others and what society tells us about our actions and their results. This all turns into a reaffirming message to our ego, if I do this in this way for these reasons I will believe I am this “X” kind of person. X is the intention by which we judge our self, and the public will see I am person “X” also. Can it be that ego plays a larger role in our intentions? Do we intent to win at all costs (because I am a winner), or do we want to beat others down to lift ourselves up? Do I, intent to do my best and learn from the experience?  

The other day I watched a movie by director Guy Richie titled “Revolver”.  It turns out to be just as good as his other work and this movies twist is that it deals with the human ego.  At the end of the movie, you reflect and understand how ego has driven every characters actions good or bad. There is also interview footage with professionals in the psychologically field. Here is a clip that explains the battle of ego that is played out in the movie.
In the clip the actor Jason Statham is being taught a lesson about his ego and he doesn't know it, you will see that he thinks he is in control but infact Vince Pastore & Andre Benjamin are helping him understand that the real  "opponent"  he is fighting is his own ego.