2: Getting out of your head during competitions, micro-goals, Sue Bird, EuroBasket, Coach Ataman's meltdown, and working with fear!

Sports and Psychology Podcast

In today's second episode of the Sports & Psychology Podcast coming to you every Saturday morning, we're diving into a topic that every one of us athletes has fought with at one time or another, and that’s how to get out of your head. We’re going to jump into the first step towards finding flow and focusing during competition on what’s important. And those are micro-goals. This is valid for coaches, trainers, athletes of any age, and all of you casual sports fans out there looking to get a one-up on your buddies in that next YMCA run. Ya, you know who you are. This is for you too. If you're looking to take ownership over your growth, and your goals, and set yourself up for success in your season, then you're right where you want to be.

I chose today’s topic as one of the maybe easiest, and most beneficial things we can do for our sports career or journey. A couple of years ago I had a professional hockey player come to me, and say that he knew he was much better than how he was playing. He had played in higher leagues and has the skills, when he’s alone training everything goes great. But during games, he acts timid and is so afraid of judgment from his coach and manager, that he stopped being productive. And after every game, between games, his coach and manager were harder and harder on him, because they knew that there was more in him, and that made him play worse and worse. He came to me hoping to find out how to not pressure him anymore so that he could be relaxed and play his game.

What I asked first, is when he gets the puck during a game, what are his thoughts? I can’t make a mistake otherwise I’m going to get yelled at. With every mistake, I’m going to be seen as not good enough and not get back up to the leagues I used to play in. If I turn the puck over, I’m not going to get a next contract. When I turn the puck over to the other team, my teammates are going to stop trusting me. More importantly, I don’t trust myself enough not to make any mistakes, and so I freeze. Do something that no one can be mad at. Pass the puck backward, don’t lose the puck.

And so what’s the result of this type of thinking? I play worse and worse, timid, scared. I don’t score points where I know I can. I’m in a constant fight with myself. Where I know how I want to play, but my head isn’t allowing me to.

First of all, this is extremely common among athletes. We get into our heads, our thoughts, tense up, become timid, are afraid of being judged by others, and then we don’t have the kind of results we know that we can.

So when you get the puck, what’s your goal? Well, to not mess up. To not disappoint anyone. To make sure that whatever I do, the manager and coach aren’t going to be angry at me… Dear listener, I hope that you’re pulling your hair out a bit right now. From the outside, this seems so obvious, but so many athletes fight with this issue. Can I focus on now, can I focus on what’s essential in the here and now, or am I more focused on the long-term, and therefore making fear-based decisions?

I said at this point, good, that that’s great noticing. But for us to have a correctly stated goal, it has to be positive, not what we don’t want, but what we do want. The hockey player thought for a second, and then lightbulb, the goal when I get the puck is to score. Snap, crackle, lightbulb, I’ve never seen anyone’s eyes light up like in that moment. He literally realized that his main focus on the ice should be having his team score, no matter how that happens.

The most paralyzing thing for an athlete is indecisiveness. Take this struggle away by focusing on your micro-goal.

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