Brain in the Game | Sport Mind Coaching Podcast
Dave Diggle
Episode Thirty-Eight – You've Reached the Top of Your Sport! Now, how do you stay there?
Hello and welcome back to Brain in the Game, Brain in the Game as a podcast that has been specifically designed for athletes, coaches and parents who are out there looking to do their sport a little bit smarter. Brain in the Game is a mental buy-in to changing the way you look at sport and I’m your host, Dave Diggle. in this episode 38, we're going to look at staying on track. The view from the front. Now when I work with athletes all over the world – from sprinters through to racing car drivers through to cricket players to skaters and a whole multitude of different other sports in between –there's many things that are different and unique in not only every sport but obviously, every athlete. And there's some things that are very similar across the platform of every professional or extreme athlete. One of those things is a perspective of when they're chasing to get to the front, to when they finally get there and achieve their objective. When they become the number one in their sport. When they look at the things that they've been trying to do and they're in their forward path, from a whole new different perspective from being out in front. So, what I want to do in this episode of Brain in the Game is a look at some of the things that we should be doing, and some of the things that we tend to do that maybe we shouldn't be doing.
Now when an athlete reaches this objective when they become that professional athlete, one of three things tend to happen:
1. They get either indoctrinated into the team format and their thing then starts to morph into just another aspect of that team dynamic. They lose their individuality they just become another cog in the wheel.
2. Alternatively, what happens is the athlete gets to a stage where they're out in front where they've spent most of their life chasing to get to the front and their perspective has always been people in front of them or objectives in front of them or hurdles in front of them. All of a sudden, they get to where they want to be. They get to the front and they see things from a whole different perspective. There isn't anybody in front of them they are the number one at what they do. The best in the world at what they do. They are currently on top of the rostrum as the athlete to be watching and everything looks a little different. No longer have they got the objective in front of them of, “This person’s in front of me I've got to overtake them,” or “This objective, I've got to reach is competition strategy or this level of competition,” or “I've got to become a national champion/Olympic champion/world champion”. They get to where they want to get to and all of a sudden, they panic. What tends to happen there is they go into protective mode. They shut down shop in an effort not to let the bubble burst. Everything slows down and they become very protective about everything around them. So, the momentum stops. Then all of a sudden, they go from being at the top of the rostrum, being the number one, to watching everybody go straight past them because other people haven't slowed down. They haven't stopped.
So that's the first two perspectives. They either get indoctrinated into a system that's alien to them or they get to a stage where everything is so precious to them they stop moving forward. And the third one is:
3. Holy crap. What do I do now? The panic mode. This is when all the focus, all the strategy all the structure has been to get to this point in time and they haven't planned what comes next. “How do I manage being out in front?”
So these are the three most common problems that can be associated to achieving your goal. And I know that sounds a little alien to anybody who's an elite athlete and are striving to get to the top of their field. When they get there they don't necessarily contemplate that there's going to be a whole different ballgame; a whole different set of things to overcome. Strategies to re-strategise. But there is.
It shouldn't stop when you get to your objective. Of course, once you reach your end goal – once you become that Olympic athlete, that world champion, the national champion, whatever it is for you – there has to be a short and sharp period of celebration. There has to be some recognition that you've done the right thing, you've got there. All that hard work, all the strategies, all of those things that you fore-went over the years have been worth it. Otherwise your brain to go, What the heck? Why did I put all that in, and I’m here, and we're not recognising it. So of course we have to recognise it. However, that isn't the cliff face. We don't get there and realise there’s nothing beyond that. It is just another step in growing as an athlete. And we want to have that open mindedness, that growth mindset to keep growing and never really see an end.
Every time you achieve something there is another thing for you to strive for. That’s going to keep the traction, that is going to keep you moving forward. If you think about this like a racing car driver, when you're out there and you're competing your strategy; you're applying everything that you've thought about and you've talked about with your team managers; you're out there and maybe you're in second or third place and you're striving to get out in front; you're keeping your apexes right; you're keeping your speed right; you're managing your fuel; you're managing your tyres.
Then all of a sudden, you're out in front.
What do you do then?
Do you start to look in your mirrors and go, “Let's protect what I've got” or you keep doing what it is you did to get in front? Now of course it's a loaded question from somebody with my perspective and a mind coach. I believe you keep doing what you did to get to the front. You keep striving to grow to be faster to be stronger to be more precise. If you get to the front then all you worry about is protecting that position and you go into defensive mode, then your focus is no longer what you do. It is what other people are doing. And then you stop competing or you stop applying your strategy. Your strategy then becomes, What are they doing that I have to counteract to? You no longer apply that precision. You no longer apply the strategy that put you out in front. Logic dictates that if we want to continue to grow we've got to continue to do the right things, to continue to follow the strategies that are working, and continue to tweak and adjust the things that need to be tweaked and adjusted. If we become a defensive athlete then no longer are we applying those strategies. We’re playing somebody else's strategy.
So after 10 years of working with athletes and – I guess my speciality realistically is those athletes on their tipping point who have the skill sets that they're going to need and they're going to require who have achieved so much within their career but just can't get it over the line – applying the mental strategy to have that consistency to get them over line I guess is where I put a lot of my focus. So I work with athletes who want it so badly or are so close, who can feel it, can taste it, can almost touch it. They're the athletes that we manage both the on-field and off-field mental aspect of. And when you get to that stage where you get to almost touching it, you can taste it in the back of your mind, you can see what you're going to achieve, getting over that line and their sense of, ‘Now I'm here shouldn't be a stopping point’. That's what we need to utilise. That sense of achievement to then refocus, to revisit our objectives. And we should know what those objectives are long before we get over that line. We should know that once we get over, what we're going to strive for next so that we can use getting over the line, becoming the driver out in front, or becoming the athlete that gets selected and use that as a springboard to keep that traction and momentum going forwards. So, my question to you this week is: what strategy have you got to get over the line, and then where does it go? What comes next? Do you know in the back of your mind once I get that, this is next? Is it a seamless transition from chasing that dream to using that dream as a springboard to keep going forwards?
Or will you get to a point where it stalls for you? Or is all your focus at the moment just on getting over that line? Just being good enough to be selected? Just being good enough to be the number one?
Or are you focused on the bigger better brighter stronger you? The one that has that continual growth mindset, wants more, doesn't see the glass roof, doesn't see the end step? Just keeps striving to be bigger and better. Because that's the athlete that's going to have that consistency. That's going to have that momentum and traction strong enough to give you not only what you're striving for now, which is selection or that championship. But is going to keep you growing and moving forward. Keeping your mind not only on the immediate goal but on the growth mindset will keep that view from the front. Keep that momentum. Keep you on track. Keep doing what you have been doing. Keep doing what's working. So recognise now in your training: what is working? What are you doing that's getting you this far? What are you doing that’s really good, that you don't ever want to give up? You don't ever want to see that go? You never want the momentum to stop. That crankshaft to stop or slow down. You want to keep that humming along nicely. Recognise that because when you do get over the line – if you are that passionate, if you're that talented and you've got the right mindset you will get over the line – once you get over that line, what do you need to keep applying? Will you keep doing? What strategy do you need to keep intact?
It's a different thought process isn't it. It’s a different way of looking at your objectives, your goals, your drive, what you're looking to achieve. As I said I've been doing this for about 10 years now professionally and there’s so many athletes, when I first start working with them, who have a very clear objective. What they're out to do. What they’re out to achieve, be it national champion, be it, “I want to compete for my country”, be it, “I want to be world champion” or Olympic champion. And one of the difficulties I have initially working with some of these incredibly talented, incredibly focused athletes is, “And then what?” And then the look on their face often is, But isn't that enough?
Some my question always is then, “I don't know. Is it enough? Is it enough for you? Do you just want to achieve once? Do you just want to have that get-your-foot-over-the-line in front of anybody else, and is that good enough for you?” And inevitably the response is, “No, I want more than that.”
Then that's why we need to keep that traction. We need to keep that momentum. We need to keep that path going.
Shifting focus, I want you to take just five minutes of your time every single time you go through your journaling program, or you go through your feedback process and you reward yourself with things that are working, put them to the side and go, Okay I need to keep that working for me and keep feeding that. Feeding it with emotion, or strategy, or a technical aspect. I need to keep that working well for me. And then also think to yourself, Once I my next objective, when do I start planning beyond that? My rule of thumb is, as you get into the final stages of a competition preparation or a strategy that you're trying to achieve, whether that be a skill, whether it be a competition or whether it be championships. You start to think beyond that championship. Once I've done that championship, the next process is …. So we do have that seamless momentum and flow going forward. And you don't get overwhelmed with the competition coming up or the event coming up, and to you see it for what it is. It's a step in the bigger picture. It's a next stepping stone towards the next big thing. And it takes some of that heat, some of that immediate focus off of, But what if?
These are important mental perspectives to managing not only your mind game, your mind strategies but also managing your emotional platform so that you can keep a clear perspective on what you're doing and what you're trying to achieve and that continual growth mindset. It's an interesting concept.
I hope you've enjoyed that different perspective. It is a different look at how we keep momentum. How we keep driving. How we stay on track and viewing your performance from the front, when we do get to the top of what you're trying to achieve.
Brain in the Game is an opportunity I get to share a lot of my beliefs, my philosophies and the strategies that I apply for many different athletes. Until the next episode of Brain in the Game train smart and enjoy the ride.
Copyright 2012-2022 Dave Diggle
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