The most consistent athletes do things that set them apart every day. Start the fall season off by standing out- doing something every day that sets you apart. Implement the following strategies and watch your game soar:
Tip #1: Your Self-Talk is Your Superpower. Your Self-Talk creates your reality. It: *Manages Feelings
*Increases Motivation
*Overcome Adversity
*It’s Your Fuel
Go the Extra Mile: Here are 20 Ways to Talk the Talk: https://tamimatheny.com/product/20-ways-to-talk-the-talk
Tip #2: Live Your Why. When you know your why the how is easy. What is the bigger picture of why you play your sport?
Go the Extra Mile: Tami Matheny: The Power of Why (youtube.com)
Tip #3: Have a daily goal or focus. Don’t show up to practice or training just to get through it. Show up with intention.
Go the Extra Mile: Write down vision/goal every day or have a accountability partner and share your goal/focus with them before each training session.
Tip #4: Mentally Warmup Every Day. Everyone warms up physically. Make sure you are warming up mentally as well. Research shows us that athletes that consistently use a mental warmup start 20% stronger. Here is an example of a mental warmup: https://tamimatheny.com/mental-warmup-brave/
Go the Extra Mile: Take 3-5 minutes before practice and competition to go through your mental warmup.
Tip 5: Act as If… Act as if you wish be to. Be intentional about how you carry yourself. Your body language sends powerful messages to not only your coach and teammates but to yourself as well.
Go the Extra Mile: https://tamimatheny.com/product/20-ways-to-walk-the-walk/
Tip 6: Focus on Gratitude. When we focus on gratitude, it changes our focus & helps us be more confident. List everything you are thankful for about your sports, team, teammates and coaches. Keep this list where you can see it. When times get tough review the list.
Go the Extra Mile: Start a daily gratitude practice (ie. Gratitude walk, journal, gratitude text).
Tip 7: Be a Great Teammate. Focus on being as good if not better teammate than player, regardless of your talent.
Go the Extra Mile: https://www.coachloya.com/blog
Tip 8: Bring the Confident You to Life Every Day. Picture what the confident you feels like, looks like, and thinks like when you are at your best.
Go the Extra Mile: Fill out this graph so that you have a visualize.
Tip 9: Fuel Your Body. Make sure you fuel your body with healthy food, hydrate throughout the day, stretch & get adequate rest. Consistently doing these things will help keep you healthy and physically strong but they will also set you apart when others hit the wall midway through the year. What you do today affects you later on in the season.
Go the Extra Mile: What is one area that you need to improve on to fuel your body. Commit to changing that today.
Tip 10: Fuel Your Mind. What you feed your mind is as important as what you feed your body. Make sure you are nurturing your mind and body so they both can perform at high levels. Take time to nourish yourself and to create positive, healthy habits.
Go the Extra Mile: A lot of what we read impacts us negatively or positively. Who do you follow on social media that is a positive influence.
Tip 11: Knowledge is Power. Get an extra edge by continuing to learn as much as possible about your sport and your team.
Go the Extra Mile: Learn 1 new thing this week about your sport and about a teammate.
Tip 12: Preparation is Separation. Confidence is preparation. Everything else is beyond your control.
Go the Extra Mile: Plan your responses ahead of time. Create a sheet similar to the example below for your sport.
Response Sheet (Ex. Basketball.)
Tip 13: Be an Eagle, Not a Crow.
The crow represents people in your life that bring you down through their criticism, negative opinions, or by being a distraction. It’s everything that is pecking at you, prodding you, disturbing you, and challenging you.
Be an eagle and don’t fight the crows, just keep ascending. Do not allow yourself to succumb to the distractions. Keep your focus on the things you can control so you can continue rising!”
Go the Extra Mile: Read “The Lesson of the Eagle and the Crow:” https://tamimatheny.com/the-lesson-of-the-eagle-and-the-crow/
Tip 14: Have and Use a Reset Button. When you make a mistake or need to bounce back get in the habit of mentally hitting reset. Implementing a routine after a mistake trains the brain to move forward. The most effective reset buttons use a physical response (i.e.. slap thigh, brush it off the shoulder, take a deep breath, etc.) followed by a verbal response (i.e.. “next play,” “flush it,” etc.)
Go the Extra Mile: Find a reset button that works for you and then start practicing it during training so it will be more natural by game time.
Tip 15: Stay in the Present Moment. We perform at our best when we are in the present moment. Negative emotions come from hanging on to the past or thinking ahead to the future.
Go the Extra Mile: Read the following for ways to practice staying in the moment. https://tamimatheny.com/staying-in-the-moment