COACH B PERFORMANCE 
Master Your Mental Game 

To understand how to manage the complexity of the different types of fatigue that can impact the performance of an athlete one has to first appreciate the enormous changes that occur to the student athlete body and brain during the period from adolescence to young adulthood. Not only is the student athlete entering a time of huge physical and emotional growth as they steer towards adulthood but they are also impacted by external stressors from rigorous academic workloads, new social dynamics, travel stress (if driving themselves), decreased levels of serotonin and to top it off, a new daily athletic routine that leaves very little room for downtime or recovery. The accumulative effect on the athlete both physically and mentally is metaphorically equivalent to leaving the car engine running all day and all night every day ! Your student athlete will eventually run out of gas ! Unless carefully monitored, planned, structured and supported the athlete will be left feeling depleted, the coach left feeling exasperated perhaps even resorting to increasing his/her training load and the parents left flustered at the poor academic results exclaiming their child is now a "lazy teenager ! ". But this is not the case ! The teenager is just completely enervated ! And here's why..... On top of an unstructured or vague planing from the student athlete, if the High School or College Coach has not periodically trained in the right zones, allocated rest or very light aerobic days into the weekly, monthly and seasonal training program to allow adaptation of the rigorous training and back to back competition load combined with the academic load, student athletes are at high risk of not only feeling physically fatigued but mentally expired. The two common types of fatigue, aside from physical fatigue that your athlete may experience are Central Nervous Fatigue and Peripheral Fatigue. Here's what it may look like or present in your athlete (but not limited to): Central Nervous System Fatigue (CNS) - is where there is a decreased ability to fire the muscles at the normal desired rate and may also causes cognitive impairment that will affect mood and behavior ability to concentrate. Peripheral fatigue - reduction in force and strength, creating feelings of weakness, shortness of breath, overall general lethargy. Athletes with one or both may be delivering the same sustained effort but the output and results are massively reduced. Over time he/she may continue to decline increasing susceptibility to illness or injury due to poor biomechanics. While this continues they may complain of aches and pains, mental fog, feeling flat and an inability to finish tasks. The good news is all of the above is AVOIDABLE through periodization and supplementation of my program ANR - Athlete Neuroplasticity Reset which is focused on balancing the elite athlete. By training your athlete in the correct zones and implementation of periods of structured active rest you can not only avoid but even predict declines in health or signs of overtraining. Remember more is not always better. The athlete requires balance to accommodate the stress that is coming from non physical factors as much as it needed to adapt to the physical stress. This requires the coach to have a big picture view of the overall student athlete program - or to work with someone who can ! Athletes can also help themselves (ANR) by taking responsibility of their own "active rest" away from school and athletic responsibilities. If you or your team would like help in structuring ways to balance your periodization and find new ways to implement active rest contact Coach B to not only enhance your performance but prevent burn out and long term cognitive impairment.

As an athlete I was always trying to compete as much as possible. Always asking my coach "can I race this weekend and next weekend, oh and by the way can I skip this practice and do a race mid week too ? ". Of course my coach would roll her eyes and say "Belinda No, it's not within the periodization plan and you'll burn out, or get injured and you wont peak when we need you to." She was no fool. She knew what I was up to. My response upon hearing this would be to sulk or grumble. Maybe throw my water bottle. In my youth I was not the easiest athlete to work with. No surprise there really. So why is it you think I wanted to race every weekend ? The answer is because it was easier ! When you train correctly as an athlete and prepare for competition the way a great coach should prepare you by training in the right heart rate zones at every practice to achieve optimal performance, competition becomes something of a pleasure. A joy. Almost a relief from the brutal execution and hardship you go through during practice to increase your ability to tolerate intensity to achieve a new level of performance. If you are not doing this both physically and mentally every time you turn up to practice ( on the hard days that is, recovery and aerobic are meant to be just that) then how on earth do you expect to move your performance forward. You can not wait for that to just happen on game day or competition day. All the work, all the thinking, all the focus , must be completed before the event so when you arrive there your body performs almost on auto pilot because it has experienced before in. practice (possibly harder) and because of this it is so much more enjoyable. This is why I only wanted to race and not train or practice. The training was brutal, the racing was pleasure. Get the work done first, grind, fine tune the process, then let the magic happen !

Emotions are something we feel, a response to our environment, to a situation or a reaction perhaps to something someone said. Memories ignite emotions too. For the athlete balancing emotions for the purpose of performance is determined by how you choose to respond to your environment & what you allow your mind to focus on. This is independent from mental health which concerns your mental capacity to be able to interpret, understand and cope the stress of competition. With emotional health the feelings may be strong but there is the ability to regain a level of control by choice. Being an elite athlete brings with it a stressful , intense world which is what we spend hours training for and at the very heart of athletic competition. Within Mental health conditions however, emotional control can be severely diminished due to cognitive impairment which may require medical diagnosis, intervention & treatment removing that choice or ability from the athlete to regain control until the impairment is treated. For the outsider observing a sporting event  it is reckless to throw the mental health umbrella over a set of circumstances as the reason athletes experience  emotional disturbances. The media is quick to announce the need for mental health support when maybe what is most needed is direction and skills in emotional regulation. These throw away blanket statements are confusing for the athletes and undermine the level of seriousness mental health conditions impact an individual. A person with a mental health condition is deeply disadvantaged and limited in their ability to self correct. The mere ability to process thoughts is overwhelming & the whole body feels the condition due to an Impairment within the mind. This is not the same as being emotionally unbalanced. If you are feeling your emotions are interfering with your performance it may be time to learn skills to redirect and channel your energy. It can be simple as limiting your focus and removing associations which stimulate feelings unproductive for performance. Labeling athletes incorrectly with mental health terms is not only contributing to clouding an athletes understanding of how to process what they feel but it limits their capacity to help themselves. On top of this it is also deeply disrespectful to those individuals who live with life long mental health conditions where exercise in itself is an enormous feat. Normalize psychological support for athletes without creating false association with serious medical conditions. Coach B

PGR stands for Pre-Game Ritual while PPR stands for Pre-Performance Routine. Both are similar in nature in aiming to prepare the athlete or team together prior to performance towards a collective goal however PGR provides a platform for the athlete to express cultural, religious, or spiritual beliefs, a sight that it is becoming widely more accepted and desired by athletes in sport. The All-Blacks Rugby Team possibly have the most famous PGR called the Haka. The traditional war cry from Māori culture was historically performed by men before going into battle. The NZ team now uses this as their traditional PGR to prepare prior to competition. A Pre-Game Ritual can be classified as any type of repetitive behavior that the athlete believes will bring positive affect or ward of a negative ones (Womack, 1992). Creating PGP can be easier for the individual ( prayer, totem, lucky jersey, touching the grass,) than a group attempting to create a team dance, song or tradition, unless there is shared cultural value or identity based on region or beliefs. It is possible though to find a common connection or create one. The benefits of taking the time to establish a PGR and incorporate it within your existing PPR (Pre-Performance Routine) may just be well worth the effort. Research ( Hagen & Shack, 2017) tells us that those individuals and teams that do will see improved: ·       Alertness – focus narrowed to align the team together ·       cooperation – working together, manifesting a belief or concept. ·       cohesion – united in song and spirit ·       interpersonal relationships – cultivating a sense of togetherness ·       motivation – wanting to represent something more than themselves ·       confidence – higher power or extrinsic force ·       feeling of being locked in similar to hypnosis ·       ability to block out distractions ·       a reduction in pressure as the load is shared.   Ultimately every PGR needs to be integrated with PPR to produce the best possible results for the athletes. Designing this requires the help of a sport psychologist or mental performance coach who can balance the physical and cognitive needs of the athletes and create an environment that is energizing but composed so the athletes start the competition with a sense of certainty that they are already on their way to winning. Let me help you design a PGR for your athlete or team today and fill the void that may be missing from their performance   Coach B   Reference: Jnr., J. E. H., & Schack, T. (2017). Integrating pre-game rituals and pre-performance routines in a culture-specific context: Implications for sport psychology consultancy. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 17(1), 18–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2017.1292301

Athletes tend to be the last person to abandon ship! The incredible level of self-regulatory control developed from years of discipline, direction, and action toward collective goals, is not a grip that releases easily. Add to this the athlete’s healthy ego, pride, and perceived sacrifice may even manifest in the young person’s mind as an accepted responsibility. They may feel they must go down with the ship so to speak (i.e., staying with a losing team, a horrible coach or ignore poor health and injury.) All for the sake of “being seen” as committed. Well, this a huge mistake! Sport is just a very small part of who you are as person and there is plenty more for you to take on. Do not for go the opportunity to excel in other areas ! Young aspiring champions easily become immersed in their life as an athlete. The wonderful world of sport brings with it identity, community, friendship, travel, a second family and the accolades from success are not half bad either, but the questions every athlete must ask themselves before they continue is this: ·      am I happy? ·      am I doing what I love? ·      does this still bring me joy? If you answered No to even just one of the above questions, it’s time to take a pause and talk through your future. Do not just reflect on your own. Athletes have a natural tendency to switch into autopilot and will just keep going. Now is the time to vocalize all the concerns you have out loud  with someone who can provide you an unbiased confidential opinion and help you gauge and understand your options, so YOU can make the best decision moving forward.   Understand that it’s not that “you just quit! “ it could be that your interests are changing and this is a natural transition out of the sporting arena. OR…it could just be that a change of scenery (new team, new coach, new environment) is what is needed to reinvigorate your passion. Athletes I know it can be scary to walk away from something you have committed a huge part of your life to. You are not alone in understanding your choices. Give me a call. I can help.   Coach B

So, what is the difference between goals and intentions?  Goals are in the future; Intentions are in the present moment. I often tell the athletes I work with that establishing short, mid- and long-term goals are great to have but ideally they will occur naturally and be the bi product of your intentions if the process, delivery and execution is aligned. Whether you are an individual athlete or part of team, creating individual or intentions for the whole team can help maintain daily focus and allow the team to have a joint commitment around behavior and work ethic. As outlined by Margaret Gilbert in her book on Joint Commitment (2015): “…a joint commitment requires obligation from the group to uphold collective attitudes and each member has the right to reproach a member who fails to play their part.” This works great in teams because it increases accountability and leaves little room for lazy team members to hide. Within “team intentions” is a set of terms often created by the coaches in collaboration with team captains, that will outline the shared beliefs, conditions, and mutual responsiveness to ensure each team member fully aware of what is expected of them. If you are looking for help as an individual or a team in 2024 to create the framework you need to execute your intentions to reach your goals, let's connect.   HNY Coach B   coachbperformance.com

Being Unmotivated is part of being human and can be compared to emotions that come and go. It is 100% normal to have days where you do not want to do anything and fittingly as a student athlete  there will be days where you should listen to your body and do just that. Mid season however, is not a time where an athlete can afford to fall into an unmotivated slump and this is where we must use ANY physical activity to generate what I like to call “motivational momentum”. The key to overcoming being unmotivated is to grind through the initial reluctance to start simply by getting the ball rolling. Change not only the scenery but change the sport. A tired, overthinking  brain can be very loud and will give you 100’s of excuses if you let it . Try instead to silence your brain and substitute your sport for a different activity. One easy way to trick your unmotivated mind is to substitute regular practice a with low risk, low impact sport that still generates blood flow and increases the heart rate. The endorphins from any type of exercise will flip the initial switch to stimulate your mind into a more positive state. For some athletes this may only take a few days, for others a few weeks. While it is clear forced action generates motivation I prefer to give a lethargic  mind a rest from its usual focus and still reel in the benefits of exercise to stimulate motivation to return. I always encourage injured athletes to still attend practice , observe and use it to stay motivated in recovery where rehabilitation activities can mind numbing and boring.  Do your rehab not at home but at the same training venue and along side your teammates. If you’ve tried all of this and there has been no change and you still have zero motivation and derive no pleasure from activities you once loved,  it may be time to talk to a medical professional as there may be another cause contributing to your unwillingness to fire the motivational momentum . Anhedonia is a mental health condition that is described as simply a loss of enjoyment in activities that were once pleasurable.  This is a condition that action will not correct on its own  and it needs professional support. Remember motivation is not a skill, or part of your personality it is bi product of what we do. You’re not lazy , you are normal and if you need additional support it is always available 💜 Coach B