Join me & SAVI coaching for a free webinar this Sunday!

I am excited to join with Tyler Coston of SAVI coaching for a free webinar this Sunday, June 2nd at 6 pm. It is a preview of the month long cohort on infusing mental performance skills in your coaching.

It is a preview of the content of the cohort that will be running Thursdays in June.

Creating a Competitive Advantage with Mental Performance Skills

Topics that will be previewed include:

• Why coaches need to be teaching Mental Skills
• Utilizing the 4 E's framework to effectively teach Mental Performance Skills to your Athletes
• Understanding the power of Self-talk
• Building Routines for Peak Performance
• Helping athletes handle the ups and downs of competition

All attendees will receive a free assessment to help them target skills that will help their team.

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Normalize Failure to help develop Grit

I was a guest on a podcast last week with a local journalist. It wasn't coaching specific but focused on issues facing youth in our community. The host asked me a great question.

What is one piece of advice I would give parents of young people?

I didn't have to hesitate. Let them fail.

Failure has become a bad word in 2024.

*** Buckle up. Exhausted educator at the end of a long school year rant incoming. ***

Over the last 25 years in the education system I have seen young people's relationship with failure change radically. Failure used to be part of the process of learning. Now it has become something to fear and avoid. Young people have been saddled with the blame and responsibility for this shift but it is not their fault.

Adults need to look no further than themselves. They've created a world for young people that tells them they are exceptional for just being them. Cell phones have not helped but that is next week's newsletter topic.

Today's athletes have not been served by a society that:

1.) Provides everyone an award.

2.) Protects Self-Esteem at all costs.

3) Bulldozes any obstacles.

4.) Has adults supervising kids activities all the time.

This mentality has created a generation of athletes who can be hard to coach. They struggle to take risks, lack confidence and Grit.

Author & Psychologist Angela Duckworth defines Grit as perseverance and passion for long-term goals.

I have coached athletes and teams that came equipped with Grit but it's not the norm. It's something that coaches need to concentrate on and highlight when they see it.

Coaches are fighting against a society that doesn't value the conditions that develop resilience. Sport is one of the last places that young people can fail safely and develop Grit and it's under assault there too.

Like all skills it needs to be practiced, praised and debriefed.

Duckworth outlined some conditions that coaches should create within their program if they hope to create athletes and teams that have Grit.

Passion

1. Fun and Encouragement - passion is rooted in laughter and enjoyment. No player is going to develop the passion to be a high-level athlete if they see the sport as a grind. Make sure that there is some fun built into practice. Especially towards the end of practice, so it is what they remember when they leave the practice.
2. Autonomy - creating an environment that allows athletes to exercise freedom of choice increases their passion. Allowing your athletes to have input into what they learn is a powerful way to show them their opinion is important.
3. Supportive environment - When an athlete or team tries and fails and it is met with support this helps increase their passion. They realize that failure does not threaten who they are or their position withinin the team. This is where many parents damage the passion of their young athletes by pushing them too much to perform instead of supporting them regardless of their performance.
4. Experimentation - When I was young my friends and I would meet at the park and play basketball with whoever was there. We self-organized, refereed and came up with our own solutions to the challenges that presented themselves. This generation of young athletes has not had these opportunities, a parent or a coach has overseen everything they have ever done. Creating opportunities to experiment and organize engages athletes.

Perseverance

1. Resilience - perseverance is a vitally important part of Grit. An ancient Japanese proverb says “fall down seven times, rise up eight”. I love the idea of this but am confused a bit by the math. Wouldn't fall seven, rise seven make more sense? Regardless, you can instill an attitude of perseverance by embracing this ideal. Keep coaching hard even when the game is lost. Every minute of a game is an opportunity to get better.
2. Optimistic Self-Talk - This may sound like a broken record in my newsletter but it's such an important mental skill. If athletes are constantly giving themselves negative messages it will be very difficult to persevere through challenging times.
3. Utilizing a realistic goal-setting strategy - Goals should be organized into long range, short term and habitual goals. By having short and habitual goals it allows the athlete to achieve successes. If the only goal is a large one like winning a championship it makes it harder to persevere because very few end their season as champions.
4. Control the controllables - Many of the variables in competition are out of the control of coaches and athletes. The quality of the opponent, bad calls from the referee or weather conditions are all outside the control. The more you can get your athletes to focus on things within their control the greater their ability to persevere. I want my athletes to focus on attitude and effort because they are controllable.

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance- Angela Duckworth

Duckworth, a University of Pennsylvania professor, has created a manifesto on the topic of Grit. Her thesis is that most powerful predictor of success isn't talent but a combination of resilience and single-mindedness.

Coaches have known this thesis to be true for decades. The team that possesses more Grit often defeats the more talented team.

This is a great book and well worth the read.

Podcasts on Grit

Finding Mastery: Angela Duckworth on Passion & Perseverance

The Psychology Podcast: The Power of Passion & Perseverance

Can I help you on your coaching journey?

Let's work together.

I would love to help you or your team build a competitive advantage. Here are a few ways I can help:

• Consult with your team
• Teach mental skills via Zoom
• Work 1 on 1 with coaches
• Work 1 on 1 with athletes

Shoot me an email I love to talk coaching and see how I can help you. Coaching is hard, let's make it easier. Send me an email at jasonpayne@evolutionmpc.com

Thanks for reading and have a great week.