I’m going to start today with a true story from my own athletic career.

I had a teammate on my college soccer team who, before every game, would turn up the music in the locker room and jump around like she was at a punk rock concert. As she got more and more pumped, she would jump and bump into people on purpose, get in their face and shout something like, “C’MON!! GET PUMPED! AREN’T YOU PUMPED?! I’M SO PUMPED!”

It sounds funny, but it’s true.

Whenever she would do that to me, I’d hardly respond. I’d give her a light chuckle and a bro-like hug and say, “Yeah, yeah…I’m pumped. I’m ready.” Each time I responded this way, she’d remember that I like to keep a lower energy and she’d go bouncing off like Tigger to someone else.

You see, the energy she needed to be at the top of her game was super high - quite literally bouncing off the walls. The energy I needed to be at my best was much lower – a reserved intensity. Were we both ready? Absolutely.

But there’s three important lessons to this story:

1. Not everyone on a team needs the same level of energy & emotion to be ready or switched-on. This is critical for both coaches and teammates to understand. Often we judge the readiness of others based on our own idea of what ready looks like and if they don’t meet that standard, we assume they aren’t ready. This goes both ways: if you’re a high-energy person, you probably assume those with who are quiet and keeping to themselves aren’t pumped up enough. Or, if you’re a lower-energy person, you probably assume those who are chatting and joking and bouncing off the walls aren’t focused enough.
2. You are responsible for knowing the level of energy and emotion that’s right for you. If you’ve been following along, you discovered/identified this in the last post Switch On – Part 2.
3. You are responsible for getting yourself to that ideal level of energy & emotion on command. Often players assume that the team’s warm-up is designed to get everyone ready to play. Indeed, that is the purpose of a warm-up, but I would argue that each individual player still has to do some individual preparations during that warm-up time to be fully ready. This doesn’t mean you abandon your team’s warm-up to do your own thing, it’s more about the way you approach warm-up mentally to get what you need.

​The essence of today’s post is:
​what do you need to do/think/feel prior to game-time to get there?

As usual, shout out with any questions or comments. I know a lot of us have Regionals coming up this weekend…If there’s anything I can do to help with your mental game last-minute, let me know! If you’ve got a question, it’s likely someone else does as well so I am going to try to run some Q&A on the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/performancecolorado.

Happy planning & happy playing!
-Petra

This blog isn’t about me telling you some magic formula or inspirational words that make you mentally tough and a better player. This blog is about the work you’re willing to put in to get better. I remind you of that because today’s post is comprised mostly of activities and questions that you have to complete on your own. The more deliberate you are about this process, the better able you’ll be to perform at the top of your game more often – but it’s likely going to take some time and effort on your part.
 
If you're still ready, take out your journal because today's post is almost all journal work!

This blog is devoted to helping you, the Ultimate player, develop the mindset, mental skills and mental toughness you want and need to perform at your best when it matters most.

Let's get started.

We’ve all been there - in that moment where we needed to be performing at the top of our game and we just couldn’t make it happen. It might have been at a tryout, a game against a rival team, the semi-finals of a tournament or the game-to-go to Nationals. Wherever it was for you, I’m guessing it wasn’t fun. I’m guessing it was frustrating and confusing.

​You might be wondering why I’m starting on such an awesome note.

The reason is this: those moments when our performance matters most tend to come toward the middle or end of the season. And too often, we (as players and coaches) don’t think about the impact of our mental game on our performance until that moment - the one when we need to perform and we can’t. Sometimes, even if we know the importance of the mental game, we rarely take the time to train it properly and deliberately from the start of the season.

What you’ll need to start training:

-A journal. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but it should be something durable - something that can withstand the treachery of living in your Ultimate bag. Why? Because training your mind requires entering your mind, reflecting and doing something with what you find. You’ll want a place to keep notes and track progress.

-Hunger & humility. I’m excited to be your guide and your coach, but this entire process is really up to you. Be wary of those offering hacks or quick tricks to enhance your mental toughness. There is no shortcut and there are no hacks. Training your mind requires the same commitment, effort, and work as training your body. I’ll give you questions to reflect on, exercises to practice, and prompts to think about, but the progress you make depends on the work you put in. The work we do here together is about cultivating sturdy and effective habits.