Not only should you prepare your body for competitions, you should also prepare your mind. It may be wise to also plan for obstacles or the unplanned. In this video, learn & master this skill plus be ready for anything.
The above photo displays Coach Shannyn working with 2 younger wrestlers on the details on success for a specific component. All athletes – in all age groups plus genders – can learn & master a pre-competition routine that is appropriate for their specific development level.
Overtime, this skill will become apart of everyday training and will be “routine” similar to warming-up, competing, cooling down, stretching, & re-fueling. In the last sentence, athletes could add a pre-competition routine prior to warming-up that might include: self-talk, imagery, a mental & physical checklist review, & perhaps a review of how & why they are successful in athletic competitions.
Once athletes begin to initiate an ongoing High Performance Training system, that is implemented by the coach and includes many of the topics contained in these Blogs, they may be closer to reaching & attaining their process plus outcome goals for athletic competitions which may have a high carry-over value for many endeavors in life.
You can also learn more about High Performance Training right now at the below links:
What you say to yourself matters and helps you perform at a high level. Learn strategies to enhance and control your inner thoughts, or, self-talk in this video.
One way to think of self-talk is to use either of the next terms in place of self-talk: self-coaching or self-instructing. With these two terms, it may be more clear on how or what you might say to yourself. Most effective coaches & instructors give very precise phrases or words while teaching and/or motivating.
Another term that is equally similar could be self-teaching. This term suggests that you might be teaching yourself how to do or act or be. This could mean what you are teaching yourself, through your own words, will have an impact on your next thought or action.
Finally, self-talk can either be spoken aloud or mentally. How you use your self-talk is going to be up to you. It may make sense to practice both ways to see which is more effective for you.
The above video gives you many suggestions and recommendations that will likely be productive if you believe they will work – and you work them. You will become better at most things in life if you have a very effective plan – and you act on the plan i.e. you execute the plan.
You can also learn more about High Performance Training right now at the below links:
The organization of training is a critical factor to implementing annual successful seasons. “Training Design” covers pre-season, post-season, warm-ups, & much more. This video ties the HPT series together.
Closely related to “Training Design” or organization of training is The hourglass theory. The below excerpt from the upcoming e-book Coaching Wrestling in the 21st Century: The Art & Science of Coaching Wrestling describes the importance of organizing training so that all athletes maximize the amount of high performance training from the start, throughout, & the end of their careers.
The hourglass theory suggests once the last grain of sand has escaped the hourglass, an athlete’s career is over. So if an individual student athlete’s maximum number of matches is 300, and s/he wrestles 300 matches before middle school or high school, they will have little if anything left for high school or college wrestling. This hourglass theory was developed based on my own college experience and my coaching experience the last 15 or so years.
Have you ever seen a burned-out, scholarship wrestler in college? I have. I’ve seen several of them and it is not fun. Because I was so excited to wrestle in college (I started wrestling my freshman year in high school), many of these burn-out type of wrestlers intrigued me. So I would ask “Why are you wrestling if you don’t like it anymore?” And typically, the response would be something like “Shannyn, I’ve been wrestling for 13 years and now I’m on scholarship and want to have fun in college.”
I always believe coaches should keep athletes hungry to compete while keeping an eye on the hourglass. When athletes are hungry to compete, they appear to be extremely motivated for competition and training. Many coaches overseas also agree with this motivation to train and compete and use training camps as a way to maximize training & competition.
Former Austrian National Team Coach Bruno Hartmann explained to me “these international training camps are stimulating for all of my wrestlers because they are training with different partners who they may never see again.” Training camps and international training camps are stimulating, motivating and are a different way to get competition within the realm of the hourglass theory. As an example,at the U.S. Olympic Education Center, we typically would have 2-3 international training camps per year with about 1 “real” competition per month. That design kept the athletes hungry to compete, gave them the opportunity to travel abroad and experience a different part of the world, plus minimized the actual number of “real” matches they had.
You can also learn more about High Performance Training right now at the below links:
coachshannyn.com 