The following post is an excerpt from Emotional Aptitude in Sports NOW available through most on-line retailers! Click Here to Order
Observing World Class Coaches
If you aren’t financially in a position to hire world class coaches, contact them and explain your circumstance. Ask them if you can stop by, sit and quietly observe them working with their high-performance athletes. Also, keep in mind that most top coaches have websites, newsletters and YouTube clips available at no cost.
As I said before, emotional aptitude stems from proper training. It’s the athlete’s job to seek out the best possible resources and then customize their very own training regiments. Around the world, I see too many talented athletes wasting far too much time in stagnant group training sessions with peers who are giving minimal effort.
Responsibility and accountability are what transform a good athlete into a champion. Change occurs when an athlete chooses to bring maximum effort to their customized training regimen. Up your organizational skills and you’ll truly enjoy the journey. More importantly, you’ll love the results!
Responsibility and Accountability Check List
For those “Do it yourself” types, the below checklist will assist you in maximizing athletic potential at a quicker rate.
- Create Goals and Schedules
I recommend brainstorming and coming up with both short term and long term goals. With goals in mind, schedule daily, weekly and even yearly plans. Athletes who apply goals and schedules succeed because they know where they’re going.
- Apply Consistent Smart Practice
To reinforce proper training, a deliberate customized developmental plan is critical. Training sessions should focus on what needs to be improved versus grooving what is comfortable. Specific goals need specific plans.
- Hire a High I.Q. Teacher
Seek out the most qualified expert you can find who understands the emotional component. Athletes actually save time and money by hiring an expert. While the experienced teacher’s hourly rate may be higher, they’ll access your greatness ten times faster.
- Utilize Video Analysis
It is important to understand that a large majority of competitive failures are a result of poor emotional aptitude, which is only brought to light through game day video replay. You have to learn why you lose before you can learn how to win.
- Repetition of Protocols
Repetition of the same actions making it an automatic reflex. This may mean working on a specific physical, mental or emotional protocol for 30 minutes every day for a month. It’s not uncommon to have a two-year action plan while developing unnatural components.
- Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect – Practice Makes Permanent
A common pitfall of intermediate athletes is grooving their flawed mechanics. This essentially is motor programming inefficient technique, which ultimately results in countless wasted hours of training with no improvement in sight.
- Be Patient
Nurturing new skills require patience. Athletes should be reminded that it likely took years and years to develop their fundamental skill sets. Anything and everything that is new is often perceived as difficult before it becomes easy. Enjoy the process.
