Running Downhill with the Wind (Transforming Self-Talk)*
"Listen to yourself. Catch yourself. Change your thoughts, and yourself."
—Harvey Dorfman, Mental Skills Coach and Author
The goal: useful self-talk that maximizes learning, performance, and leadership. When self-coaching is not ideal, one of three strategies can be used to improve it: countering, reframing, or thought stoppage. Countering is combating a thought with logic and recognizing it as untrue. Reframing is looking at a true idea from a better point of view. Thought stoppage means simply focusing on something more useful.
Since every athlete is his own most important coach, it is important for him to recognize when he says things to himself that are not true. Countering is simply gaining this awareness; it fixes the problem.
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Original thought: |
Countered thought: |
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We need to score now. |
We can still win even if we don’t score this inning. |
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We need to score now. |
We don’t have to win this game. |
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I’m terrible. |
I’m not terrible. |
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This is unbelievable. |
This is reality. |
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I can’t. |
I can. |
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The umpire is blind. |
The umpire is not blind; he is just not very good. |
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Coach will hate me if I strike out. |
Coach will not hate me if I strike out. |
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My hard work wasn’t worth anything if I don’t get a scholarship. |
My hard work was worth a lot whether I get a scholarship or not. |
If the statement was true, countering is not possible. However, it still may not be a useful thought. Reframing is saying the same thing from a better point of view. Pressure can be minimized with reframing, or negatives can be turned into positives.
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Original thought: |
Reframed thought: |
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I’m not as good as I want to be. |
I’m better than I used to be. |
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It’s bad that the umpire is bad. |
It’s bad for the other team that the umpire is bad. |
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Being a perfectionist is a curse. |
Being a perfectionist is a blessing. |
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My changeup is too inconsistent. |
My changeup has a chance to become a dominating pitch. |
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This field is horrible. |
This lousy field will give us an edge. We can handle it better than they can. |
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We’re too far behind. |
This is an opportunity for a great comeback. |
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I’m supposed to lead; I’ve got to play better. |
The game is very challenging, but my best effort is always good enough. |
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Striking out is bad. |
Striking out is good. If I didn’t ever strike out, I’d be playing competition that was too weak. |
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It’s so hot. |
I’m glad it’s not raining. |
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The world is ugly. |
The world is beautiful. |
Sometimes, it is difficult to figure out a way to counter or reframe an unhelpful thought. Thought stoppage, whereby one line of thought is ended and a new one is begun, makes the appropriate adjustment in these cases. For example, an athlete could stop thinking “I stunk it up last time,” release the past by forgiving to forget, then refocus successfully on the task at hand.
Ideal self-talk leads to playing the game one play at a time from a trusting attitude. An athlete gets to that wonderful place where a peak performance can happen when his self-talk has already (1) built his ideal attitude for this situation, (2) has committed him to an effective plan of attack, and (3) prepared him to focus entirely on the task at hand. At this point, he is ready to play, not coach himself. He is not worrying about anything and no room exists in his mind for instructions. Some people would refer to this mode as non-thinking, which is fine, though in this trust mode, a thought does exist in the athlete’s head. It comes from being engrossed in the game. It is that simple, singular, tunnel-vision focus on the task at hand where the game slows down, awareness of relevant cues is enhanced, and no attention is given to irrelevant information from the environment.
*This blog post is an excerpt from my book, Leadership Training for Baseball, which is just about to be released, so I'd love your comments below. Leadership Training for Softball is available here.
