Dr. Rick McGuire on Thinking Right in Sport

This really is what it is all about - "Thinking Right" in Sport!  We all understand that "thinking wrong" can and does hurt our sport performance.  In fact, thinking wrong thoughts - whether that means negative thoughts, distractive thoughts, inappropriate thoughts or self-defeating thoughts - wrong thoughts hurt and undermine our practice and preparations, hurt our performances, hurt our chances for achievement, and hurt our overall enjoyment and fulfillment of the sport experience.  On the other hand, thinking right thoughts - whether they are positive thoughts, focused attentive thoughts, appropriate thoughts or self-enhancing thoughts - right thoughts will help and enhance our practice and preparations, help us deliver our best performance, help us gain greater achievements, and help us find greater enjoyment and fulfillment from our experience in sport! 

This is the absolute focus of Sport Psychology - to help coaches and athletes understand and learn how to become great at "Thinking Right in Sport"- and with that, to practice and prepare better to have greater capabilities, to be ready and able to use their capabilities to deliver their absolute best performance when it is needed, to increase the probability that they will gain the outcomes and achievements that they desire, and ultimately that they will each gain greater personal pride, happiness, satisfaction and fulfillment from their sport experience, and be filled with a desire and be motivated to keep having more FUN with it all!  It really is pretty simple - wrong thoughts hurt, right thoughts help, learn the difference, learn to think right!

My Thoughts are Mine, Your Thoughts are Yours

This is the basic core understanding.  My thoughts are mine, your thoughts are yours, and our athletes thoughts are theirs.  I think my thoughts, you think your thoughts. We all think one thought at a time, sometimes lots of thoughts in incredibly rapid succession, but always only one thought at a time. I am responsible for my thoughts, you are responsible for yours.  I cannot make you think anything, and you cannot make me think anything.  We can try to influence each other, but if I have a thought, I put it there and it is mine, and if you have a thought, you put it there and it is yours.  If I don't like some thought that I have, then I can and should change it and think something else, and if you don't like some thought that you have, you can and should change it to something better! If I am thinking 'wrong", I can change that thought to a thought that is "right".  You can do the same, and so can our athletes!

As coaches, we focus great attention on teaching and developing our athletes with greater physical capabilities, physiological capabilities, motor skills and performance strategies.  We must also recognize the basic truth and priority significance that "wrong" thoughts can undermine and stymie, even paralyze these efforts.  We must confront the reality that our mind is the gate keeper of our body.  That wrong thoughts will lock our best performance in, while right thoughts will let us get that great performance out of us, whenever we want and need it!

Thinking right is a skill - actually several cognitive skills - and athletes can learn to increase this capability and think right, just as they practice and prepare to increase all of their other capabilities.  But this skill - Thinking Right - controls how well they use their capabilities, how effectively they perform, how much they achieve and how much they enjoy their sport experience.

Just as coaches develop all of the other aspects of their athletes' training plans, we should also focus priority attention on helping athletes understand that thinking wrong will hurt, thinking right will help.  That they are responsible for and in control of their own thoughts, and that they can recognize the difference between thinking right and thinking wrong, and that they can take control of their thoughts by choosing to think right! 

Great coaches are great teachers!  Athletes learn well what they are taught well.  For our athletes to become suCCCCCCCessful, we should all teach them about Thinking Right in Sport!

What is it to be a SuCCCCCCCess?

It is natural for coaches and athletes to want to win!  I want to win - every time!  If I could just pick it, I would pick to get the win rather than the other thing!  And, I would pick for my athletes to get the win, every time, as well.

But we all understand that we don't just get to pick to win.  We simply don't have control over all of the variables that determine who wins in a given setting or competition.  It's reality.  And, it makes sport fun!

We also understand that we still want to win, and that the very best chance we have for getting that win is to deliver our very best performance.  Anything less than our best performance will just give the others more chance to beat us.  We can control our performance, and it is critical that we  are SuCCCCCCCessful in delivering our very best performance!

Being a SuCCCCCCCess and Winning are closely related, really close cousins, but they are not the same!  But, to get the win that we want, we must first focus on being a SuCCCCCCCess at delivering nothing less than our very best performance.  We may not win every time, but we can be a SuCCCCCCCess  first, and in doing so, give ourselves the very best chance to get the wins that we desire!

SuCCCCCCCess = Ability X Preparation X Effort X Will

This formula portrays an appropriate way, a right way, to think about SuCCCCCCCess and winning.  It defines our process for becoming a SuCCCCCCCess.

We all start with the ability that we received as a genetic gift from our parents.  This is all the raw material that we have.  We may have a lot ... or not.  But it doesn't matter what or how much we have, it only matters what we do with what we have, and it matters that we take what we have and make the most out of it!

To make the most out of our ability, we must work smart (not always hard) everyday in practice and preparation to turn our ability into greater capabilities (fitness, strength, speed, explosiveness, skills, understanding, etc.).  Through preparation in practice, we take greater control of our body and our mind to allow us to make greater use of our ability, and to have the necessary capabilities to apply to delivering our finest performance.

But having all of the capability in the world means nothing if we don't deliver that capability on demand to the performance of our task.  This only happens through great intentional purposeful effort. Sometimes that means working hard.  But sometimes it means "trying easy".  Always, it means giving the greatest effort we possibly can to delivering our very best!

Yet, sometimes in sport we find ourselves having given the greatest effort and having provided the very best performance ever, but as the finish line nears, we aren't winning ... and we want to ... but we are exhausted ... and it hurts bad ... but, we really want to!  At this point, it is imperative that we have the willingness, the will power, the will to choose to look deep inside ourselves and find some more!  We must exercise our own free will to go again, and again and again if necessary to find even more than we ever thought was there!

And if we have done all of this - taken whatever ability we received from our parents, worked hard every day to prepare that ability into greater capability, taken that capability into the arena and delivered our greatest effort to perform our very best, and when things got really tough and we thought that our tank was empty, we chose to go again and again and again to find some more - what more could we do?  Obviously, the answer is nothing!  We could not do anything more!  We did all that we could do!

All we can do is all we can do, and all we can do is enough ... and that is a SuCCCCCCCess!  Understanding that focusing on and becoming a SuCCCCCCCess first IS thinking right in sport, and that will lead us to the best chance for getting whatever wins we can have! 

This is the fundamental cornerstone understanding in thinking right in sport!  We should all focus on becoming and on being a SuCCCCCCCess first!  Great coaches teach and encourage their athletes to make the most of their ability, to develop ALL of the capabilities necessary for them to become and deliver their very best, and to be proud, happy and fulfilled with whatever this allows them to achieve!  And, whatever that is, if they have done their best to deliver their best, they should be able to celebrate being a SuCCCCCCCess, and then wake up the next morning excited to go to work at getting even better!  This is SuCCCCCCCess!

What Are the "C's" of SuCCCCCCCess?

This makes fifteen times now that I have referred to the concept of being a SuCCCCCCCess!  Each time I see that my "spell check" indicates that I have made a spelling error.  Yet, I am certain that regardless of the spelling, a person cannot possibly experience great SuCCCCCCCess without first understanding and having some very important "C's" right in the middle of that SuCCCCCCCess.  Whether it is spelling it or experiencing it, SuCCCCCCCess doesn't happen without these "C's!  Our athletes need and want to have:

            Confidence - trust that they will deliver their best.

         Concentration - the control of the focus of their attention.

         Composure - control of their physiological and emotional arousal.

         Courage - their desire and confidence is greater than their fear.

         Commitment - final decision is made before meeting the challenge.

Each of these "C's" are critical to being a SuCCCCCCCess, and each of these are a thought!  Yes, they are all thoughts.  They are not things!  They are thoughts!  And because they are just thoughts, we can all have them in our experience, and in our athletes' experience.  Because they are each a thought, we can take Control of them and have them be our thoughts!

How do we take control of them?  It is really quite simple.  We make the Choice to have them be our thoughts.  We choose what we think!  We can choose to think in ways that help us to become and to deliver our very best!  We, and only we, can Control our Confidence, Concentration, Composure, Courage and Commitment!  And, the ONLY way that we can take Control of each of them is to first make the Choice to develop and to engage our Confidence, Concentration, Composure, Courage and Commitment!

         Control - YOU take it.

            Choice - YOU make it

This is "Thinking Right in Sport"!!

As coaches, we invest great time, effort, energy and emotion in preparing and teaching our athletes to have greater physical, physiological and motor skill capabilities so that they can experience SuCCCCCCCess.  And, we all understand and recognize the reality truth that the psycho-emotional  capabilities such as the "C's" identified here are critical for allowing that great performance and SuCCCCCCCess to be realized.

And, they don't happen by accident.  These capabilities, these "C's" are learned, just like all of the other important capabilities that coaches help athletes develop so that they can perform better and achieve more! They are learned by developing great plans, and then by daily, repetitive, patient, persistent, determined, intentional investment and effort in understanding, training and developing the skill of "Thinking Right in Sport"!

If you have these understandings and have developed your "training plans" for developing your athletes' and are working at applying them everyday in you coaching, then I commend you, congratulate you and encourage you to both continue and to share your ideas regularly with your colleagues.  If you have not yet developed a specific "mental training plan" just like your conditioning and skill development training plans, then I encourage you to recognize the critical importance of doing so, and also that you are more than capable of doing so! 

You do not need a Ph.D. to be great at this aspect of coaching your athletes.  This is not rocket science!  It just takes a little basic knowledge and understanding, the establishment of priority, strong intention, a little creative artistic genius, some empathic wisdom and good common sense.  This plan is then woven right into your current training plan, and brings you yet closer to fulfilling the stated intention of achieving thorough preparation of your athletes!

All athletes, that is every single athlete, at some time is confronted with the challenge of needing to understand and apply "thinking right in sport".  Like our other skills, they need to learn these understandings and skills now, so that they have them and are expert at thinking right when they meet the ever growing challenges of sport.  It's like car insurance - you don't buy it right after you hit the tree!  Every athlete can be engaged in growing in their "thinking right" skills everyday!

The mind is the gate keeper of the body.  Our thoughts do control our actions and behaviors!  It does matter that our athletes experience great SuCCCCCCCess in sport and in their lives!  It matters that they learn the importance of preparing well, performing their best, achieving all that they can, and being proud, happy and fulfilled for their investment and efforts!

 "Thinking Right in Sport"!  It makes all the difference!

Dr. McGuire is the Head Track and Field Coach at the University of Missouri and is the President of the NCAA Division 1 Coaches of USTFCCCA.  He is also the Chairman of Sport Psychology for USA Track and Field, and leads a group of 30 of the top Sport Psychology professionals in the U.S., dedicated to providing education and service to our Track and Field Coaches and Athletes.  They will provide an applied sport psychology article in each succeeding publication of Techniques.  If you wish further information, ideas or assistance, you can find contact information for their group on the USTFCCCA website. 

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