NLP Sports Training and Coaching Tips for Performance Coaching

England needed to improve their game to make it through to the final sixteen in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The disappointing results of their previous first-round matches had led to supporters booing them off the pitch and as a team, they appeared to be buckling under pressure. So, with the pressure of everything riding on their final first-round match, where did their winning performance come from? Was it just a simple case of things coming good on the day or was something different about their physical and mental preparation that helped them to pull together as a team and then pull a great performance out of the bag?

Much has been made in the press of England’s “pre-match beer” and manager Fabio Capello’s relaxation of his alcohol ban. Capello said, “They were allowed to drink beer before the game, you can ask them. It’s true. I changed something and used my imagination.” From a sports psychology point of view, the key word in Capello’s statement is “changed.”

Ringing the changes

If you want things to be different; if you want your circumstances to change, you have to do something different, you have to make changes. If you continue to do the same things, you continue to get the same results. Clearly, England’s results were below expectation so something had to change. Capello said he used his “imagination” and that demonstrates beautifully the importance of not only doing things differently but also of thinking about things differently. Pre-match preparation is not just physical, mental preparation is equally important and in England’s case, it proved crucial.

Capello’s managing style is described as “strict.” In interviews, the players have commented on his insistence that rules must be adhered to and his inflexibility was rumoured to be causing friction in the England camp. But, Capello himself commented that the team he saw out on the pitch in England’s first two matches was not the team he knew. He said the players in that team had “no spirit” but after their winning third match performance he said, “I have my team back.” As manager, he recognised the need for change. He recognised that continuing to do things the same way would cause the players to think and therefore perform the same way: a way that was holding the team back from achieving its true potential.

“The ability to summon positive human emotions during periods of intense stress lies at the heart of effective leadership” - Jim Loehr

Jim Loehr is a world-renowned performance psychologist. He believes the key to team success lies in ensuring every player is “fully engaged.” Players who are fully engaged bring their best energy to the team. He says, “Full engagement is the pathway to extraordinary performance.” Players who are not fully engaged bring negative energy to the team, they become “disengaged” and in sports psychology terms, the end result is a team without team spirit. Familiar?

Taking control
Breaking the routine by relaxing the “rules” appears to have been the “change” the England team players needed. In fact, whether the players chose to down a shandy or two is immaterial, as I believe it was simply having the option that made the difference. In terms of mental preparation, relaxing the rules gave back ‘freedom of choice.’ Up until that point, the players appeared to have forgotten that the only person who could choose whether they should be fully engaged or disengaged on the pitch was themselves. Maybe it was the beer that boosted their performance but I suspect it was the change in Capello’s approach that prompted the return of England’s team spirit. Makes me wonder what rules might be relaxed next?

“It’s not the sex which tires out young players, it’s the staying up all night looking for it”
- Clemens Westerhof, Nigeria manager 1994 World Cup

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Wimbledon 2010 is underway and No.1 seed Roger Federer is bidding for a seventh men’s singles title. Much to the surprise of spectators, the ‘Super Swiss’ found himself two sets down in his first-round match against Colombian Alejandro Fallo, ranked world number 60. Federer recovered and secured a win but in a post-match interview he said, “I definitely got a bit lucky today, this is a match I should have lost and he played incredible.” But how much of his recovery was down to “luck” and how much was down to mental skill?

I think the answer to that question can be found in something else Federer once said: “I know I can be beaten when I go on court if I’m not on top of my game.”
In that one sentence, we learn that Federer takes nothing for granted; he’s not complacent, and he never sits back and rests on his laurels. Basketball coach Kevin Cook once said, “You’re only ever as good as your last game,” and I think that’s a viewpoint Federer shares. He may be the No.1 seed at Wimbledon but he didn’t get there by chance and staying there is down to a lot more than luck.

Dedicated Effort

You don’t just wake up one morning to find yourself at the top of your game. Federer’s rise to the top has not been meteoric and he has experienced a great many defeats on his journey up through the ranks. It takes dedicated training to master your craft and Federer’s professional career highlights the importance of mastering both physical and mental skills.

In 1998, aged 17, Federer entered four ATP tournaments and lost three. Things weren’t much better the following year, winning only one challenger event. Then in 2000, he lost five times in a row and totted up a total of fourteen losses in first-round matches. I think it’s fair to say that at this point many lesser mortals may have been considering a different career path, but he kept going! In 2002, Andre Agassi beat Federer in a final. After the match, Agassi said, “When Roger Federer learns how to play tennis at this top level, we’re all in trouble.” And learn he did.

Positive Thinking

So what does it take to keep going through the rough times? Clearly, Federer was prepared to put in the training hours to master the physical skills required at top level but it’s perhaps his mastery of mental skills that can really help us to understand what it takes. Federer has a winning mentality and he focuses only on the positives. Mastering his craft meant learning from his mistakes but not focusing on the failures; learning from mistakes and moving forward. We all know that we can learn from mistakes but it’s important to remember that we can also learn from successes.

Federer’s success comes from his ability to play any strategy he wants on the tennis court, he has a phenomenal level of physical skill as a player, but it’s his mental skills that sets him apart from his opponents. Every game, every set, and every match, he is focused only on winning. Being two sets down to an ‘inferior’ opponent could have created a potentially performance damaging downward spiral of negative thinking, but Federer kept his focus firmly on what had yet to be achieved - winning - and firmly away from what had already been done, and therefore couldn’t be changed. With his mastery of physical and mental skills, he learned how to “play tennis at this top level” and yes, everyone else is in trouble!

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There’s never any love lost between Scotland and England when it comes to football or any sport for that matter! - but even though I’m Scottish, I’m still left wondering why England are playing so poorly in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. What has caused the England team - the cream of England’s club players - to perform so poorly? From a sports psychology point of view, the big question is, why do they appear to be cracking under pressure?

Ever heard of the lizard brain? It’s a term used to describe the part of your brain concerned with basic survival. Your lizard brain doesn’t want you to take any chances or do anything risky, it wants you to play it safe and just stay alive - no matter how dull that life may be! Writer Steven Pressfield describes the lizard brain as ‘the resistance.’ It’s the voice in the back of your head telling you to be careful, to go slow, to back off. In writing terms, the resistance can result in writer’s block, and in sporting terms, the resistance can result in under-achieving. Ringing any bells?

The lizard brain doesn’t like change. It fears change, and fear sabotages success.
Could it be that England manager Fabio Capello’s lizard brain is preventing him from changing his managing methods? Could it be that the lizard brains of the players are sending warning signals, subconsciously reminding them to play it safe and not to take chances? In sports psychology terms, are the entire England squad experiencing a fear of failure?

The tricky thing is, without our lizard brains, we’d be reckless in everything we did. A reckless soccer team probably wouldn’t have qualified for the World Cup at all but now, a sports psychologist, would see a team paralyzed by fear. The fear factor stops players from playing to their full ability.

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Even if you have no interest in soccer, there’s every chance you’ve heard of Robert Green. But, in case you’ve been hiding out in a cave to escape the 2010 FIFA World Cup football frenzy, Robert Green is the England goalkeeper who fumbled the ball pretty spectacularly, allowing a run of the mill shot at goal by Clint Dempsey of the USA to hit the back of the net. The result was a 1 - 1 draw in a match that England could have won. So how do you put a mistake you’ve made in front of the whole world behind you; how do you move on when the world’s press are having a field day at your expense, and you’re now the butt of every global text and email joke in circulation? In this case, mental preparation will be key.

Robert Green didn’t let his mistake upset the rest of his game. His mental preparation allowed him to put it instantly behind him and to focus on the job in hand. He said, “I didn’t let it affect my performance. It’s about mental strength and worse things have happened to people. You go through mental preparation the night before a game and prepare for moments of trauma in a game when it happens.” His ability to pick up the pieces and perform well for the rest of the game clearly demonstrated his strength of character and the effectiveness of his mental skill training. But what happens next?

Could the negative press surrounding Green’s performance have an effect on his next performance? Mistakes are only ever mistakes if we can’t learn from them and move on. Judging by his post-match statements, he’s already there: “It was my mistake and I’m responsible. I’ve made errors before and I’ve been big enough to get over them, and I will this one.” One thing is for sure, his mental preparation for the next match will be absolutely crucial to his performance.

It takes physical and mental skills to cope with the intense pressures created by top level international competition, so only those in peak physical and mental condition will survive. England have not won the World Cup since 1966 - that’s 44 years ago - yet every English team in every World Cup tournament ever since has continued to carry the hopes and dreams of every loyal English fan who believes the team of that year will be THE team to bring the World Cup trophy home gain. That’s a lot of added pressure in an already high pressure environment.

Today, it takes considerable mental skill to remain “stubborn” and to have unwavering courage in your convictions when an entire nation are at liberty to tell you you’re doing it wrong. Current England manager Fabio Capello clearly understands the power of mental skills training. He says, “In my career as a manager, I’ve built teams, worked with teams, worked with players, and always I’ve been focused to win. That’s all that matters to me…in my mind we play to win.” Mental skills training matters. It takes self-belief and a positive mental attitude to maintain a winning mentality in the face of constant criticism.

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It’s well known that negative feedback can affect a players performance. Brazil weren’t favourites to win in 1970. They hadn’t played well in 1966 and it seemed the majority of their supporters doubted the teams ability to improve on that performance. Even their coach questioned their abilities to form an effective team because he considered the top players to be too similar in their abilities. In sports psychology terms, the players were subject to a great deal of negative external feedback.

Sir Chris Hoy has just won his tenth track cycling gold medal at the World Championships in Copenhagen, the very place he won his first cycling gold eight years ago. In an interview he was asked how it felt to achieve such a landmark victory and spoke reinforced the importance of mental preparation to sports performance:

“I’m delighted. I was aware of the magnitude of a 10th world title…because it’s been in the press and people have been asking me about it…but it was only when someone asked me ‘what does it feel like to have 10’ when I’d finished that it registered because I was so focused on the race itself. That’s the key really, to be focused on the process and not worrying about the outcome.”

Preparing to win

Hoy is renowned for his meticulous race preparation. Setting process goals is just one example of the effective mental skill training tools he uses in his race preparation plan and it’s a practice encouraged by sports psychology 2 for athlete’s at all levels of competition.

His 10th gold medal was perhaps his hardest earned yet. His event, the Keirin, is not for the feint-hearted and competitors expect a bit of rough and tumble as they jostle for position on the track. However, Hoy was dumped on his backside during qualifying rounds by an opponent trying to prevent him from reaching his favourite position as the race started.

“That was out of order,” said Hoy. “It did make me angry, but that’s another emotion you try and keep in check - you don’t want to let the red mist descend and lose the plot, you’ve got to stay controlled and focused.”

Learning how to stay controlled and focused - in every imaginable circumstance - is a major part of Hoy’s race preparation plan. It’s also a huge contributing factor to his sporting success.

“The episode did frustrate the usually placid, gentlemanly Hoy, but - after years under the tutelage of Dr Steve Peters, the British Cycling psychiatrist - he controlled his inner chimp” - Brendan Gallagher, The Telegraph

Perfect preparation, perfect performance

His opponent’s ploy to rob him of his favourite racing position was just one of many deliberate attempts made to unsettle Hoy in all of his  Copenhagen races. He’s the man of the moment, the one to beat, so all eyes are on him. Many of his opponent’s will be studying video recordings of him in action as part of their own race preparation. They’ll study how he rides, research his race tactics, and plan their own races around trying to ‘block’ Hoy.

Studying successful people in action is at the core of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). NLP is essentially a study of what makes great people great, and if you want to be a great track cyclist, who better to study than Sir Chris Hoy! Hoy’s meticulous preparation, both physically and mentally, sets him apart from his opponents - for now. He knows they’re studying him, he knows they’re looking for ways to beat him. His strength remains his ability to prepare and to remain focused on riding and controlling his own race. In effect, by the time Hoy lines up on the race start-line, his preparation is so complete, he’s already won.

“The work’s done, you turn up on the night and do your best” - Sir Chris Hoy

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“Everything is practice” - Pelé

Brazilian born Pelé, arguably the greatest soccer player ever with a career history of 1281 goals scored in 1360 games believed that everything in his life was practice for the game. So what does practice mean to someone with such natural talent lets explore using a NLP Sports Model?

Dictionary definition: practice > verb 1 perform (an activity) or exercise (a skill) repeatedly in order to improve or maintain proficiency in it. 2 carry out or perform (an activity or custom) habitually or regularly.

Coca-Cola once ran an advertising campaign to coincide with a World Cup: ‘Eat football, sleep football, drink Coca-Cola.’ To a soccer player like Pelé, practice means eating, sleeping, and drinking football. In fact, during his career, every thought and every action, every moment of every day remained focussed on what he coined ‘the beautiful game.’ Practice was not something limited to training sessions, practice was a routine habit.

Some of Pele’s talents may have been inherited from his father who was also a professional player but at the age of five he was already practicing his skills and scoring goals in matches he played with other street kids. They had no shoes, and they had no ball either - the soccer ball was a sock stuffed with newspaper, or a melon. So, anyone believing that sports success comes easily to those born into it or from a privileged enough background to have access to all the best equipment, think on! Pelé worked as a shoe-shine boy to save enough money to buy a proper soccer ball - a good example of ‘thinking’ soccer to be able to play soccer.

Practice makes perfect
In his book Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell states that it takes 10 000 hours of dedicated practice to become a world class master of a skill, any skill. That translates into 3 hours a day for 10 years, or 10 hours a day for 3 years. Just think about that for a moment - how much training time do you put in on a daily basis? Mind-boggling isn’t it? Pelé’s quote about everything being practice now becomes an important and powerful message for anyone who wants to reach the top of their game.

Mental skill practice
Sports psychology 2 promotes dedicated practice in the form of mental skills training to help get the most out of physical training. Elite athletes not only have to be at the top of their game physically to be competitive but also mentally to have that winning ‘edge’ over others. It also stands to reason that if every hour of training is purely physical, injuries are more likely to occur.

So how did a ‘natural’ talent like Pelé practice? Well, he played a lot of soccer matches for a start! His superior physical skills were the result of practicing what spectators believed to be ‘natural’ talents but the key to his phenomenal success as a player lies with his mindset. Pelé continually strove for perfection, he never sat back and rested on his laurels, he was considered “the best player in the world” throughout his career yet he always looked to achieve more - he maintained a growth mindset.

Mindset
 Fixed mindset : An athlete with a fixed mindset believes they’re stuck with their lot. They see talent or ability as just something they’re born with and, for good or bad, that’s just the way things are. In a fixed mindset, athletes are quick to judge themselves harshly when faced with defeat and will often suffer exaggerated feelings of depression or anxiety. However, if talents are seen as ‘natural gifts,’ a successful athlete might also display an exaggerated sense of superiority, and feel they’re above the need to practice.
 Growth mindset : An athlete with a growth mindset believes that change is always possible and that with dedicated effort and practice, performance can always be improved. It was Pelé’s growth mindset that allowed him to reach his full potential - and to continue pushing the boundaries of what that potential was!

Don’t let your mindset hold you back. Sports psychology 2 can help you discover what your current thinking is and, here’s the really good news, show you how to realise your own ‘Pelé power’ by developing a growth mindset of your own.

“Pelé called me the greatest footballer in the world. That is the ultimate salute to my life” - George Best

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