Widsom Wednesday: Confidence Is Key

Thank you Coach Jenny for sharing your Premier Mindset project with us for a Wisdom Wednesday!

Confidence is key...Right?

So for the past 12ish weeks i have been attempting to broaden my mind with some sports psychology, and one thing that I learned is that I have had some really great coaches in my life. As we went through a lot of it I realized at some point in time in my athlete life a coach had done this with me and I did not know the meaning behind it until now. For the purpose of this blog, I am going to give you some small snippets of the stuff we learned and then tell you how I actually used it getting ready for and during a competition.

Focus- “At some point in our lives, we’ve all been told to focus. By a coach, by a teammate, or even by ourselves. And there’s a reason for this: it’s understood that to be focused is to be mentally prepared to do something, whether that be on the court, in the classroom, or in everyday life” Did you know that you can actually control what you focus on? Ever wonder why coaches call timeouts when their team is doing poorly or its the end of the game?

Motivation- So we all need a reason why we show up at the gym day in and day out, when we lost that we tend to stop showing up and other things take priority, but have you really thought about what actually motivates you to show up everyday. Does it come from you? Does it come from someone checking up on you asking why you haven't been in class? How do you stay motivated when it's lost?

Imagery- ”It’s our nature to imagine, and more specifically, to imagine ourselves being or performing in a particular way.” This is something that I have done for most of my athletic life. I had a coach that would have us sit before a game imagining how we wanted to play. I can tell you I move better since I started coaching and judging high level athletes. I contribute a lot of this to the fact that i have imagined what a snatch or squat should look like. I mean i physically have had to put in the work let's be real you have to. But imagining that i can do something has helped my body know what to do.

Emotional Regulation- Ever had a bad call in a game? Or make a bad play? How did you react? Could you just let it go and keep going? Or does your performance suffer? Ever been so nervous you want to vomit and adrenaline takes over and the first few minutes are a disaster until you calm down. YES TO ALL OF THIS

Mindfulness- “You’ve undoubtedly heard that you should, “live in the moment” or “be present.” If you’ve tried it, you’ve likely found that it is easier said than done. Our bodies seem to accomplish this task with ease. Our lungs take in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide from moment to moment without issue. Our heart beats without care for the past or worry of the future. Our minds, on the other hand, struggle to remain in the present. They drift. They examine the past and anticipate what’s to come. They think about the goal we missed last week and worry about the game we have next month. They fixate, which can lead us to distraction, mistakes, negative thoughts like self-criticism, negative emotions like worry or regret, and negative momentum. Mindfulness, as a practice and a process, can pull us out of these negative loops by grounding us in the present moment and detaching us from unhelpful thoughts and emotions.” Yip, totally just copied and pasted this because this is something that I STRUGGLE with. It's one of the main reasons that i think i can not stand to do yoga (sorry joey). For the years that I played soccer, I always anticipated dislocating my knee because it happened all the freaking time. It is actually what started my career as a goalkeeper back in the 6th grade. I was to scared to do it again. Those thoughts and images have faded and I do not think of them often any more. However I have had 7 (yes I said 7) knee surgeries between the 2 so i hope to god it never happens again, but for the years that I played soccer these were almost crippling thoughts.

Confidence- “Confidence is a feeling of self-assurance arising from one’s belief of his/her own abilities or qualities. For most athletes, there is a clear, inverse relationship between feelings of confidence and feelings of anxiety. When we feel confident, we tend to feel less anxious, and when we’re anxious we find less cause or room for feelings of confidence.

Feelings of anxiety create doubts in our minds. Instead of focusing on the task, like making a shot, our anxiety encourages us to focus on potential threats, like the consequences of missing a shot. This can create a chain reaction that impacts our emotions, our behaviors, and ultimately, our performance.” Yip copied and pasted that too because it explains it so well. Confidence is something that i had to learn and it literally came from not giving a crap about what people thought of me. Once I let that go , I became more confident in my abilities in my personal life along with my professional. Confidence is one of the tricky things that comes from you and only you. It's from your past experiences and emotions. No one else can give you confidence you just have to believe in yourself. Easier said than done, TRUST ME i know.

This past weekend was perfect timing to put all of this into motion. I was competing in my second CrossFit competition but first as time as a female/female pair. I had to use each and everything that i have talked about..

So i am an overly organized person, crap I organize events for a full time job, and when I need information the last thing i want to do i wait on it. Workouts were released early enough to run through most of them not only in my head but actually doing them, however they were a little slow releasing the standards and flow of the workout. When they were finally released my game plan was fried and back to the drawing board. Get a plan for at least the first workout, still no heat time until we get there but at this point i know that i am in the second heat or so I thought. As they finish up the very brief athlete briefing they had all of a sudden our team is being called to line up to take the floor, UM WHAT. I haven't touched a barbell or my rope or even the rig. Now i am annoyed and heading into my first event flustered. In my mind, i'm telling myself your fine, this is the one event you know you shouldn't have a problem with, all the movements are easy, your fine just relax. HA. I tripped over my rope 3 of the 4 rounds, had a miscount in reps, my partner did better than me but still tripped on her rope. I had practiced this 2 times flawless and now this GREAT, just flippen GREAT. I now have to really kick it in if i think we have even a chance to make the podium and the rest of the events have something that I struggle with, squats and running.. Watched the next heat and STRUGGLED as they were not squatting to depth or locking out overhead and the judge in me wanted to scream. Watched our other teams compete then decided I needed to regroup and think out this next event as it was thruster and pull ups and i didn't want to kill my partner on this event as I needed her desperately later. Check the heat times and great 30 mins so 20 to just regroup. Sit down for a min, ate a little, was about to warm up and my teammate comes running “WE HAVE 4 MIN” . @#$% grab everything run over, get there realize i have 1 grip and the other is the same hand wrong size. Send joe to go grab it and he gets back just in time for me to take the floor. Ok think you need to focus on what you need to do, ok ok i got this. As i start the thrusters I keep thinking breathe at the top so I wouldn't focus on the pain in my knees. I kept telling myself to move and switch with my partner as when I couldn't do it anymore. AND THE MOST AMAZING THING HAPPENED we won that event, the event that i was thinking would be hard ended up being my favorite. I got not only my most unbroken thrusters but also my most unbroken.

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