Today's Championship Training Lesson deals with affirmations and Affirmation Power!
Our book reference is "Mind Pump" by Tom Kubistant. It is a book about "the Psychology of Bodybuilding" but is an excellent reference on steps to successful training. All you hae to do is to sub any type training for the bodybuilding references and you're there.
Affirmations remind us to maintain the Power of Positive Self-Talk. Actually it is Freeb's Law in action: If anything can go right it will; and the BEST POSSIBLE thing that can happen will happen. As Zig Ziglar says "we are born to win but conditioned to lose by our society." There are so many negative inputs that we hear/see everyday.
One of the big things I try to impress on the kids is to "Say what you want. Do not say what you don't want." Be positive
A major part of positive affirmations is to transform put downs changing negatives into positives, like if you feel DISorganized, you change that into "I am consistantly organized in all that I do."
There are 5 major types of put downs according to Kubistant: 1. Excessive worry about how you're going to do in front of others; 2. Worrying about negative consequences "What are we going to do when we lose?" 3. Being overly sensitive about performance so much so that one becomes sick; 4. Being suseptable to the negative influence of other people and to distractions; 5. Playing the Comparison Game - the number one way to be unhappy in life is to play the comparison game.
Kubistant's three step process for transforming put downs is: 1. Become aware of the way you are putting yourself down; 2. Challenge that put down; 3. Transform your thinking and focus on what you CAN DO/not what you can't do.
The "System" of Affirmations has 5 steps to it: 1. Re-direct negative put-downs; 2. Use affirmations in a relaxed state of mind; 3. Construct your offirmations in a totally positive way - no qualifications or exceptions; 4. Construct affirmations in the present tense. 5. Contnually repreat your affirmations and really believe them.
We have taken some of the best positive self-statements and made them into "Positive Reminder Cards" which help us to "program" a positive day for us. They work.
So does visualization.
Yesterday's Championship Training Lesson ws one on Visualization.
Cleveland Brown great Jim Brown once said "Every play I ran, I had already run 1,000 times in my mind. You get a jump on the game when you visualize beforehand."
We discussed the 6 basic steps of successful visualiztions.
1. Start from a base of relaxation. 2. Create the scene that you wish to rehearse. 3. Paint yourself into the picture. 4. Visualize from the inside out. 5. Play out the senario in great detail. 6. Repeat and refine the scene. Picture the perfect end result . . . in detail. Be Super Positive.
It is like you are the director/producer of your own video. You are creating the script. We then read a super example that was prepared by one of our students last year which I call "The Perfect Pitch."
Visualization can lead to Focus
I have been fortunate to be able to add to Greg Shepard's Bigger Faster Stronger's Be An 11 Guidebook for Success. We have been able to include principles of our Championship Training S.E.T. For Success Class into this Guidebook and 3 hour success seminars that are being conducted in high schools across the nation.
Power Axiom #3 , Stay Focused, is a major point in our Be An 11 Seminars. There is a story told of the great focus and concentration of Hall of Famer Ted Williams' ability to stay focused.
Ted Williams remains baseball's last .400 hitter (He retired with a lifetime .344 average which would win the batting title most years). What made him a great hitter? Well lots of things obviously went into it like eyesight, timing, eye-hand coordination, keeping his famous book on every pitcher, and more. But most important of all he shared what all the great ones have in common. The ability to concentrate. The ability to block out all distractions and focus on the pitch. Just like Jordan was able to block out the distractions and sink the game winning baskets or free throws.
Williams' Red Sox teammates decided to test his concentration skills one day by playing a prank on Ted. While he was in the batting cage practicing his hitting, those teammates lit some firecrackers and tossed them at his feet. You would think there'd be some hot foot'in and Hell to pay, but Ted Williams was so focused, so concentration on the task at had and the goal of hitting the ball he did not even blink!
Winners must be focused. They must keep their eyes single to the glory of attaining their goals. Distractions, obstacles are those things that we see when we take our eyes off the goal. Stay focused! Keep your eyes on the prize! Perform at a higher level.
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