Sports do not define you as a person. Athletic failure doesn’t make you a bad person, and athletic success doesn’t necessarily make you a good person. Always remember that you are more than just an athlete!
Nine habits of highly successful athletes:
1. Showing up early
2. Listening to coaches
3. Working hard
4. Thinking positive
5. Putting the team first
6. Studying film
7. Eating healthy
8. Practicing rest and recovery
9. Going to sleep early
Things you can control in games:
• Effort
• Attitude
• Self-talk
• Attention
• Execution
Things you can’t control in games:
• Winning
• Refs
• Fans
• Your opponent
• Bad luck
• Weather
• The past/future
To play your best, focus only on what you can control.
Five things that mature athletes do:
1. Show up on time.
2. Work hard in school.
3. Take care of their bodies.
4. Stay out of trouble.
5. Treat others with respect.
Getting angry at yourself after making mistakes in games isn’t going to help you play any better, so you might as well stay calm and continue to do the best that you can. Leave your mistakes in the past. Learn from them, move on, and focus on what’s next!
Your parents and coaches can only yell at you so much. At some point, you need to take control of your own life and learn to be self-motivated, responsible, and independent.
The best player on a team should also be the hardest worker on the team.
If you are the best player on your team, you have great influence as a leader. If you work hard and put the team first, your teammates will follow you!
As a parent, there’s hardly anything you can say from the bleachers that actually helps your child play better, so you might as well limit yourself to cheering, and let the coach do the coaching.
As an athlete, you’re only as good as your attitude. It doesn’t matter how talented you are, if you have a terrible attitude, you won’t accomplish much in life.
Things you can control in games:
• Effort
• Attitude
• Self-talk
• Body language
• Attention
• Execution
Things you can’t control in games:
• Winning
• Your opponent
• Refs
• Fans
• Weather
• The past/future
To play your best, focus only on what you can control.
As an athlete, be prepared to face failure many times in your career. You will be overlooked. You will be doubted. You will be rejected. You will suffer from slumps and injuries. But you must stay positive and persevere until you succeed!
Ten things mentally tough athletes don’t do in games:
1. Make excuses
2. Complain
3. Give up
4. Get distracted
5. Lose their temper
6. Panic
7. Dwell on mistakes
8. Get complacent
9. Stay in their comfort zone
10. Play selfishly
As an athlete, your biggest problem in games isn't making mistakes. It's your negative response to making mistakes. Once you learn to stay positive after making mistakes, you'll perform much better in games.
Just because you’ve been a starter for three years doesn’t mean your position is safe. It’s your coach’s job to play the best player, no matter their age. Therefore, never get complacent. Keep working hard as if you’re neck and neck with someone trying to take your position.
Do something uncomfortable today to improve your mental toughness. Take a cold shower. Turn off the AC. Run five miles. Conquer a fear. Living in constant comfort and luxury makes you mentally weak as well as lazy, ungrateful, and needy.
As an athlete, always root for your teammates’ success. Don't be the guy who secretly hopes their teammates fail. Being a true friend to your teammates will make you happier and more successful in the long run.
The objective of sports is to win, but the purpose of sports is to build character. All the athletic success in the world means nothing if it makes you worse as a person.
Six steps to entering the zone:
1. Quiet your mind
2. Relax your body
3. Be positive and confident
4. Focus on the task at hand
5. Give your best effort
6. Trust your instincts
Four things great athletes do in games that don’t show up in the box score:
1. Hustle
2. Put their bodies on the line
3. Communicate
4. Support and lead their teammates
The best player on a team should also be the hardest worker on the team. If you are the best player on your team, you have great influence as a leader. If you work hard and put the team first, your teammates will follow you!
To become mentally tougher, you need to increase your tolerance for physical and mental discomfort. The main way to do this is by putting yourself in uncomfortable situations and pushing through them.
Most athletes get discouraged or angry after making mistakes. If they only knew how much they could improve by learning from failure. This is why you need to stay positive and take advantage of every learning opportunity that you get!
Five ways to be a good teammate:
1. Play unselfishly.
2. Put the team first.
3. Do your job as best as you can.
4. Lead and support your teammates.
5. Be a true friend off the field.
Your body language doesn’t just affect your mindset and performance, but also your teammates’ mindset and performance. This is why you need to try your best to maintain positive body language, not just to help your own mindset, but also to improve your entire team’s performance.
Never let athletic success inflate your ego. Just because you’re a successful athlete doesn’t mean you’re a better person than others. No matter how successful you become, always remain humble.
Mentally tough athletes never give up in games. No matter how many points they’re losing by, they remain hopeful and give their best effort for the entire game.
Four reasons to not be afraid of failure:
1. You can’t succeed without facing and overcoming your fears.
2. You’re stronger than you think you are.
3. Failure is not final. You can learn and improve from it.
4. Even if you fail, your worth as a human doesn’t change.
Nine habits of highly successful athletes:
1. Showing up early.
2. Listening to coaches.
3. Working hard.
4. Thinking positive.
5. Putting the team first.
6. Studying film.
7. Eating healthy.
8. Practicing rest and recovery.
9. Going to sleep early.
Eight benefits of playing multiple sports:
1. Improves athleticism
2. Prevents injuries
3. Improves mental toughness
4. Improves leadership
5. Makes you a better teammate
6. Improves mental health
7. Improves character
8. Helps you excel in areas outside of sports
You can't just flip a switch to reach peak performance in games. You have to condition your mind every day to perform your best. If you're mentally lazy during practice, you'll be mentally weak in games.
In order to improve, you need to practice with a purpose. Don't just go through the motions and practice aimlessly. Have specific goals for what you want to improve on each day.
As a coach, push your players hard, but love them even harder. The more you care about your players as people, the more they’ll respect you and embrace your coaching.
When you doubt and criticize yourself in games, it's like you're competing against two opponents instead of just one. Don’t make it harder than it has to be. Support and believe in yourself to improve your performance.
As a coach, your job is to help your players do these five things:
1. Improve their skills and achieve success.
2. Become leaders and good teammates.
3. Grow their love of the game.
4. Build character and learn life skills.
5. Take care of their physical and mental health.
You can either be scared of competition, or you can embrace it. The best athletes embrace competition because they know it brings out the best in them.
As an athlete, take on the responsibility of being a leader. If there’s an opportunity for you to lead, take it. Don’t just rely on your coaches to lead the team. Do your part too!
As a captain, you are the heart and soul of your team. When your teammates are lacking motivation or confidence, you need to inspire them with your words and actions!
As an athlete, progress is gained one day at a time. By stacking productive days on top of each other, you can gradually make improvements and reach your full potential.
Adversity can either make you stronger or weaker. It all depends on your attitude. You can choose to see adversity as a hindrance, or as an opportunity to grow. The way you view adversity determines how well you handle it.
A mentally healthy athlete is a high-performing athlete. Take care of your mental health not just for its own sake, but also to help you succeed as an athlete.
Be a warrior on the field, and a gentleman/lady off of it. Compete your hardest, but once the game is over, you need to accept the outcome, manage your emotions, and respect your opponent.
Performance follows emotions. Negative emotions usually lead to negative performance. Positive emotions usually lead to positive performance. Control your emotions to control your performance.
The best athletes want to be coached. They embrace discipline, instruction, and feedback because they know these things help them improve and reach their goals.
If you're not willing to give solid effort during practice, why even show up? Going through the motions won’t help you improve. The purpose of practice is to improve, not just to show up and say you did it!
Nine habits of highly successful athletes:
1. Showing up early
2. Listening to coaches
3. Working hard
4. Thinking positive
5. Putting the team first
6. Studying film
7. Eating healthy
8. Practicing rest and recovery
9. Going to sleep early
As an athlete, don’t get too high after wins, or too low after losses. Remember that winning and losing are small steps along your athletic journey. Stay hungry, optimistic, and patient to continue on the path to improvement.
Thirteen of the most important life skills that sports can teach you:
1. Work ethic
2. Accountability
3. Patience
4. Resilience
5. Perseverance
6. Concentration
7. Self-belief
8. Courage
9. Poise under pressure
10. Leadership
11. Teamwork
12. Humility
13. Healthy living
Four ways to be a humble leader:
1. Be unselfish and put the team first.
2. Be willing to do any task, no matter how small.
3. Take the blame after losses and give credit to others after wins.
4. Be empathetic and treat people with respect.
Eight ways to improve your mental health:
1. Think positive
2. Be in the moment
3. Have fun
4. Live a healthy lifestyle
5. Work toward your goals
6. Love others
7. Have purpose in life
8. Ask for help
Attention to detail is what separates the great from the good. While most athletes ignore the small details, the best athletes leave nothing to chance when it comes to their training, preparation, and performance.
Before a big game, remind yourself to enjoy the moment and have fun. Taking the game too seriously can cause you to try too hard and get tight under pressure.
Your performance in games depends mainly on two things:
1. Your preparation before the game
2. Your mindset during the game
To perform your best, you need to be fully prepared and mentally locked in.
To succeed as an athlete, you need to be coachable. If you don’t listen to your coaches and accept their constructive feedback, instructions, and discipline, you’ll never reach your full potential.
When your teammates succeed, you succeed.
When your teammates fail, you fail.
When you’re on a team, you need to care about your teammates just as much as yourself.
Great coaches don't yell at players just to release frustration and satisfy their own egos. Everything they say, and how they say it, is meant to help their players learn and perform as best as they can.
If you want to see who your biggest competition is, look in the mirror. Once you conquer your own self-doubt and bad habits, you can begin tapping into your full potential.
Mentally tough athletes don’t depend on everything being perfect in order to play well. They take control of their performance and adapt to their environment.
Four steps to bouncing back from mistakes in games:
1. Identify the cause of the mistake.
2. Make corrections.
3. Maintain a positive mindset.
4. Refocus on the next play.
Everyone needs encouragement. Never underestimate the impact that random words of encouragement can have on others. They can brighten a person's day and light a fire inside of them.