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Cancelled Seasons and the Mental and Emotional Wellbeing of Athletes

March 19, 2020 by Robert Andrews Leave a Comment

By Robert B. Andrews MA, LMFT

The Corona Virus outbreak has sent a shock wave of anxiety and concern throughout the world of sports. Here in the United States MLB, the NBA, and the new XFL have postponed or canceled their seasons. The NCAA has cancelled March Madness. Entire seasons in gymnastics, baseball, tennis and numerous other sports have been put on hold or cancelled.

Athletes in junior high, high school and college are not going to school as we wait and see how bad this crisis gets and how long it last.

With the sudden halt of these seasons, and the lack of the structured environment that school provides, hundreds of thousands of athletes throughout the country must face a serious transition. This transition forces the athlete to face a number of key stressors and losses that could have an impact on one’s mental and emotional health and well-being.

Athletes must face and adjust to these losses:

The loss of a highly structured school and team environment.

The loss of routines and daily rituals.

The loss of identity associated with being a student/athlete.

The loss of the dreams that go with a promising season or key event.

The loss of an active lifestyle that stimulates one’s mind and body.

The loss of a highly competitive mindset in the classroom and in sport.

The loss of comradery and connection to a team.

The loss or ending of a career.

The loss of activities associated with campus life.

The loss of family centered events (games, tournaments, travel)

Uncharted Territory

Athletes don’t train for a critical event like this and the losses that come with it. The further along one is in their career the more difficult it might be to face this shut down.

Olympic hopefuls are facing the uncertainty of the Olympic games being cancelled. Years of training, conditioning, discipline, competing, mental training and overcoming injuries are now in jeopardy as the crisis at hand spreads.  Altering training schedules and gearing down mentally and emotionally, if the Olympics are delayed. will take an enormous amount of mental and emotional energy.

Professional athletes are suddenly kept away from the game they love, connection to their coaches and teammates and a highly structured lifestyle.

College basketball, tennis, gymnastics and other sports have had their seasons end and dreams and goals shattered due to the NCAA tournaments and other events being cancelled.

The careers of some college seniors have harshly and unexpectedly come to an end.

At the club level in sports like gymnastics and volleyball, State, Regional and National competitions are on hold if not cancelled.

Sudden Change in Lifestyle

Along with the sudden end to a season can come a just as sudden halt to a highly structured and intense training routine. For many, workouts and training sessions have stopped. There is research
that tells us that when an athlete who is used to a very active training regiment suddenly stops training and being active, hormones and other important chemicals in the brain and body change. These changes can have a serious impact on the brain, mental and emotional states, personality, mood and behavior.You're out

Warning Signs:

Emotional changes: Increased anxiety, frustration, sadness, grief, outburst of anger, despair, depression and hopelessness.

Personality and behavioral changes: Isolation, withdrawal, sullen or depressed. Outgoing personalities might become withdrawn and spend more time alone or in their bedrooms. Some might become quiet. Others might experience angry outburst and bouts of extreme frustration.  Others might become hyper controlling in an attempt to gain control over a situation they have absolutely no control. You might see experimentation or increased use of drugs and alcohol.

This crisis could be one of the most significant transitions an athlete might face, depending on their age, level of competition, maturity and emotional intelligence.

Providing Support

Increasing our awareness about symptoms that they might exhibit as they work their way through the losses associated with the end of their respective seasons, will help us to provide the care they need.

If you are concerned about self-quarantine and social distancing, most providers are equipped to provide technologically assisted calls or sessions on the internet. These sessions can be very effective. Just make sure that your athlete is in a quiet private area, is using a tablet or computer for a larger image on the screen, has earphones on for privacy and has a pen and paper to take notes.

We will get through this and sports will return. In the meantime, let’s give our athletes the care they need as they work their way through the mental and emotional gauntlet they face.

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Filed Under: Cancelled Seasons, Sports Shut Down and the Mental and Emotional Impact on Athletes Tagged With: Athlete transition, Athletes in Transition, Cancelled Seasons and Athlete Well Being, Corona Virus, Gymnastics, Gymnastics Performance, Sports culture

Learning Styles and Effective Coaching: Empowering Your Athlete To Their Full Potential

September 7, 2018 by Robert Andrews 2 Comments

Every athlete has a way of being taught and coached that ignites their passion for their respective sport. Taking the time to find out the most effective and efficient way to coach your athletes can eliminate many stressful coach/athlete interactions, and make for a more rewarding and successful journey between coach and athlete. After all, helping your athlete reach their full potential and their dreams is a journey, a process that may last years. Your coaching style plays a significant role in how this journey plays out and what each of you find at the end of this road you will travel together.

When a coach is able to reach their athletes with effective and empowering strategies for learning, athletes learn faster, acquire skills and techniques faster, reach loftier goals, and enjoy their sport more. The experience of coaching is more enjoyable and rewarding for the coach as well.

This doesn’t mean that you have to coach every athlete differently. It means that you can learn to coach using different teaching/learning styles with your whole team. This allows you to reach every athlete effectively.
Womens Gymnastics

I hear from many coaches who are frustrated with their athletes lack of progress. I also hear from many athletes who are frustrated with the interaction that occurs between the athlete and their coach or coaches.

In many sports there is a dynamic in place where the athlete is sent clear messages to not ask questions, voice their opinion, speak up, or challenge a coaches tone, treatment and coaching techniques. The coach coaches and the athlete trains. The relationship is usually good until frustration increases and tension begins to build.

The personalities of coach and athlete can change dramatically under this kind of stress.

When something goes wrong in training, “corrections”, or feedback are given to help the athlete get back on track and progress. Too often these corrections bypass the athletes most effective learning style and the athlete does not improve as quickly as the coach might like. The coach might become frustrated, try to implement these corrections again, in an ineffective way, and continue with this cycle of ineffective coach/athlete interaction.

Over time, more and more of the athletes energy goes into avoiding making mistakes and upsetting their coach. Coaches can begin to “put the athlete in a box” or see them as incapable or un-coachable.

Using Energy Efficiently

Mental and emotional energy is the driving force behind excellence and brilliance in sport. This energy is also critical to building confidence, passion and rock solid belief.

Robert Andrews and his wife at the 2008 Summer OlympicsEffective coaching helps the athlete channel this energy into the acquisition and mastery of physical skills necessary to compete at the highest level. Physical, mental and emotional energy moves in a highly efficient and productive direction.

Ineffective coaching creates an environment where more and more of the athletes mental and emotional energy is channeled away from training and improvement. Personality can begin to change. The athlete can become passive, timid, too focused on avoiding mistakes, highly emotional, and afraid of upsetting their coach.

The more shut down the athlete becomes, the more frustrated the coach can become. This can lead to intimidating behaviors from their coach such as ridicule, shaming, yelling and ignoring the athlete.   In some instances the athlete receives extreme physical punishment or can get kicked out of practice.

Four Distinctly Different Learning Styles

Every athlete utilizes a specific learning style or combination of learning styles to learn most effectively. There are four different learning styles.

Visual Learning- Show the athlete visually what you want them to learn. Visual learners learn best by seeing what it is they need to work on or improve. Their brain processes information visually. Use video, images, illustrations or show the athlete the feedback or instruction you are trying to give them.

Aural Learning- The aural learner likes to hear feedback, instruction, and correction. Tell them what you want them to learn.  Make sure that they are paying attention and then give them feedback or instruction with your voice, a recording, or some other form of aural input.

Reading and Writing– This learning style prefers to read or write about the improvements or corrections they need to make. When working on skills, they learn best by receiving written feedback that they can process. They also like to write or journal as a way of learning.

Kinesthetic- This learning style likes to hear and see feedback and then go to work making the necessary changes or corrections to help anchor in effective learning. They process best by taking in feedback visually and/or aurally and then getting to work mastering the skills and corrections. Tell them what to do, show them what to do, give them something to read, and then let them get to work. They learn from making mistakes, falls, and others struggles. They need time to integrate and learn.

Formula for Success

I have worked with world class athletes in trampoline, men’s, women’s and rhythmic gymnastics, track & field, swimming, fencing, football, baseball, basketball, judo, figure skating, ballet, luge, skeleton, and other sports.  These athletes come from all over the world and many different cultures. Those that have reached their full potential, in most cases, have worked with coaches who are open to teaching them in ways that maximize learning and evoke passion. This is a common denominator for success at the highest levels.

This doesn’t mean that an athlete won’t reach peak potential with ineffective coaching and teaching. We have certainly seen this in many sports where the athlete is not allowed to question a coaches style or have a voice in their own training. These athletes have become Olympic and World Champions.

I strongly believe that these athletes could have been even better if they had been coached with more effective and empowering coaching and teaching styles.

Short Circuiting the Brain

It is very frustrating for an athlete to have their learning style short circuited by a coach who only gives feedback one way. The athlete has to take in and process information, feedback and correction in a way that does not allow them to learn at the highest level.

Most of these gymnasts are strong kinesthetic learners. They learn best when their coaches show them what they want them to work on or correct, and at the same time tell them what they need to improve or correct during training.  The gymnasts is then empowered to get to work integrating the feedback they have received. They work hard, struggle, fall, and are free to make mistakes. The coach gives them more visual and aural feedback and corrections. The gymnasts then goes back to work integrating and learning. Gymnasts learn skills faster, increase the difficulty and execution of their routines, and progress in their development at a much higher level.

Many coaches interrupt their gymnast learning styles by getting on them when they make mistakes or make them do conditioning if they don’t get a “correction” quickly, or the first time.  In worst case scenarios, coaches kick their gymnasts off of the apparatus or out of the gym. This is incredibly unproductive. Gymnasts don’t get better sitting on the sidelines watching or skipping an apparatus that they are struggling on. It is also very embarrassing for them, and it breaks trust with their coach.

“There Are No Mistakes, Only Learning”

Kinesthetic learners learn best when they are free to make mistakes.

Many coaches punish their gymnasts for getting emotional during training. They don’t understand that their coaching style might be contributing to the gymnasts frustration. The gymnasts is afraid to make mistakes. They are afraid to upset their coach. When the brain focuses on not doing something, it is guaranteed that they will experience more struggle. And most likely make more mistakes.

I work with gymnasts whose coaches tell them “you will never improve if you don’t get corrections the first time”, “you will never make it to level 10 if you keep making mistakes”, you will never make national team if you don’t get this skill by next camp”. If the gymnasts doesn’t improve quickly, the coach becomes frustrated. These coaches don’t understand that if they create an environment where it is safe for their gymnasts to struggle, they will go far beyond their current skill level.

Kicking them off the apparatus or out of the gym, shaming them in front of their teammates and yelling at them will only increase the gymnasts upset and the coaches frustration.

These types of coaches are usually highly reactive, meaning they bypass their most effective coaching traits and go strait to negative and dysfunctional methods of coaching when things aren’t going well in the gym.

If we retain the old abusive culture, nothing will change and we will continue to experience athletes with no voice, no sense of personal power, poor interpersonal boundaries and life skills, and low self esteem.

I think it is safe to say that in gymnastics we all know where this type of coaching has gotten us.

Building a New Culture

We are in the process of building a new culture in gymnastics. It will take open minded coaches willing to ask questions, seek out information, show a willingness to learn and admit mistakes, listen to their peers and pay attention to interactions with their athletes. This open minded coach will become a better coach. Athletes will grow in confidence and belief in themselves. They will acquire skills faster and reach higher levels of success. They will show up authentically and will be free to express their unique personalities in their gymnastics.

And I believe they will achieve greater success.

What kind of coach do you want to be?

Filed Under: Abuse in sports, Abusive coaching, Gymnastics, Mental Aspects of Sports Injuries, Mental Training, Sports Shut Down and the Mental and Emotional Impact on Athletes Tagged With: Coaching, Gymnastics, Gymnastics abuse, Gymnastics Performance, USAG

Energizing the Mind and Body: Keys to Obtaining Peak Energy Levels and Mental Focus

November 15, 2009 by admin Leave a Comment

Gymnastics Alicia Sacramone practices on Balance BeamAs a sports performance consultant I am keenly aware of the power the mind has on gymnastics performance. I am also aware that physical endurance is vital to competing at your best.

When a gymnast understands the connection between mind and body and integrates this concept into training, scores will increase significantly. Where your mind leads the body follows. What you see in your mind and think about will show up in the way your body performs on the floor.

There are a few key things to consider leading into a competition that will help you to show up for your meet with a clear, fresh mind, and plenty of energy to perform at your best.

By integrating these pre meet rituals you can enhance energy and power, and compete with a clear, fresh mind.

Get plenty of rest the night before the meet.

Many gymnasts have a habit of staying up late. I think this starts early when young gymnast get home from the gym late at night and then eat dinner and stay up late working on homework. They become conditioned to staying up late, and eating late. Get to bed early and give your mind and body time to rest.

Do not spend a lot of time on brain intensive activities.

I won’t win over many young gymnasts with this one but stay away from the television, the computer, and video games as much as possible the night before a meet.  This doesn’t mean stay away completely, but be reasonable with the amount of time you spend in these activities. These are activities that require a tremendous amount of energy from the brain. Spending too much time on these types of activities will create brain fatigue and will affect performance.

Don’t eat after 7:00 p.m. the night before a meet.

Digesting food requires more energy than any other bodily function. If you eat late, your body is burning energy and working all night long to digest that meal. Eat early if possible. Your body will have the meal digested before you go to bed. Your body will have only one task at night, to recharge your energy system. You will wake up feeling refreshed and ready to compete.

Eat low stress foods at night.

Low stress foods are foods that are easily digested. Chicken, fish, cooked vegetables, and light pastas are examples of low stress foods. Red meat, pork, and heavy fat dishes are high stress foods. High stress foods take more energy to digest causing your body to work hard at night to digest the meal.

Give yourself plenty of time in the morning to prepare for the meet.

One of the most stressful things a gymnast can do is rush to the gym late. This can throw off the whole day and lead to tremendous increases in stress and pressure. Get up early enough to allow for a slow, comfortable pace the morning of the meet. Try to arrive a half hour before your warm up even begins. This ease in pace will carry over into the days competition.

Eat a good breakfast.

Eat a balanced breakfast the morning of the meet. This breakfast should include fruit, and some source of protein like a smoothie, eggs or whole grain toast with peanut butter. This will give the body plenty of fuel to break down over time and will not cause a spike in blood sugars. I don’t recommend eating a high sugar breakfast in the morning.

Eat during the meet.

I am amazed at how many gymnasts don’t eat during the competition. Many gymnasts have a fear of feeling heavy the day of competition so they don’t eat during a meet. If you eat breakfast at 7:00 a.m., leave the house and arrive at the gym early for a 9:00 a.m. warm up you won’t eat again until lunch time. That is too long to go without putting more fuel in the body. Towards the end of the meet your energy level and brain power will begin to drop off. Eat small bites of energy bars, bananas, apples or other easy to digest energy sources during the meet and sip low sugar energy drinks. Your energy will stay consistent and your mind will stay focused on your routines during the entire meet.

Each of these suggestions will have a positive impact on performance. When utilized together you can expect more energy and a clearer sharper mind. When the body and mind feel right at the same time we reach peaks in self confidence. It is the confident gymnasts who are usually on the medal podium at the end of the meet.  Download a pdf version of this post

Filed Under: Sports Shut Down and the Mental and Emotional Impact on Athletes Tagged With: Gymnastics Performance, Mental Focus, Mind and Body, Peak Energy Levels, Physical Endurance, Robert Andrews MA, Sports Performance

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From Our Blog

Overcoming Mental Blocks in Sports

What Happens When A Season Disappears? Drug and Alcohol Issues And The Sports Shut Down

A Parents Guide to the Sports Shut Down

Cancelled Seasons and the Mental and Emotional Wellbeing of Athletes

Learning Styles and Effective Coaching: Empowering Your Athlete To Their Full Potential

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kierstincollins@tinssp.com
michaelheck@tinssp.com
andreaestrada@tinssp.com
galenandrews@tinssp.com

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