Scotland Lacrosse World Cup 2009

1. Scotland Lacrosse World Cup 2009 Facilitating Sporting Minds for Scotland Lacrosse Athletes Module 3

2. Belief Enjoyment Skilled Achieves Goals Team Scotland Lacrosse Learns Respect Pride Adaptability Support Loyalty Trust Personal Satisfaction Optimism Fighting Spirit

3. Objectives • The Zone or Flow • Self Talk • In relation to Transactional Analysis • Your Self Talk • How it can impact your game • What you can put in place to turn the volume down • Visualisation • What it is and how it can help • Ways of doing it • Putting it all together

4. What is The Zone or Flow? • “Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. It can also be termed as in “The Zone” and was proposed by positive psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi” • You will have felt it when you have played in a match where: • You are unstoppable, are on fire, everything is going right • You are not distracted by anything, instead 100% focussed • If you think about what you did differently in those matches, it might be difficult to explain, it perhaps just happened • That’s because it does just happen, you aren’t thinking about it you are just doing it, just “being” • You are free from any self judgement, you instantly know the right place to be in, the right move to make, the right pass to make, the right shot to shoot • Think about it just now... Think about what it means for you, what it felt like when you experienced flow

5. What is the Zone or Flow? • You don’t need to overcomplicate it - just know what Flow means for you, and hold onto the times when you have experienced it when playing lacrosse • Know what it feels like, think about it in 3D, with all your 5 senses – remember it • The next slides will help you understand: • How to maximise your ability to be in The Zone or experience Flow by: • Preparing • Practicing turning down your Self Talk • Visualising • Using Cues • How to stay there, or get back to The Zone if you momentarily step out by: • Awareness • Using cues

6. Self Talk - Transactional Analysis Self Talk is simply those Chats you have with yourself. Transactional Analysis is a model that helps to understand the type of chats we have with ourselves. P • Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis model • Can be used to understand interactions between you and others – also benefits how you talk to yourself • The Focus here is how you “speak” to yourself, or your “Self Talk” and how this benefits you….. • off the pitch, on the pitch, before a match, after a match • around team mates, around coaches, around teams who you rank yourself “better than” on paper, around teams who you rank yourself “not as good as” on paper Parent A Adult C Child • What is Transactional Analysis? • Berne said that each person is made up of three alter ego states: Parent, Adult, Child • Where: • Parent is our 'Taught' concept of life • Adult is our 'Thought' concept of life • Child is our 'Felt' concept of life • If you want to read more try “googling” it there is a lot on the web, though much of the focus will be the interactions between you and others, as opposed to your Self Talk

7. Transactional Analysis • How does it work? • When we communicate we are doing so from one of our own alter ego states, our Parent, Adult or Child. • Our feelings at the time determine which one we use, and at any time something can trigger a shift from one state to another. • When we respond, we are also doing this from one of the three states • Effective transactions or communication is to and from the same ego state • Ineffective communication is a cross over from ego state to ego state – Breakdown occurs P P Parent A A Adult C C Child

8. TA – How do the Ego States Communicate • Parent • Parent commonly represented as a circle with four quadrants: • Nurturing • Nurturing (positive) • Spoiling (negative) • Controlling • Structuring (positive) • Critical (negative). • Adult • Adult remains as a single entity, representing an 'accounting' function or mode, which can draw on the resources of both Parent and Child. • Child • Child is now commonly represented as circle with four quadrants: • Adapted • Co-operative (positive) • Compliant (negative) • Free • Spontaneous (positive) • Immature (negative) P A C

9. TA – How do the Ego States Communicate Here is some self talk... The Context: You’ve been training really hard, feel a sore throat coming on, you are going on tour tomorrow and concerned you may not be 100% “Oh, I’m not feeling well, poor me, I’d better get some rest, it’ll be alright.” “I need to get tucked up in bed, lots of chocolate, my favourite dvds, I need someone to do my packing, maybe I shouldn’t go on tour, I’m really not well.” “Right I need to get to bed now, Right now, take 1000mg Vit C, 500mg paracetamol, drink exactly 3 pints of water.” “I knew it, I was telling myself I was over doing it, now look what’s happened, I should have been having early nights not going out! No way am I going to be 100% for the tour!” “Yeh, I’d better get to bed, get some rest, I’ll be fine tomorrow.” “I must go to bed now, Right now take Vit C, paracetamol and drink more water, exactly 3 pints.” “I’m not listening to that – I’m phoning a friend they’ll understand.” “Right that’s it, tours off, I can’t go, so... Right, pub! Doesn’t matter if I get a hangover now!” All of these comments are either the Parent or Child Ego state – what are your thoughts on which quadrant they each sit in.......?

10. TA – How do the Ego States Communicate “Oh, I’m not feeling well, poor me, I’d better get some rest, it’ll be alright.” “I need to get tucked up in bed, lots of chocolate, my favourite dvds, I need someone to do my packing, maybe I shouldn’t go on tour, I’m really not well.” “Right I need to get to bed now, Right now, take 1000mg Vit C, 500mg paracetamol, drink exactly 3 pints of water.” “I knew it, I was telling myself I was over doing it, now look what’s happened, I should have been having early nights not going out! No way am I going to be 100% for the tour!” “Yeh, I’d better get to bed, get some rest, I’ll be fine tomorrow.” “I must go to bed now, Right now take Vit C, paracetamol and drink more water, exactly 3 pints.” “I’m not listening to that – I’m phoning a friend, I need a laugh.” “Right that’s it, tours off, I can’t go, so... Right, pub! Doesn’t matter if I get a hangover now!” Nurturing – Nurturing? Nurturing – Spoiling? Parent Controlling – Structuring? Controlling – Critical? Adapted – Co-operative? Adapted – Compliant? Child Free – Spontaneous? Free – Immature? You’re thoughts may differ slightly to mine, but as long as these examples help you understand the different Ego State that’s all that matters

11. Making the Connections • Themes appear…. • When you speak to yourself as a “Parent” who is overly controlling and critical; you are most likely to trigger either a response that is “Child” who is Adapted and Compliant or Free and Immature “I knew it, I was telling myself I was over doing it, now look what’s happened, I should have been having early nights not going out! No way am I going to be 100% for the tour!” “Right that’s it, tours off, I can’t go, so... Right, pub! Doesn’t matter if I get a hangover now!” Controlling - Critical Free - Immature An Adult response is a balance.... You might listen to your self talk of the following interaction: “I knew it, I was telling myself I was over doing it, now look what’s happened, I should have been having early nights not going out! No way am I going to be 100% for the tour!” “Right that’s it, tours off, I can’t go, so... Right, pub! Doesn’t matter if I get a hangover now!” Then... “Hold on.... I just need to get to bed get some rest, take some Vit C, paracetamol, drink more water – I’ll be fine.” The Adult has mediated and given as balanced, non-judgemental, not overly emotional response

12. What’s your Self Talk? • Activity • Using your diary entries or memories think about your interactions with yourself and your “Self Talk” when you… • Are about to play a match against close opposition, Wales, perhaps. • Are about to play a match against tough opposition, Canada, Japan, England. • When you are down by 3 goals at half time against a team who, on paper you can beat, Czech Republic. • Have played in a match where the team have won but you don’t feel you’ve performed your best. • Have played in a match that you have narrowly lost and you feel you played the best game you have ever played. • Have played a hard fought match which you have won and played well. • Write some of your “Self Talk” down and work out what type of interaction it is: • Parent, Adult, Child • And what quadrant… • Parent – Nurturing, Spoiling, Structuring, Critical • Child – Co-operative, Compliant, Spontaneous, Immature

13. So What…… • So what is the consequence of this “Self Talk”….. • As we discuss before: • Effective transactions or communication is to and from the same ego state, and / or the Balance Adult reconciling the conversation • Ineffective communication is a cross over from ego state to ego state – Breakdown occurs • So when you have a “breakdown” in communication with yourself what does this mean? • In the context of energy – you will spend a lot of mental and emotional energy “battling” with yourself… with all your noisy “self talk”, it may start getting louder and louder • In the context of focus – you will be distracted by your self talk noise as you’ll be engaged in the “battle” and less able to take on board team instructions, know what you need to do to get ready for a match... you won’t be in the zone! • In the context of relaxation – you will be less likely to relax, again impacting on your performance or ability to get into The Zone or to re-energise yourself after a match for your next one • So how does this Negative or Destructive Self Talk impact on your ability to perform your best on the lacrosse pitch? • You’ve probably worked it out…. It doesn’t help!

14. How do you Turn the Noise down? Step 1 – Be aware of it Step 2 – Witness it, or Be Mindful of it Step 3 – Try not to engage with the conversation Step 4 – Let go Step 5 – It will quieten by itself • Step 1 – Be Aware of it • You’ve already become aware of it from the activity, you’re half way there. • Now you know what self talk is, you will notice it more.... What do you notice now? • Step 2 – Witness it, or Be Mindful of it • Witnessing it, or being mindful (Buddhist term) really means observing your self talk from a neutral stance, not forming an opinion of what you are observing, just watching, in a gentle way • Step 3 – Try not to engage with the conversation • You’ll find yourself engaging, but try and witness it, try not to engage, though don’t start giving yourself a hard time for not witnessing “correctly” as that’s you off on more engaging negative self talk • Try distracting yourself with a cue (see later), by talking to someone on the pitch

15. How do you Turn the Noise down? Step 1 – Be aware of it Step 2 – Witness it, or Be Mindful of it Step 3 – Try not to engage with the conversation Step 4 – Let go Step 5 – It will quieten by itself • Step 4 and 5 – Let Go; It will quieten by itself • The magic is, when you’re not engaging and just witnessing, you will let go of your negative self talk and it will simply quieten by itself. The difficulty is the harder you “try” to let go the less likely you will! • Tips • Don’t get too hung up about it, or spend energy on endless analysis, working out was that Critical Parent or Structuring Parent – just be aware of negative / destructive self talk that isn’t helping you • Relax about it - No-bodies perfect even the most practiced, such as Buddhist monks have head noise, you will always have it, but remember you have a choice to engage with it or just witness it and let it go. • Practice, practice, practice – As I’m sure you’ve worked out Self Talk is not restricted to your lacrosse, it happens at work, with friends, with family… which is great as you can practice your techniques from the moment you wake up, to when you are trying to get to sleep!

16. Visualisation What is it? • Put simply visualising is when you form a picture of yourself playing lacrosse in you mind How does it form in your mind? • It’ll be different for everyone but in the main there are 2 ways: • You are watching a film of you playing lacrosse as the Spectator • You are in your own film as the lead Character – as you! • It will vary in amounts but it will be in 3D, it will be as vivid and as real to life as possible it will use all your senses... • What you see, hear, feel, smell, touch

17. Visualisation 2 Examples follow, when you read them begin to visualise, create your own film.... For you as the Spectator the picture may be: • You see yourself standing on the centre penalty hash. You see the goalie, the defence sticks ready, your team mates sticks ready, you see the umpire, the sky is blue, it’s hot, the ground is hard. You see the ball in your stick, the crowd is silent, you sense the pressure, the dependency on you to score, the air smells dry...... For you as the Character the picture may differ by: • You feel the stick in your hand, you feel the weight of the ball in the stick head, you feel the shortness of your breath after the fast break, you are standing stationary, you are anticipating the whistle......

18. Visualisation Things to remember when you are visualising • There is no right or wrong way to visualise • Most of the time you will probably flick in and out of the character and the spectator – don’t get hung up about this • You will find that the film you create will zoom in and out • The more 3D it is, the better • You can visualise any part of “the match” including: • Before the match, travelling to the match, the warm up, the line up, anthems, coaches pre match talk, during, ½ time, 0-2 down to Canada... etc etc • Be aware of your negative Self Talk sabotaging your Oscar winning film... Use the techniques to turn the noise down

19. Visualisation – What to do... • Work out what areas you would like to focus on to with think of 3-5... often they are the ones that you struggle with / impact your performance most. Examples.... • Your first touch of the ball • Getting into the right mindset for a match • Reacting positively to not being picked for the starting line up • Finishing off a goal, after a feed in, after a fast break • Saving a penalty shot, a fast break shot.... • Taking a penalty shot • Hearing a home crowd, The Czechs, being very loud, cheering, chanting • Opposition winding you up, pulling your shirt, pushing you around • Visualise them, direct the film, you are in charge, create them how you want you to be – which is very Positive, don’t hold back, you can do anything... • Perhaps write them down, talk them out loud to yourself, to a team mate • Think of them in 3D, Zoom in and out • Make them as real as possible, you know what the Czech Stadium and pitches are like, use your memory bank make your World Cup episodes • This is a time to be a “Free Spontaneous Child” be as creative as possible

20. Visualisation – What to do... • Take yourself off to the movies... • Once you have your set of visualisations find a quiet space, relax, and practice playing your film episodes • Putting in a Cue • You can add a cue to trigger you to start thinking about one of your episodes, in which you are the leading role for example... • You have an episode of you positively reacting to “not being in the starting line up” • Think of a Cue you would like to use, it could be touching your left ear, touching the head of your stick, tying your laces... • Whilst practicing Run your episode..... “you have heard you are not in the starting line up, you touch your left ear (in your film and in reality) you are immediately transported (because you can in your own films) to your time to go on to the pitch from the side line, Martha calls you, gum shield in, standing in the box, team mate running towards you, high five them, sprint on, cut to a free space on the pitch, receive the ball, drive down towards the goal, feed in to team mate, she shoots, she scores.......”

21. Visualisation – Other Tips • Once you have practiced your episodes and are happy with their “direction” and vividness / 3D don’t feel you need to find a quite space each time you want to visualise – it doesn’t have to be that formal. You can visualise whilst waiting for the kettle to boil, waiting in a supermarket queue, grab as many moments as you can to play an episode. • Pneumonics - For the 2001 World Cup I use the Pneumonic “SPEDI”, to help me to focus on my visualisation episodes. It was a word cue, which I made up, and it meant... • I put SPEDI everywhere and it really help as a “cue” to visualise... • I had it as my screen saver • On my mobile welcome note • Printed SPEDI s off and stuck them on the fridge, bathroom mirror, bedroom mirror, light switches, anywhere which would be a good prompt S – Speed P – Playmaker E – Endurance D – Drive I – Interlinking

22. Visualisation – Other Tips • Visualisation and Music • I also put SPEDI to Music • I selected a tune for each letter / word / episode – made the tunes fit with the episode • I then played the music when walking to work and it helped me visualise, music was yet a further cue • Each tune helped me to get into the visualisation • I can’t remember all of the tunes I selected but I do remember I used U2 – “Where the streets have no name” for Drive • I realised the power of it when I went to see U2 live in Glasgow, some time after the 2001 World Cup..... and on “cue” as the song began there I was transported from a Live concert to Driving up the Lacrosse pitch at High Wycombe in a Scotland shirt

23. Putting it together - Real Example Finally what will also help you be in the Zone at the World Cup – is working out what you need and putting your needs in place What follows is what I worked out and what I put in place for the 2001 World Cup and it then varied depending on what I needed from then on.... Look out for: What I needed from me, from others, my awareness, my mindset, what preparation work I had done before hand and then used, or put me in The Zone Before the match • Went through my ritual of: shower, spend a good 30mins chilling on my bed listening to music trying to clear my mind, surrounded myself around “green” people, or was by myself In Transit to the match • Listened to more music, bit of visualisation, not actively chatting or engaging • Tried to watch, through witnessing, if I was getting overly serious and intense, if so started a visualisation Warm up • Began to energise myself, try to make things more fun, relax, check “serious” levels (witness), be around yellow people • Start being more vocal, turn up my red energy, make a conscious effort to be less inside myself (witness) • Linked in with key team mates – some sprints and ground balls with one (Clare Anderson), and some one to “beat me up” / hard defensive contact tackling (Fiona Reid) During the match • Let the match unfold, used Cues – I had SPEDI written on my stick and would look at it After the match • Wrote my diary, be around people who I could talk to, take me out of myself, give me support, who were good for me • Relaxed in a bath, read (Harry Potter – think it was Philosophers Stone!)

24. Putting it together - Activity • Think about..... Your before, during, after • What mindset you need to be in, what colour energy? • Who you like to me around, what colour energy? • Do you need anything else from your team mates to get you mentally ready, are they able to give that to you? • Do you need music – what music works for you, when do you need it? • Do you need some Cue words tattooed on you (remember they will only work if you’ve put the visualisation work in) • What else... They are your needs...... To get you in the Zone and to stay in The Zone

25. Summary • The Zone and Flow • Self Talk – PAC, know your self talk, the 5 steps to turn your head noise down • Visualisation – your episodes, pneumonic, cue words, cue actions, music • Know your needs • Mapping out your before, during, after

26. And Lastly...... • There is a lot in this module, so well done for getting this far! • Know yourself – these techniques may work for you, they may not, some may work, others may not. • Tailor your version of sporting mind support to meet your needs • The last thing I would want is to put you off your game through overloading and confusing you. Do what you think will work for you – and if that’s not changing anything, do just that. I’d just ask, that you “consciously” choose to do nothing. • From a personal note – before the 2001 world cup I spoke to a sports psychologist at Glasgow Uni, it was in May, about a month to go, like it is for you all now and she was the person who taught me the visualisation, pneumonic and cue techniques in this module... There is still time..... • Good luck – I’ve not been able to share with you, and work with you as much as I’d have liked, but I know your team spirit will be soaring, your bodies will be “ripped”, skills honed, hearts filled with Scotland The Brave, energy bursting and the mind calm, poised and ready to play in the 2009 World Cup. • Enjoy every moment.....

27. Thank you! Charlie Wilson Tel: 0780 872 0637 Email: charliewilc2@btinternet.com