Blog #1

Today I met with my senior project mentor, we talked about the opportunities that have been set up for me. I will be traveling all over the Tampa area working with Sport Psychologist, Sport hypnosis, The CEO of National Sports Performance Institute , and a Sport Psychologist at IMG.

    This evening, I had my first clinical call, this particular athlete was a very skilled swimmer and was approaching a national ranking. He was ready to walk away from that all because he didn’t like the coaching style. The athlete exhibited poor behavior and acted like a jerk sending the wrong message to the coaching staff and his teammates. He often blamed his behavior on the external factors rather than owning up to his own mistakes and learning from them. Dr. Shinitzky and I spoke about the two times to respectfully disrespectfully interrupt during a conversation. The first one is blaming, when an athlete blames everyone else but themselves they aren’t taking accountability for their actions. The second time is when they use dogmatic phases such as “I always do this” or “this is who I am”.

    We also looked at interpersonal dynamics and how important it is to show appreciation and acknowledge when someone is doing something right. Whether it be a  coach or someone else in your life, it important to positively reinforce what they are doing to show that you see the change and appreciate it. Back to the athlete, he has made major progress, he is now very reflective and understands how his actions made him look. He now has a better insight into how to communicate with his coaches. This was obtainable by reflection and drawing out the root causes of the the issue.

    The last thing we focused on with the athlete was called the 3 step Olympic Calm. These 3 steps help athlete to find peace and calm when competing or just feeling the stress. The first step is Diaphragmatic Breathing, this helps you to calm your body, as you breath in and out you are slowing the heart rate and getting the body in a rest state. The second part is Muscle relaxation, this is done with the Diaphragmatic breathing. You voluntarily contract and relax the muscles to gain control of your body and to also control how you respond to stress. The last step is Visualization, first you go to you happy place, a place where you are safe, alone, and protected. You then move into you playing a sport and then watching yourself as a spectator. Once you have competed this you should feel more relaxed. Biggest take away, you are master of your own body, if you practice this skill you will have control over your body and how you react to stress!

5 1/2 hours