About eight years ago I was invited up to Stanford University, a friend of mine Glenn Alba (ph) who is teaching at the University of the Pacific, invited me up there. There were seven sports psych consultants. There were some football coaches. There were some heart surgeons, some musicians, and there were two astronauts.
We talked about performance and one of the things that really stood out for me was when the astronauts talked, one of the things they mentioned was, they said, when they go up in space, one out of three astronauts is definitely carsick to the point where they're disorientated, may even be vomiting, but they still have to perform their missions. This sensation, this disorientation lasts for up to three days, but the first three days of the mission, our very important assignments have to be executed and all they talked about was how to be prepared for adversity, be ready to deal with it.
They didn't sit down and just go, oh! And think positive thoughts and use positive imagery. They did that, but more importantly they practiced dealing with adversity. A wonderful movie is a 'Apollo 13' and you'll see one of the astronauts in that movie is sick a lot of the early stages of the mission. Sometimes, I show that video to athletes.
So this idea of learning to be comfortable being uncomfortable, embrace it, instead of being afraid of it and shocked by it. Because the key becomes having something to go to when adversity hits and is adversity going to hit? Definitely, why are you surprised? They're playing against the top level performers. The key becomes learning to take a blow, absorb a blow and give a jab, not a roundhouse, not a knock out punch, a jab. Let them know you're alive. That's the something to go to.
The something you need to go to, you've got your coaches, that have worked with you. You've got your teammates, go to your teammates. This is why very often in soccer, basketball, field hockey, what happens when the teams break down, the communication shuts down, the feed stop moving, people go internal, get that energy going out, out to teammates, out to the ball, keep the energy going up?
So you've got your coach. You've got your teammates and what your coaches have you do everyday that drives your nuts, they work the basic fundamentals. The basic fundamentals, day in and day out. In softball, you take ground balls everyday. You make throws everyday. You swing the bat everyday. You've got to work your mental skills, just like that. You've got to work them day in and day out.
So, besides the fundamentals, those basic skills, then you have the mental skills. Your ability to concentrate, your ability to deal with distractions, your ability to prepare as we say prepare to prepare to get yourself ready, so when you walk through the door to that gym, you're making a commitment to that day's practice, you're ready to get after things.
These things must be practiced. The skills must be practiced because mental skills are just like physical skills. They have to be practiced, refined, developed so that they become yours and you can go to them when adversity hits. And as I said before, adversity will be hitting. Will you be uncomfortable? Definitely, don't be surprised by it.
So, in terms of that, two big things that I really want to talk about, in relation to that, are the ability for us to remain in control of ourselves as we go through to this, so that we can regulate ourselves, bring our energy level up when we need to, calm ourselves down when we need to, and also the way that we prepare ourselves to perform.
As I mentioned, the athletes stepping in the gym for practice, are you there? Don't step in to the gym till you're ready, that you're bringing that passion, that commitment that we talked about earlier and that focus. Because when I step over that line, I am here, I am present, I am ready.
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