Our five major coaching principles
- Dr. Niklas Häusler, Andreas Schwaab
- Principles
"My only focus is to try to assess and to provide the players with better tools to perform."
Whether it’s a game-deciding penalty, a make-or-break point, or enduring in the face of setbacks, high performers need robust athletic, technical, but also mental tools to perform at their best. As mental high performance coaches, it is our job to help our athletes and high performers develop these mental tools as optimally as possible.
Coaching and consulting our clients is a privilege that we have to handle with care. Through our university studies and work at the elite and amateur level, we as neuro11 have come to define five major coaching principles:
Build trust, earn respect, and always stay professional
As the great NFL and College Football coach Nick Saban [1] once said [2]: “You get up every day, you’re entitled to… nothing. Nobody owes you… nothing.”
We believe that we as coaches are not entitled for an athlete and high performer to trust us from the start. Especially when we talk about the sensitive topic of mental training. Trust must be built to ultimately earn respect. You have to show the athlete and high performer that it can be beneficial to trust you in order to have more success. Show your knowledge at the right moments in training, give them enough time and space to use it in competition and build on this for the long term. If things don’t unfold as anticipated, always maintain professionalism. Ideally, allow the situation to evolve organically, because forcing progress can quickly become detrimental for any kind of relationship.
Prejudice and labeling can be very counterproductive
Even though from a heuristics [3] point of view it might at first make sense and be easier to group people into categories, for us as mental high performance coaches this can be one of the biggest pitfalls. We have to take into account that each athlete has unique experiences, motivations, and emotional responses. The additional different cultural backgrounds demand a professional and tailored interaction, training, and analysis.
A common misconception is believing to know exactly what the athlete was thinking and feeling in a pressure situation from watching them on TV. This can happen easily when watching sports on TV, as we try to relate to the athlete in these situations. This is a “normal” thing for the human brain to do, since it is evolutionarily programmed to search for an understanding of our world. We recommend being careful with your judgment until you have spoken to the athlete, as you might find it surprising what their take is on that pressure situation.
Elite athletes and high performers are human
At the end of the day, every athlete and high performer, whether elite or amateur, is a human being. We say this, because it is always good to keep in mind: Just like all of us humans have the same body parts, we also have the same brain regions. However, their development and brain activation can be very different. A simple example is that an Olympic weight lifter will have bigger muscles than the average office worker. In neuroscience, a good example showcasing brain activation differences is a study of archers in which the activated brain circuits were different between experts and novices [4].
Just as body and brain structures have developed to different degrees, the personality of humans also varies and is highly dependent on the interaction between one’s genes and environment. Overall, it is simply an advantage to know your own strengths and the potential areas to improve in. Being very clear about this can be the key difference when making decisions for your career, analyzing yourself after wins and losses, and staying cool while stakes are high during competition.
Scientific rigor and practical application should ideally be balanced
While staying up to date on scientific best practices and recent studies, it is also our job to help our clients develop and use the best possible mental tools directly on the pitch and where they need it the most. This will increase the likelihood of the training and knowledge being used in competition. In the past, the lack of transfer from training to competition was a big scientific criticism for any kind of cognitive training method [5], so it is very important for us to address this issue properly by actually going to where the clients need to perform under pressure.
A strong scientific foundation is crucial for addressing questions with accuracy, depth, and reflection. However, when faced with inquiries outside of one’s specific area of expertise, it is perfectly acceptable to take the time to research and return with a well-informed response. You can see now why we believe both science and application have to ideally be balanced. This is a skill that can take time to develop, but will be vital for long-term success as a mental high performance coach.
Always learning is the key to never stop improving
At the elite level, the fear of failure is often intense, as small mistakes can have huge consequences. At the same time, only performing for the win and thus seeing every loss as a failure can place a lot of pressure on you. As Kobe Bryant [6] once famously stated [7]: “… I play to figure things out, play to learn something; because if you play with a fear of failure or you play with that will to win, especially if it supersedes failure, then it’s a weakness either way. …” In this interview, Kobe showed one of the most elite mindsets possible, as from every training session, practice, and performance, he was able to learn something and thus grow in his abilities to ultimately become one of the best basketball players in the history of the NBA. Mamba Mentality [8].
As Jürgen Klopp once said to Nuri Sahin: “Don’t pretend to be someone else, because it is exhausting!”
#trainyourbrain
If this article sparked your interest and you would like to know more about this or other topics, please do not hesitate to contact us via info@neuro11.de. We look forward to hearing from you.
References
[1] Wikipedia “Nick Saban”: Link
[2] Youtube video “The Importance of Nothing” by Nick Saban: Link
[3] Wikipedia “heuristics”: Link
[4] Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology article: Link
[5] Frontiers in Psychology article: Link
[6] Wikipedia “Kobe Bryant”: Link
[7] Youtube video with an interview with Kobe Bryant: Link
[8] Wikipedia “Kobe Bryant’s autobiography”: Link
