End practice early?
There are not many secrets to success. However, one secret that I think holds true is the ability of one more. When we are tired and fatigued, the key is to be able to endure just one more. One more rep, writing one more page, one more sales phone call. Just one more builds mental toughness. Often, it is effective. Yet, there is a prerequisite to implementing this strategy and that is we first must have the passion and will to do “one more.”
As parents and kids, we have heard and announced this just “one more” technique. We push, just a little bit, (some unfortunately, a lot) for our son or daughter to give more effort. Add up the number of practices and seasons of one more and that is a lot of externally driven passion in the form of nagging, or strong-arming our son or daughter into practice.
Hall of Fame tennis coach Jeff Smith, used a different technique to help build the passion in his son Bryan Smith. He would end practice early… He would first tell Bryan how long they were going to hit tennis balls on the court. The time would vary to 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or an hour. So, if they were going to hit for 45 minutes, after 20 or 25 minutes, he would end practice and tell Bryan they were ending.
Bryan, having fun, didn’t want to end early. He would ask his dad to continue and the seed of passion was slowly built without the nagging, pleading, or coercion of one more.
Dr. Rob Bell is a Sport Psychology coach. DRB & Associates based in Indianapolis works with professional athletes & corporate athletes, coaches, and teams building their Mental Toughness. His 2nd book is titled The Hinge:: The Importance of Mental Toughness
Follow on twitter @drrobbell or contact drrobbell@drrobbell.com
Check out the new film & e-book, NO FEAR: A simple guide to mental toughness .
