The Champion's Mind

Ch.1, The author's background as a
Sports Psychologist

Author is a prominent sports psychologist

Coached Lebron James and Derrick Rose

Liked to be with coaches

Pushes them to their limits and to go beyond their goals and to achieve them

Philosophies

Pyramid of Success by John Wooden

Person who aims for the top but ends up in middle has some nobility

Now called Performance Psychology

Learning to be Optimistic

Author's background gave him optimism

Bent nail story, father wanted high quality work

Father believd in education and that someone could be the best if they learned and practiced

4 Minute Mile story

Way to learn optimism is through role models

Padrig story

Example of being an optimistic role model

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Optimism helps you take steps to improvement

Smile 😃 before putts, it'll put you in flow better than frowning

Keep conscious mind out of motor tasks

If you approach somehting with fear, you won't do as well as if you did with optimism

Always think you have a chance to succeed, it wouldn't make sense if you thought you didn't

A Confident Self Image

William James

People tend to become what they think of themselves

Confidence is faith in a particular skill, optimism is a general faith in your abilities

Pro golfer kept notebook of all the good shots he kept, I'll make a note of every strong combo or highlight I make in Smash and write positive affirmations daily

There's no benefit in engraining negative experiences into your subconscious, focus on the successes instead to get the champion's mind

Talk about how areas of your game are improving to get subconscious mind to believe it

Be very confident in yourself, golf example of not missing shots from being overconfident but from being underconfident

Confidence is something that needs to be consistently worked on

Practice visualization of your skills for 15-30 mins and before bed

Must be detailed, include all the sense

Golfer who won Masters example, used visualization before Masters and won it

Nobody performs well in a state of fear

Respecting Your Talent

Scouts often value techniques that are irrelevant to how well a player will play

Character is more important than talent

Believe in yourself

Qualities better than natural talent:

Passion

Self image and confidence

Vibrant personality

Teacher who believes in him

Respect yourself, don't put limits on yourself, you can go farther than you think you can currently

Nerves

Is caused by chemical reactions in the brain

Can interfere with subconscious mind flow

Subconscious mind doesn't understand "Don't"

Creating a relaxing place for you during free time in tournaments can help put you in the zone

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Evaluting Yourself

Don't evaluate yourself midgame, it'll trigger the conscious mind to take over

Focus on the process to be exceptional

Set practice goals and practice consistently

Some practice goals might be staying in the present moment and trusting your skills, etc.

Going Through Fire

Failure makes you stronger

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Refuse to replay failures in your mind, visualize success instead

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Focusing on negative events for long periods of time can hurt your performace

Give only a minute to reviewing mistakes and find the reasons why they happened objectively and improve them

Perfectionism is harmful

People won't remember the times you fail, but the times you succeed

It's not about if you get hit, because you problably will, it's about how many times you can get hit and keep moving forward

Working Hard, Working Smart

Exceptional people are working smarter and harder

The quality of your practice is much more important than the quantity of it

Working hard is the baseline improve, working smarter will help you get to the top

Ben Hogan example

Take breaks in between practice sessions to review and focus on what you want from it

When to Heed the Competition and When to Ignore it

Surrounding Yourself with the Right People

Be around people who value the same things as you do, and will help keep you on the course you want to take in life

Sticking to your Bread and Butter

Focus on the techniques that have been working well for you in golf, not sure if it applies to Smash

Creating your own Reality

Exceptional people set high goals and don't always believe others realities, they make their own

You create the reality you want for yourself

Dream big

Lady Gaga example

You can always choose your life, it's self-determined.

A Life of Going for it

The only failure in life is not trying

Sports are ultimately about learning lessons

Trophies will grow dusty and records forgotten

Religious values by coaches are common, faith is a common element among them

The most important thing is that you give your best effort and meet your standards, not necessarily winning

Coach Lombardi example