by Arthur L. Popp, Ph.D.

Hi and Seasons Greetings,

I’ll be speaking on three occasions this spring.  On March 16 the topic will be “Selecting a Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Program” for school psychologists.

On March 25 the topic will be Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Skills, Varsity & Youth Sports” for the Nassau Zone of the New York State Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance at Adelphi University.

I’ll be part of a panel along with Drs. Deena Abbe and Greg Haggerty discussing “Psychology and Sports, an Update.”  It will be a continuing education program for the Suffolk County Psychological Association on April 1st. 

For more information on any of these presentations, go to the “Contact” tab and send me a note.

Improving the Learning and Performance Climate

A lot has been said recently about the Learning Climate and the Performance Climate.  We want to give our athletes the best chance to learn their sport’s skills and to perform well in game situations. How can we do this? A number of concepts we’ve previously talked about in this series of blogs directly impact the Learning Climate and the Performance Climate.

“What’s in a Player’s Head?” is a graphic at the end. We can improve the learning and performance climate by helping our players reduce what Coach Nick Saban (football coach at U. of Alabama and 7-time national champion) calls “Clutter.”Clutter – or disruptive thoughts and emotions - get in the way of our athlete’s performance.

On the left side our player has a “mind full” of problem thoughts and emotions.  On the right side,  s/he is in a better state. How can we get our player over to the right side?

We referred to the following quote in our first blog. I think it’s worth repeating. Herm Edwards, who has had a long coaching career at Arizona State and in the NFL (Tampa Bay, Kansas City, and the New York Jets) said: “Every play in football (the NFL) – every play- someone messes up. Most of the time, it’s not physical. It’s mental (Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit,  p. 79).”

All of us can remember a striking example of one of our players making a mental error.

Our first step is to help our players reduce anxiety or tension by regularly letting them know the following: what is most important is their  play in the present moment, not the past or the future, including the score on the scoreboard. We execute one moment at a time. We also want to help our players manage disruptive emotions. This is directly from coach Sabin, i.e. one play at a time and attend to our personal “internal” scoreboard;  don’t dwell on the “external” scoreboard.

We can get this message across by actually emphasizing what our players do moment to moment or play by play, in practice and games,  not the score.  We do this through a lot of reinforcement and encouragement. We described  this in detail in our July 30^th blog about Coach Saban’s Process along with a video of Coach Ted Newsome actually doing this during a football lineman drill.

Yes, I know I’m not saying anything new here about encouragement. On the other hand, I’m a firm believer in “Doing the Basics Well.” And lots of reinforcement along with a distinctly positive attitude from us as coaches go a long way. 

Now, you can certainly share with your athletes that we can only control what we do.  Having said that, we can also scout the opposition and be as well prepared for them as we can. Also, our players should not be concerned with their teammates’ execution. It’s enough of a challenge for each individual to bring their “A” game. After that, our control over matters is limited; again we focus on performing at our “max” moment to moment.

Besides emphasizing our players’ performance and not the “external” score, we can  build the skills of focusing through exercising brain tissue,  like we build other muscles. We build stronger upper arm muscles (biceps and triceps)  by doing push-ups and planks. We build the “abs” or abdominal muscles by doing crunches, leg raises, and legs scissors.

We develop focusing skills by strengthening two parts of the midbrain, the amygdala and the left side of the hippocampus. The amygdala plays a big role in “flight or fight” as well as other emotions. The left side of the hippocampus which sits right near the amygdala, is responsible for retaining the memory of what we do in those situations.

Strengthening the portions of the brain to improve focus can also be called mindfulness meditation.  The term “Mindfulness meditation” can have negative connotations for some people.  I’ve found that athletes are comfortable with viewing this type of exercise as simply building focusing by working on breathing.

In summary, how can we positively impact our teams’ learning climate and performance climate? Or, for our graphic, how do we get our players from a "mind full" as in the left side to improved focus on the right side? We do this by limiting “Clutter” through:

1. Living one play at a time or one action at a time with decreased attention to the past or future, or disruptive emotions.  Again, this is from Coach Saban’s Process and the Internal versus the External Scoreboard.
2. Lots of reinforcement.
3. Attend to what we can Control.
4. Do exercises in focusing and breathing to strengthen portions of the brain.

Enjoy the Holidays!