95% of all winning is done by 5% of Participants (Lanny Bassam – With Winning in Mind) What makes the 5% different? It is not their size, colour or anything they are born with – we are all born with the seeds of grateness within us. What separates winners from the rest is the way they think. Winners are convinced they will finish first. The others hope to finish first. This does not mean that if you expect to win, you will always win. What I am saying is that if you do not expect to win, you have no chance of winning. Most people do not win because they lack a mental system to control their performance under pressure/stress. Once this system is in place, winning is possible.
Examine the list of All-Ireland winners for the last 40 years in hurling, football, camogie. A small few teams have won most. If we look at the olympic games in Beiijing and competitions since the last olympic games we will also see that our of the near 12000 athletes that took part, most of the winning has been done by a small number of athletes. Look around in the world of finance and commerce and you will find that a small number of people own most of the wealth. Alfredo Pareto, Italian economist observed this in the 1890’s. It became known as the Pareto Principle. In the world of music the same applies. How many U 2’s do we have?
In the Olympic Games most athletes perform below their best.
Why is this so? Many studies have shown that 90% of performance is mental.
In preparation for the 1972 Olympic games the USSR tested the merits of mental training. They trained ¼ of the athletes 100% physical, ¼ 75% physical and 25% mental, ¼ 50% physical and 50% mental, ¼ 75% mental and 25% physical. The athletes that won all the medals were in the last category.
Huge developments have taken place in recent times in the understanding of the body, recovery, prevention of injury, acquisition of skill etc. Mental training offers huge opportunities to our hurlers, camogie players, and footballers. If we want a different result than we are getting we must do things differently (Mickey Harte – We realised what won the first one would not win the second).
“If you always do as you always did you will always get what you always got” If we want better results than we are getting we must do things differently.
Mental Training offers us the opportunity to make gigantic steps.
What is Mental Management? It is the process of maximising the probability of having a consistent mental performance, under pressure and on demand.

During the presentation we will

The mental components of performance need to be developed and there needs to be balance between them.
Performance is related to our conscious thoughts and the conscious preparation we have done beforehand.
The subconscious mind is the source of your skills and power to perform. All great performances are accomplished subconsciously. We develop skill through repetition of conscious thought until it becomes automatically performed by the subconscious mind. The subconscious can also be developed through imagery and visualisation.
The Self-Image is the total of your habits and your attitudes. Your performance and your Self-Image are always equal.

Stephen Covey in his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” says that the results we get depend on what we see or on the pictures in our mind, e.g. See; When it comes to exercise if my viewpoint is “No Pain, No Gain”. Do; Exercise to the extreme. Get; Injuries and inability to exercise.
To produce a good/great performance we mist first of all have a picture in the mind of what we want to achieve. The clearer this picture the greater chance of achievement. Our mind directs us in relation to the mental pictures we have. Thus the results we get are dependent on our inner mental pictures. Thus the importance of all players developing clear mental pictures of the skill they wish to perfect. Also players need clarity as to what the game plan is or what the principles of play are. If the game plan is introduced at a very late stage before the match there is the possibility that players will not have a clear mental picture going into the game, thus it is impossible for him/her to play according to the plan. If plans are not working out most trainers work the team harder in order to improve performance. What is needed is that we stop and think our way out of the problem. Our body can only do what the minds tells it to do.

The education in our schools strongly promotes Left Brain thinking. E.g. Science, mathematics, number skills, logic, reasoning, the spoken language and written language are very much part of the curriculum of all schools. These are all left brain activities.
Art, Music, Creativity, imagination are activities not taught in all schools. It is safe to say that many people go through life using only a half brain. A two sided player is much better than a one sided player. A strong right brained and strong left brained person is much better than a one sided brain person. The challenge for all trainers is to continue to develop the whole brained player. From the earliest stage in a players career players should be challenged and trained to do exercises to develop the whole brain e.g. In training use both feet, use both hands, both fists. Kick dead ball with both feet. Some players will develop both sided of the body equally well and thus there is great motivation to continue with this exercise. However the fact that we challenge the creative side of the brain to do some new exercises, the right brain is constantly developing. Even if the skill level is not developing at the level that you would wish for, by doing the practice the creative side of the brain is being developed. This process needs to be explained to players, so as to make the exercise meaningful

All of us have three brains, Primitive, Mid or emotional brain, and our thinking or Neo Cortex. The Neo Cortex is what we use in our normal relaxed activities. When we are making plans, writing, thinking.
The Limbic System or mid brain is our emotive brain. It acts faster than the thinking brain, it is a survival mechanism that is built in to our brain for our protection. It’s response to events is Fight, Flight, or Freeze. When the brain perceives that there is a threat to us it reacts instantly and triggers us into action. It is very useful if we see that we are in imminent danger, e.g. If an oncoming car is heading towards you, you automatically jump out of the way, if somebody throws a punch we automatically put up our defense or return a punch. The reaction is instant. The thinking brain takes more time to figure out what to do and then our response might be too late. In this situation there is a mental downshift from the thinking brain to the mid brain, and this means that we act impulsively and we have now stopped thinking. When the brain perceives that there is danger, when we are in fear, under pressure, or stressed, our brain goes into reactive mode. This can happen when an important game is coming up and the player is afraid of playing badly, has too high an expectation for him or her self, takes too much notice of what the media has to say. This can manifest itself by the player freezing on the day, because the player goes into reactive mode, forgets team plans and possibly set pieces and cannot tune into the rhythm of the game. Players can be trained to e able to control the mid brain better and not fall into reactive mode as fast. By getting exposure to playing at the highest level, becoming accustomed to new unfamiliar surroundings, by taking on new challenges that moves us out of our comfort zone, by Visualising an upcoming game and anticipating pressure situations and seeing the perfect outcome. Team trainers need to be mindful of what is happening within players heads before a game and be more careful or selective in the way pre-match preparations are done. Is the rant and rave rousing speech in the dressing room the best preparation for all players, is it the best for any players? Is a pre match speech that is laced with four letter F words the best instruction for the brains of the players to follow. Reflect for a moment – What information and instruction is there for the brain in such an expletive laced speech?

We all like to live in our comfort zone. In this state we are normally not very challenged and do not have to work too hard. If we continue in this mode we do not grow and develop very much. When we encounter a problem we must work hard, change our thinking, adapt to doing things in another way or grow to accept that things may have to be done differently in the future. These problems challenge us to learn new ways. As we learn, our comfort zone increases, we become more empowered and we become more resourceful as a person.
With the enlarged comfort zone, we will encounter new problems. These challenge us again to learn, to adapt, to change our thinking. By doing this we continue to enlarge our comfort zone throughout life.
Instead of disliking problems or challenges we should welcome them as these are the opportunities that life presents us with so as we continue to learn throughout life.
There are lessons in life to be learned every day. These lessons will be continue to be repeated until such time as we learn them. As we learn these lessons new lessons to be learned will appear.

The Conscious mind is what we most use on a day to day basis. It is what guided us in making the decision to come here today, what time do you get up in the morning? Do I take daily exercise, Will I eat the dessert after my dinner? Etc.
The subconscious mind is what we use when we are dreaming, It thinks in a much faster level than the conscious mind.
The conscious mind can think of one thing at a time, the subconscious can think of millions of things at the one time. Our dreams normally range of many activities and thoughts in a very short time. It has been recorded on many occasions that people with a near death experience have seen a video of their whole life flash through their mind in a split second.
There are no limitations in the subconscious, there is no time and space in the subconscious.
We all experience days when everything during the day seemed to go well. Everything in the workplace went well, everybody you met during the day was nice to you, you are feeling very positive, healthy etc. The following day and many others during that week or that month can be very mundane, not great. Why is this so? For some reason we all can flip into our subconscious and have it working for us with the conscious mind. It is the subconscious mind that directs us when we do things automatically. It controls the execution of skill. A player reads the game, blends in with the movements of others. There is a connectedness of minds with other players at a subconscious level. If you have to shout at a player to move or do something on the field, - the game has passed them out.
We can program our subconscious mind to do whatever it is that we want it to do for us. What we want to do is have the conscious mind and the subconscious working together.
We programme our mind to acquire new skills or enhance our skills by constant good practice. E.g. batting down a ball in camogie/hurling. We are instructed by the coach, demonstration, watch a video and then go and practice. Regular good practice and the skill will be done automatically because it is now programmed into the subconscious mind. Think of what happens when we learned to drive the car. In the beginning everything we did was in the conscious mind and we had to remember a list of things to do. After some practice it all became automatic because it is programmed into our subconscious. We can also program our mind by Visualisation or Imagery
Exercise I : Visualise (Let your mind wander) the last –Match you played, managing the team in last match, your sitting room
Exercise ii: Imagine you are now playing an All Ireland Final match. Imagine managing a team in All Ireland Final.
Different Uses of Imagery/Visualisation in Sport

29 – 11 - 2008

From the Individual to the Team
Terry Fannon

95% of all winning is done by 5% of Participants

85% of Olympic Athletes perform below their best

90% of performance is mental
Olympic Games 1972
The way forward !!!!!

Clár

Performance

Right Brain / Left Brain

Emotive Brain / Thinking Brain

Conscious / Subconscious mind

Individual

Team

Performance

SC

C

SI

How Do We Function ?

Right Brain – Left Brain

How the Brain Works



Limbic System / Neo Cortex

Comfort Zone

.Problem

.Problem

Zone 2

Zone 3

Conscious Mind / Subconscious Mind

Different Uses of Imagery in Sport

Improving skill performance
Confidence building
Tactical rehearsal
Controlling arousal and anxiety
Preparation for performance
Maintaining mental freshness during injury
Healing injuries

Principles of Mental Management

Maintain positive thoughts
What you say is not important. What you cause yourself or others to picture is crucial
The Subconscious mind is the source of all mental power
The Subconscious moves you to do whatever the Conscious Mind is picturing

Principles of Mental Management

Self-Image and performance are always equal
You can replace the Self-Image you have with the Self-Image you want
When the Conscious, Subconscious, and Self-Image are all balanced and working together, good performance is easy

Reading List

In Pursuit of Excellence – Terry Orlick, PhD
With Winning In Mind - Lanny Bassham
The Mental Game Plan - Stephen JBull John G Albinson, Christopher J Shambrook
The Power of Your Subconscious Mind – Joseph Murphy