StarPlayer Academy | Sports Motivation Pep Talk | Mental Toughness | Mindfulness | Sports Psychology...

“Success is where preparation and opportunity meet." - Bobby Unser   Today’s show is not scripted and lots of my personal thoughts, so bear with the longer than usual rocky episode today.   I know that many of you are working to “train like you compete and compete like you train”. Problem is many athletes think that they just have to close their eyes and work their butts off.   Yes, you need to work extra hard, but alongside that you need to make sure everything you do on a daily basis stays the same as that on games day. That means, conditioning of your body and mind comes way back from day one of training rather than just switching things on when a particular competition or season arrives.   There are some exercises that you need to do off season which you shouldn’t do in season, that I understand, but that’s not what we are focusing on today.   What we will touch on today are the subtle routines or practices that have to be conscious

“Never respond to an angry person with a fiery comeback, even if he deserves it…Don’t allow his anger to become your anger." - Bohdi Sanders   The simplest strategy when it comes to coping with emotion to boost your performance is actually through proper breathing techniques.   I remember back in my University days, I used to go for long runs with a few friends and was one of the slowest around. So, this friend of mine will always spur me on to go faster than my usual speed to push me harder so that I can improve.    But I always fall short because I get stitches almost every time I run too fast in too short a time. A very good technique that he taught me was to take 2 quick breaths in and 2 quick breaths out.   You know how we usually breathe is by breathing in once and then immediately breathe out once, than in again? This time I learned to do so twice in and twice out.   Guess what? After just a few sets of that, my stitches completely disappeared!

"Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible." - Tony Robbins   Setting goals and making plans are tedious, because you are literally laying your future in place when you know things will change. Why set goals when you know your plans are never fixed?    That’s also the very reason why we set goals; for us to make sure we stick to our plans as much as we can. It’s not for us to be perfect, it’s there as a guideline, a flexible set of rules to keep our progress in check. If we aren’t discipline enough to do this, how are we discipline enough to stick to game plans and win?   Remember that setting goals is part of your training process. Following Tony Robbins’ quote, make your future visible first, it makes the unknown less scary don’t you think?   Do you agree?    Share your comments with us on the show notes page.   Press and hold link to visit the page Show Notes Page   In this Episode,

"To finish first, you must first finish." - Rick Ravon Mears   Do you know that besides being tough mentally and using sports psychology skills to dominate your game, tricking your mind is another proven way for you to take your game to the next level.   There are so many things you can do to how you think and this is just one small tweak to reworking your mind that can be done within seconds in moments that matter most.   Press and hold link to visit the page Show Notes Page   In this Episode, You'll Learn: How diversion of attention can help you focus not more but better on the right things Deception of your own brain is a killer to your rival Shutting off your mind let’s you enter the zone   Best Performance Books: The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance by W. Timothy Gallwey Your FREE Audio Book   Show Links: Athletes

"I think luck falls on not just the brave but also the ones who believe they belong there." - Novak Djokovic   I’m going to call this week the tennis week, maybe because I’m having the blues that US Open is over. Also, I talked a little bit about tennis in the last episode and I think I will touch on tennis again later this week.   Most importantly, I think the game of tennis opens up a lot of lessons for us athletes from all kinds of sports. The other sport that teaches great lessons for the mind is martial arts, we should come to that in another episode some day.   Press and hold link to visit the page Show Notes Page   In this Episode, You'll Learn: What top tennis players do to strengthen their mental game How winners talk to themselves differently than do losers How to play within yourself, your strengths and weaknesses What does it mean by playing the percentages How to adjust to conditions, opponents and yourself How to learn from winners who find a way to

"I became an optimist when I discovered that I wasn’t going to win any more games by being anything else." - Earl Weaver   It’s strange that there’s a difference in how you feel between when you are up against a weaker player and a stronger one.    With the weaker player, you may feel confident, yet due to that confidence of knowing you will be able to beat that player, you start to fear the worst. At the same time, with a weaker player based on your means or stats, you’ll tend to harbor higher expectations of yourself. If you beat them, you need to beat them with conviction and ensure the score difference is far enough to prove to yourself indeed you are much stronger. Somehow this is proven to backfire most of the time in many games.    Yet with a stronger player, you may or may not feel confident, but you also in fear of something. It’s strange, because you know that stronger player is not going to eat you up or chop you into pieces, but somehow you ha

As a competitive athlete, you don’t take part in sports to build your character. Build your character and shape up before you contribute to your team or sport.   “Sports do not build character, they reveal it.” - John Wooden   There’s a really good video I would like to you watch, it’s a Tedx Talk by Brett Ledbetter and title is called Building Your Inner Coach. This video features a few great coaches such as Sherri Coale, Brad Stevens and Buzz Williams.   He talks about how your character is divided into two main areas, performance and moral and everyone needs to have an inner coach that requires a set process to lead to the required result. Go check it out at starplayeracademy.com/59.   Press and hold link to visit the page Show Notes Page   In this Episode, You'll Learn: What is the #1 element inside of you that drives your performance How smart coaches select their best players How to reach peak performance It’s not how much you

"You don’t win tournaments by playing well and thinking poorly." - Lee Westwood   Even in sports, vocabulary is very important in dictating how your actions will turn out. Especially in competitive sports, what you say and how your actions will turn out will eventually dictate your outcome and affect you emotionally. I want you to take some time out today to do this mini exercise:   Really find a quiet moment to think about your behaviour today. Say your training is done for the day.  Take a minute or two and reflect on how you felt when your team or yourself made a mistake that led to a negative consequence. Then ask yourself how did you react to that. Could you have reacted differently? Could you have responded to make things better in the next action step rather than reacted? Always replace these thoughts with words or actions that display positivity, either being calm or some form of encouragement.  With that imagination, notice how you feel now as you sit in silence. Com

Once in awhile I love sharing valuable lessons with you. This one is no different. For many of you, there are so many skills to pick up in a sport. Even running itself is not just a get up and go kind of thing. You need to focus on the right things to achieve your goals. Nobody wants to waste time or spend too much effort on not achieving anything. However, nobody’s ride is ever smooth all the way. No matter how much effort or grind you put in, there’s always a hump, crack or gravel somewhere to bring friction, pain or discomfort. These are what we need to uncover, because only when we are aware of these, then we can move on to focus on the right things.   "I don’t believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be.” - Ken Venturi   Press and hold link to visit the page Show Notes Page   In this Episode, You'll Learn: Never to attribute your achievements or failure to your abilities To be mind

"The secret of winning football games is working more as a team, less as individuals. I play not my 11 best, but my best 11.” - Knute Rockne   Press and hold link to visit the page Show Notes Page   In this Episode, You'll Learn: The issue is not the game but the people involved The best strategies to deal with team stress Potential signs of burnout when working with your team day in day out Team stress is not within your total control but you can make the best use of it 13 leadership strategies to deal with team stress You do not need to be a captain or coach to deal with team stress and burnout You’ll gain tenfold when you treat your teammates with kindness and empathy   Best Performance Books: The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It by Kelly McGonigal Your FREE Audio Book   Show Links: Bill Cole, MS, MA, a leading authority on peak performance, ment

"Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong." - Peter T. McIntyre   Having great opportunities to get connected and up close and personal with various canoe polo players all over the world, I realised even world class athletes do feel less confident of themselves at times.   It’s common to hear many athletes take themselves as their "worst enemy”. It’s true, even if we put in our best effort to train up and prepare for the worst, there will always be this devil in the corner of our heads to say there is someone better out there.   No doubt that’s true, we shouldn’t lie to ourselves. Although we can fake it to make it, lying to ourselves would be different when deep down we know that it’s a lie. If we are not convinced of that voice in our heads, we will always fall short of what our actual capabilities can bring us.   That’s when our much needed confidence can make that difference.   That difference

“If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” - Michael Jordan   Stuart Barnes said in an interview that this game is England Rugby team captain, Chris Robshaw’s worst decision ever.   I think Chris Robshaw definitely has his reasons to make his own decisions on the field and it’s his responsibility to take when it comes to honouring what he has said as well as the outcome.   However, the whole team should be accountable for the whole game, not just for Chris to bear.   Ultimately it’s a team game and what could have helped the team shouldn’t be that last minute, they should have done something such that the Wales team did not have the chance to chase up.   What do you think? Share with us by making a comment and lets d

“To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.” - Bruce Lee   10 years back, not understanding mindfulness enough, I used to push myself so hard in the gym that I get badly injured at my joints and tendons for lifting heavier weights than I normally could. Isn’t there this phrase known as “no pain no gain”? This phrase should be familiar to you. Me too and that’s just what I did. Never did I know I was just doing mindless training for the longest time. Fine I may not be working smart, but aren’t we told to work out with more than 100% of our best efforts, to be the last one to leave training sessions, to keep training till it hurts?   Seriously, that’s just one side of the story.   Find out more at StarPlayerAcademy.com/53   Grab your step-by-step guide of insider secrets to becoming a successful athlete ===>>> Download that cheat sheet now.   Show Links: Outside Magazine: Cracking

"Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen." - Michael Jordan   In today’s show, I list out all the theoretical terms as pointed out by Dr Brian Walsh in his free to republish article. This is something I wish to share with you before you get all confused by the different terms of self.   From this article, you will realise that self-efficacy is different from self-love or self-esteem, they are different phase or stages of your experience and they have to be strong enough to pull you through your tough journey as a better athlete as you go.    It’s challenging to be a successful athlete not because of the sport itself, but the way you look at yourself and how you handle your thoughts and feelings. This is the start of being mindful.   Find out more at StarPlayerAcademy.com/52   Grab your step-by-step guide of insider secrets to becoming a successful athlete ===>>> Download that cheat sheet now.   Show Link

"You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose." - Abraham Lincoln   As an athlete you may be good at setting goals already, but did you even get started or, have you stuck to what you’ve set and finished what you’ve started?   You may also have heard of SMART goals, but have you applied them to your daily routine?   In today’s show, I would like to share with you on what i’ve learned from Garry Zancanaro and Eric Garner. Thought through their writings I’ve learned and applied their methods of goal-setting and you should also know about them too.   The 21 secrets to goal-setting are split up into 4 sections, namely, Habits of Goal-setting, Learning from Less Experienced Players, Process Goals and Performance Goals.   The first step to achieving success and happiness in our lives is to dec

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." - Mahatma Gandhi   We have been featured as one of the top iTunes New and Noteworthy podcasts and we want to thank you listeners for that, because it’s only with us being featured, more athletes like yourself get to know about us so that they can help themselves become better.   Sometimes our show is on time, sometimes the episodes publish later, but I promise to keep working and you will get to learn more to get better in the shortest time possible.   I’m taking this milestone as sort of a pitstop to gather your best feedback as well as to understand more about you better.   Have you already subscribed for the cheat sheet on the website? Once in awhile some of you come and tell me you’ve checked out our website at starplayeracademy.com. If you haven’t done so, do check us up to equip yourself with useful strategies to become more mindful as you go about your t

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble." - Hellen Keller   What do you know about the principles to mental game success and what it takes?   Championship sports stars know what these principles mean, honor them and apply them in their training and competitions:   Second Effort Get It Don The Killer Instinct Raising Your Game Coming From Behind Playing to Win Avoid "Playing Not to Lose" Avoid "Protecting a Lead" Digging Deep In-The-Zone Getting the Momentum No Mind Games   Champions are a different breed. Are they born this way or do they develop the attributes of winners?    Find out more at StarPlayerAcademy.com/49   Grab your step-by-step guide of insider secrets to becoming a successful athlete ===>>> Download that cheat sheet now.   Show Links: The Mental Game of Success by William B. Cole   Best Resources: Download your Cheat Sheet and be remind

"The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when no one else is watching" - Jim Afremow   First of all, what do champions have in common? First they have a dream, second, they have a plan and third, a system to reach it. It’s just that simple.   The problem with many athletes is we allow other people’s dreams, plans and systems to come in between the goals and ourselves. This make things more complicated than what it is because when each of us are unique and we allow other people’s thoughts to influence ours, the feelings in our body conflict with one another.   This is natural, you can’t avoid taking in what others have to say, you have to listen. But you need to be discerning and mindful of yourself to begin with.   And once these external thoughts come into your system and these thoughts contradict, you are able to separate them and see the distinction to make decisions.   This is

"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey plays where the puck is going to be" - Wayne Gretzky   Today I have only 1 question for you and that is: What are your performance metrics? In other words, have you set up a system with what information you need to tell you that you are going according to your plan and progressing towards your goals or not.   It’s not only important but a required part of every successful athlete’s life to have some form of measurement and record of their progress. You may have dreams and goals and you may be acting on your plans day by day, but you need to create a feedback system for yourself with information to let you know how well you are doing. This is how a training diary or log book will set you up for success. It allows you to keep track of everything you do and you can refer to it to monitor the exact areas to maintain, which part of your training needs more work done and what’s to come next. This has to be in place

"The fears we don’t face become our limits" - Robin Sharma   So what’s so bad about fear? It’s actually a good thing to be honest. In fact I call fear, a positive illusion. It’s not real to begin with, and when we get all caught up in fear and lose our minds, that is far too extreme. We can learn to pull it back, calm it down and move on.   Why is it a good thing.  When you are in fear of something, you get red alert and will want to do something to control the situation or anything to assure you things are working fine. If you have given yourself some time to be afraid, you can prepare the necessary steps to act when it really happens in time to come. Just a side note that worry and fear are different.   Once you master the skill to identify your fears and action plan put in place, fear becomes a good thing. Now you need fear to help you create a solution to the problem.   There’s a reason why seasoned players or experienced ath