Free The Art of Mental Training - a Guide to Performance Excellence (Classic Edition) by D. C. Gonzalez

your self-talk
like?  What was going on inside your head that helped you reduce the pressure? 
Pinpoint it.  Noticing the things that helped you deal with pressure in the
past can makes it possible for you to access those techniques again.  A
competitor who is not feeling the pressure can easily end up defeating one who
actually plays better than they do. Learning how to manage pressure can help
you outperform others.  If there is anything that worked for you and helped you
with pressure in the past, pinpoint it, and then keep using it.
     
    Remember:  Pressure is
mental.  Learn to view performance pressure as a challenge that can be managed
by using mental techniques, and pre-game routines. 
     
    The
Art of Mental Training

Chapter 16:  The Internal Critic
     
    As I transitioned more and more
into coaching, Leo-tai and I often spoke by phone. In those days he enjoyed
hearing about the work that I was doing at a large university as the Mental
Edge Trainer for the athletes on the various teams.
    One day I explained to him how,
after the wrestling competitions, the head coach and I would review all the
tapes.  Then how (one by one) each wrestler was brought in to sit down and
watch his tape with us.  Mostly the head coach would make suggestions regarding
technique or strategy.  A few days later I would review some of the tapes again
with the guys who hadn’t done so well.  But this time I asked the athletes to
recall what their self-talk was during the toughest parts of the match.
    “Very good.” said Leo-tai. “You
found something in common?”
    “We certainly did.” I said.
“The one thing we found that they all had in common was that they all had
negative self-talk going on when things were going really badly.  By watching
themselves on tape, they were able to remember exactly what they were thinking
at the time.  And in every case of poor performance, when things were going really
badly, the self-talk going through their heads was terrible.  Their own
internal dialogue was setting them up to perform worse and worse.  At the
precise instances when they needed all their resolve in order to be able to
turn things around, their self-talk was busy tearing them down.”
    “Interesting,” Leo-tai said
quietly.
    “So we’d play the tape again;
only this time the exercise was to have the athletes verbalize positive
self-talk as things got bad. I’d say, let me hear the positive self-talk of a
champion who might be having a tough time in the match but who absolutely
refuses to talk himself down. Then we’d play the film again.  That exercise
really opened their eyes. They learned that—especially when things are
tough—it’s important to listen only for the positive self-talk of a champion
who is focused on working his way through adversity.”
    At this point Leo-tai offered
up an observation.
    “Very good Danielsan, you
taught them to shut down the Internal Critic.  You taught them to always listen
for the self-talk that sounds more like a positive coach rather than a negative
critic.  You helped them understand that if there is any self-talk going on it
must be positive, encouraging, and empowering.  This is key because just like thoughts
create emotions that affect the way we feel, so can self-talk affect the way we
feel, and the way we feel affects the way that we perform.  You did well in
teaching them that the Warrior/Champion always shuts down the Internal Critic because
he understands that he must.”
     
    Remember:  Especially when
things are at their worst, your self-talk must be positive, encouraging, and
empowering.  Shut down the Internal Critic.
     
    The
Art of Mental Training

Chapter 17:  Too Intense
     
    Sometimes in competitive
situations an athlete can actually get too energized before the start of
competition, thus sabotaging his own performance.  You see it a lot in
grappling tournaments where (due to sheer over-enthusiasm) some amateur
athletes rev up their engines to