In this article:

• Why NOW is the time to start improving for next season. • Learn the difference between rest and sleep. • Why your eyes just might be your most powerful motivational tool. • The human connection that can boost your performance.  

5 Things to do in the offseason

The best ways to maximize improvement during downtime

People are happiest when they’re improving. I’ve come to know that both as a top-performing athlete and as a normal, everyday person. Without improvement, there is no motion toward achieving goals; without goals… well, what’s the point of living?

The offseason is a great time to reflect on what your goals are and then run straight towards them. And, as you outline your goals—this plus that plus those equals goal achieved—remember that most athletes forget that resting is an essential part of that equation, so make sure to include rest in your offseason game plan. Figure out what it is you need...

The off-season: a time of renewal, of hope, and (most likely) of change as your seniors leave and underclassmen begin assuming new roles. Excitement ensues as you transition from small group fitness and conditioning exercises into full-on practice sessions. As you begin to review your training regimen, you might have ideas on what technically and tactically needs tweaking, or have resolutions on what you’ll teach this off-season.

Regardless of how your season finished, the score board has been reset and every program gets a fresh start.

But, if you’re like most coaches, it’s difficult to know where to start. With the myriad roles a coach truly has to juggle, sometimes you just want one thing – one key ingredient – to bring to your program that will give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Well, you’re in luck, because Positive Performance knows exactly what that one thing is. It’s a very simple mental training routine you may have heard of...

In the last article, we discussed how to enable higher performance in your athletes through Mental Training. But let’s not forget about Coaches. In our experience, coaches can be more stressed than their athletes and also need to invest in their own well-being to maintain high performance.

Why mentally train?

Coaches are high-performing too.

By and large, coaches are much like the athletes they train: They’re driven and have spent a lifetime working within a minuscule margin of error, thereby rendering them accustomed to high levels of stress. Coaches tend to have high standards for themselves and for what they personally expect out of their lives, both on the field and off. While they can choose to measure their ‘success’ in accomplishments or in overall satisfaction, these two measuring sticks can often seem at odds with one another.

All this constant measuring,...

Originally posted in article Jim Clem: Character Traits & 6 Pieces of Advice for Winning Pitchers, published February 26, 2015.

6 Pieces of Advice for Winning Pitchers: #1-3. Warm Up, Practice, & Write it Down!

6 Pieces of Advice for Winning Pitchers: #4. Positive Thinking

6 Pieces of Advice for Winning Pitchers: #5. Routine = breathing + visualizing

6 Pieces of Advice for Winning Pitchers: #6. Beware Your Choice in Music

Transcription of interview conducted by Lindsey Wilson, Positive Performance Training

Lindsey: So talk me through, yeah, and maybe give an example of an athlete that you worked with. If I was coming to you again and I was a pitcher and I was very talented, but really didn't know what I was doing, you know, maybe hadn't been coached, what are the routines that we would put in together, pre-game, during game, post-game. You know, what are the things that you teach most athletes, at least, most pitchers?

Jim: Okay. So we'll do an...

Originally posted in article Jim Clem's Pitching Tips: Top 3 Pitcher Hang-Ups, published February 23, 2015.

Pitching Coach Jim Clem on his Top 3 Pitcher Hang-Ups

Transcription of interview conducted by Lindsey Wilson, Positive Performance Training

Lindsey: Well, speaking of learning I know I am and many of our clients are really interested in diving into pitching in particular. So if you would, take us into the mind state of a typical pitcher. What are their hang-ups, what things do they struggle with? And maybe even what personality characteristics do you typically see in a pitcher? I know it's really hard to classify every one.

Jim: Typically, I'd say just pitchers of all ages, they just need more work and preparation. And I don't think they totally understand necessarily what that entails, so I'll talk to them, I'll have, you know, I have different talks that I have with them each day. But I want to make sure that they understand that there's really four...

Bonus Content Congrats on completing the 1st Meditation Challenge.  There are 2 more challenges that we have.   [audio mp3="http://www.positiveperformancetraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/CoachDay5Labeling.mp3"][/audio] Not signed up? Click here to sign-up for the meditation challenge.

We are PUMPED here at Positive Performance to welcome Olympic Volleyball Player (and all around awesome person) Courtney Thompson as our newest +P Mental Training Coach. Courtney will coach teams and athletes on the techniques that have helped catapult her to be one of the best setters in the world, even as she continues her playing career around the world. This is an especially great interview to share with your athletes. As always feel free to 'share' this interview and leave comments below. In this interview Courtney will share:

• The top 3 traits that have made her successful
• Her thoughts on the mental component of success
• How she has dealt with limited playing time, injuries, or failures
• What she does to bounce back from a mistake in the middle of a game
• Her pre-game routine
• What she would tell the younger Courtney Thompson
• How she leads her team even when she isn't playing her best
• The importance of fighting through physical pain
• What mental training tools she uses to stay on...

Today our meditation is a meditation exercise called 'labeling'.

Day 5: Labeling

What is labeling? Too often when we feel a negative emotion, we start becoming it without realizing it. We generally do a couple of things:

• Search for why we are feeling what we are feeling.
• Explore the depth of feeling.
• Try to change the emotion with judgement or by using the same emotion we have become. i.e. If we are angry, we then think about our anger with an angry point of view.

We become attached to the emotion, even though that attachment is causing us pain. This next meditation will teach you a really simple but very effective tool to create some distance from our emotions.

TIP: Forgetting to Meditate?Put an alarm in your phone so you'll remember to do it every day.

Get some paper or your journal, get comfortable and close your eyes. Please let us know your thoughts below. [audio mp3="http://www.positiveperformancetraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/CoachDay5Labeling.mp3"][/audio]...

Today our meditation is about gratitude. As usual, get somewhere comfortable and close your eyes. Don't forget to comment below!

Day 4: Gratitude

We'll get to gratitude during the meditation but first something I hear all the time:  I'm not good at meditating! For something so SIMPLE it sure is not easy. Relax. As you well know, nothing worth having is easy. Meditation is a practice and like anything else there are good days and bad days. The key is to keep doing it!

"Don't wait until your house is on fire to build a well."- Unknown

Meditation can give you so many gifts- good health, a balanced mind, relieve stress- but it's easy to put it off until you 'need' it. It's just like a muscle, don't wait until it's pulled to learn to stretch. [audio mp3="http://www.positiveperformancetraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/CoachDay4Gratitude1.mp3"][/audio] Not signed up? Click here to sign-up for the meditation challenge.