The Emotional Athlete

It is just me, or are the sports pages dripping a lot of
emotion this morning?

Start with C.C. Sabathia: "unexpectedly ineffective" is how
the page describes him in two play off games.

His manager, Eric Wedge, says: "With C.C. I know that he
feels like he needs to do more, and hopefully he won't feel
like that tonight. All he needs to do is just go out there
and be himself and pitch the way he's capable."

Have you ever seen a player TRY TOO HARD at your level of
play?

Then there's Manny Ramirez.

"We're just here to have fun and play the games and that's
it," said the all-time post-season HR leader (meaning, he
plays well and often in the post-season).

Reacting to questions about his home plate reaction to his
HR the other night:

"I'm just trying to go have fun. If somebody strikes me out
and shows me up, that's part of the game, I love that. I
like that. I like to compete and when people strike me out
and show me up, it's all good. It's not a hard feeling."

Then there was FSU football coach Bobby Bowden saying that
his 1987 decision to go for two after a late touchdown. A
choice that prooved costly. "I think about it, but it
doesn't haunt me," he says.

And another football player talking about how his "gut was
tied in knots."

---------- SIDEBAR

Did you notice that Leo Mazzone was a genius at Atlanta as
pitching coach, and got fired from Baltimore?

Something also tells me there's more than one person out
there that could be successful as the Yankees manager.

END SIDEBAR ----------

Sports doesn't demand that you just be a physical athlete.

It demands that you be an "emotional athlete."

By that I mean you have emotional strength, emotional
flexibility, emotional endurance, emotional balance,
emotional resilience, and emotional intelligence.

You need to be able to recognize your own emotions, channel
them into service of your goals, and, to be a good
teammate, be aware of others' emotions.

That's what enables you to "just be yourself" and "have
fun" no matter how big the stage.

Homework for today... Simply notice the role emotions play
in your decisions and actions today.

One of my teachers, Julio Olalla, defines emotion as a
"predisposition for action."

We read about actions in the paper, and watch them on
SportsCenter, but emotions are actually leading the way.

Be on the lookout for them today.

Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson

p.s. I'm in the process of completing the manual for my
Mental Training Camp. The manual will be an All-Star team
of "emotional athleticism" exercises. It will be a
step-by-step for turning you or your players into emotional
all-stars.

Most players (and coaches and parents)are emotionally out
of shape.

As a result, they can't take a punch (the aren't
emotionally resilient), they lack flexibility (so they pull
emotional hamstrings), they're not balanced (so they try
too hard in big situations).

Remember when Don Zimmer charged Pedro? Pedro was
emotionally balanced, Zim wasn't.

Face plant for Zim.

Don't get your face planted. Learn to be an emotional
all-star at this camp.

http://www.BaseballConfidence.com/bootcamp.html

p.p.s. At least get started with one of the programs at
http://www.BaseballConfidence.com/Products.html