Yes, it’s been a hard football watching season for Minnesota Vikings fans. Why couldn’t this team turn it around and actually win more than 3 games? This week’s StarTribune Exit Interviews article ponders this question.

Several players chime in, but linebacker Chad Greenway explains the disappointing season well. “To me, I think the biggest thing was the way this season started, those first three games. The way we lost them sort of creates the negative momentum, the negative mentality. Winning and losing is a culture. I think when you create that early on, you create a bad culture about, in your mind, can we do this? Can we not do this? How do you overcome that? You overcome that by getting a few wins and getting that confidence back. We just weren’t able to string that together and overcome all that. I’m certainly proud of the way we hung together. It’s not easy to do that in the situation like this, the season we’re having when people are frustrated with whether it be a position group or a coach. People can get frustrated because it’s a long season and you’re out there putting everything into it. I’m definitely proud of the fact we didn’t get into that,” says Greenway.

After three loses in a row right off the bat, the Vikings never successfully overcame this culture of losing, but these exit interviews show the team never completely gave up. Defensive end Brian Robinson says he “fought every game as hard” as he could, and he believes 98 percent of the team did the same thing.

In 2012, the Vikings need to turn this losing culture into a winning environment. Robinson says this is about every single player fighting for every game. However, even when one works as hard as they can, negative momentum and energy in a locker room can become a norm and can be difficult to get past. This is why in the face of losing streaks and negative momentum, it’s not just about working hard, it’s about positive mental coaching for both individuals and teams.

This blog post is Part 4 of a 4-part blog series featuring the work of University of Chicago psychologist Sian Beilock.

Even a small chunk of meditation practice goes a long way, says Sian Beilock, Ph.D., in a recent interview on the website Brain Science Podcast. At the University of Chicago’s Human Performance Lab, psychologist Sian Beilock has found that simple meditation instruction helps people perform better under pressure.

In the lab, people underwent a mere 10 minutes of meditation instruction before taking a test. This appeared to make a significant “difference in their score.” Beilock quotes research that shows “as little as 10 hours of meditative practice can change some of the wiring of the brain.”

Beilock says research suggests people can use meditation “even sparingly to really improve … performance.”

Why does this practice work so well? Meditation helps us “let go of information—to not perseverate on it.” This lets us focus on the task at hand without worry taking away “our cognitive horsepower” and our ability to perform well.

If you have never explored meditation as a practice, you’ll be relieved to know how simple it is to learn how to meditate. Try Herbert Benson’s relaxation response method, or ask a sports psychologist to teach you the basics of this simple practice.

This blog post is Part 3 of a 4-part blog series featuring the work of University of Chicago psychologist Sian Beilock.

In the previous two blog posts featuring the Sian Beilock interview on the website Brain Science Podcast, we’ve been talking about what choking is and the science behind the phenomena. At the University of Chicago’s Human Performance Lab, psychologist Sian Beilock, PhD, has studied how people can avoid choking and perform to their best ability in stressful situations. These tips work on your favorite playing field and in the boardroom at work.

To perform well, our working memory needs to be functioning well. So this advice builds “your ability to hold … information in the face of distraction.”

Ten minutes before an important match, write down all of the thoughts and emotions filling your mind. Essentially, this task offloads “your worries essentially frees up working memory so that it’s not distracted by these worries.”

Practice can run better than a tense match because no one is watching. Mimic the competition you fear on the practice field. Beilock points out that the military and the FBI both do this through simulating upcoming situations. Invite friends and family to watch a practice or video tape yourself because knowing “that you might show that to a coach or a friend” creates an “all-eyes-on-you” awareness. 

Beilock also talks about icing: the technique of disrupting a player before an important task such as kicking a goal. This works because “it gives the kicker time to think—to dwell on their performances—in a way that messes up what otherwise would be a fluent routine.”

The next tip speaks to icing: Take your brain off the process behind what you are doing. This can be as simple as “singing a song” before a big moment, or “thinking about the outcome” instead of the steps you need to get to your goal. Also, practice new techniques at practice, but also practice these techniques without thinking about the steps. Even “coming up with a one-word mantra that sort of encapsulates the whole movement you are about to do can really focus your prefrontal cortex in a way that is to your advantage,” says Beilock.

Join us for the final segment of our 4-part blog series to learn how practicing meditation (even occasionally) can help prevent choking on the playing field.

This blog post is Part 2 of a 4-part blog series featuring the work of University of Chicago psychologist Sian Beilock.

Have you ever wondered why you choke sometimes even though you have executed the same athletic maneuver perfectly literally hundreds of times? You can find an answer to this question on a recent Brain Science Podcast. Ginger Campbell, MD, interviews University of Chicago psychologist Sian Beilock, PhD, author of the book Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To.

Beilock notes that a stressful situation for one person is not trying for another person. All you need for a suboptimal performance is a “perceived” stressor. “In essence, we often let our emotions get the best of us; we’re not good at attending to wheat we want to and ignoring others, which can lead us to … start perseverating on what our wrist is doing when we’re just trying to get the shot off in the important game,” says Beilock.

On the athletic field, we often perform with no thought of what we are actually doing. We are simply executing moves our body knows how to do innately thanks to years of practice and performance. Beilock believes that under duress, “people start paying too much attention—they exert too much of their explicit attention to what they’re doing; which actually disrupts their performance.”

Scientifically speaking, the brain’s prefrontal cortex is malfunctioning. This front part of our brain is “the seat of our thinking and reasoning ability.” When we are worried about situations, “this uses ip important resources—our ability to think, attend on the fly.”

 Join us for Part 3 of this blog series to begin learning tips to prevent choking during your athletic performances.

This blog post is Part 1 of a 4-part blog series featuring the work of University of Chicago psychologist Sian Beilock.

A recent podcast on the website Brain Science Podcast contains a wealth of information on the phenomena of choking while under pressure. Ginger Campbell, MD, interviews University of Chicago psychologist Sian Beilock, PhD, author of the book Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To.

Beilock runs the University of Chicago’s Human Performance Lab, which she says allows her “to ask questions about how people get good at what they do.” She has studied the concept of choking, which she defines as “suboptimal performance—poorer performance than you would have in a non-stressful situation.”

Obviously this happens often in the sports arena. Beilock mimics a stressful playing field in the Human Performance Lab’s putting green. Very skilled golfers spend time practicing their putting both under no duress and under stressful situations at the lab. How does she add stress to the scene? “We offer them money for peak performance, we sometimes bring in their teammates to have them watch, or tell them their teammates will be coming in—and we try and induce some of the types of responses that these athletes might have in a real do-or-die situation.”

What happens when a player chokes? According to Beilock and her research, “emotions and anxieties compromise the brain systems that would otherwise be used to perform well.”

We have all fumbled the big play in a vital match or game. Join us for Part 2 of this blog series to learn the fascinating whys behind choking. As usual, the human body never fails to amaze us.

Confidence is an integral part of success. Without this trait, it is difficult to triumph on any type of playing field. Luckily, we can learn how to be confident (or more confident). While preparation builds confidence — try winning any competition without working on the physical, technical, and tactical parts of your sport — mental skills also create confidence.

In Prime Ski Racing: Triumph of the Racer’s Mind, author Jim Taylor, Ph.D., gives us numerous mental techniques to help us construct confidence. First, “walk the walk”. Successful competitors move with confidence: Head held high and chin tilted slightly up, eyes facing forward, shoulders are back and with a spring in their movements.

His next piece of advice — “talk the talk” — means making our self-thoughts and spoken words more positive. Taylor points out that it “takes 12 positive experiences to equal one negative experience.” So every time you tell yourself you are a loser, you need to tell yourself you are a winner 12 times to cancel out that one saying. Think about the most common negative statements you tell yourself and ponder when you are most likely to say them. Then write positive statements to counter-act these harsh words. Then next time you say or think a negative statement, say “stop” or “positive” to yourself and then say one of your positive thoughts.

Taylor also suggests creating a “Ski Racer’s Litany.” This is a list of self-statements that infuse your mind and body with confidence. Write a list for your own sport. Taylor’s list includes these lines: “I love to ski race; If I give my best effort, then I am a winner; I think and talk positively.” Say this list every morning and evening and before you train and compete. And say it with conviction. Even if you don’t feel each item on your list to be one hundred percent true, saying it like you mean it will help you start to believe every word.

Of course, you don’t have to try to build your confidence all by yourself. A sports psychologist can help you become a more confident athlete.

Have you ever really thought about focus? Prime Ski Racing author Jim Taylor, Ph.D., looks at focus from an athlete’s perspective, helping competitor’s concentrate attention in a winning way. He introduces us to the term “attentional field”: The thoughts, emotions, and physical responses within you as well as the outside sights and sounds you focus on. He asks us to think of focus as “the ability to attend to internal and external cues in your attentional field.”

A well-focused athlete knows where to focus her attention for the best results on the playing field. Some people find success through an internal focus style; they concentrate on their sport and technique while training or competing, knowing they can be “easily distracted by activity in the immediate surroundings.” Other competitors do best with an external focus style, focusing on outside sights and sounds right up until the moment of competition or while training, knowing that they over think if they are concentrating on their sport too much.

What type of focus works for you? Taylor suggests analyzing past races, thinking about the types of focus you used and which type of focus led to good results.

Taylor has many tips for developing focus. The simplest way to train your focus is to place your eyes where you need to focus. To get rid of external distractions (if this works for you) keep “your eyes down and on the course.” Or, if critical thinking ruins you, look around you and talk to other athletes before competition or during training breaks.

Taylor also tells us to “focus on what we can control.” We have heard this before and we will hear it again: The only thing under our control is ourselves. Unfortunately, the weather and everything else is just not under our jurisdiction. Taylor offers us the four Ps to help align our focus on ourselves:

• Positive: Avoid negative thinking or replace each negative thought with a positive statement.

• Process: “Focus on what you need to do to ski [play] your best,” from training to honing your technique.

• Present: The past is over and winning is in the future. What are you doing at this very moment? Focus on the here and now.

• Progress: Comparing yourself to others is a no-win situation. “Focus on your own improvement.”

Focus may seem simple, but developing the right type of concentration is vital. A sports psychologist can help you create the focus you need to play your sport at your optimum level.

We bring every past moment to the present moment. This is both good and bad. Thankfully, we carry all of our hard work: Every game we have played and each step of the training and practice. We also take the last mistake we made, such as a swing at a bad pitch or the pass you just dropped. This is why playing in this exact moment is vital. We need to let go of the mistakes while focusing on the positive stuff.

Of course, this isn’t an automatic occurrence, this learning how to be here right now. Luckily, we can learn how to play this way. Authors Ken Ravizza and Tom Hanson give us concrete steps to reach this goal in the book Head-Ups Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time. The first step on this path is self-awareness: “being aware of what is happening and then respond to it.”

Think of this as a traffic light. When your body is in the green, you are playing in the zone. You are playing well with no need to think. When your body is in the yellow, you are starting to have trouble. Maybe you didn’t hit your split time or you saw your girlfriend talking to her ex-boyfriend on the sideline. When your body is in the red, you are struggling: your mind is racing and you are tense, shaken and completely out of the zone.

Ravizza and Hanson suggest making a chart of how your body reacts to each light. Think about your game and write down several examples of how you act while at each light. Now you know your body’s signals and you can be self-aware during practice and while in competition.

Next, practice gaining self-control when you are experiencing a yellow or red light. Ravizza and Hanson recommend these six techniques:

1. Recognize when you aren’t in control: Just realizing you have lost control can help you regain focus and change to the green light mode.

2. Breathe in and out three times, deeply, to change your mood.

3. Take a minute: If your sport allows it, take a break by doing something as simple as tying your shoelace.

4. Release negativity: Create a routine or gesture to let go of negative thoughts and feelings. Pick up a small stone, place your frustration on that rock, then toss the stone away from you.

5. Find a focal point: Find a spot, from a crack in the wall to the flag blowing in the breeze, and let this be the place you look at to regain focus when you are faltering. By looking here, you are acknowledging all the hard work that got you this far and will carry you to the next good place.

6. Carry yourself to confidence: Change your defeated body posture to a confident stance. “Keep your head up. Lift your sternum. Act like the most confident player you know. Think about your greatest performance and carry yourself the way you did that day.”

These are the first steps in learning how to play in the present moment. A sports psychologist can teach you more techniques for being present on the playing field, which helps us play the best possible game.

It’s not unusual for athletes to train according to the slogan “no pain, no gain.” Indeed, this is a worthy idea, unless it leads to overtraining. Sports Psychologist Kirsten Peterson, PhD, addresses overtraining in The Sports Psych Handbook (edited by Shane Murphy). She defines overtraining as an exercise program that leads to “an undesired outcome of fatigue and performance decrements.”

In other words, over-trained athletes are not completely burned out, but their bodies aren’t experiencing enough recovery time. Physical and psychological symptoms, writes Peterson, include (partial list):

• Muscle pain or soreness
•  Weight loss
•  Gastrointestinal disturbance
• Overuse injuries
• Loss of self-confidence
• Anxiety
• Emotional/motivational changes

The easiest way to see if you are experiencing overtraining is by taking your resting heart rate after you wake up and before you go to bed. Usually, athletes resting heart rates decrease through training, but if your training load is overly intense, your resting heart rate will increase.

Most athletes don’t enjoy (or even feel like themselves) taking days off, they believe it detracts from their ultimate goal. The beauty of recovery, though, is that it can take many forms and giving the body, proper time to recover is essential to regenerate emotional and physical energy. Start practicing relaxation techniques such as progressive relaxation, autogenic relaxation, or guided imagery. Think of recovery as reducing stress in all areas of your life. For example, if your work life is too taxing or certain relationships are causing undue stress, try to lessen alleviate those stressors. Peterson writes that recovery has three levels: physical, social, and environmental. Eating right, practicing yoga or taking a hike on your day off are all physical ways to recover. Social recovery means participating with people you like in “social activities that are relaxing and rejuvenating.” And environmental recovery can be as simple as changing your training locale. A sports psychologist can help monitor training to see if you are overtraining, and help you learn and uncover the best optimum recovery techniques for you.

We all know the saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” But have you heard “lowering stress levels keeps injuries at bay”? Of course this isn’t a commonly heard phrase. Still, three decades of research “shows that a combination of conditions puts athletes at a greater risk of injury: negative life stresses, an increase in daily hassles, previous injuries, and poor coping responses,” says The Sport Psych Handbook (edited by Shane Murphy).

Stress, inadequate coping skills and personality traits doesn’t just make for a bad mood; these factors create an elevated stress response. What does this mean for a player? Athletes who have elevated stress responses suffer from more muscle tension, are more easily distracted, and a have smaller attention span, meaning you might not notice you are not holding your body in the proper form as you take that jump shot on the basketball court. Being under stress for long periods of time actually changes your “body’s endocrine system, making a person more susceptible to illness and slowing down the healing process,” says The Sport Psych Handbook.

We all know stress in unavoidable, but how do we manage life stresses and lower our injury risk? We need to learn coping skills to deal with stress. And, when life hits us with a big stressor — such as death of a loved one, a move across country or the end of an important personal relationship —seeking professional help is a good idea if our coping skills are not up to speed. A sports psychologist can both teach you every day coping skills and help you deal with a big life loss. Taking deliberate steps to try and reduce stress can help lower the chance of incurring more stress through suffering an injury.