"Don't Cheat the Athlete"

SESSION 1: DEFINING THE BRAIN PROBLEM - challenges all athletes face

• Simplifying and teaching athletes the brain problem as the basic underlying concern of common athlete presentation of depression, anxiety, ADHD, OCD, and PTSD
• Respond vs React - how the culture of sports and mental toughness myths create and maintain the brain problem
  • Understanding coaching approaches, youth sport systems, and beyond
• Explaining depression, anxiety, ADHD, OCD, and PTSD in athletes
• The family system - despite versus support: identifying the impact of parental approach and impact it has on performance
• Who vs What - athlete identity and the Respect and Performance Ladder
• Am I needy - Identifying and communicating needs with parents, coaches, and teammates
• I’ve fallen and I can’t get up - injury recovery and the grief loop
• Practicing smart habits - balancing rest and recovery vs hard work and the Mini Donut Rule

SESSION 2: UNDERSTANDING THE BRAIN PROBLEM AND ITS IMPACTS

• The slide - understanding cognitive fusion and its impact
• It’s 100% mental - the psychophysiology and its contribution to the brain problems
• Developing mental fitness - changing the frame and the conversation
  • Accepting the brain problem, challenging emotions, struggles, and the courage to ask for help
• Measuring and defining mental fitness
  • Building a mentally fit competition system
  • Building a mentally fit change system
• Integrating 15-30 minutes of daily mental fitness
  • Heart rate variability training, meditation, visualization, and competition grids
• Expected outcomes
  • Learning how to play through challenging and difficult emotions
  • Developing a Just Play Zone
  • Commitment to challenges and growth
• Characteristics athletes will develop
  • Self awareness; emotional flexibility; problem-solving orientation

ADJUSTMENTS TO THE COMPETITION SYSTEM

• You will learn how to teach adjustments athletes need to make to their existing systems that will lead them to success in sports and life. Athletes are often told to “get out of your head” but never told how to do this.
• System 1 - The Competition System. - Educating athletes about flow (Just Play Zone or Optimal Performance Zone) and the continuum of intensity. We teach athletes how to get, stay, and return to the Just Play Zone. This system is designed to give athletes the tools and skills they need to perform through the inevitable. Strong emotions - anxiety, pressure and frustration that show up when you are trying to Just Play in the moment.
  • Ring Ring: The bell curve
  • Reboot your Brain Skills
  • Using Heart Rate Variability Training to teach coherence and the Just Play Zone

SESSIONS 3: THE CHANGE SYSTEM

• System 2 - The Change System - This system helps athletes identify things they need to adjust. And we aren’t talking pennies, dimes, nickels and quarters.
  • Identify performance-interfering thoughts (PITS)
  • Build Mental Models
  • Understand Psychophysiology
  • Heart Rate Variability Training - teaches athletes to respond rather than react
• Learn clinical skills and interventions important for successfully working with athletes.
  • Developing performance language and partnering with athletes
  • Deep dive mental fitness vs mental toughness
  • Externalizing the brain problems
  • Cultivate belief and commitment with solution focused approaches to get results
• Miracles start with mindsets - The 5 Star Mindset
  • The challenge process
  • Create a buzz - Bee you
  • The self-forgiveness process - Learning to let go
  • Learning from failure - Developing a process
  • Being comfortable with the uncomfortable
• Goal setting with athletes - process vs outcome goals - a simple framework

SESSIONS 4: HURTS SO GOOD

• Understanding and identifying hidden traumas in athletes
  • Abuse of power
  • Injuries and PTSD
  • Pressure, anxiety, and OCD
  • Interpersonal trauma - difficult coaches, teammates, parents and systems
• Outline of EMDR with athletes
  • Learn the Parnel 8 stage EMDR protocol adapted for athletes
  • Clinical stories of athletes that used EMDR to create mental fitness