Unlock Your Mental Game By Discovering What Lies Beneath The Surface
When determining the underlying factors which lead to every athlete’s struggle there is a common mistake seen among much of the athlete community. This mistake if not understood early on may lead to an increase in poor performance by the athlete and in worse situations, complete burnout of the sport. As I write this article to you, I write this not out of judgement but out of compassion to help improve your role as an athlete, parent, coach, or caretaker.
Let’s begin to dive beneath the surface. To do so I will use an easy acronym which will help you better clarify the struggle that you as an athlete or caretaker are witnessing. The acronym is what we at SPMI call the BESR model. We will work backwards from this model to get down to the true reason why so many athletes either underperform or perform optimally.
The B>E>S>R Model
The letter R is the first letter of the acroynm when working backwards. This letter stands for reactivity. Reactivity is the physical display that we see often times when an athlete is under performing or performing their best. Examples of reactivity are when we see athletes body language change such as slumping shoulders, screaming, crying, or celebrating. Although this is an outward expression, the athlete may also notice inward reactivity such as an increase in muscle tension or heart rate. The question becomes, where does reactivity come from? For many athletes and caretakers, they may then turn to the second letter of the acronym, the letter S.
The letter S stands for symptoms. Symptoms are the precursor to the reactivity and predominately consist of two contradicting areas: Mistakes or Successful moments. Essentially, this just means that the athlete’s mistake or successful moment is subsequently followed by a reaction or increase in reactivity. Take the example of a tennis player. She first makes a mistake (misses a forehand down the line) and then follows it up with throwing her racket against the fence (reactivity). If we aren’t careful then we may easily stop here and then condemn the athlete for the reactivity only accusing the mistake as the reason for the maladaptive reaction. This is a common error many make which only heightens performance anxiety and the perpetuation of future mistakes. It becomes a perpetual loop where the athlete and their team obsess over fixing the part of their game (symptom) in order to reduce the negative reactivity (outbursts, etc.) As you may already know, one cannot fix the problem by only addressing the symptoms. Which then brings us to the next letter of the acronym, E.
The letter E stands for emotions. In sports the most common emotion expressed is related to survival. Some of these emotions include: Fear, frustration, anger, sadness, disappointment, and joy. A clear indicator that an emotion may be partially responsible for an athlete’s struggle or sudden poor performance is when you notice that the athlete is uncharacteristically performing below their level. This discrepancy is most apparent for many athletes in practice vs. competition. Here you may notice a drop in performance (symptom) in competition from practice, followed by an increase in their reactions (reactivity). Understanding that emotions occur before SR is critical in truly getting down to how to help identify the struggle. Returning to the earlier example of the tennis player, if the tennis player starts making uncharacteristic mistakes then we can now trace it back to an emotion she was experiencing in the moment. In this example it was most likely fear. But exactly what kind of fear is the deeper question? That brings us to the 4th and final letter of the acronym, B.
The letter B stands for beliefs. At the core of athlete performance on the mental front are an athlete’s beliefs. These beliefs may vary depending on the context of the moment and greatly influence the subsequent ESR components of the model. Having worked with thousands of athletes in over 85 sports and all ages it never fails to address what each athlete truly believes in general and specifically about their performance. This is why you may notice two athletes who in practice perform at equal levels but one athlete greatly out performs the other athlete in competition. Their beliefs (what lies beneath the surface) may be greatly influencing the rest. Returning once more to the tennis player example, if we were to address her beliefs about her fear, she may say that she believes that her losses mean that she will never make it in her sport. In addition, she may believe that if she doesn’t make it then it was a big waste of time and that others will see her life as meaningless. Therefore, if she truly believes this when she will continue to compete with great fear and will also continue to make more uncharacteristic mistakes which then will further result in a negative display of reactivity such as throwing her racket. So the question becomes, how do we uncover the hidden beliefs?
This question is where SPMI comes into play. As a parent or coach, you already have a defined role. Albeit an extremely important one. Studies show that working outside this role often times results in a maladaptive response from the athlete because of the strong emotional relationship that the athlete and caretaker have already established. When we work with athletes, we are able to come into their life with a clean slate and a clearly defined role. This helps the athlete establish more trust and an increased rapport throughout our sessions leading to significant benefits for their future performance and overall well-being. Of course, there are more nuances involved and this model is an overly simplistic depiction of understanding the performance culprit. Nonetheless, my hope is that it provides you clarity in addressing the real issues and getting the help that you or your athlete need to finally break through. If you are an athlete, parent, or other caretaker and are interested in learning more please reach out to us for a free 15-minute consultation. We look forward to speaking with you.