Sports Mastery

In This Episode We Discuss:

• The importance of goals
• Matching words with ACTION
• Consistency with off-season training
• Injury prevention
• Sports Parent accountability
• Decision Making

Welcome back to Sports Mastery. In this episode, I share:

• The future of the show
• experiences throughout the Pandemic
• Inspirations
• Lessons on perseverance

Thank you for listening. Peace & Blessings.

DeShawn Fontleroy

In this episode, we discuss creativity amongst sport coaches or lack thereof. 

In this episode, Sugey Gomez and I discuss:

1. How the COVID-19 pandemic affecting student-athletes?

2. The greatest impacts felt by student-athletes stem from school closures.

3. Being in the house with family members, and not getting to see friends and teammates.

Let's face it, teens have different developmental needs than adults. They're at the stage in life when they are very invested in social connections and in separating from their parents. So, COVID-19 social distancing requirements have a different emotional impact on them than on adults. Depending on their age and developmental stage, many teens have had a hard time understanding what the pandemic really means and how it impacts their world.

Stay tuned as we dive into this episode.

DeShawn Fontleroy

Adapting To Online Learning

Sugey Gomez Discusses:

1. How to stay organized

2. Creating a structure to meet deadlines

3. Knowing when to rest your eyes from the computer screen

4. Her new projects...

 Staying Motivated During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Sharks aren't being affected by this and neither should you.

Here are some reflections and lessons that you should consider:

1. Keep Moving: Set small daily goals. It is important to recognize that these aren’t normal times, and your productivity is likely not at its peak right now. That’s okay. Setting daily goals can help you to make your day as productive as possible, but be realistic with the goals you set.

2. Carve out time in your day for more work and less bullshit. Work more at night when it's quiet and  dark, then spend time relaxing in the morning before jumping into work later on. Get off Netflix and the F'n video game console.

3. Start a new project, invention, or business. Study American History. This country is littered with multimillionaires who came out of the worst of depressions, recessions, and regressions throughout the history of this country.

As a coach, I'm always looking for an edge to develop my athletes. I get caught up with equipment, new technology, the popular coach's book for the month, etc. But now I'm beginning to look at each athlete that I train different. This leads us to genetics by understanding  and respecting all of our historical and ethnic differences. Take a listen as we discuss biodiversity...

Human Biodiversity (hbd) is very simply the diversity found among and between human populations that has a biological basis.*

Each of us is biologically unique. Our genomes, our phenomes, our patterns of gene expression, our epigenomes, our microbiomes — none of these are ever exactly the same in any two individuals, even identical twins.

Yes, you are all special! You’re not even the same person today biologically that you were when you were six — or sixteen (unless you’re still sixteen, of course).  Each individual human is biologically diverse when compared to all other humans and even across his or her own lifetime.  Human Biodiversity research is conducted in numerous academic disciplines and their subfields such as biology, genetics, medicine, neurology, psychology, and anthropology. HBD research also draws on social, historic, and prehistoric data related to human populations. (there is no separate academic discipline known as “human biodiversity.”)

1. Mentors believe in you, even when you don’t believe in yourself. 2. Supportive relationships are formed. A mentor gives a mentee access to a supportive relationship. A mentor becomes the mentee’s ‘go-to person’ which is someone where he/she can get advice from and assistance into how to deal with situations and how to respond or react.

3. Mentors give objective advice and constructive criticism. They are authentic and objective people. They will tell you straight up if you need to change your attitude or how to deal with situations. With mentors, there are no guessing games or feelings spared, but the criticism and advice are still constructive, tactful and supportive.

4. Mentors help with setting reasonable and reachable goals, creating necessary boundaries and practicing the right disciplines to align your professional and personal growth.

5. Mentors become the mentee’s cheerleader and confidence-booster. They motivate and inspire mentees to go all the way. To never stop trying, and through this, they motivate each of them to focus on developing endurance.
 


6. Mentors are usually well connected within the arena they operate in. This opens up a lot of networking opportunities for mentees. Mentors usually introduce their mentees and try to assist them in climbing the ladder to success. After all, mentors want to see their mentees succeed.

7. The mentorship becomes mutually beneficial and personally rewarding for both parties. Mentors are proud to be part of the mentees journey and in turn, mentees feel honored and invested in. When you are a mentor it doesn’t mean that there is nothing to be learned from the experience. Mentors also learn from their mentees.

Muscle-To-Mind Relaxation Skills (Circle Breath)

Taking slow, deep breaths can help performers/athletes/individuals be able to lessen muscle tension, racing heart rate, or stomach butterflies.

There are a number of breathing exercises, but the simplest and most basic one is a Complete Breath (AKA Circle Breath).

Basically, a deep breath from inhaling via nose, a slight pause, and then an exhale through the mouth.

When a Circle Breath is done right, a person looking will be able to see the shoulders stay relatively still, and stomach go in and out (similar to filling a balloon).

Usually, folks will lift and lower their shoulders as they breathe, which actually creates tension.

Here's how to have an individual do a correct circle breath. Have a client put one hand on his chest, and one hand on his stomach and see which one raises up and down.

When breathing is done correctly, the hand on the stomach should move, while the hand on the chest stays relatively still.

As the breath is inhaled, paused, and exhaled, adding counts can be helpful to make sure that the breath is slow, and complete.

Example: inhale for 4 seconds, holding for 1, and exhale out for 4.

*For another athlete/performer, that may not allow for a complete breath to be taken so customize accordingly.

To master the art of doing, you need to create habits and routines in the brain that are relatively resistant to quitting and paralysis-by-analysis.For the routine to become automatic, we need to design it with such conscious and deliberate precision that it's read made to run on autopilot.

Step 1: Learn the pattern, crack the code

A. Triggers

B. Rituals

C. Rewards

Step 2. Make watertight rituals

The ritual is the sequence of behavior steps you need in order to actually create a habit. You need to know exactly how it unfolds for you, and this takes some self-experimentation. If you're trying to start a new habit, you should design the ritual so it has a good chance of becoming automatic.

Step 3. Know the rewards that do and don't work for you

For some people, the reward is the driving force behind the habit. If the action you're trying to do isn't pleasurable or enjoyable, we need to find away to make it so.

Learn more in this episode...