Unlock Elite Performance: The Power of Motivation & Goal Setting, Momentum Labs x Exos Presentation

All right, well, we're going to get going for sake of time. Really thrilled to have you all here today for our webinar. It's a partnership with Momentum Labs and exos and we're going to talk about motivation and goal setting and driving elite athletes to success. My name is Abigail Eiler and I am the chief education and Product Development Officer for Momentum Labs. I'm also an international high performance mental game coach and a clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. And we, we will introduce you to the panelists as we get through. We're going to start out with a didactic, just a very brief overview on some, some key factors related to motivation and goal setting. So we all have just a general knowledge of what, what that looks like and some common language to utilize. Feel free to introduce yourself in the chat. We'd love to hear where y' all are from and if you're a parent, a coach or an athlete, or all of the above, wanting to get to know you and connect and build relationships with you all as we do this work. So as we dive into our goals for today on how do we equip athletes and parents and coaches with these strategies for long term success? It helps us really navigate as practitioners the ups and downs of sport. In and through this presentation, I really encourage folks to reflect on their own experiences, their own journeys, and choose the principles that best apply to the work that you do. So just a little bit about why do motivation and goal setting matter? That's something that comes up a lot from our athletes, from our parents. You know, we've got this general idea of like, yes, we need to be motivated in order to succeed and yes, we should be setting goals to know what we're working towards. But when we think about elite sports and the mental and emotional and physical demands that it puts on our, our brains and our bodies and everything, our athletes are constantly faced with challenges, whether it be performance slumps or being burnt out or pressure or self doubt. And so motivation is what keeps our athletes in a place where they're pushing forward right in. Motivation alone isn't enough. It needs to be paired with very structured goals that they're working towards. And when we talk about the role of parents and coaches and their significant role in this process, we always think about the words of encouragement, the support and the intentional and thoughtful approaches to either enhance motivation and sometimes it will diminish it unintentionally. And so by the end of the webinar, we hope we will leave you with some practical tools and skills that will sustain motivation and also set the stage for meaningful change. Now, when we talk about types of motivation and understanding motivation in elite athletes, I kind of look at it in three spaces. One being intrinsic. So this drive by internal passion and personal growth. And we see that through our athletes love for the sport and competition, their desire to improve skills and reach their goals, enjoyment. So that joy that comes with both the physical and mental challenges of competing and a sense of accomplishment. Right. There's always this sense of success and relief and enjoy that comes from mastering techniques and in reaching those ultimate goals that we've set either at the beginning of season or beginning of training. And so people take a lot of personal pride and self satisfaction in motivating themselves to continue forward and stay committed to the sport. And so we have really seen the thrill of pushing us to our limits. Right. The one thing that I found to be really interesting, and we hear this a lot when people are interviewed, is this transcendent motivation, so driven by a purpose beyond oneself. Whether people are inspired by other athletes or future generations, the imprint that they want to have on them if they feel like they're representing a team, a country, a community. Just this belief of like, my role in this is much larger than my individual success, right? If I win, we all win. And so it's a representation of something much larger, of making family and mentors proud and community. You know, we see that sometimes in the Olympics where they've got one person representing their country and you see the honor and the privilege that people really address in their, in their speeches and in their. The highlights that are done during the Olympic Games of folks that have single representation from certain countries, especially countries that are underserved or underrepresented. The other thing is also like giving back through coaching and mentorship and then playing for a charity or awareness or a bigger cause. You know, we see that a lot when we do runs for causes, right? So I don't know about you all, I'm. I've never been a huge fan of running. I'm a water person. I'm a former water pole player at Michigan and on the national team. And during those years, I, I never loved running, but I was like, I will this 5k for this charity because I'm raising money for something that's, that's bigger than myself. And then we see this extrinsic motivation. So these external rewards and opportunities for recognition, and whether that be trophies and championships and medals or scholarships and additional contracts, we see a lot of Especially in today's age, social recognition and status and media attention that comes from, you know, these opportunities and accolades and also the financial incentives. Right. Nil is not a thing of the past. It is at the forefront. And so that sometimes is driving and motivating our elite athletes to participate into, into reach high levels, whether that be through securing new opportunities or advancement. But all the same, it is an opportunity for us to ask them, what enhances your motivation? Okay, what are things that impede your motivation and drive so that we can understand what, what holds people back? Is your motivation style helpful? Right. Sometimes it might add too much pressure. Sometimes it's not kind of pushing us, you know, as far as it could. And so we've got to understand what are athletes? Why is like, where does it come from? I remember one of my mentors said, what is your passion and what is your purpose and how will you lead? And that was all done through the context of sport. And it drove me to continue to excel and to continue to compete, even in times when I really felt like walking away. And so I had to think about, what are my motivators? Internal, external, transcendent, and how do I stay in the game? Because what we notice, especially for female youth athletes, is they're leaving sport much earlier. And so if we can get people connected to sport and keep them connected to sport, they have better outcomes. And I know Dr. Haskell is going to talk a little bit about what we see for women in leadership and goal setting and motivation in just a little bit. So there's some science behind effective goal setting. We will often hear we should have smart goals. And some people are like, well, does that mean that our other goals aren't smart? No, that's not what it means. It means that they are specific, measurable, obtainable, relevant, relevant and time based. So we don't want something that's vague. Right. When we have a vague goal, it might be unrealistic, or sometimes it's too rigid. It doesn't often offer a lot of direction. And so we want to make sure that we've got short term, long term goals to build this momentum and ultimately see people reach their desired goals. So when we talk about smart goals, we are creating clear roadmaps. You know, not just, I want to be faster, it's I want to improve my sprint time by 0.2 seconds in my 40 over the next three months. And then someone like Brent might say, okay, and these are the ways that we know can get you there. So what are the things that we're going to do, we're going to do speed drills three times a week. We're going to do lifting in this capacity. You know, so those are the things that when we talk about being specific, we want to make sure we are really clear so that people know what they're working towards. Because if we don't know what we're working towards, it's hard to stay connected to it. It's hard to have that commitment when we are unsure. Now one thing that happens a lot is that sometimes there are obstacles to reaching our goals. And so in order to help guide our athletes through reflection on past successes and challenges, helping them define and identify their why, we really look at these three different areas. So the first one is activation. So why initiate or develop a goal? Right. So really trying to figure out the purpose behind it so that we can be persistent, which is the second. We understand the difficulties, the obstacles that occur. We create a pathway to navigate through the highs and lows and then finally the intensity. Right. So if we can reflect and reignite, we can increase our intensity. We are increasing our focus, our concentration, our confidence and ultimately our enthusiasm. Enthusiasm which keeps people motivated to work towards their, their ultimate goals. It's how we stay connected. And y' all feel free to ask questions at any time. We've just got a few more things to cover here before we get into our panel discussion. What we have noticed, especially in youth sport and working with elite sport athletes is the role that coaches and parents play in motivation. So really taking this opportunity to look at positive growth and how environment has improved people's success. And we do that through encouraging reflection and resilience and self motivation. So as coaches and parents, your role or our role is to influence their athletes motivation and to continue to praise and recognize through a very authentic, genuine way that people are committed, they're bought into the process. It's probably one of the most powerful tools with how you give feedback. So instead of always praising like great job for winning, it's I appreciate how hard you worked. Like you put in the time, the effort, the energy and look at the results. So you're helping affirm and validate all of their experiences and their commitment to sport just through your language and how you engage in process based praise and then finally helping athletes reframe setbacks as learning opportunities. I have a daughter who is a goalkeeper and as you all know, soccer goalkeepers that they, they take a lot, right? They're the last line of defense. And so if her team loses, she takes it very personally and I always say, what went well, where are areas for improvement, and what are we going to do next so that we're pulling our athletes out of this stuck point. So we recognize that the setback actually can help fuel our comeback. Right. It can help guide where we're going, how we're getting there, and what we're committed to doing. So that's just a very, very brief overview so that we've got some common language as we dive into this. So just a little bit, we've got three experts on our panel today. The first one is Brent Calloway. He's been with Exos for 16 years. He has trained over 500 NFL players, Olympic gold medalists, World cup teams, and he is a consultant to professional teams, world professional sports teams worldwide. He brings an unmatched area of expertise in strength and conditioning, and we are honored to have him here today. So thank you, Brett, for being here. We've got Dr. Brett Haskell. Dr. Brett Haskell is the clinical director of mental health and high performance for the National Women's Soccer League, a psychologist for the mlb, and also a member of the Momentum team. And she'll talk a little bit about that. And she specializes athletes to thrive mentally and physically at their highest levels. And then our third and final panelist is Cooper Tenko. Cooper Tenko is employed at the University of Michigan and is also a clinical social worker and high performance coach at Momentum Labs and brings a lot of skills related to empowerment and mental toughness and resilience, combining that with psychotherapy to help produce best outcomes for the athletes in which she works with. So without further ado, I am excited to introduce y' all to our panelists. So welcome, y'. All. I don't know if there's anything that you all would like to add or if you'd like me just to dive right into the questions for today. We had some folks submit questions ahead of time, and we will have people submitting questions to us also in the chat. So I'll do my best to monitor that. But anything that you would like to say before we get going?

Yep. Well, listen, first off, Abigail, I. After hearing your explanation of my program, without us ever talking about our program, I don't know that I need to be here. Like, you nailed it. I was like, I don't. What am I here for? So, awesome job. You're right.

Yeah, I love it. Right in the work that we do.

That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. I think it's like. I think what will be great is, like, we can talk a little more anecdotally like you gave like the bread and butter foundation of all things motivation and goal setting from an evidence based standpoint. And people, you really have to understand the nuts and bolts to then start to individualize that to each unique person. But I think when we think about motivation and goal setting, one thing I've Learned in my 20 years of practice is that it's very individual. And if you're helping someone or guiding someone in trying to set goals that sustain motivation over time and commitment over time and develop grit and persistence, you really have to ask such diligent questions to elicit from them all the information that will help you set a really good goal setting plan. The hard part is asking the right questions to get someone to lay out a really thorough plan. I think we, we do goal setting a real disservice because we over simplify it. And it's a very individualized process that takes some time if you want it to be effective for actually changing behavior.

Absolutely. Great points. So let's dive right into that because that's one of the questions that was submitted ahead of time. It's how can athletes create personalized goal setting strategies that account for their unique physical and or mental capabilities?

Brent, you want to, you want to jump in first?

I'm in. I hit mute. It took me a second. I was up, coming off mute. I'm a Neanderthal when it comes to computers and so sometimes it takes me a second. Yeah, you see that? You can tell. So yeah, it's very important for us. And specifically the program that I'm coaching right now is preparing athletes to get ready for the NFL combine, which is a big moment for them, not only because it is, it is their showcase where they get to display their athleticism when they're transitioning, transitioning from the collegiate world to the NFL world. But they're also trying to increase their draft stock. And these athletes get paid based on where they're drafted. So if they're drafted in the second round or the third round, there's a difference in paycheck right there. So that's very important to them. The other thing that is very different for football players is that they always have 10 people around them on the field and they're always guarded by pads and a helmet. And so you never see them. Right. You see a uniform and you see a number that represents them and a name on the back, but you don't see them, you don't see their face. And for me, some of the things as we start talking about goal setting and motivations. Some of the things that I use, and I would love for you guys to tell me if I'm right or wrong, because I'm learning here as well. But some of the things that I use are letting them know, like you are. You're venturing into a world now where you're going to have to step up and stand on a line by yourself and put your hand down on that line and squat down, kneel down, and get ready to take a deep breath and run. And the second that you kneel down, there's going to be a big camera lens that zooms right in on you and it's going to be deathly silent. And there's nobody there to save you. There's nobody in the huddle. There is no huddle. It's you. You right in. In that moment. Everybody who has known you and loved you and been a part of your process is watching. So are you going to be ready for that moment or, or. And take advantage of all of the opportunities through the training process that you have, or are you going to take advantage of 75 of them and then let 25% of them slip away? Because if that's it, then you're going to get 75% of the results and you won't get 100. And then you're going to be mad at me, me. So. And I tell them, like, I'll take that blame, but I'm gonna stay on you to make sure that you know, you know that, that, that you're a part of that process as well. So there's, there's a lot of education that goes through that. So I think based on my note taking, you guys tell me if I'm wrong, but I feel like what I'm trying to tap into is a tran. A transcendent goal in motivation, right? Where it's like, okay, not only am I doing this for myself, but there are also others that are going to be watching me, and I want to make them proud as well.

I love that. I'm gonna, I want to highlight a few things and, and really, like, pull out the tools that you're using and name the tools so that other people can replicate those, whether they're working with pro athletes or other athletes. First of all, you know, I think helping. So motivation is a very personal process, and I think we lose sight of that sometimes and, and helping athletes connect to their purpose, right? So you get, you get really in tune with your athletes and what matters to them and what's driving them to want to get that contract because the assumptions are a number of reasons that they would want an NFL pro contract. And you're helping them clarify that by getting to know them and them identifying their purpose. Because they're going to go do something really, really vulnerable and exposing. And so they have to have some courage and some vulnerability to do that.

Right.

And the second thing that you're doing is you're helping them focus not on the outcome, which is, I want to get drafted high because then I get X amount of dollars. Right. For being at this point in the draft, getting drafted at this point in the draft, which is the outcome goal. Right. But you have them lock in on what are the steps that'll get you there. I have to first perform well at Pro Bowls. I have to then perform well at the combine. These are the things I have to do to perform well at those places, those process and performance oriented goals. So you're taking them down from an outcome goal, which is where most people stop, is they stop at the outcome goal, which is, I want to get drafted at this point. This is the goal. You're taking them all the way down and you're scaffolding with, like, points between, like points from where I'm at now to where I need to get to and outlining a plan of how they're going to go about doing that. The other thing is, is it's a lot easier to feel in control when it's about like, okay, here's exactly what's going to happen. You're eliminating uncertainty and you're focusing on. These are the things you need to do for execution, which creates a sense of competence and competence drives confidence. Right. So you're doing all of these really critical things, but identifying performance. So I'm guessing that they have certain goals based on their testing and how they're progressing for aspects of the combine. Right?

Correct.

For the 40 yard. For their.

Yep.

All those things. I go every year. I should know all these things. But. And so. So you're doing all of that. But then the, the process goals are. Okay, so now when they get to you, Brent, each week, probably every day a little bit, there's a new goal. Right. And those are the process goals. And the process goals are actually the thing that give you the most consistent hits of, of dopamine, which is your motivation chemical. So your motivation chemical. You get more of that by seeing yourself make little strides each and every day. And what people don't understand is when you get to the point that your athletes are at the progress you see is so much more minuscule than when you first started, right. So you have to have this tolerance for like, I have to do so much effort to see just this much progress. And so those daily goals help you sustain that motivation and stay energized and keep wanting to show up every day because you see a fraction of a second come off of something or you just see your form improve a little bit. Right. That would be a process. Goal is like, oh man, you really kept your elbows in that time or whatever. So I just wanted to name. Because you did such a good job of explaining how you work on goal setting individually with your athletes. And I wanted to like label the tools you're using that someone else could use in another setting.

Oh, that, that's awesome. So one of the things, I'm going to give you a little bit of background and then I'm going to keep going on, on what you said, Dr. Haskell. So in our program, we time when athletes arrive pending they're healthy, they'll run a 40 yard dash. Inevitably, it's the slowest 40 yard dash they've ever run, right? Because it's electronically timed, which they're not used to. And they've just finished playing a terrible football season, you know, terribly long is how I should say that. Some of them are great football seasons, but. But terribly long. And so there's nothing worse for speed than playing football, right? Because it's just a different stimulus. And so I let them know that that's okay, you know, and don't worry about that. There are no scouts, there are no GMs out here, it's just me. Right? And my job is to help you get to where you want to be. So let's just get a number and get started. And you're going to run this and you're going to be disappointed in yourself and you're going to get mad at me for being able to push a button so fast. And that's all. All that's good. So with that being the case, we train for about two weeks and then after that, once everybody understands the schedule and the flow and the people that are around them. And a small aside, these aren't athletes that come in with a big background of us, right? So they know a friend who trained with us. The friend had great results. So then they lock in and they say, okay, I'm going to go train here. Or an agent says, hey, this is a great place to train. I've used them before in the past with great Results. So they walk in the door and they don't know us from anyone. And so we have to build relationships and trust very, very quickly and let them know that ultimately their performance is the end result for us. And we're all working for them. They don't work for us. This is not like a college environment where somebody's paying you to be there anymore. Like, I'm, I'm your, you know, you're my client and I'm going to take care of you. That's my job. So once we've gone through that process and everybody starts to learn the schedule and the script and fall into the routine, then we start strategically timing different parts of a 40 yard dash on Monday and Friday. And so Friday seems to be the most valuable one because that's when they get down in a stance and they run 20 yards. So it's the first half of a 40 yard dash. And so what everybody wants to do in the beginning is go through the week and then they show up on Friday and they're like, now it's time to do the work, right? And so they want to sprint. And so we go through the first Friday and everybody usually comes out a little bit disappointed and I'm yelling at them quite a bit. So trying to evoke emotion a little bit and get intensity. But we usually don't make much progress. Number one, they've been there two weeks, they've been training, they're very sore, they got a lot of micro trauma going on and they're trying to come through that. But we sit down on Saturday morning with everyone and we put the times up right? And so we say, okay, you started here and you're in the same spot. Don't be disappointed in that. Because we're playing a game of hundredths of a second. Hundredths, right? What we want to do is improve your 40 yard dash by a quarter of a second, 2500ths of a second. But the way that we're going to get there is by these timing moments at the beginning and the end of the week, by winning 100th of a second every time we do that. And if we do that, we're going to get, we've got 12 of these, right? So by the time we get to the end, we're going to be at 2400ths of a second and then we win. But here's the catch, is that you can't show up on Friday thinking it's game day and just be ready to go. Monday's got to be game day. Tuesday's got to be game day, Wednesday's got to be game day. And everything that we do in our program is built to deliver the results that you will see on Friday. The work isn't on Friday. That's the result, right? So every set that you execute, it has to have intent, has to be purposeful, has to be at 100% intensity in order to get the value. Any small marginal gains that we're trying to get that are going to add up to that hundredth of a second that we're going to snap out on Friday, and we're talking about Monday afternoon's lift, right? And so all of those things that. The stretching that we do, that's going to give you new range of motion so that your stride length gets better. I need you to stretch with purpose and intent and not stretch while you're looking at your phone and talking to your buddy over here, right? So everything is designed for those purposes. So we have to lock in and accomplish that on a daily basis. And you have to pick up your protein shake because that's going to give you the fuel to heal up quicker. So once you recover with that fuel, then you'll be able to train harder the next day that we come back in and all you start creating purpose behind each one of those steps in the process, I guess. Process goals, I guess. Is that what that would be? And then you get to, you get to, you know, pick up all of those hundreds at the end of the week. And one of the things that I equate it to, because all of my athletes play video games. They all play video games. They relocate to be here, and they have nothing to do after training, so they play video games with each other. And there's the, there's the, you know, the battle games where they walk around with the guns. And I'm not a gamer, so if anybody is out there, don't get mad at me. But they walk around with the guns, right? And so I. I tell everyone, look, when you're playing these games, you walk around and. And if you pick up a little bit better weapon, you put it in your backpack and now you're a little bit better, right? And so then you're going to move over and you're going to pick up a health kit and you're going to put that in, you're going to pick up some armor, and you're going to pick that, put that in and. And pick up a meal and put it in. And by the end of it, you're building up your character. To be tougher and more vigilant and, you know, have more firepower and all that stuff. And I said this exact same thing that we're doing on a regular basis. So when it comes to nutrition, we're trying to pick that up and put in your backpack so that your body fat comes down a little bit. And now when we do that, we're not carrying around useless weight, you know, and when it comes to regeneration, we have to have intent with that, so we get the range of motion and we get stability, and our lift has to equate to speed and power. And then we have to have the mechanical education. And if you keep putting all these things in the backpack, they're all hundreds of a second. And so when we get to Indianapolis and we turn that backpack over and dump it out, we got 25 of those things that fall out, and now everybody's happy, and we can all clap and hug at the end of it. So that, that's what I I I'm trying to equate it to them. It's taken me 25 years to figure out how to do that, but to equate it to them in a way that they get it and they understand. And then we can go back and we can track other people's journeys, and we can say, okay, name an athlete that you look up to that's come through this program. Here's a sheet. You know, let's look at Patrick Mahomes progress. Okay, so Patrick Mahomes started right here. He ended right here. Here's the exact same script that he followed, and you can follow his progress on all these testing days. You just got to follow that script all the way across the board.

I'm wondering what your all thoughts are on this. We had a question come through from one of our participants, but how do you keep athletes motivated and consistent with mental skills training when they're not seeing results in their performance?

Yeah, go ahead, jump in on this one. Um, I think this one is, is super interesting for me, because I experienced this both as an athlete and then now as an individual working with athletes. Um, I really like to kind of backtrack a little bit with them and think about their values and what they value and why. Um, because a lot of the time, it's really EAS to feel like I'm not doing well. I don't like who I am. My identity is shifting because I might not be successful in my sport, playing to my best. And so when we shift back to the values and think about, well, if my Value is to be a strong teammate. How does a strong teammate show up? How does a strong teammate act? And it kind of infuses that into their performance because they're not just thinking about themselves and their, how they're going to play. They're building their confidence off of things that make them feel really good and empowered. And I think a lot of the time, obviously knowing your athlete and they define each of their own values. I like to do the three to five and they're able to come back to that and say, like, okay, is this really defining who I am? Is this really who I am or am I living this out? And typically, at least in my experience, when they are kind of living that out more, they're playing better. They're building that confidence versus being a version of themselves that they don't necessarily like. And how are we going to play at our best if we're not living our values as a version of ourselves that we like? So I like to kind of backtrack to that.

I think Emily Klee, who's with USA Swimming, she talks a lot about like good performance. It somehow translates into the brain to like, good person, bad performance, bad person. And so how do we kind of take on this identity based off our performance and keep people in the game and keep people motivated? And so I'm wondering, Dr. Haskell, I don't know if you have anything to add to that or if you could maybe speak to like coaches and the balance between accountability and encouragement when an athlete is struggling.

Yeah, I think. Well, I want to go back to the question first and then I'll jump onto how coaches can, can balance that. I, I think that one of the big things is it depends on how long it's taking the athlete to achieve whatever the goals are. If you've only set outcome goals with athletes and you haven't set goals, the process goals or performance goals that are more statistic based regardless if they win or lose, so to speak, then part of that may be because too many of the variables that go into the goal are out of their control. So I'd look first at are the variables that you're using that play into the outcome of the goal under their control or not? Is it attitude based, effort based, technical, tactical? If it's not those those things, I would go right there and I would start redefining your goals. I think one of the things people think about goals is that you should be rigid and inflexible. That's actually not true. We find that people who are rigid and inflexible and they don't take into account current data. They're actually less likely to achieve their goals and sustain their motivation. So you have to have some degree of nimbleness. I don't know, is that a word, nimbleness? I just coined it nimbleness. You have to be nimble to some degree in order to take into account information that may be changes and adapts. If you, ach. If you get an injury during a season and you're trying to play through it, you have to adapt your goals probably because of the conditions you're under and that's a part of sustaining motivation. And so I would look at am I setting process goals and am I setting performance goals or am I exclusively looking at my outcomes which are largely outside of your control? You could put forth great effort. If you're in a team sport, you're dependent on the people around you, the referees. If you play an outdoor sport, you're dependent on weather, you, who are you playing, are you playing against Patrick Mahomes, all of these other factors. And so we, we lose motivation when we lose autonomy and the sense that we have control over, over our achievements. We can define our achievement by things that are effort based, attitude based, technical and tactical. Then we're going to sustain motivation longer. If you have done that and they're seeing, they're not seeing progress at least on a weekly basis in some incremental form, then probably what you're doing is you're not setting realistic or achievable goals. And that's a really important part of motivation. And those chemicals that I was talking about earlier and Brent was actually talking about how he breaks down and makes goals really achieve realistic and achievable for guys, right? We're talking about milliseconds here. Some of the guys that come and work with you probably don't realize that, that that's what we're trying to achieve here. They think they're going to shave a second off their 40 when they come to you, right? And they're not. They're going to shave milliseconds off of their 40. And so you're right away helping them understand the contextual factors, the physiology of like how to set a realistic goal for themselves. So if someone isn't achieving a goal, I would get back with them. Goal setting isn't something you do once, it's something you do every week. Every week. Good. Goal setting is something you are getting feedback on constantly and you're using that feedback to then decide what is the next process goal, what is the next performance goal? To sustain motivation. So, and then the other piece is, is there, are there other reasons they're losing motivation? Is the goal their own intrinsic or is it from someone else? Is it a parent goal? Is it a coach goal? Is this something they care about? And if it's. And, and it may not mean that they don't love their sport, but you may not understand what they love about their sport and how to help them define goals that keep them motivated in their sport related to what they care about in it. And that's really, really important. So, Abigail, your last question was about challenge and support, right?

So it was about, like, how can coaches balance accountability and encouragement? And Brent talked about this a little bit, you know, like how he's motivating guys that are feeling sore and they're tired and they're transitioning out of a season into the combine training. So just wondering if you could speak a little bit to balancing accountability and encouragement, especially athletes struggling with failure here.

Yeah. So I think that we actually know that the best coaching that, that gets the, the, that drives the best outcomes. There's a guy named Sarkar who does a lot of research on motivation and it's a balance of challenge and support, an ideal balance of challenge and support. And you need both. Athletes who aren't challenged lose motivation and athletes who aren't supported need motivation. And you need them in equal balance. So should be thinking about, I actually encourage a ratio of like 3 to 1 or 5 to 1. Encouragement to support. There's some evidence that reinforcements and punishments kind of work in an ideal fashion in that ratio. But the other piece of that is that we really want to try to make the challenge as objective as possible. Like, how can you measure things in a way that you're just giving them feedback? It's objective feedback about performance. We've tracked this, we've tracked that. We're talking constantly. I'm giving you feedback. I think honesty is one way to demonstrate love and care. And I always front load that with my athletes because you're going to get a lot of honesty from me. So letting them know that when I give you feedback, it's because I care about you and you've told me you care about this. So if you tell me you care about this, I'm going to give you feedback that's going to help you, you know, strive for excellence. On the same token, anytime you can catch them, them doing something right. I'm trying to think. My sister's a behavior analyst. And there's a term they use for like picking out. Anytime somebody does something a little bit right or even close to right, and you can identify it and reinforce. You can get that kind of ratio of that 3 to 1 or 5 to 1, even when they're not having a ton of success or their motivation is lower. But honest conversations can be couched in a very respectful way. But honesty is how you show someone you care about them. Well, thanks.

Just wondering if y' all could speak a little bit about how athletes can utilize daily habits or routines to reinforce both short term and long term performance goals.

I have some specific ideas, but I don't know. I feel like I've talked a lot.

Jump on in Dr. Has.

So I do. I actually do a lot of talking, speaking on, on habit, habit making and habit breaking. But I think that. So we are. There's something in our brains called procedural memory. And it's easier for us to do things that are part of a routine. So the more that you can kind of build routines around the plans that you have. So one of the other things I say about goal setting is that goals without plans are wishes. Goals without plans are wishes. Hear that again with me. Goals without plans are wishes. So if you have plans for how to achieve your goals, goals build a structured routine around how to execute those plans. Brent was talking beautifully about how he does that. From the moment they walk into his facility on day one, every day they walk into his facility thereafter, all the way up until they go to the combine, they're building habits. They have a routine. I'm sure that, Brent, you can speak to the routine you have them go through so that you're optimizing the chances that they're going to be able to engage the, the, the process goals and the performance goals to the best of their ability, right? So how they put their hands in the ground, how they come up to the line, what they do once they. You talk about the protein shakes, right? The protein shakes. And this is a. But you're. You're probably having them do that in a really structured way, if I had to guess. Because what you're doing is you're capitalizing on procedural memory so that I don't ever forget my protein shake. And I'm always. I always have energy at the end of a workout because I've built a routine around that. The other thing is recognizing the, the factors that make us more likely to lose grit and persistence, which are stress, lack of sleep, not eating properly and not hydrating well, and then losing connection so those are the things that tend to make us more fragile to sticking with things and having perseverance. So really trying to take care of those underlying sort of psychosocial components of our life that then enable us to walk in the door, have those procedural memory processes that allow us to execute on the plan that's going to get us to the goal. Right.

Yeah. There's some things in there that I want to expand on. What is the routine? Right. And for us, that routine exists throughout the entire day. Day. And it. It's not. It's everywhere. Right. The routine is everywhere. And so when. And I even think about it when I walk in the building every day, how do I walk in the building? What is my energy when I walk in the building and what am I giving a room whenever I enter. And whether they want it or not, they're going to get energy from me. And usually it's 6:30 in the morning. Somebody's in there training and they're going to hear me when they walk in the door, you know. And I'm going to come in with a smile. Smile. I'm give some fist bumps. And I'm going to make sure that everybody is somehow brightened by that or encouraged by that. And that's a big thing. I'm going to say good morning to everybody as they come in. Right. Because there's. I. I feel like there's a lot of power and a consistent good morning that they know I'm in a place that is welcoming me regardless of how long I've been there, what my background is or who I am. I'm welcome.

You're capitalizing on connection.

Exactly. Exactly.

Those are the conditions.

Yes. Look at you. You're just labeling everything. I'm just talking.

Sorry. You're. You're putting out gold. So I got.

That's awesome. The other thing that I want to make sure that our staff does is that ensures that when a player walks in and a player understands that I have a 9:15 training session that that training session starts at 9:15. And it's not 9:16. It's not 9:17. Right. And there's always an oops. And I get that. But it needs to be on that time. And the player needs to know based on how our equipment is set up that we're prepared and it's. It's not a mess. And then we're scrambling trying to do things at the last minute. But here are. You know, if we're going to start with warm up, here are 10 stations set up for you. And you can come in and you can see, all right, it's Monday. It's the same pieces of equipment that I had last Monday. I'm starting to learn the routine. Right, right. And so that we're, we're, we're very consistent and we fight and strive to be very consistent and have a lot of conscientiousness around that so that the players understand this is what I'm doing today, which is another thing that I'm going to get to with my next point. But this is what I'm doing today, and I see that this is consistent with what we've done before. So it's almost like just microscopic elements of routine that's always there, there, and so they're not left guessing. The last thing that I would say is I try, I challenge myself as much as possible to make habitual the plan for the day. And I tell them that in a, in a moment in time during our warm up, that suits them. Right? So we get through a couple of things and I'm saying, okay, everybody listen, this is what we've got for today. This is what we're going to go through. We're going to do this, we're going to do that, we're going to do this. Then we're going to get a little bit of that, that then we're going to go all out. Right? And so this whole session is going to build to that moment. So be ready for that moment. When I say it's time to go, we're going to go. Everybody got it? Yes. Okay, now we go over here and we do that. And it takes me 15 seconds to say that. But the fact that I'm giving them a clue of what's coming up doesn't leave them guessing. And it means that when I say go hard right now, I mean go hard right now. I don't mean reserve 10% because you don't know what's coming up next.

Next.

This is an off season. This is high performance, right? So we're fighting for hundreds of a second, not for our lives on this. Right. So you, you can put out because I'm going to let you take five minutes rest afterwards. So give me everything you got on this one and then go take your five minutes of rest. You can do some soft tissue work and some stretching and then get up and get ready to go to war again. So that forecasting what their day is going to look like, I feel like has, has gives them a lot of intel around what they're going to be doing. And how to approach that.

It's part of preparation, right? Like if. If they know what's coming, they know how to prepare for it, both mentally and physically. And I think the one thing, and Cooper and I talk about this quite often, like when we are consistent, we become predictable. When we become predictable, people are more likely to feel comfortable with us, and then they're more likely to trust us. When we are pushing them what they believe is past their limit, when it's really we are pushing them to their goals and into their limits, it, you know, in a way that mentally and physically brings them to their highest level of achievement.

Abigail, can you say that one more time? Consistently, consistency makes us predictable.

Predictable. And when we increase predictability, we increase someone's comfortability or what we would call alliance, right? Our therapeutic alliance with the person. And then it increase and drives trust. So people buy in. People buy in when they feel valued and cared about. They're more likely to trust us.

Okay, so now I'm just gonna trust themselves. That's right now. Now I've just got to get that blown up and put that on on my wall, those four things.

So I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna add on to this.

Yes.

So the brain's primary job is to maintain homeostasis. Its job is to review the past, to control and predict the future, to mobilize you for what the next challenge is. What you're doing is you are creating tremendous amounts of predictability for them. You're teaching them how to leverage routines to create predictability for themselves so that they, our brains, can only worry about the uncertainty of the competition, not the uncertainty of all the things leading up to the competition.

There it is.

Wonderful, thanks.

So we've got some questions here from those that are attending. So I'm going to ask some of those. Even though we've got a couple more that were, were pre submitted, but the first one is from a 10 year old. So I'm a 10 year old softball player that's having trouble carrying over my confidence and skills during live hitting. Seems to be fine with machine and coaches, but it's hard to focus. Any specific recommendations on how to increase that confidence evidence during live hitting? And maybe we'll bring this to Dr. Haskell because you work in the ML.

Oh, I was gonna say Cooper. I think Cooper should tackle this.

Totally do it.

Okay, let's go, Cooper.

Come on.

You're up.

You're up, girl.

Well, I think this is interesting because being 10, your stage of development and this is where like my, I think my clinical background comes a little bit too. Is your stage of development is you're learning a lot about yourself, yourself at this time. You're also learning a lot about the sport. There's a lot of learning going on that can be really overwhelming. And then it might feel really good in one environment, which is what it's seeming like, and then feel not so good in another. So that transition. So it's like, how do we build this bridge? I feel like the athletes I work with, it's always, how do we build this bridge? How do we kind of get us from here to there? And so I think one thing I would say is, is what does your self talk look like? So it seems like you're having success in one environment. So what are you doing in that environment that's leading to that success? So you're fine with your coaches, you're fine with the machine. What are you saying to yourself during those moments? Are you saying those positive affirmations? Are you speaking positively to yourself? Are you doing those routines, habits that make you feel really good? Because you probably are, because that's an environment of success. And then when you kind of switch over to that live hitting, are you walking up nervous? Are you kind of creating these routines and habits that are leading you to feel like you're doing something different? And I know we've talked about the routine and if we're changing that, you're going to show up and it's going to feel different. How would it not feel different? So when you pair that difference with what your body and your mind are doing differently, of course you're going to be, you know, nervous, shaky, sweaty, all of those things. But if you maintain that routine, that self talk, that's going to lead to one, that stability, and two, that confidence that you have in one space, you're just trying to bring to another. So I would really look into what's going well in those moments. And then how do you translate that, modify it, and bring it into a new environment? I was a gymnast, and so obviously when you compete, there's very different equipment than what you train on every day. And so I had a lot of issues with that of like, how do I bring this confidence to a completely new place? There's a lot of different breathing you can do. Whether that's just doing a big reset breath. I do that with a lot of my athletes of like, okay, I'm going to do a big inhale, let it out. And like, I even have an athlete that like, wipes their hands and like, shakes it off and throws it away. And throw it away and walk up with that confidence. So at least that's where my mind goes towards that.

Thank you. There's another question here. It says, how would you guide athletes saying things like, I want to learn how to stay focused on given tasks even when my motivation is lacking. And then the example they gave was, was for student athletes often getting distracted by social media, doing homework assignments, things of that nature. That motivation is great, but athletes might not stay motivated in all areas of their lives. So just any recommendations on how you guide those athletes to stay focused on given tasks?

I think you have to do an audit. Like, you gotta. You gotta audit your life and your time, and you gotta examine, like, where am I spending my time and does it. Cooper brought this up earlier, which I think is great. Is, does it align with my value values? And if I were to. I think it's great to, like, create a pie on a. Draw a circle on a piece of paper and put next to it all the things you do on a day on average and write them in and then write them in terms of, like, what your priorities would be. So if number one is, you know, time with my family, then school, then my sport, then my social media time, then these other things, and then try to draw out what percentage of your pie you would want to spend on each of those things in any given day in a way that would most align with your values and what's important to you. Then do an audit of your time, get in your phone, look at how much time you spend on social media. Because you can widdle. I make. I make athletes do this in exercises with me. I'll have them pull out their phone and I can show them where to. Where to look at how much time they're on X or how much time they're on Insta or TikTok or whatever and. And account for that first. And so we'll put that in the pie. And then we kind of estimate date based on. We can break it down in their day, how much time they're spending on other things. And then we look at both pies next to each other and then we set some goals for how I'm going to get there. And then using like, we all need accountability, especially with things that are very tempting and very addicting. And social media is extremely addicting. Just like I'm addicted to caffeine. It's. I love it. It's wonderful. If I don't want to use it, I need it. Out of my house. And so, you know, removing access to it. So put on limits and have timers that shut off your screen time and, and remove access to those things that, so that you can align your life and with your values in the way that you want, but you have to do an audit first.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Bren, I'm wondering if you've got any thoughts on this one. It says when faced with failure, how can a coach remain transparent with their athletes while maintaining authority and leadership? And you probably see that a lot, right when, when folks are really struggling, how do you give them like this authentic transparent feedback to drive their motivation and help them reach their goals?

This is an awesome one. Okay, I'm gonna have to sort myself out here. I naturally, I think I always come back to small wins and I refer back to. Okay, okay, but remember when we did this and it worked, right? And so that was a win. So celebrate that. Right? And then what were the things that we did that got us that win? Now let's go back and focus on those things again and get. Try to get another one. I naturally, I think I do that. And then I also try to find maybe historical comparisons for them where I can say, you know, the situation that you're in was the exact same situation that this other athlete was in. And this, this is regardless of if it's preparing for the NFL combine or, or a gymnast or a swimmer preparing for the Olympic Games. We just got finished working with USA Diving a little bit and. And there's a lot of. It's the same everywhere. Very, very similar things and similar strategies. Excuse me. So I always try to find the comparison and say, okay, let's look at what they did when they were in your shoes. And can we follow that point?

Yeah, that's great.

Thanks.

And then we've got.

Call that vicarious learning. It's lovely and it's a great way to, to help with motivation.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm The professor or Dr. Haskell is the professor, but a huge educator. I always appreciate it. We have a question from an 11 year old hockey player. What do I do when I feel like I'm trying my best, but at the same time I feel like I'm burning out and I don't know how to handle it.

It.

So just any strategies or any recommendations there?

Okay, can I. I'll talk first. I always feel bad. Like I start talking. I'm like somebody else needs. But so I tell all of my athletes that they're in. In my children, I have an 11 year old and an 8 year old who play sports as well and love sports. But I tell them they get to choose one sport per season. I like for them to mix that sport up so that they get experiences and learnings and physical development amongst all sports and different friend groups in these different sports. And then guess what, we're going to take breaks in between them where you're, for two months, you're going to ride your bike around the neighborhood and go knock on people's doors and bring them outside and play. And so they. I was a, I was a track and field athlete. More specifically, I was a pole vaulter from the seventh grade up through my colleague.

So much about you.

Oh no, it's a little bit loony. We're always a little bit loony. Right.

But wonderful in so many ways.

So with that I knew that if I was constantly in that world and I had seen a lot of really, really good athletes before me that were just in that 365 days a year, by the time they were a junior in college or they were finished with high school, high school, they didn't want anything to do with it anymore because it was so much. And I'm ready to like pack that up and move on to something else now for myself. I had another sport to break that up. And my family took vacations and we did things together. So I was always looking forward to when I could get to practice. So I, I've always encouraged everyone to understand that we're going to do this for two months. This is going to be the sport that we do for two months. And then after that two months we're going to take a break.

Break.

We've got a couple of vacations we're going to go on or we're going to take some time off or this is ride your bike, climb a tree time. And I always tell my kids, like, you can come back in the house when you bring me a frog. You know, like, dad, when can we come back in? Bring me a frog. You can come back in the house, go, go dig something up, you know, get outside and go do something else and be creative and entertain yourself with something. And then when sports comes and it's a, a time that's very structured, you're, you're engaged by it and you're ready for it and you enjoy it. And then you, you get to package that up and put it away and get ready for the next season or the next sport.

Great, thanks.

And I'll jump in here too. I think a similar Note to what Brent is saying is I think it's so important for every single athlete to really develop that sense of identity outside of sport. I really feel like we want our athletes to be lifelong athletes and that will shift as they age, but they can't have that shift and continue to want to do their sport. If they don't know who they are outside of their sport, they're going to lose that passion, they're going to lose that love. Because if you do something every single day and you're constantly thinking about it, the odds that you're going to love it in 20, 25 years are so slim. You would be so tired of that thought. So I think really working on developing who I am outside of sport, what do I like, what do I not like, is so important because I've seen this within myself of developing my identity. Post sport was such a challenge because it felt like it was stripped from me. But once I kind of got those skills, it brought me back to sport to be like, this is something fun to do versus a have to. And that's really the goal is to keep your body moving, to keep you engaged, to keep you happy. So I think really developing that sense of identity is so important. And that applies to sport, to work, to school, to really anything in any space that you're in.

Thanks.

So this is opportunity for final words of wisdom or encouragement. Anything that you all want to leave our participants with in terms of motivation, goal setting, either tips, tricks, or anything in between.

Brent, I thought you were going to talk first.

Listen, I tried not to press the unmute button. I gave you guys the eyes and I was looking around and you still made me go first. Tips or tricks? I Positive selft talk recognizing wins and losses and that losses are okay. Okay. Yeah, that. That's, that's something that I really value. And that every day, in the decisions that I make when I'm at work and when I'm engaging 50 to 55 athletes on a regular basis, I each one of those is a contest for me. And so I'm going to win in some of those. And sometimes I'm going to say something that doesn't stick with somebody else and like, oh, that didn't work right. So loss. Chalk that one up. Don't do that again. Let's figure that out. I've got to learn from each one of those losses. And when I can do that and then we keep stacking wins up, then there's a lot more positive in your day than there is negative. And I always Try to. People say, how was your day? And I think my wife has stopped asking me because I really. I don't think I have bad days. And I'm. I don't mean that in a way that is. That is any. There's no arrogance around that or anything, but. But just remaining positive and recognizing the joy and value and getting to. To be where we are and be where our feet are and being around those love and our friends and in our network. And if we're in a learning situation, we get to learn and we get to expand and finding those wins. And when you see a loss, don't beat yourself up about it. Learn from it and move forward.

Yeah, that's. That's the heartbeat of growth mindset.

Right.

Like, how do we learn from our experiences and stay positive and motivated to continue doing this work? Thanks, Brent. Dr. Haskell.

Yeah, I think I would. I actually would just like to piggyback on that and really think about. Because I. I see so much fear of failure in, like, our society in so many ways. And I think we need to really alter our definition, which is what Brent is talking about. We alter our definition of what failure is. And what I've tried to teach my children is that failure is not trying something. Failure is not having the courage to do something even when you're a little scared, because it's good for you and it aligns with your values. And so I would just encourage people to think about when they're setting goals, and especially when the goals feel a little scary and a little vulnerable and exposing is, you know, asking yourself the question, what's worth doing even. Even if I fail? Because then you're probably doing something that connects with your sense of purpose, with your why and aligns with your values. So what's worth doing even if you fail? And if you start from that point and you outline a plan and you have some goals, you're going to experience the. The joys of both the trying and the succeeding. And sometimes the trying and the struggling, too.

That's amazing. That definitely reminds me. My sister was a ballerina for over 30 years, and she always said there were times that I was scared. And you can do things when you're scared.

Yep.

Right. And so mean that power within your self talk and everything else really helps.

Cooper, our mantra at our house is being brave even when you're a little scared.

I love that.

Yeah.

I have to go last after what I was planning on sharing, but I would say.

In a.

In a weird way, like, I think not taking yourself too seriously so that you can embrace those failures and also embrace those really great moments and also those in between moments. Because at the end of the day, you're a human being that is not going to be perfect. You should not want to be perfect. And so taking yourself not too seriously, because I think that's going to lead to the biggest self growth and also, also the most fun wins and celebrations that when you do have them, you're able to acknowledge them and then when they don't come, you're able to pick yourself back up to want to get them again.

Yeah, that's great. That's really helpful. I played with like a who's next mentality, so I didn't ever celebrate the small wins. You know, it was like, we won, now let's go, you know, who's next? And I think I really learned over time as a practitioner to help the people I work with to celebrate those small wins. That was driving their motivation and really getting them to buy in more to their goals. So thank you all for participating tonight. Thank you all for attending. We will publish this so we'll actually make sure that you have a link to it so you can watch it in the future. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out. And thanks again. Have a great rest of your night, y'.

All.