PHILOSOPHY: PART 4

The fourth bullet in my philosophy is: “We will fear nothing.”

All of these points are important but this one may be my favorite. I think facing your fear is critical in becoming a well balanced human being. When I describe fear I’m talking about the paralytic, crippling effect of self-doubt.

One of my favorite analogies that describe fear is walking on the plank. If I put a plank on the ground and ask you to walk across it you’d do it with no problem. You might run. You could probably even skip. If I place that same plank 20 feet off the ground there are very few people that will choose to cross it. What’s changed?

You’ll notice that the task is the same. Cross the plank. The result of missing the board is still the same. You will fall off. The risk has increased! You may die if you fail!

The brain is an amazing tool! It can’t tell the difference between imagination and the real thing. So, when you start imagining yourself falling, when you introduce doubt of your ability to cross the plank, your brain does a miraculous thing. It acts to preserve itself and introduces a built in protective mechanism and shuts down. Your body will literally freeze because your brain will stop your muscles from moving. In sports psychology the term is “choking”.

My goal as a coach is to teach our athletes to deal with self-doubt and as a result become their own master. This blog post isn’t long enough to give a lot of details on how we plan on doing that but here’s some important points in overcoming fear.

1. Imagine yourself being successful.
Watch others be successful and then mimic them. Don’t ever imagine failure.

2. Practice being successful.
This is critical. Confidence comes from success. Whatever you’re doing, do it right and do it right as many times as you can.

3. Keep the results of success and failure in perspective.
Don’t wrap your self-worth around your success. Winning is important but it’s not the end. Football tests you. Be happy to be tested, not afraid of it.

4. Remember, your coaches and teammates are there to support you.
We believe in you and will be there whether you succeed or fail. If you succeed we’ll celebrate with you. If you fail, we’ll all be disappointed together and then we’ll come back the next day and work to make you successful.

“We will fear nothing” is a tall order but something that is critical to becoming a championship football team.