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So far Tyler Pazik has created 7 blog entries.

How To Embrace the CHAOS

By |2017-09-14T08:30:22+00:00September 14th, 2017|Athletes, Coaches, Parents|

Would you ever deliberately choose to do something that would cause pain, torment, or a feeling of being broken? Do you know how to embrace the chaos training throws at you? You hear it all the time in endurance sports, “Why would an athlete choose to put themselves through so much pain?” But it’s that kind of mindset that sets those athletes apart from the rest. They welcome pain, they welcome chaos, because in their minds, without it, they wouldn’t get better, and they wouldn’t be able to foresee events that leave others broken. As mental skills coaches, we could not agree more. Here are a couple of strategies to help you through those adverse times. Things get shaken up whether you want them to or not, and these techniques will be there as your sword and shield as you embrace the chaos. The Shakeup So a couple of weeks ago, I was at a yoga. Yoga and Sports go hand-in-hand. At the beginning of class, the instructor, a lady in her upper 20s, started to talk about the intention we might want to set for class. Whether that be to enhance your present moment focus - by focusing [...]

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Minimizing Distractions: Help Yourself Achieve Greatness

By |2017-08-02T17:20:12+00:00August 2nd, 2017|Athletes, Coaches, Parents|

So, if we're talking about minimizing distractions, we have to talk about practice. Imagine you're the top golfer in the world, what does practice look like to you? Are you moseying around, eating a donut, scrolling through Instagram, and chatting with your friends about his previous night? Of Course Not, You're Focused. You're out on the course with your coach or caddy, going through your swing or talking about the weather. You're examining the greens and hitting each shot, undistracted. No phone or no outside chitchat. Only the essentials. This is how you get done what Cal Newport likes to call “Deep Work”. He’s a professor at Georgetown in Computer Science and wrote the book call “Deep Work”. The book is all about minimizing distractions and reducing your time spent multitasking so you can give your best effort. How distracted are you? You see, the average worker is interrupted every 11 minutes, during any specific task. Guess how long it takes to get back on track after they are distracted? 25 minutes! It would take them, on average, 25 minutes to return to the original task they were working on after being interrupted. Gloria Mark, Professor at the [...]

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You Can’t Turn Back Time: The 5 Second Rule

By |2017-07-16T01:35:45+00:00July 16th, 2017|Athletes|

What was coach thinking?! You can't turn back time, but growing up an athlete, I noticed that everyone was always asking about the coach. They’re always wondering what was going on inside the coach’s head. Sometimes, they praise the coach. “Oh my gosh, that was the greatest call of all time.” “What made your coach make that decision? It was brilliant!” “Did you learn that from your coach? He must be amazing.” And sometimes, they’d have the exact opposite attitude. “What was your coach thinking?” “How could your coach have done that? Unbelievable…” “What was your coach thinking?” “Do you even like your coach? Is he a good coach?” “Does he always make terrible calls?” You Can't Should've The answer to these questions is always the same. Does it really matter? The best coaches don’t second guess themselves. They don’t think about what they should’ve done. They can't turn back time. If there is something they can improve upon, they say, “Next time, I will…” Dr. Wayne Dyer used to be a professor of counseling psychology at St. John’s University in New York City. On his audio CDs, “How to be a No-Limit Person”, he speaks about people who [...]

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Developing and Facilitating Team Cohesion: Gottman’s 5:1

By |2017-06-13T14:46:47+00:00June 13th, 2017|Athletes, Coaches, Parents|

Everyone is always wondering about developing and facilitating team cohesion; Always wondering about how to build relationships and team chemistry. Whether it’s at work, at school, in a team, or with their partner, strong and healthy relationships create more productive and positive environments. Do you know how you interact with your team? Gottman’s 5:1 Dr. Gottman, professor emeritus at University of Washington, found that in healthy marriages, the ratio of positive interactions to negative interactions is 5:1. Especially during times of conflict, the interactions between the two individuals was 5:1. On the other hand, it is 5 times easier to break someone down with a negative interaction like blame, anger, aggression or hostility; Which ultimately leads to hurting someone’s feelings. Are you aware of your ratio? If you’re truly interested in developing and facilitating better team cohesion, this strategy is for you. 51 Cents: Keep Track of Your Ratio John Brubaker, a sport psychology consultant and ESPN radio personality, used to coach Division III and NAIA Lacrosse. He came across Gottman’s ratio and knew that if he wanted to take his team chemistry to the next level, he was going to have to start keeping an eye on his [...]

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Back to Basics: Implement The 80/20 Rule Today!

By |2017-06-08T12:29:44+00:00June 8th, 2017|Athletes, Coaches, Parents|

Recently, Mental Grit was awarded the opportunity to interview two of the top sport dietitians in the nation. Toni Tillett (Washington State University) and Kari Oliver (University of Notre Dame) were gracious enough to answer a few questions and divulge some juicy nutritional information. A healthy body and mind are essential to peak performance, which is where mental conditioning and nutrition intersect. The interesting piece about this interview was how basic mental skills principles have such a primary role in the execution of effective nutrition. Get back to basics and keep yourself mentally and physically strong. Back to Basics If I were to ask you to name three healthy foods, could you do it? Of course you can! We all know what healthy and unhealthy food is. The question I presented to these two dietitians was, “If we all know what the healthy foods are, why don’t we eat them?” Kari answered, “It’s because of our habits. Food is a huge part of everything that we do. It’s around families, celebrations, birthdays, births and deaths, and basically everything. For a long time, people have associated healthy with not being as tasty or flavorful. They’re not going to choose the healthier option because if they have [...]

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Push Yourself to the Limit: The 20 Second Rule

By |2017-05-24T20:22:08+00:00May 24th, 2017|Uncategorized|

In Greek mythology, all heroes exemplify a set of virtues. Those virtues include: love, strength, consistency, confidence, equanimity, creativity, courage, diligence, focus, they’re imperfect, authentic, optimistic, grounded, and enthusiastic. Although all of these are essential in a hero. Which do you think is the most important? Which one do you think will help push yourself to the limit? Courage: The Mightiest of Greek Virtues Of these 14 interwoven traits, courage is attached at the hip to each and every one. You can’t have confidence without courage, you can’t have strength without courage, you can’t be optimistic or loving without courage. If you want to push yourself to the limit, it starts with courage. Courage is what enables you to face your fears, take danger head on, and to improvise, adapt, and overcome unwelcome or unpleasant situations. Your doubts and uncertainties can hinder your ability to push yourself to the limit, but if you take a look at the greatest athletes, artists, musicians, and businesses, they persist and persevere. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. - Marianne Williamson So how do we cultivate courage? How do we push through the pain in a marathon, [...]

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Improve Your Skills in Sport: The Keystone Element

By |2017-05-16T16:16:45+00:00May 16th, 2017|Athletes|

"Hard work doesn't guarantee success but no success is possible without hard work!" In this blog post, we explore how you can improve your skills in sport through a mental skills training technique that we call the Keystone Element. George Thomas “SHOTGUUUUNNN” Shuba. Have you ever heard of this 1950s Brooklyn Dodger? 3 trips to the world series, 1 world series ring, 1 keystone element, and a handshake that broke down the racial barrier in America’s Pastime. April 18th, 1946, Jackie Robinson made his debut in minor league baseball. In the third inning of that first game, he came up to the plate, confident, skilled, relaxed, and focused on the present moment. He took a deep breath, and dialed in on the pitcher. Jackie Robinson swings, connects, and belts a home run. After rounding the bases, Mr. Shotgun Shuba was there waiting for him at home plate, hand extended. A gesture that wasn’t about race at all, it was about being a good teammate and a good person. That’s just who Shotgun was: A good, hard working person. It was that hard work that got Shotgun his name. When he signed his contract at the age of 17, it [...]

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