Favorite Techniques

What is your go to stuff!?!

The longer I do this, the more I get excited with philosophy and big picture strategy when it comes to our field. However - I like a fun technique just like everybody else. So I thought let’s have some fun and share our favorite techniques. So, I decided to go rogue from our regularly scheduled thoughts for this month and get back to some of the cool stuff we all thought we were getting when we got into this field.

I really hope this sparks some good dialogue in the comments section.

So for today, one of my favorite techniques comes from imagery. I like it because it is a swiss army knife for mental rehearsal of performance situations as well as addressing arousal challenges.

“The Freeze Frame" Technique

This technique operates similarly to the idea of systematic desensitization, but modified for performance. Instead of teaching a client about “imagery” from a traditional sense of perspective, controllability, etc., we simply have the client go back to a moment they remember vividly. From there, we walk through frame, by frame, by frame, by frame - like a VCR (for those who remember those!) Once the walk through it, we can begin teaching techniques. It goes a little something like this:

Case Study (Catcher with Anxiety)

I had a catcher who really lacked self-awareness. It was really difficult to discuss common topics such as focus and arousal (even though he came in for performance anxiety). So, I decided to go an imagery route to see if we could make sense of his case. I said the following:

“Take me back to the last game you vividly remember having this anxiety. Take as much time as you need and let me know when you have it.”

He said, “I got it”.

“Great. Now I want you to close your eyes and let me know when you are at the beginning of feeling this way.”

He said, “Okay, I’m there”.

“Great, describe to me what is happening in this moment.”

He went on to describe in great detail the sensations he was feeling in his chest and arm. He was having some worrying thoughts, but he was almost exclusively feeling the anxiety physically. He rated his anxiety at a 9 out of 10. So, I had him try a mindfulness exercise that incorporated diaphragmatic breathing. I said the following:

“Okay, let’s go back again. This time as we start I want you to just observe what you are experiencing and let it consume you. This may feel quite uncomfortable and you can stop at any time, but once you start observing it, I’m going to teach you a couple techniques.”

He said, “okay”.

So, off we went. “Now that you are back in the moment, just observe it. Where do you feel it? How are you feeling it? Just observe this. (I then let him go in silence for 10-15 seconds). Now I want you to take a deep breath in and let your stomach expand and slowly contract. Keep observing the anxiety, but start breathing steady even breaths in and out. (I then let him go in silence for another 10-15 seconds). Now I want you to start teaching yourself that this is just a notification. These sensations are nothing more than an alert, they have nothing to do with baseball. It’s okay this is happening, it’s okay.” Just breath and remind yourself this is nothing.

As we wrapped up the exercise, he noted the intensity dropped significantly and he was hooked. There were layers we added on to this, but the point was simple. We could use imagery to raise awareness of how the client was experiencing anxiety and we could use the same imagery to train techniques. In this case a combination of mindfulness, self-talk, breathing. Once he got in the hang of that, we then circled back to our focus training from weeks prior and things really started to click.

He understood that he needed to set better focus cues for how we he wanted to be performing, but also that he was giving too much power away to anxiety when it would set in. After establishing more consistent pre-performance routines and in-game resets, the intensity continued to lower to the point where the anxiety had no grip on him anymore (at least not enough to be distracting).

THE PATH AHEAD

Today was an example of one of my favorite techniques due to its versatility and I certainly hope this opens up a fun exchange where others are comfortable sharing some of their favorite strategies and/or exercises! I’ll continue sharing strategies over the next couple weeks as we head into the holiday season!

****ALSO****

AASP is this week, I’ll be down on Thursday through Saturday so if anyone is around let me know! Just message me on the Substack app!