Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 13 | Issue 673 |
Craig Impelman Speaking | Championship Coaches | Champion's Leadership Library Login | |
"APPROVAL AND DISAPPROVAL CAN BE A DISTRACTION" (TIMOTHY GALLWEY AND JOHN WOODEN) In his best seller, The Inner Game of Tennis, renown performance psychologist Timothy Gallwey discussed the importance of not distracting athletes with undo praise and criticism and thus creating performance anxiety.
"I was giving a group of women a tennis lesson on footwork. At the beginning of the lesson, I told the players that I was going to hit each of them six running forehands, and that I wanted them simply to become aware of their feet. I told them that there was no right and wrong to think about. While I hit the balls to them I expressed no judgment either positive or negative. Similarly, the students were quiet, watching each other without comment, focused on the process.
After the thirty balls were completed, Gallwey, by his own admission, made a coaching error by creating anxiety with unnecessary praise.
"Look," I said, "all the balls were hit over the net and to the proper spot." I was complimenting them and indirectly myself. I repeated the same instructions as before and hit thirty more balls without comment. This time there were frowns appearing on the women’s faces and they seemed a little more awkward than before. After the thirtieth ball, eight balls were not even hit over the net and most of the rest were not hit to the proper spot. Our results the second time were as bad as they were good the first time.
I asked the women if they were aware of something different going through their minds during the second series of balls. Each of them reported being very concerned with just hitting the balls over the net. They felt anxiety because they were seeking my approval. They were trying to live up to an expectation, a standard of right and wrong, which they felt had been set before them."
Coach Wooden's players were not distracted by undue criticism or undeserved compliments by his communication. He kept them focused only on their best effort by eliminating the anxiety of worrying about somebody else's approval.Without worry and in a relaxed but focused state of mind his players were able to deliver their peak performance.
Do you create anxiety or eliminate it?
Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman
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My Soul And I When winter shuts a fellow in and turns the lock upon his door, Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
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