Blitzing Bad Memories

Athletes require very selective short term memories in order to discard the negative feelings they get from mistakes or the stress of playing.  As coaches, because we are working with such malleable athletic minds, we need to assist with this process, not reinforce the negative.  Focusing on an athlete’s mistake—with ample doses of anger, frustration, dismissive-ness or sarcasm—creates athletes who are overly careful and fearful of making future mistakes. In football, as in most other sports, it is not the turnover that defeats you, it is the lack of mental recovery from the turnover that does.     In the previous two articles, I described what you need to look like in your powerful leadership role, and how your powerful Zone FEEL indicates you have accepted that responsibility.   It feels great for you AND great for your athletes.  They slip right “in lock step” with