Though recently retired, I was fortunate enough to coach at LSU while Skip Bertman was the athletic director. Skip went above and beyond what most ADs do in that he spend a great deal of time in helping us become better at our craft. For those who may not know, before Skip took over the athletic department at LSU he dominated the world of college baseball by winning five national championships. When he speaks, I listen! One of the things he did was bring in people to work with us and known better then Dr. Kenneth Ravizza, one of the foremost experts of sports psychology. On one such visit, Dr. Ravizza gave us a list: Fundaments of the Mental Game.
1. Take responsibility for your thoughts and actions.
2. Be on a mission: know why you play your sport, what character traits you want to posses and what you want to accomplish in it.
3. Make your daily actions consistent with your mission.
4. Perform one moment at a time; confident and focused on each moment as it is played with disregard for past or future moments.
5. Focus on the process of playing the game rather than the outcomes of your performance.
6. Realize that you can't control what happens around you but you can control your response to it, and that you be in control of yourself before you can control your performance.
7. Develop your mental skills so you constantly perform near the best of your ability and have "something to go to" when adversity strikes.
8. Practice what you are going to do in your performance.
9. Learn each day.
10. Keep it simple, smart.
