Pivot, Part 2

01/18/24

A couple blogs ago, I wrote about the importance of athletes learning how to mentally pivot.

To recap, the mental pivot is when athletes pause and redirect their energy in a new direction to achieve a successful outcome. It’s when an athlete recognizes what is not working and they make adjustments to course correct. Sometimes the adjustments are big and other times they are small. Sometimes the adjustments are physical, mental, or both.

I challenged athletes to first reflect on their current ability to mentally pivot during a poor performance or high pressure game time scenarios to get back on track. Before equipping athletes with coping strategies or mental skills to improve their performance, I always start with facilitating space where the athlete can do a thorough self-assessment of what’s working and what’s not?

In my Pivot, Part 1 blog I provided a few questions that can guide this self-assessment process for athletes. In Part 2 , I want to provide some insight into how athletes can utilize CBT based cognitive structuring strategies to effectively mentally pivot.

 How to Mentally Pivot using cognitive restructuring:

1.  Identify the pervasive negative thought is on a loop in your head when your performance begins to plateau. Pinpoint the most debilitating, reoccurring, and influential thought related to your poor performance. Once you’ve identified the worst thought, ask yourself:

a.  What would I like to believe about myself or my performance instead? (Ex. I’m a winner, I can do hard things, I have the ability to bounce back etc.).

b.   Once you’ve identified the new positive thought, use to challenge the negative one. This will start creating a new mental feedback loop that will interrupt the negative one during your performance. Think of it like you keep replaying the same track on Spotify over and over again in your head. The goal is to replace the positive one with frequency and intensity over the negative one.

c.   Identify an image or memory that reinforces the validity of this new positive thought (ex. I’m a winner, I think about hoisting the state championship trophy up after my state track meet).

d.   Connect with the bodily sensations and feelings associated with this memory and positive thought. The goal is train your mind and body on what it feels like to “Be a winner”, so you can learn to recreate that feeling in the future if performance struggles arise.

e.   Practice and reinforce this new positive thought as frequently as possible using rehearsal, visualization, and positive self-talk. I encourage my athletes to start integrating this positive thought in their daily routine as often as possible. For example, I wake up I affirm to myself “I’m a winner”, I get to practice “I am a winner”, I get a A on a test “I’m a winner”, I’m walking between classes “I’m a winner.”

Learning to mentally pivot is most effective when the strategy becomes sticky. The “stickiness” factor only develops through repetition, practice, and intentionality. The more you engage with your new positive thought/belief the truer it becomes. There is no magic in learning to mentally pivot, but when you meditate on your new belief over time you will notice the positive impact it has on your feelings, behaviors, and ultimately performance agility.

The core of learning how to effectively mentally pivot is realizing you are in fact not stuck. You can make a choice to psychologically shift into a new dimension in the midst of challenging moments.

Winning is always available for the taking, you just have to believe what’s possible when you pivot.