Competitive Wellness Series - Primal Cues

I’m currently listening to “The Talent Code”, by Daniel Coyle on Audible, and if you’re in the market, even just for a single chapter of a book, Chapter 5 on “primal cues” is an eye opener. The book itself investigates talent: how it develops, why “hotbeds” exist, and what to do to enhance it. With a heavy stress on myelin, and its role in increasing speed of electrical communication between neurons in the brain, Coyle investigates ways to maximize training, acquisition, and performance. 

My knowledge of such things is limited, but my interest is deep. Training is training, coaching is coaching, but understanding where talent, and talented performance, come from essentially sets a neurological goal for each task. It is no longer, “Do this over and over until you get it right,” but “Do this with the intention of mastering this piece of the larger puzzle before we move on.” There are so many layers to each instruction, and then just as many to each execution, evaluation, and effortful change, as Coyle notes with many examples. Chapter 5 explained one of these layers explicitly. 

Coyle discusses his own children, noting their individual abilities in regards to foot speed. This led to an investigation of both 100 meter dash champions and top NFL running backs. A leap from his own kids running in the backyard, exposed was a correlation between birth order and some of the fastest athletes of all time. Typically, these athletes were late in the birth order in their families. The association, the bridge, was that these humans spent the early portion of their lives “keeping up” with the rest of their family. This provided an increased need for quickness, and a greater length of time developing myelin around neurons sending messages of speed. 

In regards to “primal cues”, Coyle refers to those instincts that have been part of human existence since...well human existence. They are the triggers and motivations that have risen with evolution because, those who didn’t possess them or develop them in an appropriate amount of time, didn’t survive. These factors are ones that can produce learning and purposeful practice more naturally. See: the youngest child trying to keep up with his or her older siblings so as not to be left behind. 

As an athlete growing up, I never developed that “killer instinct”. I was much more cognitive than carnal. My old high school coach introduced me to the new coach at my alma mater as “maybe the most intellectual player the program has ever had”. Knowing his intending it as a compliment, I also understood how it is exactly what made me a waste of potential, (and also led me into a profession of helping young athletes avoid the same fate). 

Within a program and community of abundance, we had two freshman teams and a sophomore team before JV and Varsity merged as one. The first true “trigger” of survival came in year two, cutting from two teams to one. From both playing days and coaching, the “B team” players who made the Sophomore team almost always had a different edge to them. That competitive spirit that you rallied the team around came from the “less talented” players. Was this the result of them having worked harder and improved more? Was it the result of them kicking into “survival mode” thinking the deck was stacked against them? I would venture the same is probably true of athletes in an environment with only a JV and Varsity squad. The compression of the learning curve associated with an activity an athlete is passionate about may be the key to quicker and/or greater success. 

All of this is well and good; insight into what may trigger effortful practice and intention of humans for improvement. However, if we aren’t able to apply this to our students, athletes, and ourselves, then we risk being those early humans that didn’t make it, or the younger sibling that wasn’t interested in keeping up...we may simply fall behind. So what do we do? What can we offer? How much can we convince our athletes that Now isn’t the end? How do we hit that trigger for a primal cue in a healthy and supportive way? Listed below are some quick thoughts to reflect upon: 

Create eustress in a controlled environment (a feeling of danger in a safe place)

Ex. Fluctuating lineups, awareness of competition

Provide an abundance of opportunity to fail and correct

Ex. Encouraging independent practice time of concepts

(I hesitate on “provide” because if the athlete is truly triggered, he/she will create that time on their own)

”Your survival is someone else’s survival” (create community of mutual reliance)

Ex. Team goals and consequences based on individual achievement

Most of these concepts come naturally to (good) teachers and coaches: find a way to motivate and expose bit-by-bit to stress that can be overcome. We each have our own ways of forging the steel of the next class or generation, and it always requires fire. The example that continues to play in my head is a childhood terror: the basement. Cognitively, there was no monster lurking, waiting for the light to turn off for its opportunity to attack you in whatever distance there was from the switch to the door. However evolutionary primal cues screamed inside us, “Get up the stairs as fast as humanly possible or you won’t make it out alive!” The footspeed, coordination, and confidence to move quickly that came out of that experience may have created some incredible athletes...if only we can harness that and use it for purposeful improvement. 

Stay scared friends, 

Own Your I

Follow up research: 

“The Talent Code” Daniel Coyle

“The Culture Code” Daniel Coyle

Martin Eisenstadt - clinical psychologist, parental-loss

Eustress

Competitive Wellness Series - Pride

Pride…hubris…self-esteem…easily something that is present in all of us, easily something to blame or credit. In ANY world of ANYTHING compared, valued, competed, judged, evaluated…in other words ANY situation that involves external feedback on performance, or simply action, Pride has an open invitation. One’s relationship with Pride becomes the determining factor of processing, response, and likely future action.

This post is inspired by the fallout of the UFC 229 McGregor-Nurmagomedov brawl. I am a Conor McGregor fan. (I am also a Chael Sonnen fan, if that paints an accurate picture of the MMA athletes that I support.) I enjoy the pre-fight banter, the gamesmanship, the taunting WHEN it is followed with clean competition and respect regardless of outcome. This is the heart of competition. Khabib made me a fan in that fight. I have followed him loosely prior, but the domination and mastery of his craft was on full display. As fighters, these men are very similar; as men, they could not be further from one another on the spectrum.

As much as I don’t condone the actions of “other participants” in what happened after McGregor tapped, (here forward not receiving any of our attention in this post), I can understand the actions of Nurmagomedov. As a man he is proud, he is loyal, he is intense. Not being cut from the same cloth of theatrics as McGregor was on full display. There was video of mid-fight trash talk where McGregor responded, while clearly losing on the scorecards, that “It’s just business”. Not a message that was going to be received during the culmination of frustration and, finally, opportunity for Nurmagomedov to speak in the language he is most fluent in. He was able to let his actions do the talking, and boy did they. But in the emotional high of physical victory, Khabib’s anger, frustration, and pride spilled out into unprofessional, yet completely human, action. Whereas the consuming toll on the human existence that preparing for that type of competition sometimes manifests in tears, what had been boiling up inside of Khabib for months showed itself in animalistic instinct.

Honestly, the fact that he was able to control himself until after the fight is nothing short of commendable. For someone who is not practiced or seasoned in the “talking game” of sports, and who undoubtedly had moments of sheer frustration throughout the process, he was able to focus everything, every thought, every emotion, into doing his job and defending his belt. But where does the anger come from? Where did his inability to control his actions for mere moments more come from? Herein lies our analysis of Pride.

I am a self-aware “sticks and stones” practitioner. Sure, words have hurt me in the past, they will presently, and I’m sure they will in the future, but the goal is to decrease that pain. A lot of this pain-management comes in the form of introspection - looking at myself to evaluate the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How of the effect of the “offense”. (Yes, that offense should be in parenthesis and that will be addressed later). This intellectual analysis immediately takes attention away from the “sting”, protecting the heart with the brain.

Philosophically, there is no shortage of resources on the subject of Pride. Mythology from the beginning of oral history of mankind warns of and celebrates Pride and its different manifestations. There are camps in full support of Pride and there are camps that criticize its every action. There is individual Pride and group Pride. There is Pride stemming from self-love and Pride stemming from self-contempt. This is an individual experience, and a journey, that seems to never end. This is one of those situations that as soon as you think you’ve figured it out, the Universe says, “Here, try this one”.

This is another one of those posts where I am not going to give an answer because, clearly, I don’t have one. But in all endeavors here, I hope to more direct this conversation to raising children and young adults. When is the right time to begin the Pride discussion. Is there a right answer? Is this one of those subjects where the culturally acceptable norm is the leading candidate for what is “Right”?

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Simple, poetic, empowering. Now we live in a society where seemingly EVERY word hurts someone, offends someone, puts someone at a disadvantage or knocks them from equality. Instead of teaching children to build their confidence through an internal locust of control, we give them an opportunity to give someone else influence in their life.

Now, even as I type this, delete and retype, and repeat that process over and over, I am fully aware of the sensitivity of the topic. There are boundaries, there are expectations as a member of society, and there is “too much”. I am not saying that we should teach our children to become hardened into Stoicism and that it is alright for others to verbally and emotionally abuse them. As parents and teachers, it is our job to help them navigate their own lines of tolerance, comfort, and power. I am not victim-blaming. I am encouraging a mind that is open to rising above mean words. This rise comes as a result of positive self-image, confidence, and compassion/sympathy/empathy that is severely lacking in our world.

As we read this as adults, we are discouraged and turned off to the idea. Who wants to sit and be told what we are, why we do things, and what we are thinking? I personally am supremely sensitive to being told what I mean, or am meaning. I still have moments where someone else’s stupidity is offensive to me. I am a looooooong way from Self-actualization. But I also know that other people’s words are often more about them than me, just as my mean words to someone else are just as much about me.

What we should be teaching our children is tolerance, acceptance, and most of the -pathies. We should be reinforcing their defenses of “belief in self”. I’m not a “turn the other cheek” proponent, per say, but when jousting, or attacking, is verbal, I think there is a greater opportunity to invest in the development of one’s Self before immediate counteraction is required.

Idealistic: yes. Practical: maybe. Popular: probably not. However if I can teach a child to brush off “mean words” and/or realize that not everything that they don’t want to hear is necessarily “mean” or “offensive”, and something they need to be protected from, I will do it. There will be times that even the most controlled, registered human beings will reach their breaking points. Conor continued to verbally pepper a very proud Khabib until there was no turning back. Khabib acted how he personally felt necessary. (Even better, his father’s response to that, look that up too). Our children don’t have to deal with the professionalism of their responses right now, so they should be testing out their options, including one where they simply ignore our perception that they should be hurt or offended by them.

It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels - Saint Augustine

Suggested searches: Pride, Saint Augustine philosophy, hubris, Terry Cooper Pride, group pride, pride, shame, and group identification salice and sanchez

Competitive Wellness Series - The Mantra

Our daily routines define us. (Equally, not having daily routines defines us just the same, no implication that either is "right" or "better", but let's consider not having a routine, a routine, for the sake of simplicity of the first sentence of this blog post). 

Our daily routines range from our actions, to our words, to our thoughts. Each choice we make is establishing, within us, avenues. However, this is not like the continuous and endless construction to highways where you have some time to adjust either to warning signs, receive detour help, or know well in advance that work is going to be done on a specific path. No, this is a labyrinth. This is ever-changing, change-resulting, resulting-madness toward personal transcendence. Our improvement being the reward for the struggles and efforts.

Ok, deep breath. Example: It rains on a day you were planning on an outdoor activity. You become upset. You emotionally attach to the weather via your disappointment. The next time it rains, plans or not, you remember that disappointment. There's potential, after a few more, unchecked, rainy days, that you simply become disappointed when it rains. (Oversimplified, yes, but check the science on it). 

It doesn't take much for us to fall into emotional, mental, and physical responses to our environment. But simple, controlled thoughts and actions can help us regain control. 

Enter: the Mantra. Traditionally having a religious connotation, a mantra is simply a sound, word, or slogan repeated frequently to aid in concentration and focus. 

Something that is yours that you can inject into your life at the positive moments to enhance or at the negative moments to regain control and perspective is as accessible as a single, deliberate word. 

Think of the applications. Work becomes overwhelming before you even arrive at the office because of something that happened at home or on the road to work. Reset with your mantra. You need a boost of confidence before trying something new. Re-energize with your mantra. You're faced with a pressure situation. Relax with your mantra. 

Think of the implications. Comfort, confidence, dominance, a perspective that allows for minimized damage and maximized growth. 

The practice of reciting a mantra has no minimum age limit. I mean, personally it would be more relevant when we knew words and had an awareness of our selves. But does not a soothing sound repeated to a distressed infant have the same positive effect? 

Young athletes, now is the time to begin your practice of mantras. Pre-game, in-game, post-game, there is no bad time to reset your mind to the purpose at hand. Find something simple and begin applying it in safe situations. Get out of bed in the morning to a mantra of positivity and success for the coming day. As you gain confidence in your own ability to gain confidence, to feel control, begin to apply this to all aspects of life. In time you'll find that standing at the free-throw line in the final minute of a close game is nothing a few words can't knock down. (Or some other cliched sports ending). 

Suggested searches: mantra, neural pathways, mantras and muscle memory

______________________________

I've got my new one all primed for the new school year, focusing on being present and maximizing the moments. 

Become now.

I've also put it on a shirt, feel free to jump on board: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/MoralCompassTraining/become+now?q=I1017294747