Lacrosse

Elite performance requires hard work. There’s no way around that.
The pressures of competing are demanding mentally, physically, and emotionally.

When you train the skills of self control and discipline you’ll notice that you’re better able to focus and face the inevitable obstacles that will come your way – like a bad game or the nerves that come before a big game, negative comments, negative expectations of others, or when you just get off the rails of a training or nutrition program. You’re going to be able to calmly evaluate the different challenging scenarios and make the next best decisions about how to move forward.

You need to know how to make objective decisions under pressure rather than being controlled by emotions. Embrace the process, both good and bad and see it as an opportunity to grow.
The skills of self control and discipline can unlock your true potential. So, let’s talk about how to develop those skills.

Strategy #1 – Make your Bed

Make your bed the same way everyday and do it well.

Why?

What could making your bed have to do with performance on the field?

It’s practice.

There are three behaviors champions need to perform consistently to the next level.
Attention to detail, acting differently than how you feel, and follow through on your commitments long after that motivation has passed.

Making your bed is practice for all those things. It’s daily practice.
Daily practice is how you build mental muscles.

Distractions, negative self-talk, and letting mistakes get to you are a sure way to derail your performance.

Athletes who succeed don’t do so because they evade trials. They are successful because they know how to overcome the obstacles that arise.

It takes a skillset to be able to overcome obstacles. As a coach, you can train those skills.

Training.
You train the physical part of your sport with drills.

I am here to teach you how to train the mental part of your sport.
Also with drills.

A highly trained level of present moment of focus and self awareness allows your athletes to block out distractions, navigate adversity, and perform consistently at their best.

If you know how to coach pillar 3 of my mental performance training, focus and awareness, then you’ll have a team of competitors who know how to stay focused.

The best way to increase your focus is to

“I don’t want to.”

How many times have you said this?

Guess what?

A lot of people don’t want to get up, or work out, or make the call, or write the proposal, or ask for the thing.

But the people who act differently than how they feel are the ones who achieve great things.

People think motivation is what gets you going. So, they wait for motivation to show up to get started.

Other people think you are motivated or you’re not.

But, that is a fixed mindset. And if you saw my first video on an elite mindset, then you know that your mindset is not actually set. It can move and grow.

Motivation is on a scale and you can move yourself up the scale to ensure that your motivation grows stronger everyday. Motivation is a decision you make everyday.

Donene Taylor, author of The Heart of a Champion, said that…

Are you watching the Olympics?

You don’t have to watch too many events before you hear a commentator talk about an athlete’s “strong mental game.” 

Olympians train their bodies. 

That’s obvious.

What’s less obvious but equally true is that they also train their minds.

So, how does one develop such an elite mindset?

The same way they train their bodies.

With drills.

No one who is at the top of their field ever thought, “I just don’t have what it takes.”

That is a fixed mindset.

An Elite Mindset says:

“I am not lacking ability, I just have to train more.”

“I didn’t lose. I learned.”

“I can train to build myself up to where I want to be.”

So, if you’re interested in building your own Elite Mindset, then you’re in the right place. Training the mental game is what I do.

Here is how you get to where you want to be:

There is a long list of outcomes that athletes fear. Fear of losing. Fear of getting cut. But we know that fearing outcomes will not help your athletes perform well today. As a coach, it’s your job to teach your athletes how to manage their fear. It starts with them knowing that fear grows out of feelings of what might happen in the future. Rule #1 about Fear: Fear feeds on feelings. If left unchecked, fear can kidnap the athlete’s mind and body. But you can coach the fear out of your athletes and teach them how to regulate their emotions.

Why what you don’t know about Mental Performance Mastery (MPM) is holding you back from your true potential (and what to DO about it) “Elite performance in any arena is 90% mental, yet most competitors work on the mental game less than 10% of the time in their training. Mental Performance Mastery (MPM) training is… Read More

Jonathan Falcone has a resume that includes working on a garbage truck, an Ivy League championship as a lacrosse goalie at Yale, a Masters degree from Princeton, a stint on Wall Street, a career as a Naval Officer and a start-up founder. He’s a proud husband, father, a writer, musician and instructor at the Naval War College. To say Jonathan Falcone is a success could be the understatement of the century.

Mark Glicini is one of the fiercest professional lacrosse players in the sport. A former Yale star and a decorated high school athlete, today Mark plays for the Chaos Lacrosse Club in the Premier Lacrosse League, is a member of the San Diego Seals in the National Lacrosse League, and was recently selected to represent the 1 of 50 United States Men’s National Lacrosse Training Team The World Games in summer of 2022…  In addition to being a lacrosse star, he’s also the host of the podcast “Grateful and Full of Greatness” and is a certified mental performance coach.