The following is a short essay from my ebook called The Guide.
Proactive Pauses
Our team has “If this, then that” systems in place for events that are expected of players. These pre-planned responses allow our players to win the moment, keeping focused on the next play and not getting distracted by an uncontrollable event.
These are events that you know with pretty good likelihood will happen in a game. So, we pre-plan our response.
For example, if the referee calls a penalty (we can’t control the ref) our plan is to get focused on the next event as quickly as possible to avoid players getting distracted or upset which takes their focus off the most important task, killing the penalty.
We teach the guys when a ref makes a call to take it as a challenge and say, “good, let’s kill it.” We aren’t focused on the refs, instead, we are focused on what we can control and put all our effort into that.
What other events can you plan for as a player?
Take an inventory of situations that come up most often both personally for you and as a team.
Do you have a pre-planned reset after coming back to the bench when you just missed an open net chance?
Do you have a reset or recovery system for a bad shift?
You can plan for way more than you think, and with practice, you will get less distracted and stay focused on what you need to do to the elite standard. Elite is to do the best you can with what you have in the present moment. You can’t be present if you’re thinking about your last shift or missed a chance.
Be where your feet are. Come back to the present moment. It’s the only place excellence can exist.
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