Hello, and welcome back to Brain in the Game. Brain in the Game is a podcast that's been specifically designed for athletes, coaches, and parents who are looking to do their sport just a little bit smarter. Brain in the Game, is it mental gymnastics? Is it mental chess, or is it just mental games? And I'm your host, Dave Diggle. In this, episode 46, we're going to look at mental mind games and what they're used for, how we can use them efficiently, effectively, and ethically, and also what we need to do to protect ourselves against those who try to use mental tactics against us. There's a lot of people, coaches included, who talk about the mental game of sport. But do we really know what mental games are? Of course, there's a mental development of our athletes, the mental agility to be able to cognitively do things that other people can't do, to be able to keep our composure, to be able to manage our emotions. Now, this is mental exercises and mental conditioning involved in doing that, to be able to think more clearly and more precisely, to be able to perform consistently. All of these are mental development processes.
But when we talk about mental games and people playing a mental game with you when you compete, often what people are talking about isn't the mental conditioning, but the mental backstabbing mental games that people play to put you off of your performance. So what we're going to do today is just discuss, one, what are they? Two, how do we use them efficiently, effectively, and also ethically? And three, how do we protect ourselves? What immunity can we build so that we don't be impacted or get affected by these people who choose to play silly mind games with us? So what are mind games? The easiest The biggest way for me to explain what a mind game is to you is to explain what happened to me as a gymnast. Now, my specialty when I was competing was the horizontal bar, the high bar. So because it was my speciality, people got to know that I could even really hit great routines. I could change the course of a team outcome if I hit my really difficult high bar routine. So when we used to compete in groups as a team, often people used to try and intimidate my performance, and they would do that during the warmup.
I started to notice that when I went to have my three-minute warmup just before I competed, people would be constantly in my way. First of all, I didn't realise what was going on. I just thought people were being rude. So what was happening was my opponents knew that if they could put me off, if they could get in my head and not let me perform the way that I knew I could perform, then that would have an impact on the outcome of the game. So they used to stand in front of me when the warmup was going on. They used to let each other in so that I couldn't get my warmup. What that could have done, that could have put me off my preparation. I could have felt intimidated. I could have felt that I hadn't prepared enough. And that could have been enough to put me off to the point where they would gain some advantage over the scoring and over the outcome. Fortunately for me, what they actually done was worked in my favour, because back then when I was much younger, I had no idea about consistent performance and what I needed to do mentally to be in the place mentally so that I could consistently perform.
It was very hit and miss. So by then getting in my way, it didn't allow me to have my usual three-minute warm-up. I didn't do any of my release and catches. I didn't do any of my one-arm routine. What I would do, If I did get an opportunity to jump on the bar, I would just do a few swings, a few long swings, and a dismount, because nine times out of 10, I was running out of time. And anybody who knows me knows I hate being late, so I don't want to be running out of time. What that did for me, again, I had no idea this was going on, but subconsciously what that did for me allowed me, when it comes to competition, not to rely on the three-minute warmup. So it worked in my favour. It could have worked completely the opposite and in favour of my competitors if I had said to myself, I must do my releases and I must do my one-on routine in the three-minute warm-up. So intimidation is normally what goes on when people are talking about playing the mental game, being inside somebody else's head, intimidating them so they don't feel prepared, they don't feel in control.
So how do we use it? Is there an ethical way of using the mind games around sport, around anything that we do in reality, to be able to either intimidate, to be able to gain some advantage in an ethical way? Well, there is. There are several things that we can do in order to not only be focused and keep ourselves inside our own head, but be inside everybody else's head, too. Now, I've just come back from the pointy end of a competitive season where my clients were training and competing towards the end of year Championship. Whenever we get close to a final, everybody's intensity increases. Everybody's focus and everybody's intention on their own outcome becomes a little bit more intense. It stops them performing with a free flow. It stops them being comfortable. They have this increased expectation on themselves and fear of consequence, what happens if something goes wrong. So as we get to this Championship end of the season, the whole emotional intensity increases. The competitor, the coaches, the team environment, even the spectators. So how do we utilise as that for our own advantage? If everybody else is becoming that more intense, they're increasing the expectation on themselves.
If they're making this next performance such a critical aspect of their outcome, by us playing the flip side of the coin and being calm, being focused, having our same consistent approach will give off a sense of us being in complete control. That in itself is an intimidation. We've all seen the people who swagger in, who don't look like they're under any pressure, who don't look like they're intimidated by the event or by the circumstances, and we all go, Wow, how can they be so cool, calm, and collected? That sense of intimidation makes other people question their own ability. It makes them question their own ability their ability to perform, their ability to control the outcome, and their ability to control their own emotions. And that's one form of really effective mind games, to have that air of supremacy about us, walking out on time, walking out with that air of, not arrogance, but that air of confidence. That's going to intimidate our competitors. Another form of intimidation we can utilise is consistency. Because again, when you look at the pointy end of the championship, more often than not, the inconsistency creeps in. Because of the heightened intensity and the expectation, people make more mistakes.
And if you go out there and you don't make the mistakes, if you go out there and you're consistent in your approach, and no matter what the pressure on you, you can continue to perform, again, people will start to question their own ability. What we want to do is put an air of doubt in our competitor's mind, and we can do that by creating a gap, a gap between what they think they're capable of and what their perception of us being capable of. And if our perception of us being capable of this consistency, this replicability, this cool, calm collectiveness, and then in the back of their mind, they're scared, they're anxious, and they're worried about the outcome, they're going to make whatever that gap is, their imagination is going to kick in and make it 10 times worse. So that sense of intimidation through being comfortable and being confident and being consistent. So that's a couple of areas where we can look at increasing our influence over our competitors. Another area we can ethically look at what we're doing is by making sure that we're our normal self. Again, when you look at the pointy end of competition, people generally stop interacting.
People generally stop going, Hey, how are you going? How's your competition? How's your race going? People start to keep themselves to themselves. If you continue in the same vein that you've done all season, now, I'm not saying go out there and start throwing parties in between your races. But what I'm saying, if all season you've been interactive with your competitors, by maintaining that same air of confidence, that same air of interactivity, again, in the back of their mind, they could be thinking, What does he know that I don't know? And again, that's enough for their imagination to kick in and go, But what if he knows this? I don't know that. What if he knows how to continually do that? And I can't do that. And You're going to be focusing on you, and they're going to be focusing on you, which splits their intention. Their focus isn't on what they're doing anymore, they're on what you're doing. They're waiting for you to do something in order for them to react to that. You've often heard me talk about, if you're going to chase somebody, be prepared to always be behind them because you'll be waiting for them to do something so you can react to it.
In order to do that, you have to be behind them. So have your system, have your structure, trust your structure, and consistently applying your structure irrespective of the first round of the season or the last round of the season will have you looking and feeling. Let's be honest, you need to feel it, but it'll have you looking, feeling, and appearing far more in control of your outcome than anybody else. Those are the mind games that are ethical and incredibly useful and efficient. So what else can we utilise with the mind games when we're in competitive environments? Making sure that you and your team around you, that's your entourage around you, are working efficiently, are making sure that no one in your team is suffering from the pressure. Because it's pointless you going out there with your confident swagger if everybody in your team is sitting there chewing their nails, because then people are just going to turn around and say, Wow, they are really scared. He might be really arrogant, but the rest of them are really scared. So you want to make sure that everybody in your team, in your entourage around you have that same air of comfort, confident approach, making sure that when you step out to compete, everybody has that same state of mind that you do.
Not only is that going to send a united front appearance to everybody? But it's also going to support you as the athlete. If everybody around you know that just because it's a pointy end of the season, it doesn't mean we have to be influenced by the pressure. It doesn't mean we have to be less confident. It doesn't mean we have to apply more pressure to ourselves. It just means whatever we've been doing, we continue to do. However we've been interacting, we continue to interact. And however we've been communicating, we continue to communicate. All of these things are going to enable us to be consistent. They're going to enable us to feel confident, and they're going to enable us to have that air of supremacy around us. When everybody else is shaking, we're confident. When everybody else is second-guessing themselves, our system and our structure enables us not to second-guess ourselves. Then all we have to do is focus on doing what we've been doing all season, only slightly better. So our pre-event structure, our funnel process, is incredibly important to us, and especially during this increased tension period, the finals. So what else can we do to have that mind game edge over our competitors?
What if I turned around and said to you, I've got secret something, something that you don't have. How would that make you feel? It would make you feel like you're not prepared. Because in the back of your mind, even I'm thinking, No, I've done everything. I've ticked all the boxes. I'm ready to compete. All of a sudden, someone's telling me they've got something I don't have. What if that is the most important thing for us to be able to compete, to be able to perform over and above everybody else. In the back of your mind, you've already put yourself behind that competitor. So what I tell my clients is, During the competition period, don't hide what you do that's maybe slightly different. So if you've got your mental preparation conditioning structure or programme, don't go and hide it out the back. Let your competitor see what you do. So if you're building your funnel, let them see you build your funnel. If you're doing your hemisphere training bouncing balls, let them see that you're bouncing those balls. If you're doing your visualisation, let them see you doing your visualisation. Because in reality, just because they see what you do doesn't necessarily mean they understand what you do.
And by them sitting there looking at you, having this system, having this structure, and being comfortable enough to be out in front of them, doing your exercises to stimulate your left and right hemisphere of your brain, or to build your pre-race structure, or to visualise what you're expecting your brain to deliver for you, they're going to be thinking, one, either why am I not doing that? Two, what on earth are they doing? I don't really understand it. Or three, I do that, but I don't do it that well. So already and again in their mind, you're playing the mental game of doing what you you, being comfortable with what you do, being confident in what you do, and making them feel that intimidation in an ethical way, of course. So having that structured approach, that confident approach, enabling them to see that you're the same person, whether it's round one or round 15, making sure that when you communicate with your team, your environment, your entourage around you, you don't display any of the nerves, any of the anxiety, any of the increased pressure, and everybody on your team are the same. It's going to help you have that edge.
By having the mental exercises, the mental and cognitive conditioning process, you're already going to have a bigger advantage over your competitors. Your skill set, most likely, would be on par with most of the people you start to compete with, especially if you're an elite or professional world. The vast majority of people that you compete with are of the same, if not better, talent base than you. Most of the people that you compete with at that elite or professional level have the same accessibility to the same equipment that you do. So in reality, the biggest and real only advantage you have is what goes on between your ears. The mental, emotional, and cognitive development you've put in, the system, the structure that you're utilising is your biggest advantage. So why hide that? People are not going to know. And if you've done this right and you've done this specifically designed for you, they can nip in there, they can steal it, but they're none the wiser. They're no better off because it's like stealing the clothes from somebody else. They might look okay, but they're not going to fit. So be out there. Make sure that whatever you're doing that's unique, everybody else can see.
Make sure that your team is on the ball. Make sure that they're cool, calm, collected just like you. And make sure you have a really consistent performance because continuity plays with other people's mind. If you can go out there irrespective of the conditions, irrespective of the pressure, irrespective of whether it's Season Competition 1 or Season Competition 15, and continue to perform flawlessly, well, nine times out of 10, you'll win the season. But if it comes down to the finals, then you want to make sure you've got that advantage. How do we protect ourselves against others playing mind games on us? Whether it be sledging in cricket, whether it be leaving equipment in your way so you can't get to do what you need to do, or like in my day, where people stand in the way to blatantly block you from preparing. Our My biggest advantage is knowledge. If we know what they're doing, we know why they're doing it, we can utilise that. We can turn around and say, Every second that you're thinking about blocking me, every second you're trying to sledge me and intimidate me, you're not focusing on your game, so I'll focus on my game.
So therefore, we're both focusing on my game. It gives me an advantage. Context is everything. If your competitor is spending that much time trying to put you off, then clearly, they're concerned about how you're going to perform. And you might as well stack the odds in your favour and have them thinking about you as much as you're thinking about you. Another strategy we can adopt to build up our own resistance to other people's using mind games on us is emotional resilience. When we talk about emotional resilience, what we're talking about is not taking on other people's emotions with their information or with their actions. When anybody gives you a piece of information, it doesn't matter how cold or clinical that piece of information is. They pass it over to you with some part of their emotions that's still attached to that. Whatever that piece of information meant to them, they give you a piece of that emotion, too. So if somebody is going to give you a piece of information, make some statement to you, remember, there's always going to be a little bit of that person's emotion associated associated or attached to it. The same thing can happen when they do something in front of you, whether it be an act to intimidate you, whether it be an act to distract you.
Part of that act has to have some of their emotion already associated and embedded within that. So for us, from our perspective to protect ourselves, understanding that our emotional resilience comes down to seeing things for what they are, and are Are they useful? Are they relevant? And do we need them right now? So many of you might have recognised that strategy that we've utilised on one of the podcast before when we talk about emotional resilience. And I talk about having a box, mentally having a box in front of you for interesting information, mentally having a filing cabinet next to you, or having an opportunity to absorb information. So what that is, is an added level of filtration that we can apply to all the environment that goes on around us, all the interactions we have. So when your coach gives you a piece of information, the likelihood is it's going to still have some of your coaches' emotion attached to that. So is that just interesting information? Is that something I need to file away for use another time? Or is that relevant right now? If it's none of those, then it needs to bounce off.
We don't need it. We don't need to absorb it. If it is something that's just interesting, put the interesting part of that in that mental box, and the emotion that's associated to it, let that go. If it's something that we're going to need a later date, again, put that in your mental my link cabinet, and the emotion that come with it, let it go. So when we're talking about people trying to intimidate us, and they're using either certain sledging words, if we're talking about cricket again, or they're using intimidation or just trying to boast in front of you. There's something that's interesting. Is there something you need to keep for the future? Or if it's relevant right now, take that piece of information, and all the other crap that's wrapped up around it, let that go. So our emotional resilience comes down to us manufacturing a very structured filtration system, another level over and above our natural one that enables us to... It's like a BS philtre. We take the information, but we get rid of the BS that comes with it. Emotional resilience is another strategy that we can adopt that's going to protect us against other people utilising mind games.
It's especially when we're talking about competitive environments. We can also make sure that we build the right team around us. Now, when I'm working with athletes, if I see somebody who's blatantly trying to intimidate one of my clients, I will physically stand between them. Now, I don't mean I'm going to stand there and flex my muscles. What I mean is I'm going to stand there and block them. I'll make sure that my client isn't as aware of them as they're trying to be. I'll make sure that I will make the situation quite light for my client. I will reduce the anxiety or have a laugh with them. I might tell them some really bad jokes. I might turn around and ask them specific questions about their preparation. So they have to focus on what they're doing, not what other people are doing. I might ask them specific questions about their equipment they're using. So that, again, they have to focus on something other than what other people are doing. If you don't have the luxury of having a mind coach standing there with you in your preparation, then these are skill sets that you need to employ yourself.
If someone's trying to intimidate you, if someone's walking around like the peacock, then remove yourself from that situation. Go and do something that works specifically for you. Go and engage in an activity that's designed to develop you, whether it's bouncing the balls off the wall or doing the hemisphere training or building your race structure, whatever it is, you engage in you stuff and let them continue to perform in front of you. Again, they're going to be looking to intimidate you, which means they're focusing on you, not on their own performance. These are just a couple of strategies that we can utilise. If somebody is verbally abusing you or verbally intimidating you, sledging in cricket, then by you smiling at them and not saying anything, it makes them question the effectiveness of their sledging. So already they're starting to have that void again, and their imagination will fit it in. Why is this what I say to him not bother him? Again, they're thinking about you, not about their own performance. So the mind games that people play, we can utilise our own advantage, we can immunise ourself against, and all of it comes down to understanding why people are doing it, what the gain is, and when does it become a gain, and when does it become an inhinderance if you're using it.
I'm a huge believer in being ethical when you perform. Now, there's nothing wrong with having an advantage. There's nothing wrong with putting yourself in a situation to enable you to perform better than everybody else. Hey, that's competitive sport. What I'm not a big fan of is outwardly going out there to physically inhibit somebody's performance or verbally intimidate somebody or being aggressive with them. Not because I think it's just so morally wrong, although it is. I just think, what a waste of energy, what a waste of focus. When in reality, if you put that same amount of intensity in that focus into your performance, then the likelihood is you're going to outperform the other person anyway. And let's not forget, mind games can happen in our own training environment, too. Often we train with the same people that we compete with. So if you've got somebody in your training venue who tries to intimidate you, who tries to gain the upper hand, whether it be getting more attention from the coach, getting more media coverage than you, stepping in front of you, trying to gain the limelight, Employing the same strategies in training is no different.
Don't forget, we want to have a little bit of training in our competition, a little bit of our competition in training. So if you're having to deal with these situations in your training, then I would look at that as great preparation for Competition Day. Employ the same strategies, making sure that you're consistent, making sure that you have that continuity and familiarity around you, and making sure that you're focusing on you so that everybody else can focus on you, too. I hope you've enjoyed this unique look at the mind games that people can play and how you can utilise them ethically, and you can also immunise yourself against them. Until our next episode of Brain in the Game, train smart and enjoy the ride. My name's Dave Diggle, and I'm the mind coach.
