3 WAYS BILL BELICHICK DEVELOPS MENTAL AND PHYSCIAL TOUGHNESS

Yesterday, I was reading through my RSS feeds on Bill Belichick and came across another outstanding article on him. Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com writes an article that shares some great quotes from players that allow us to have a glimpse into how Belichick develops mental and physical toughness.

1. He demands toughness everyday, no matter how difficult it gets for the players.
Bill Belichick states, "I know we demand a lot and this isn't an easy place to play, and I'm not an easy guy to play for, but they have tried to respond. I give them a lot of credit for that."

Defensive lineman Gerard Warren, "Not for everyone, It's pretty demanding -- the mental [aspect], the expectations. You know that if you are here, it's because they trust you."

2. He believes it is his job to develop toughness in his players.
Vince Wilfork, a team captain, "He is tough at times, but you know what? The one thing he wants is for this football team to be mentally tough, physically tough and smart. When he can get that out of his team, he's done his job. With those three things come wins and a good team. It can be tough but at the same time we know exactly what he wants out of us. We know that he won't settle for less.

3. He requires more than the players believe they have to give.
Defensive end Andre Carter, "One thing about Belichick is that he tries to push us beyond the level, and keep on going up and constantly going up. There is no settling. You always have to aim for perfection and constantly keep getting better. As an individual, it pushes you to a level that I possibly couldn't imagine. You're like, 'Wow, I can play at this level? Maybe I can turn it on one more notch.' Then the next game you try to do that. That's how it's supposed to be, you're trying to find that winning edge week after week."

BILL WALTON ON THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING THE MENTAL EDGE

“Everyone constantly thought basketball. Everyone always played a mental game. Even though we were a team that physically had the tools necessary to be at highest level of the game, it was the mental edge that allowed that team to be so special.”

SPENCER WOOD ON MISTAKE MANAGEMENT

Spencer Wood, President of Icebox Athletics, gave a brilliant presentation about mental toughness to our team and staff in October.  He provides a tremendous amount of wisdom and discernment for coaches and players.  Here are some of his thoughts on:

Mistake Management

• You can tell a lot about a players emotional arousal level by how they react to mistakes.
• Train your athletes on how to react to mistakes.
• Great athletes aren’t great because they are perfect.  They are great because they have the perfect reaction to their mistakes.
• Screaming after a miss is the ego saying I usually make that.  However it reveals a level of frustration to our opponents.
• The external reaction of screaming is nothing compared to what is going on under the surface.

Take out the trash:

• With every single mistake made on the court, take out the trash.
• Remove the mistake from the mind of the athlete.
• There has to be a cognitive process to remove the mistake from the mind.  Otherwise it remains with players, erodes confidence and kills clutch consistency.

Two step process:

• Take out the trash (erase the mistake from the mind like burning a photograph.)
• Visualize the correct image.

 

When you see an image in our mind, whether it is real or imagined, you have a great chance of reciprocating that image.

Voice of Reason

We all have little voices in our head. Some talk louder than others. How we respond to those voices says a lot about our character. The voice of reason allows us to respond to a situation and not be affected by the consequences.

If you can control your voice of fear, your voice of reason will flourish. Self-imposed limitations, anxiety, fear of failure, fear of criticism all seem to go away, and you'll find yourself capable of using your voice of reason to focus on difficult situations. If you and I were astronauts on a voyage to the moon and something went terribly wrong, we would have two options. The first choice would be to listen to the voice of fear, which leads to panic at the whee and doesn't allow us to use any of our training or discipline to engage in a course of action that could save our lives. Our fear of the situation would overcome us, and we would regret the consequences. The second option would be to keep our poise, analyze the situation, and determine a strategy based on our training, so that we have a chance to avoid disaster. Our voice of reason can overcome all of our negative emotions.

It's no different with an athlete who takes the game winning shot. Does he execute the shot with fundamental discipline because he can focus on technique to execute or does he get caught up in the moment and in his emotion and short arm the shot and miss?