Athletes. If you've ever found yourself playing an opponent and you're playing down to their energy or their level of play instead of your own standard, then this episode is for you. I'm gonna be breaking down three ways that you can prevent that so you're not playing down to your competition, but instead playing your standard every single time. So I haven't met you. I'm Coach Bree. I'm a mental performance coach for athletes, and I'm super excited that you're here. This is a special athlete tip episode. We break down one key mental training topic that you can start applying right away. Today's topic is all about how to not play down to your opponent, but before I get into it, I wanna give a shout out to an athlete inside our program, the Elite Mental Game. This is our signature mental training program for athletes to teach them the skills that they need to be mentally strong and confident in their sport. This athlete is Kaylee. She said this. I played in a tennis tournament last weekend. Overall, it was so much more fun than it had been in the past because I focused completely on my mental game when I don't beat myself up mentally. I have such a fun and better time playing. I know athletes that you've probably been in this boat where you're like, I beat myself up. And it's not fun to play. And I just wanna give a huge shout out to Kaylee for focusing on her mental game. So doing the things that she's learning in the program. Probably things like using her snapback routine, focusing on her goals, maybe she visualized a little bit and really just overall focused on why she's playing out there. And it led to things like this. I also know that Kaylee did really well in this competition because you know that when you are having fun, that doesn't mean that you're goofing off and you're not taking. Things seriously. But when you're enjoying yourself and you're having more fun, you probably play better. So congratulations, Kaley. Super proud of you. All right, let's talk about the three ways that you can play up instead of down to your competition. Really, no matter who you're playing, you should be playing your standard, and that is key Number one is what is your standard? Set your standard and then play to it. That is the first key, is that right now what you probably are doing,'cause this is what most athletes do, is they let their competition dictate their energy and their focus. This goes both ways, so it's like you're playing a really good team and maybe you play better because you're letting their energy dictate you, but in a good way. And then when you play not great teams, then you're playing down. And the problem is that you are never gonna know actually like how you're gonna play because you're always on this rollercoaster. And you're waiting for the other team or the opponent to decide how you're gonna play. You need to decide ahead of time, what does your best look like, and you're gonna commit to that every time. What I want you to do is something very simple. You're literally just gonna write down. You can put it in the notes section of your phone. You can, if you have a journal, you can write this down. But what are the top, like three things for you as an athlete, what are the top three things that show you are showing up as the athlete that you wanna show up? Maybe it's number one. I have strong, confident body language every single time. So when you step on the court, your body language is head back, shoulders high, like you can't mess with me, type of thing. Okay. Maybe that's your vibe. All right. That's number one. Number two, you are always talking. You are like always communicating with your team. If you play a team sport, you are loud. Maybe that's like a quality that you are going to bring to the court of the field every single time. Okay. Maybe number three is, you get over mistakes fast. If you make an error, you bounce back. Next play. Okay, so what are the top three things that are non-negotiables for you? Because champions don't compete based on who they're playing. They compete based on who they are, and they've decided those things ahead of time. So what are your qualities and write them down and what does this look like? Hey, if you say you're aggressive, what does that literally look like? If you, what? What, depending on what sport you play, that means that you're driving to the hoop. That means that you're taking swings on balls where you could send a free ball. That's a volleyball example. Okay. What does aggressive look like? It's not enough to say like, I'm aggressive or I play hard. What does that actually look like? What does it look like when you're playing your toughest opponents and what does it look like when you're playing opponents who maybe are not as skilled? As your team. Okay, so that's number one. Decide what your top three characteristics are, what are your standards and what does it look like? Okay? Number two. You need to lock into goals bigger than the score. If you're letting the score dictate how you're gonna play, then when a competition isn't pushing you, it's easy to check out. So instead, you're gonna challenge yourself with like personal goals besides winning. So maybe it's executing a specific skill. Maybe it's staying locked in. So you are deciding like, okay, the other team is not motivating me, this. Score is not motivating me, but you've gotta find something that's gonna push you. And maybe that is you're doing something that's a little more risky. Okay? You're like you're trying a new skill. Maybe you are incorporating some other mental aspect to the game that you're bringing to your team. Maybe you're going to encourage your teammates in a different way. Maybe you're gonna be like super hype on the bench, like. you've gotta come up with something besides the score, besides your opponent, because you cannot be really waiting on them to dictate the play and the pace of the game. Okay? So that's number two. Number one is kind of your homework. Get out your notes section and your phone, write them down. What is your standard? And you are playing to that no matter what. Okay? What does that look like? What are your top three characteristics as an athlete? This athlete that you wanna be? What does that look like? Number two, you gotta set goals bigger than the score. Okay. It's gonna get super boring and you're gonna check out if you're determining if you're waiting on the score. Okay? Number three, you've gotta train your mind before you get into these situations. Playing down to a competition is a mental error. It's a mental habit that is not serving you The best athletes train their mindset just like they train their skills. You go to any college team, you go to any professional team, you go to any like Olympic athlete, they are not just training their body. The best high school players aren't just training their bodies, okay? The best middle school players are not just training their bodies, they're also training their mindset. Okay. What do I mean by mindset? This is like, how are you responding to mistakes? What is your self-talk like? Do you visualize? Okay. Visualization might seem like a really taboo thing, but visualization is basically like you are deciding ahead of time how you're going to play and how you're gonna show up. Literally 30 seconds. If you can find a quiet place to close your eyes and imagine yourself playing how you wanna play. Imagine yourself responding to mistakes. Imagine yourself playing your best. That is visualization. So you're really training your mind to be in that situation before your mind and your body will be. And once you get into that situation, your mind and your body are like, Hey, I've been here before. Okay. Do you have a pregame routine? Do you do the same thing or do you just like walk out frantically and every pregame looks different? Are you doing the same thing? So we tell athletes in our program, you're doing the same two to three things before you compete to get your mind and your body ready. If you watch like the best athletes before their competitions. They're doing specific things. Some of them are doing some breath work, some of them are visualizing, some of them, you might need to get a little more hype. So you're listening to like a pre-game playlist that's getting you to where you need to be. But they're not just warming up their bodies, they're also training their minds. Okay? Every opportunity for you to train is a chance to get better, and it's not just the physical skills that's gonna separate you as an athlete. You are also responsible for how you're training your mindset. Okay? And it's not as hard as you think. That's exactly what we do inside the elite mental game. So this is the program that we've had over 4,000 athletes come through. Middle school and high school is our typical age range, but. They're learning simple skills. They're learning a routine to respond to mistakes fast. They are learning a pre-game routine to help them be walked in and ready before competitions. They're learning how to shift their self-talk so it's more productive, so it's not self-sabotaging. Okay? They're learning all of these skills because they know that the best athletes who have a competitive advantage are also training their mind. They're not just training their body. So if you want more information about that you can have your parent check it out. It's called Elite Mental game. If you go actually to elite competitor.com/athlete, we have a pretty cool quiz there just for athletes. It's called What's your Competitor style? It's a quiz that you can take that's only about six questions, and at the end you find what your competitor style is. There's three different styles. There's the self-motivated grinder. There's the comeback player. So basically, you're able to bounce back and respond quickly. And then there's the pressure player. So which one are you? If you wanna find out, go to elite competitor.com/athlete. I'll link that in the show notes as well. So you can take that quick quiz and you can also get a little bit of a taste of what mental training is and what it looks like to train your mind, which is what the best athletes do. All right, athletes. I'm Coach Bree. I'm a mental performance coach for athletes, and I'll see you in the next athlete tip. The podcast.