The Carousel of Thoughts
There’s nothing like a mind full of racing thoughts to derail your confidence mid-game.
The mind is such an abstract concept on its own (after all, the brain named itself).
Let’s take a look at your mid-game racing thoughts. It might feel like your thoughts are random and all over the place, including thoughts about your last play, what the crowd thinks of you, if you’ll have a productive next shift, or what you’re doing later that weekend…the list goes on.
One way we can simplify and better understand how the brain works during your games is thinking about a carousel.
Every seat on a carousel represents where your mind will go.
The goal is to stay on the carousel - this represents an effective mindset.
Let’s say there are 4 seats on this carousel. Throughout a game, your mind will naturally find its way to one of these seats.
These seats, when left unchecked, are usually performance damaging. Think of the mind attaching to a balloon when it goes to a performance damaging seat - the balloon pulls the mind out of the seat into danger, which represents distractions, negative thinking, and self-doubt.
If a balloon occupies one seat on your carousel of thoughts, you’ll continuously have a seat that comes around and produces thoughts that hurt your performance.
So, what types of thoughts are performance enhancing ones?
Unlike balloons, anchors represent thoughts that keep you on the carousel and focused on what’s important for you in the moment. Or, more simply, an anchor just keeps your mind from flying out of control.
Sport psychology tells us to prepare your carousel ahead of time by replacing thinking of anchors that can fill your carousel seats before your game even starts.
Picture the athlete who comes into a playoff game with 4 anchors ready to go - they have 4 different thoughts they can readily think about if (more like when) they notice they’re focused on balloons. This athlete will more consistently be anchored into a present, productive mindset compared to the athlete who let’s their carousel seats fill up on their own.
What happens if you let the carousel fill up their seats without any preparation?
The mind naturally gravitates to negativity and threat detection. What was once an essential evolutionary advantage is now damaging to everyday focus and confidence by filling your carousel seats with balloons.
It’s important to have your anchors ready to go before a game, and not hope your carousel fills up with anchors on their own, because you can bet you’ll be seeing some balloons.
What anchors can you start practicing to fill up your carousel?
There are different types of anchors that will help you based on different situations. But, it’s great practice having anchors that improve the effectiveness of your focus, no matter what.
An athlete who catches themselves thinking about the past or future will definitely benefit from going to their anchor that grounds them in the present. They also benefit, however, from a different anchor that focuses on the process, or reminds them to focus on confident body language.
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Here are 4 different types of anchors to practice using before and during games so your carousel of thoughts is filled with ones that help your performance, not hurt it.
Time Shift
Athletes (and people) are constantly stuck in the past, ruminating about something that already happened or caught up in the future, wondering (or worrying) about what might happen in the next minute, hour, or even year.
One anchor that every athlete should focus on making use of is one that, well, anchors you to the present moment. Here are two methods for anchoring yourself in the present:
Mantra: every time you notice your mind being carried away by a balloon, anchor it back to the present by repeating a phrase like “I have no future or past, just the present, and I will make it last.” After repeating this phrase, you’re anchored back down to your carousel.
3-2-1: as I love discussing, you cannot be thinking about the past or future when you’re locked into your senses. Try grounding yourself through a 3-2-1 exercise, where you pick out 3 different things you can see, 2 things you can hear, and 1 thing you can feel. Throughout this process, you’re becoming more and more secure to your seat on the carousel, not flying away.
The Process
What are the most foundational building blocks to success that you have control over? As a goalie, maybe it involves cutting down the angle and keeping your arms up. If you’re a runner, it might be remembering to swing your arms with purpose and maintain a healthy posture.
By nailing down the elements of your process to success, and creating an anchor out of them, you have confidence filling thoughts that can continuously secure you in your carousel seat. Reminding yourself of the process should be simple things under your control that, once you remind yourself, you have a renewed sense of confidence and focus.
Values
Many people go days, months, even years without acknowledging their values - why they got into their sport or what they want to embody day in and day out. When things seem bleak, or you’re not sure what to do, going back to your core values is a great compass everyone can find value in.
To brush up on your core values, click this Core Values List and read through them. Take note and write down any that resonate with you. When you can use values to guide decision making and thinking patterns, you’ll experience less tension.
Perspective Shift
Too often, athletes make the moment bigger than it is. I don’t want to minimize your experience and what you value, but it’s probably not the end of the world if you aren’t perfect in this play or game. Many athletes put too much pressure on themselves to be perfect, further hurting their performance as they start overthinking and become tense from head to toe.
How can you put everything in perspective? This might be reminding yourself of how many people watching you will forget about this game in an hour. Or, that a mistake doesn’t negate all of the great plays you have made and will make.
One of my favorite ways to shift perspective is keeping a quote by Teddy Roosevelt in mind. Essentially, the quote reminds us to liberate ourselves from the criticism and judgment of others. Here is the beginning of his Man In The Arena quote:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong
man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is
marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly…”
While these are 4 excellent ways to start forming anchors on your carousel, you know yourself best - what thoughts effectively hone your focus and confidence? If you’re not sure, start off with these 4 anchors - be consistent in using them throughout practices and games. The brain has the ability to change, but only with consistent and purposeful practice.
Summary: your mind acts like a carousel of thoughts throughout performances. Certain thoughts will continuously pop up that heavily influence your mental game. By improving the quality of these thoughts that constantly come in to your attention, you can improve the quality of y our mental game, and ultimately, performance. Come up with different anchors, thoughts that ground you in productive, effective thinking, that you’re comfortable coming back to when you notice your mental game faltering. Elite athletes prepare their anchors before games even start so they have a safety net ready to fall back on.
