The Heroic Mindset

Dave Price is the Trainee Sport and Exercise Psychologist for Portsmouth FC Academy in the UK. He blends an innovative approach called, ACT, to help athletes reach their highest potential and to achieve very best. ACT is a unique approach used by Sports Psychologists that stands for A (acceptance), C (comittment), and T (training).ACT blends the practices of mindfulness, acceptance of thoughts and emotions and values-driven behavior into traditional behavioral change principles. When athletes aren't performing at their best, ACT directs them to look through the lenses of their values in order to clarify their goals. It's not about perfection or judgment, it's about continual progress in the right direction. You will enjoy hearing a professional in the field discuss what he has seen work best in training athletes for the 'mental game,' as well as what they should do when they make mistakes and aren't performing at their best. This was one of our favorite discussions that combined many principles of what we have discussed in The Heroic MIndset. To reach Dr. Price: Email: David.price1@port.ac.ukTwitter: David_Price93www.theheroicmindset.com 

Everyone is struggling in one way or another because of all that is happening with COVID. We are all worried about many things. What will happen to professional soccer? What about the season? Are Universities going to play this fall? How can I focus on positive things through this process?  What is the future going to look like?It is easy to get caught up in things we can't control. In this episode, we talk about focusing on what we can control. This is what leaders and high performers do. They spend most of their time and energy focusing on their "circle of influence." The first place to start is to create vision in the areas of your life that are important to you. Vision is a skill to be cultivated. The more you use it, the better you get at it. We will walk you through the process on this episode. If you want to get the results the top 3% get on a consistent basis, then you have to do what the top 3% do - and they start with vision. 

Jesse Marsch is the only American coach to be coaching in the Champions League in Europe. His rise to this role is an interesting story - how he has built championship teams is even more fascinating. He played 14 seasons in the MLS and then went on to coach the first season for the Montreal Impact and the NY Red Bulls where he was named MLS coach of the year. Before becoming head coach is Salzburg, he was the assistant coach at RB Leipzig in the German Bundesliga. What makes Jesse unique is that he brings a clear strategy to the culture of the teams he coaches. He talks about instilling important beliefs such as fearlessness and creating a vocabulary around words that define who you are as a team that help establish identity and reinforce beliefs. We talk about the differences between coaching soccer in the US and 'football' in Europe. There were many challenges for Jesse to face along the way. Would his methodology of teamwork and his idea of leadership work in the European system? Also find out what methods he uses to create and instill motivation in the teams he has coached, how he approaches losing and how he teaches his players to overcome challenges. As a bonus, find out the secret to where some of Jesse's best ideas come from! email: info@theheroicmindset.com http://theheroicmindset.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUTFcxaPeGTYrbWAX2Jcg1A

Is there a secret formula to creating a winning mindset? It turns out there is. How does Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp continue to have success no matter what club they go to? What are they doing that's different from what everyone else is doing? You can see their passion and joy when they are on the field but why does it work? Can we learn from them and can their success be replicated for coaches at various levels?  In this episode, Dr. Tom and Larry break down the methodologies and coaching styles of Guardiola and Klopp. They talk about the three non-negotiables Pep teaches at Manchester City and they discuss the different approach Klopp uses as he 'likens his role as a father to the team' and creates mentality monsters at Liverpool. Larry also talks about some key coaching mentors he has had over the years and reveals why their influence made such a huge difference on who he is today. 

A fascinating episode on how to build, "A Motivational Climate," on your team and in your sport. The fact is that a Motivational Climate already exists. The real question is, "Is the motivational climate you have on your team working for you?" Is it ego-driven or team driven? Does it foster an environment where players can take risk and make mistakes or does it punish them when they make mistakes? All of this is extremely important to consider when you are trying to create a healthy culture. There are basically 2 climates that exist: 1. An ego-driven climate or 2. A Mastery Motivational climate. Which one do you have? On your team and in your life? Listen to find out.For the teaching PDF email: info@theheroicmindset.comSteve Simonson contact - simonsoncoaching@gmail.comPlease send this episode to someone who could benefit. Thanks! Show notes:Basically In every group setting, there's a motivational climate. So it's a psycho social and involved environment that surrounds us that impacts our motivation, our mindset, and in sports specific, it's basically gives us the determinant on how we value success. It tells me what is valued, what behaviors are valued and what success is. And you have different types of motivational climates and there are two main ones. And based on those those two climates, in the interaction, those climates on a person, it's going to affect their motivation, and then affect their behavior. And so I thought, well, if we can learn how to create the proper climate, and the optimal climate based on who we're working with, and that's probably going to help us a long way in our in our coaching.You're basically operating you know within a couple of climates one is what we call an ego based motivational climate and what that is is one that references focuses highly on wins and losses, on outperforming other people, on on praising talent on on rewarding winners, things like that, punishing mistakes, you know, where whereas a mastery motivational climate is one that really focuses on controllables like self improvement and efforts and and doing one's best and overcoming obstacles and setbacks and, and based on these influences, and these climates are created by three, three groups of people. One the coach sets it to the peers around you help set this and three, especially with youth parents are significant other so you have these, these three, these three figures or sets of figures around you That are bombarding you with information and you're going to act according to all these, all these influences, and they can have a profound effect on how you approach how it's affects your motivation and how you approach your daily behaviors.Motivation is why we do what we do. If you think about that, why we do something, you can really get into the meat and potatoes of it with a player to understand why they're behaving the way that they do. So if I do something, because it's interesting to me, that's an intrinsic mindset, intrinsic motivation, versus I'm doing something because I have to do it.  So really, what we found is that the more intrinsic motivator or motivation, is that is autonomous to the player that's self directed is a higher from of motivation.  And so in a mastery climate, you're trying to develop the autonomous player, you're trying to have them work on controllables things that they can control, which is their effort and their growth. When you compare someone to somebody else, that's out of my control, I can work as hard as I can. I do the best I can. And then the superstar next to me gets all the credit. And that's a very demotivating thing for someone like me. So it's about looking at the type of environment that fosters fosters autonomy and fosters players to, to look at being personal best and overcoming challenges.

This week's episode gives us an inside look at what it was like to coach the famed Manchester United team that won 3 premier league titles, the UEFA Champions league, and the FIFA Club World Cup. Rene goes into detail as a first team coach about helping to create the type of mindset in each of the players that helped to win those titles and championships. There are many insights into what any coach or player can do immediately to implement the same practices and techniques. He also discusses his time coaching Christiano Ronaldo in the years he was with the club. How were they able to win so many times including many come from behind thrillers? Rene says, "You focus on the moment with what's happening and forget everything else. Forget the score, forget the bad pass that happened 60 seconds ago...you show the players that you value them and believe in them."There is a wealth of coaching highlights and tools in this conversation along with stories you would never hear except from someone with the experience and wisdom of Rene. http://theheroicmindset.com/info@theheroicmindset.com http://www.renemeulensteen.co.uk/https://www.linkedin.com/in/rene-meulensteen-12391731/

Dr. Tom and Larry discuss MJ being an outlier and what that means. Is it worth it to win at all costs? What else does it 'cost' you? How did that impact the team and does it matter? Can you build a mindset around MJ's mentality? What is failure and what is success and does that change depending on the person and their values? Larry discusses his failures as a pro player and as a coach in a powerful and poignant way and gives a profound example of the power coaches have to crush a player who is emerging from perfectionism. This podcast is thought provoking on a number of fronts. Enjoy! www.theheroicmindset.comemail: info@theheroicmindset.com 

Carrie Taylor is no stranger to taking risk and breaking down walls so new things can emerge. She played on the first-ever women's soccer team for the University of Michigan to start her soccer career. Now she's coaching with US soccer legend Landon Donovan at the San Diego Loyal. In this episode, she talks about the unlikely road that led her to coach with Donovan and about the importance of creating a professional team culture based on values and trust. She reveals top team values and talks about why they are such an integral part of building the foundation of this inaugural team. She also discusses how their deeply held values anchor everything about The San Diego Loyal, from the type of players they recruit to how they compete to how they serve. One of the most impacting ways they build trust is through, "Tell Us About Yourself Tuesday." She reveals the powerful reason this has been so successful. Find out more about Carrie's amazing journey into professional sports and discover a few of her secrets that led to her success. 

One of the most important focal points in sports is creating a 'high-performance culture' based on trust and accountability. This kind of culture helps everyone to be their best, perform at a high-level more consistently and dispels insecure, toxic competition amongst teammates. But this doesn't happen by accident. It only happens when we are clear about who we are or want to be and then what kind of culture we are going to establish. Trust is paramount. "Trust-based teams outperform non-trust-based teams by 286%," according to The Leadership Challenge.But how can you build this kind of environment? You have to be clear on your values as a coach first and then create team values while creating a safe space. A coach must be clear about how the team will handle things like making mistakes, losing games, and empowering players to ask for help when struggling. For players, they are responsible to cultivate their personal values and understand how to have a healthy ego and mindset. If you aren't clear on your values as an athlete, you don't know who you are. But for this podcast on culture, we will see how the environment is largely determined by the club and head coach and it overflows from there. Larry also shares about the worst team he has ever been on as a professional player and some incredible, overcoming stories in his coaching career. Email Dr. Tom at tom@leaderselevate.com for the pdf on how to create an environment of trust and dynamic principles to cultivate a high-performance team culture. 

On this week's show Larry and Tom go into detail about why creating the right mindset is essential to success in sports and in life. We dig into tips for players and coaches and also discuss strategies and tools Larry used in coaching the U17 & U16 US National teams before and during international matches. We discuss Robin van Persie's video regarding his son's mentality and contrast our own son's mentalities. Studies show that 80% of success in sport is determined by the quality of how our brains see the world. Creating a Heroic Mindset is essential to development on any level and creates a runway where athletes and coaches rise to their potential and create more peak performances. 

Hosts, Dr. Tom Davis, CEO of Leaders Elevate and Larry Sunderland, US National Team Coach and Director of Development at FC Cincinnati, tell their stories and discuss the motivation behind starting The Heroic Mindset Podcast.