Three P’s To Enhance Your Performance…Especially Under Pressure!
- Julie Jones
- Dec 16, 2024
- 7 min read
It was another great week. On the backside of the NFCA Convention came the USA Softball National Identifier! Kids flew to the Jackie Robinson Training Center from all over the world to be evaluated by some of softball’s best players and the selection committee as they looked for the sport’s next stars and the 15 and 18u National Teams!
And the nerves were all there! It was a Petrie dish for peak performance observations.
As I hit, pitched and watched softball all weekend (tough job, I know), I couldn’t help but keep my mental performance hat on and think about the play on the field, not from an X’s and O’s standpoint, but from a mindset perspective.
As I watched some kids kill it and others crack, a few things suck out…and they quickly became the THREE P’s for the USA Softball HPP (High-Performance Program).
First, let’s talk about the “P” word that precedes the THREE Ps – PRESSURE!
On day one, every athlete went through set drills for evaluations. As I watched, I could almost hear their brains ticking as they worked to show their best. The more they thought, the less they reacted and the harder it was. They got a limited number of balls…and one mistake seemed like it was the end of their shot at the National Team (it wasn’t if other things went well, of course!).
A great example of brains on overdrive had nothing to do with evaluations directly, but it did have to do with being a softball player! When we asked outfielders to receive balls at bases for their fellow position mates, the discomfort was palpable. Most outfielders don’t do much base covering, nor do they pick balls or receive throws. It’s a tough job for anyone, but there is no doubt that it made most of them terribly uncomfortable.
And it showed! As each ball came in, again, it was as if I could hear their brains grinding as they worried about missing it, what others were thinking, who was watching, or looking silly. The more they thought about any of this or talked about how bad they were at receiving, the worse they got.
Until…they decided to keep it simple. If they chose to watch the ball, read it and follow it, the job became much easier. When they trusted their eyes and their bodies to do what their eyes saw, their hand became softer, they were more fleet of foot and they stopped sweating like crazy!
It had little to do with talent. I had more to do with what they were (or weren’t) thinking!
Fast forward to game evaluations and the same brains on overdrive reared its head there, too. Runner on 1, easy ground ball back to the pitcher, the middles call for the ball at 2nd to turn the double play…and the centerfielder catches the ball. How did she get to play in this 1 – 6 – 3 supposed double play?
Just like our outfield “catchers”, she didn’t have a PLAN – P #1!
On our trip to the airport yesterday, I got to talk about this with one of the best pitchers ever to play our game, Cat Osterman. She witnessed it too, and we talked about the importance of knowing where to go before it…what evrhy it is…happens. Every coach in the world (and athlete, too) knows you need to know where to go with the ball, but if we don’t intentionally have a plan, we revert to the easiest play…or throw it away!
Cat talked about how her teammates helped her prepare for this exact play. Her middle infielders reminded her of what to do. She knew, of course. She’s a gold medalist, All-American and a professional…but a little reminder never hurt anyone. And when we are listening to others, we are externally focused and not wrapped up in our head about having a runner on!
Bonus, those middles were helping themselves, too! Everyone had a PLAN!
I bet the middles in this weekend’s situations did, too, and they were there to help build that “if…then” plan so we are prepared…quick comebacker or easy grounder!
From a psychological perspective, the planning process taps into the prefrontal cortex, the brain's executive function center. When you outline a clear course of action, you reduce cognitive overload and enhance decision-making under stress.
Great players like Cat know, because she has used it under the highest pressure conditions in sport, that when athletes think about what they are going to do they are also rehearsing it. And as we have said so many times before, they are sending blueprints to their muscles…priming them to make the play they picture.
This quick hit of mental rehearsal programs muscles for action and helps us understand movement patterns! As Weinberg and Gould state in Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology, “Imagery enhances outcomes through changes in neural pathways and synapses responsible for actual performance, causing them to activate during the actual execution of the motor skill.”
I know, I’m beating a dead horse with the mental rehearsal thing, but this combination of mental rehearsal and self-talk, out loud or in our heads, enhances both motor and cognitive performance…and who doesn’t want that?
Had the pitchers who threw the ball over the shortstops’ heads or the corners who got the out at 1st instead of going home to stop a run rehearsed a plan for what they needed to do BEFORE the pressure presented itself, they would have increased their chances for success exponentially!
It’s not a magic pill, but it really is that simple! I
Talking about and picturing the next step also helps set the right PACE – P #2! PACING IS SO IMPORTANT!
Through the skill evaluation portion of the tryout, so many athletes took what came to them instead of working at a pace that allowed them to be more controlled. Ball after ball. Pitch after pitch, kids rushed from one to the next, not allowing themselves to reset or recover.
If they were in flow…no need to stop…but that means the pace was right for them.
But for most, they could have enhanced their performance by taking a beat between balls. Interestingly enough, it seemed that those who were most outwardly focused controlled their pace a bit better. Those in their head kept moving through allowing the environment to speed them up.
Since every ball counted, taking a breath to slow their heart rate and brain waves would have been helpful to many. As legendary basketball coach John Wooden famously said, “Be quick but don’t hurry.” It’s about maintaining speed without sacrificing control.
When we get in a rush, our autonomic nervous system defaults to fight or flight and staying in this overdrive state can impede our cognitive function and decision-making…and wear us out! We feel rushed…we think rushed…and that rushed thinking interrupts and speeds up the movements we have practiced time and time again!
I know, I know. Our game starts and stops. How can you pace in basketball or constant movement sports? As Coach Wooden said, you can move quickly…and be in control. It all depends on whether you are allowing the external (or internal) environment to drive your thoughts and movement, or you are moving at the pace, cognitively and physically, that allows you to do your thing at your best! Running the floor, just because the other team did may not be best for you. In high-stakes situations, especially then, you decide how fast things go.
Taking a split second to tell yourself what you are going to do or using your eyes to see what you need to do before going full boar into something with not enough information…or breath…can make a huge difference…and you’ll feel a little more confident because you are controlling what you can!
There’s a time to PLAN, a time to PACE and a time to be PRESENT – P #3! Although PLANNING takes us away from the here and now, it gives us the best chance at capitalizing on what is in front of us because what is happening now already happened in our head…so we don’t need to think when the planning “if” becomes the now’s “then”!
Those plans at our pace get us focused on what's important now (WIN), and we can stay in the moment instead of rushing or worrying about outcomes beyond our control. As Eckhart Tolle writes in The Power of Now, “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life” and your game.
Our bodies can ONLY perform in the moment. Our heads? Go back to the pitcher overthrowing 2nd base as she worries, second-guesses or over-thinks. She’s out of sorts, even for a split second…and that split second can change everything! Sports psychologist Dr. Jim Loehr says that “staying present with intention gives athletes a rhythm to their performance that syncs with their best self.”
They are where their cleats are…and that is where the game is…and maybe even the ball 😊!
As former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has noted, “It’s about finding that quiet confidence to trust yourself and the moment you’re in.” That’s the only place we can play where it means anything!
No new tools this week, just more evidence of why a mental performance operating system is vital to our success!
To perform best under pressure there’s a lot to be said about these three Ps! And to use a bit of alliteration, one of the best ways to manage all three is through verbalization and visualization.
Plain and simple, athletes who talk about what they will do next and vividly imagine themselves succeeding in that action perform better, especially under pressure.
As Cat and so many others show us at the highest levels in sport, high-stakes situations require more than raw talent or skill. It takes both AND a combination of a clear plan, maintaining your pace, and staying fully present.
Only then can we do our best in any high-performance program!
Manage the moments!
Julie
P.S. I WORK WITH TEAMS…athletic teams, sales teams and corporate teams! Bring me in to do a one-time seminar or work with me throughout the year. Either way, I can help your team build Mental Performance Operating Systems to improve their performance! Contact me to find out how!
Send me a text at 234-206-0946 or an email at juliej@ssbperformance.com and schedule a call to see how we can enhance your program’s mental approach!
Julie Jones
Mental Performance Coach
SSB Performance
juliej@ssbperformance.com • 234-206-0946
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