I Learned This the Hard Way: How to play CONFIDENT against the toughest competition

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I Learned This the Hard Way: How to play CONFIDENT against the toughest competition

Do you shy away from the top competition???

Perhaps you have great skills and abilities, but against the top performers, you freeze up and turn into a shadow of the player you know you are.

If so …

NO WORRIES!!! That’s cool and completely normal.

And today we are going to help you:

Play CONFIDENT … Even against the toughest competition

Recently, an athlete approached me because he was experiencing difficulties playing against great competition.

He had lots of ability, but he would freeze up against the toughest performers and not play his best.

This reminded me of two situations in my life, which were similar in opportunity, yet had drastically different outcomes.

Situation 1

When I was about 10 or 11 years old, I was invited to practice with one of the best AAU basketball teams in the state.

I was terrified!!!

During the car ride, I was worrying about the competition I was about to go up against. I had heard stories about how good this team was.

When I got to the practice …

I was even more horrified and petrified!!!

• Many kids had huge muscles
• Some kids had begun to grow beards
• A few of them could dunk and most others could slap the backboard on their lay ups

I had never played against competition like this yet in my early playing days.

• I completely psyched myself out
• I completely froze for the rest of practice
• I turned into a shadow of the player I knew I was

As a result …

I WAS NEVER INVITED TO PLAY WITH THIS TEAM AGAIN!!!

Situation 2

When I was 14, I was once again invited to practice with one of the best AAU basketball teams in the state.

This time, rather than shying away from the competition …

I embraced it!

I played my game and:

• Had one of my best performances
• Played the rest of the year with this team and was a starter
• Formed lasting relationships, friendships, and experiences I never would have had before

Two similar situations with TWO DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT OUTCOMES.

Through this experience, I learned:

3 Lessons to Help You Play Confident Against the Toughest Competition

1. Sink out of the head and into the feeling sensations of the body

As athletes, we can get caught in our heads as we size up and compare ourselves to our competition.

In Situation 1, I was caught in my head, worrying about these players’ muscles, facial hair, and athleticism.

In Situation 2, I sunk into how good it felt to play the game:

• The crispness of every cut
• The fluidity of every move
• The effortlessness of the stroke of my jump shot

This freed up much energy to enable me to perform at my highest capacity.

Sink outside of your head and into the feeling sensations of your body …

And you release yourself from negative thought patterns and play confidently even against tough competition.

2. Your competition is equally as scared of YOU as you are of them

As I was worried about the out-of-this-world athleticism and insane ability to handle the basketball of the other players, I later learned:

They were afraid of my ability to shoot and how smart I was.

In scrimmages, a teammate of whoever was guarding me would say,

“Don’t let this guy shoot!”

At a practice later on in the season, a coach addressed the team and said,

“Out of any player on this team, if there was one player I’d build a team around, it would be Kyle.

• Although he’s not the biggest
• Although he’s not the strongest or fastest
• Although he doesn’t have the best handles … (he kept going on and on about what I wasn’t good at 🙂 )

I’d form a team around Kyle because he is smart.”

Although I was worried about my competition and the attributes they possessed but I lacked, they were equally worried about me.

Hone in on your strengths! Don’t worry about your weaknesses because your competition is worried about what you specialize in.

When you have this realization, you free yourself up to play confidently regardless of the competition.

3. Feel the Fear and do it anyway

One of the biggest secrets of the top performers and those who appear to be most confident is:

They still feel Fear.

But they re-orient their relationships and minds towards Fear.

Rather than avoid Fear, they go at it because they realize it’s guiding them to their Highest Potential.

Fear is an evolutionary mechanism designed to heighten our abilities so we can perform at our highest.

There is no avoiding Fear!!!

However, you can change how you view Fear.

Rather than avoiding it, you can view it as your ally that is helping you to perform your best.

Make no mistake, I felt Fear in Situation 2, but I proceeded to play my game regardless of how I felt.

When you feel Fear, but realize it’s here to help you,

You realize one of the most powerful forces in the universe is on your side,

And this makes you essentially unstoppable,

And this helps you play confident, even against the toughest competition.

3 Lessons to Help You Play Confident Against the Toughest Competition

1. Sink out of the head and into the feeling sensations of the body
2. Your competition is equally as scared of YOU as you are of them
3. Feel the Fear and do it anyway

As you master your Fear in your game,

You free yourself up to your Highest Potential in Life.

There will be many situations in life that will make you want to freeze up!

You’ll have:

• A dream
• A calling
• A mission

That is beckoning you to pursue it.

Most people shy away from it …

But you can go after it!!!

As you sink outside of the mind about how impossible this dream seems …

And into the feeling sensations of how you perform and execute your Craft,

As you realize that despite you worrying about how lofty this vision may be …

This vision is equally worried about YOU because you have the courage to face it head on,

As you feel the Fear, yet proceed anyway, realizing this Fear is your biggest ally preparing to face this new vision, dream, and reality head on,

Realizing this Fear is guiding you to your Highest Potential,

• You realize you are UNSTOPPABLE
• You will face this dream HEAD ON
• You will be formed into the most optimal Being YOU WERE CREATED TO BE

You will carry on to your Highest Potential and fulfill your Purpose, in service and inspiration to all around you.

I wish you well on your journey of playing confident against the toughest competition, and I look forward to seeing you next week.

Inspiring YOU every step of your way,

Kyle

Advice I Wish Someone Had Shared With Me: How to make difficult decisions as a Student Athlete

Are you a student athlete who needs to make a difficult decision?

Or, are you a parent of a student athlete, and your son or daughter is facing a challenging situation in which they must make a choice?

Well, today I am going to share some advice I gave to a player I was once coaching when he needed to make a difficult decision.

And I hope this advice will be a guiding principle to:

Help Student Athletes When Making Tough Choices

This particular player approached me for some advice about what to do for college.

He was wondering what school he should go to and whether he should continue to play his sport or if it was time to hang up his shoes and end his competitive sporting career altogether.

This individual was either a two or three sport athlete and had a lot of potential.

He had some opportunities to play at some lower level schools or he could try out as a preferred walk on at a higher level school.

As I listened to his stories and all the factors and variables he was weighing to make his decision, I began to chime in with my experiences going through college as well as the experiences of other athletes I had coached who had gone through college.

Eventually, I could see him gaining clarity about the path forward he felt was best for him, but I could tell he was still hesitant about it.

Quite frankly, it was completely NORMAL for him to be hesitant in a situation like this because it was probably one of the biggest decisions of his life thus far:

• He was deciding which school to go to
• He was deciding what subjects he wanted to study
• He was deciding whether he wanted to continue playing his sport or if it was time to end his sporting career (an idea he had never conceived of before in his entire life)

Then, I felt something inside me call him to give him this advice:

“Whatever decision you make,

YOU WILL BE ABLE TO HANDLE IT.

And you will learn and grow from it.

And it will refine you into the being you were born to be.”

And that is the same advice I would like to offer you today if you are making a difficult decision:

“Whatever decision you make,

YOU WILL BE ABLE TO HANDLE IT.

And you will learn and grow from it.

And it will refine you into the being you were born to be.”

As student athletes, we face many difficult decisions.

In our sports:

• What team do we want to try out for?
• What position do we want to play?
• Is it time to end our sporting career?

In school:

• What school do we want to go to?
• What do we want to study?
• How can we integrate the material into our lives?

In life:

• What career path do we want to pursue?
• Where do we want to live?
• What impact do we want to have and what do we want to be remembered for in this lifetime?

Despite these inevitable difficult decisions that arise in this Game of Life,

The advice I encourage you today with is:

TO OWN YOUR DECISION!!!

Go all in on your decision without looking back … because:

“Whatever decision you make,

YOU WILL BE ABLE TO HANDLE IT.

And you will learn and grow from it.

And it will refine you into the being you were born to be.”

I wish you well on your journey of realizing you can handle any decision you make in life, and I look forward to seeing you next week.

Inspiring YOU every step of your way,

Kyle